Occasionally too impressionistic at the expense of a coherent song, Morton nonetheless races past standard traps of actors' musical diversions. [Jul 24, p.106]

An often-electrifying listen, full of surprise. Although rough and ready, Paul McCartney's ineluctable creativity shines through. [Jul 2024, p.97]

A few more typically sparse arrangement - as on What's Left To Lose, a standout that fades too early - might have leavened things. But long-time fans will not be disappointed. [Jun 2024, p.103]

Not her best, but never dull. [Jun 2024, p.103]

Veering between raw intimacy and a suffocating world-weary sigh, O'Brien mostly gets the balance right. [Jun 2024, p.103]

The album would have benefitted from a slightly wider variation in pace, with an additional up-tempo song or two. [Jun 2024, p.103]

A dynamic, bluesy set that energetically declares itself from the outset. [Jun 2024, p.103]

An album that embodies the punk energy his Tuareg band are able to marshal in a live setting. [Jun 2024, p.103]

It all hangs together with ease, making for Kings Of Leon's most fun album since the Noughties. [Jun 2024, p.102]

One of 2024's evocatively cool finest. [Jun 2024, p.102]

It's mostly what could be called ballads, although with the mesmerising pop edge of something from the late 50s, all tinkling guitar and bobbling bass. [Jun 2024, p.101]

Murky, dour and troubled, Frog In Boiling water is a beautiful warning, but a warning nonetheless. [Jun 2024, p.101]

The mix of glinting guitars and sing-song vocals can risk evaporating, but there's plenty here to beguile and charm. [Jun 2024, p.101]

Her woozy baroque pop has always walked a delicate line between Kate Bush and Enya: here, it lapses into perfume-ad whimsy. [Jun 2024, p.101]

Where sparse electronics appear, they either lend a poppy, Neu!-like sheen to the downbeat 4316 or shroud Take This Poison in menace and foreboding. [Jun 2024, p.101]

McMahon's quivering tenor is a little mannered, but as the lush Round The World stretches its apocalyptic anxieties over nine shape-shifting minutes, you can't fault his questing ambition. [Jun 2024, p.101]

This, with producer Dan Carey keeping things sharp, is another streamlined thriller, recorded in double-quick time. [Jun 2024, p.100]

Butler isn't about to spoon-feed his listeners the answers to anything, though, and ultimately the most audacious trick Good Grief pulls off is in using veiled autobiography to frame portraits of the fragility of the human soul, which speaks to everyone. [Jun 2024, p.100]

The Big Decider spins and struts with the joie de vivre of old, statements of intent provided by crunchy opener Creeping On The Dancefloor and Pauline, another groove-infused witty ode to a difficult woman, cut from the same cloth as Valerie. [May 2024, p.105]

Close your eyes and you can easily forget this fella is 84. [May 2024, p.103]

Drunk and Sick Of Dreaming carry over Surrender's sophisticated playlist-friendly infectiousness, with Never Going Home's pared-back Nashville mood still as accomplished as it is catchy. [May 2024, p.105]

As with Robed In Rareness, the music here is insular, at times verging on the claustrophobic, though Butler again looks out to his wider network, granting features on all but one of the collection's seven track. [May 2024, p.105]

Naysayers might dismiss it all as derivative, but who cares when it's despatched with such confidence and an innate understanding of pop's rich grammar. [May 2024, p.103]

It took a while, but this album is certainly worth the wait. [May 2024, p.103]

Over When It's Over flirts with the dance floor while the hushed Whatever You Want is worthy of Tapestryeta Carole King, as a driven and articulate artist confidently finds her feet again. [May 2024, p.105]

One thing which has barely changed since their Psalm 69 peak is the Ministry formula of chugging metal machine grooves, newsreel samples and stuck-pig screaming. But, when it works, they can still make the apocalypse sound fun. [May 2024, p.103]

An enthralling spiritual jazz manifesto. [May 2024, p.93]

Throughout the album, vibrant melodies and guitars come accompanied by gnawing doubts and dense, agitated settings. Even the dreamy Capricorn wears its soundscape like a shroud, while Hope's plea for release evokes The National at their most elegantly fraught. [May 2024, p.105]