There are elements of grunge on Deep End and curtain-raising single, albeit with a keen ear for melody that suggests Dando's pop sensibilities are as strong as ever. [Nov 2025, p.104]

An ambitious record that highlights the impressive originality of her ever-evolving, emotionally raw songwriting talents, and which deserve boygeniusesque levels of success. [Jan 2024, p.101]

Chhom Nimol's twisting, beguiling vocals tell a hypnotic story without reliance on lyrical narrative; they seamlessly blend into the lushness of the group’s confidently exotic music.

From the opening refrain of Whistleblowers, Spectre is an astounding work.

This experiment has worked better than fans could have hoped and, given the Mule’s current state of songwriting and performance, elevates this jam band to a whole new level. File under: inspired.

The pace rarely drops and, at points, the noise and structure is, indeed, messy, but the whole is punka focused collection with a bloody-minded, if also bloody-nosed, vision throughout.

He’s been compared to Damien Jurado and while the stylistic link is accurate, Knight is more defined by an urge to experiment. This may be too enigmatic for some but perseverance is repaid during the extrovert moments on The Arp.

Opener Jump Into The New World is a bubbly 60s-style pop workout with lush girl-group backing vocals, Dog Fight and Hawaii are in the same vein, but a little more subdued, Rock ’N’ Roll T-Shirt swaggers like ZZ Top, and the band continue their food obsession on Wasabi, Green Tangerine, and the Beatle-esque Cotton Candy Clouds.

There’s a lot of great, interesting stuff here but the listener will have to indulge him to get to it. If you’re a fan that’s no problem, the more causal listener may need convincing.

It is a wonderful record – fascinating and engaging. Pure art. Give it the time it deserves.

There's also a shiner, more recent 80s aesthetic shot through on (I Can't Help) Back Then You Found ME and the epic final End With Sunrise, for a catchy and affecting portrait of the many ages of Idlewild across one album. [Nov 2025, p.103]

While this is unlikely to achieve the same status [as their debut], it proves that these veterans are definitely not yet ready for the scrapheap.

Fans of Sonic Youth at their most experimental will know what to expect, anybody coming to this with fresh ears should try before they buy.

While III is certainly weird, it’s also rather wonderful.

This is the first new Simple Minds album in recent memory that you’ll want to keep returning to.

From the beatless flicker of opening track The Journey, through the 808 kick drum weave of Fall Into Water to the radioactive skeletons of Oracle and the bottomless Paradise, Hunn treats tracks like living sculptures, adding microscopic brush strokes and his trademark deep space strings.

Its 21 affectingly overdub-free songs reveal an essential truth of The National in the 202s, that they're a band at the absolute height of their live powers. [Christmas 2024, p.133]

Yet, for all its superficial obliqueness, Wire is an unashamed pop record at heart.

Blixa Bargeld and his consequential cohorts present a scrupulous, literate and multi-layered assemblage which subtly encompasses the enormity, the futility, the obsidian humour, the stark terror and the warnings from history (that, wouldn’t you know it, remain unheeded).

No 6 is the sound of bluegrass artisans at work, playing up a storm while demonstrating that their chosen genre is not only alive and well, but that its traditional songwriting tenets and instrumental framework can support vital new music.

Sun-dappled and introspective, O Avalanche is a delight. [Dec 2024, p.108]

Several songs misunderstood Molina's stripped-down approach as frailty, which leads to some rough and rickety performances, but overall, I Will Swim To You is a more than solid salute. [Nov 2025, p.98]

There are flashes of their old brilliance. [May 2026, p.101]

A couple of the tracks may catch Tom in booming mode but there’s a pleasing variety of delivery, plenty of sensitivity and a whole load of rocking. Quality control is top notch throughout and the backing musicians are never less than superb.

A Sentimental Education’s grab-bag of exquisite curios upholds a flair for the art of the cover that previously saw songs from Bonnie And Clyde to Neon Lights Lunafied, to echo the title of the band’s own 2006 covers release.

Crab Day looks set to achieve that rarely achieved goal of raising the game while keeping the faithful happy.

Shadow Of The Sun expands their palette, mushes those hues over one another and deliberately, deliciously, paints them outside the lines in a glorious mash of fuzz.

The whole thing is delightful, as compelling as the artists celebrated by Flint’s finest