Respectful, then, but not set in aspic.

Far more than an indulgent side project, A Light For Attracting Attention deserves to be taken on its own merits as a daring, invigorating and often very moving piece of work in its own right.

The cloistered and unwilling girls’ father’s attempts to get them to do a Herman’s Hermits left them more in line with enjoyably sloppy garage rock. In fact, they went so far out as to prefigure post-punk’s plangency and jittery inclusivity: they were essentially The Raincoats, a decade ahead of time.

Soul Of A Woman finds Jones bowing out in the finest form, somehow filling the space between Gladys Knight and Etta James.

The innate beauty of The Beta Band [is] unfulfilled potential aligned to a stubbornness that would never betray artistic ideals; a punch in the guts followed by a raspberry in the face.

Perhaps their most impressive, consistent and varied offering to date.

Fans will have all these recordings already, but it’s nonetheless fascinating to chart the band’s shift in sound over this time period.

Lament For Nepal is one of three love letters to the earthquake-ravaged Kathmandu Valley. A stark Nepali bell opens and closes this haunting piece, though as is so often the case with Chapman, the English pastoral qualities of the composition are equally compelling.

Everything works. .... Genius. [May 2025, p.105]

Focusing at times on loss and life's cruelty, the tone is often sombre though always dignified. [Aug 2025, p.103]

Racing through 13 tracks in just 30 minutes, their third album (and first for new label, Domino) is no less succinctly potent. [Christmas 2025, p.135]

The Mountain is a rich, rewarding take on living with and after loss, brimming with feeling, character and vibrant pop purpose. [Feb 2026, p.100]

Inevitably, it’s a time capsule, rather than a new album proper, though the best moments make you wonder what might have been.

There are moments of relative sonic reserve here (the understated The Ceiling Underground; the lithe indie-pop of Inhospitable/Hospital; the bending shoegaze riff of Chestwound To The Chest), but – as with the tumultuous finale of TV People Still Throwing TVs At People – it’s an album which is largely turned up to 11, emotionally and sonically. [Mar 2026, p.104]

Disc One harbours new material, and the second some of their gems from the last few years; the quality is generally very high and there is much creativity, leaving the mind racing to catch up.

In a way, Simple Songs picks up where Insignificance left us: a smooth, heavily layered and structured approach to the craft (betraying the album title) underpinned with some of the most biting, surreal and often hilarious lyrics indie rock currently offers.

Old sweetens the deal, with tracks as good as anything from previous releases. However it’s New that intrigues, confuses, saddens and ultimately tempts you back with its sheer vulnerability--this is far deeper than the cash grab landfill this reunion could’ve spawned.

An album of layered, witty and fully felt elisions. [Sep 2025, p.105]

Tillman sounds abundantly alive: flushed with wit and luminous melodies, his songcraft remains an inexhaustible pleasure. [Dec 2024, p.106]

Luminescent Creatures confirms Aoba as one of folk music's most consistently beguiling artists. [Feb 2025, p.102]

Saving Grace may sound organic, but make no mistake; this carefully curated mix of British and American influences, both ancient and modern, clearly bears Plant’s personal stamp. [Oct 2025, p.128]

It’s difficult to imagine many better rock albums being released this year; it’s the record Springsteen fans wish he had in him.

This material represents the label’s least easily translatable zone, startling to--and still held dear by--an 80s audience only just adjusting to drum machine funk, but now dated in a way that Adrian Sherwood’s more earthy reggae recordings and totemic pieces with name acts are not. That is not to say that it is unworthy of investigation, though.

More than the sum of its parts. ... In returning to half-finished songs of the past with the renewed verve of the present, Callahan is constructing a future that looks likely to provide some of his best work.

This follow-up to 2012’s magnificent Poor Moon is no less exemplary than its predecessor.

Beautiful, dark and mischievous, this is an album which is sure to baffle and delight in equal measures.

The phenomenal Revolutionary Spirit reveals that while Manchester copped the lion’s share of the critical plaudits during this epochal post-punk period, the quality of Mersey was also second to none.

For the Can-curious, a remarkable place to start. .... Thoroughly recommended. [Dec 2024, p.94]