He delivers 10 killer tracks which, defined by horns, organ and a defying-the-years-vocal-hit from Bryant, span the spirited How Do I Get There? and commanding One Ain’t Enough to the compelling A Nickel And A Nail and swooning Something About You.

Konnichiwa isn’t just the sound of young Britain, but a bar-raising example of just how creative UK music can be.

Shauf’s musical ability is impressive, tackling all but the strings, but his vocal tone, much like a bore at a party, is unwavering, Elliott Smith-esque and never with the variety you’d expect meeting 10 new individuals.

It’s all very pretty and pleasant, but whereas Smith Westerns burned with the emotions of their songs, Whitney seem rather more detached from theirs. Which, as easy-going as these 10 songs are, renders them more as temporary, unconvincing background music. It’s nice for a while, but their effects soon give way to the winds of truth and reality.

The contents, which comprise the first volume of the Lou Reed Archival Series, are of enormous cultural significance – fascinating, extraordinary, at times revelatory.

Bejar's MO remains a richly cinematic pleasure: alluring, allusive and absorbing. [May 2025, p.103]

Five albums in, These New Puritans are still finding new ways to startle and surprise. [Jun 2025, p.104]

This reissue fails to add much to entice fans other than packaging.... Anybody hoping for a dramatic discovery of a high-quality version of this long-bootlegged show [ Live At Second Fret, Philadelphia, 1970] will be disappointed; it’s hard to discern any real improvement from the frustratingly bad quality of the circulated boot.

For all the exuberant looseness of their recordings, most remain essentially song-based, skilfully produced and slyly focused.

A rare example of a collaborative album that reflects well on everybody involved.

As ever, a feeling abides of Cocker looking around him at the stuff of life – parenthood, divorce, marriage, loss, religion, class – and turning it into relatable and (yep) grown-up pop music. [Jun 2025, p.100]

Great vocals are a bit of a given here. The real treat is in discovering just how eclectic Gargoyle has turned out to be.

After the lengthy wait, at over 20 tracks and about an hour long, Wildflower doesn’t skimp on quantity even if it does resemble a pent-up outpouring of everything The Avalanches have completed (or at least legally cleared), rather than a meticulously curated collection.

There are strong post-rock and metal overtones throughout the record, but it doesn’t pigeonhole itself; the influence of minimalist music can be detected in Stetson’s playing, and the album is not short of rhythmic swagger.

The Prodigal Son is easily one of the most satisfyingly focused, complete records he’s ever made.

It’s the real deal, the meat of his canon and bearing rewards for fans old and new.

Even if stronger records would follow, the fuel that energised them is on often glorious show here. [Nov 2025, p.95]

As The Love Continues inevitably finds purchase on our tumultuous moment in its deftly summoned suggestions of sorrow and fear, resilience, and close-guarded hope.

Ultimately, The Source, offers indisputable proof that the man from Lagos is thriving in what are supposed to be his twilight years. Like a vintage bottle of Château Lafite, he just seems to improve with each passing year. Long may he continue to do so.

The quality of the songs is uniformly excellent, the performances electric and, moreso than ever, Holland’s vocals are a drawling, tightrope-walking treat as she veers between lust and heartbreak with real abandon.

The theme of loss crops up regularly in the lyrics, as well. Loss of what? You name it. Sleep. Youth. Innocence. Life. Looks. The list goes on. None of this is to say that Here We Go Crazy doesn’t still rock hard, however. [Mar 2025, p.

The duo’s drone-driven proclivities loosen these tunes from their secular shackles, freeing them from the earthly confines of time and place.

A fine testament to one of soul’s major labels, and a must-have.

The guitar-laden Switch and psychedelic Submarine are familiarly winning alternative pop. Everywhere else, Templeman bounces over into muscular funk, propelled by his new startling falsetto and the kind of meaty basslines that have kept Phoenix in business for 25 years. [Jul 2024, p.105]

While some songs are slow-builds - though alt-ballad I get Lost is delicately untouched - the likes of God Of Everything Else and You Will Come Home take on an overwhelming intensity at a stroke. [Dec 2024, p.108]

Among the standouts are the restless Keep Going, which evokes Miles Davis' avant-funk phase; the pugnacious Panamanian Fight Song; and the mellow mindfulness of Vibrate Higher. [Jun 2026, p.90]

The erstwhile Felt and Denim frontman, the innately enigmatic Lawrence, is doing his best work right here and right now.

Odyssey finds the ambitious Garcia pushing herself harder, taking on the role of orchestrator as well as composer, resulting in a magnificent large canvas project where her molten saxophone melodies are framed by the lush but never syrupy strings of the Chineke! Orchestra. [Oct 2024, p.101]