Depending on whether or not you’ve encountered him before, this is either an infectious comeback or one seriously charming introduction.

Over the course of an hour, Straight Songs unloads a lifetime of pain. But there is a happy ending to this story. Whereas much of the album has him merely “hanging on”, by Eden Lost And Found – a track built from a mobile phone recording of his wife messing around with an old Casio keyboard – he has embraced survival and moves towards his new dawn with, if not quite piranha teeth, then a mischievous, Cheshire cat grin.

A wonderful debut that's heartbreaking and heartwarming in equal measure. [Mar 2025, p.104]

Her evocative vocals are stunning, heard on tracks such as Strange Delights and Finding Mirrors. Just occasionally, her voice and harp are too submerged, notably on Through The Din, where the rhythmic groove feels overwhelming. However, the glorious instrumental Cloudbreath blends the album's rich components brilliantly, as do the next tracks, Garden and Into The Sun. [Feb 2024, p.101]

A beautiful, haunted, haunting album; hear it.

The brisk Don't Forget You're Mine harbours a dicier wake-up call ("A good slap is what you need"), though the Wurlitzer-enhanced La Nageuse Nue reunites with The Choir to advocate "a cleansing": becalmed advice for a troubled world on a coolly composed album of healing and harmony. [Mar 2024, p.105]

From the very start, the listener is made to feel as if they're in the room with the band, privy to an unfiltered outpouring of creativity. [Jul 2024, p.106]

It's most intriguing when Lennox deviates from catchy pop nuggets. [Apr 2025, p.103]

This is a smash-up-the-house, get drunk, pull faces kind of record. And most probably his best.

The first album in this collection is a rather spotty affair, suffused with dread, as if the band are suddenly experiencing a moment of self-awareness. Still, by most other group’s standards it would be a career stand-out. It’s Leaves Turn Inside You, though, on which Unwound’s legacy rests. A thrillingly diverse exploration of the possibilities of rock’n’roll.

There are touches of Warren Zevon in the title track and a smidgen of Squeeze in string-laden first single A Little Smile (from the Amsterdam session, which elsewhere features guest vocalist Mitchell Sink), but the lyrics are typically wordy Jackson fare and ensure continuity.

These nine largely piano-based songs are sumptuous yet graceful compositions that re-establish Bachmann as a truly exceptional songwriter.

A somber experience to the very end then, Piano Magic’s message--and sound--remains unsettling for the uninitiated. But there’s always warmth there, and when lounged in for long enough, it puts the chills to bed with some finality.

IV is simply packed to its dank rafters with monstrous riffs, muggy low-mixed vocals and more discordant amp noise than you could shake a deaf stick at.

Recorded with Grammy winning producer Matt Ross-Spang and a host of Mississippi sessionerati, Sweet Kind Of Blue is perfectly soulful and understated.

Few singer-songwriters in the modern folk firmament are as eloquent and articulate as Oxford-born Gilmore, and The Counterweight can lay claim to being her most perfectly realised album since her 2003 breakthrough Avalanche.

You unpeel this 12-song collection’s layers track by track, with repeat listens yielding new surprises as rifts and melodies that you missed first time around float to the fore.

The title fits: tender, tumultuous and titanic, Wolf Alice sound like a band for life.

The first thing that strikes you is an apposite openness of sound, achieved not just via thoughtful, spacious arrangements and due diligence at the mixing desk, but built into the compositions themselves, from the ground up. ... Is it too early to call 2018’s album of the year?

Her sixth solo set steers her back to what she’s best at: exquisite, tenderly fraught torch-soul songs of compulsion and regret, where the lights are dimmed, the feelings run deep and the hushed elasticity of her voice commands close attention.

Songs such as the joyous To Be Loved (classic couplet, “Each day feels like a weekend when you’re around”) shows that, in her eighth decade, Joan Armatrading CBE is far from resting on past achievements.

Even on a record of many detours, the closing three tracks are uniquely surprising. [Jan 2025, p.104]

A worthy addition to the Kuti legacy. [Sep 2025, p.104]

Deceptively simple, Morning Phase rewards repeated immersion.

An absolute joy of a debut.

For the most part, though, it’s a hugely enjoyable and very welcome return.

In fully embracing his strengths, Cunningham has delivered his most fully realised work.

This is one holiday destination you really should explore.