Holtkamp and Anderegg have arrived at a strain of wide-eyed Americana with roots in the ashen wastes of the Pennsylvania landscape. [Feb 2013, p.58]

The most interesting thing about this music isn't so much that it exists in 2013, more that there still seems to be a fundamental need for it. [Feb 2013, p.58]

Though primarily centered around Sweet's songcraft, Burnt Up on Re-Entry benefits from the judicious incorporation of primitive electronics. [Feb 2013, p.58]

The most anomalous thing about What the Brothers Sang, a collection of Everly Brothers covers, is how sincere it sounds. [Feb 2013, p.52]

The percipients' more abstract visions allow much joyful engagement with sampled, electronic and acoustic sounds. [Feb 2013, p.52]

Few among us can craft an album as seamlessly fine as Fade. [Feb 2013, p.51]

From the bottom of a spring-reverb well, Harris strums mournful, incoherent songs like "Vital" and "being Her Shadow," but intersperses them with creepy textural mood pieces. [Feb 2013, p.50]

It's another cautious portion of well-made, moderately experimental not-quite-rock. [Feb 2013, p.49]

The combination of Robert's artistry and the exemplary ensemble backing him means the album succeeds in being a renewal. [Jan 2013, p.63]

Ying & Yang, ultimately, just sounds a bit matey. [Nov 2012, p.61]

Everything about the record--the pacing, the choice of sounds--reveals a mature, careful hand. [Dec 2012, p.77]

Accelerator captures a confused, jokey arc of the duo's trajectory that hasn't aged well in the 14 years since its release. [Dec 2012, p.70]

The synthetic sounds are more liquid and alive, the rhythms more nonchalantly funky, the unfolding narratives more gripping than previous work. [Dec 2012, p.64]

Desertshore is less a report than a dramatisation, an upending of their defiantly aura-less usurping of traditional performance modes in favour of a theatricality that feels more selfconsciously like a big event than the DIY/samizdat style of old.... [The Final Report] fares a little better, though again, it's a shame XTG have framed it in the form of a report.[Dec 2012, p.69]

Alc has already produced better songs for the actual Ghostface. So it is unclear why this album--or the rapper who made it--needed to exist. [Jan 2013, p.79]

It's a rich and layered work that refuses to be easily summed up. [Jan 2013, p.69]

As stylistic cross-fertilising vanity projects by rock stars of pensionable age go, this one has bags of charm at least and is eminently listenable. [Jan 2013, p.65]

Sushi is more centred in the present, and more focused altogether. [Jan 2013, p.64

Lux is OK, while it's on. But that's all. And that's a shame. [Jan 2013, p.64]

Here, the 70s simulations, artful enough in their own way, are presented straight. The result, sadly, doesn't evoke 70s Italian Horror; it merely makes one think of already-over-familiar period and genre signifiers. [Jan 2013, p.62]

Hegarty's eco-femism finds a much better ambassador in his songs. [Oct 2012, p.58]

The beats are straighter and more polished, and a degree of shine has replaced bedroom-engineered grit. [Dec 2012, p.75]

Despite its complexity, the album is full of ravishing, soulful production and vocals--as catchy and emotionally stirring as it is subversively and intellectually thrilling. [Dec 2012, p.75]

It manages to evoke both void and overload simultaneously, and feels by turns oppressively dense and light as a feather. [Dec 2012, p.74]

As a collection, Psychedelic Pill is spotty and, at times, sleep-inducing.

These are effective dancefloor tracks that contain secret burdens o f menace or anxiety. [Dec 2012, p.68]

Sometimes the album feels more like a document of studio experiments than a collection of fully realised, narrative-driven compositions, but they remain remarkably effective at imposing similarly conflicting emotions on the listener as on Herndon's avatar.[Dec 2012, p.65]

The music is immaculately performed and produced, yet lacks the divine spark of inspiration that might elevate it above the status of demonstration reel. [Dec 2012, p.65]

It takes a while to get on Friedberger's wavelength.... But his sheer love of a good tune is seductive. [Dec 2012, p.63]

The album's primary emotion of disgust is cushioned by performances and production so luxurious as to be sinister. [Dec 2012, p.63]

His unfocused ire dominates every inch of space. It's frustrating because the best tracks here deftly whirl together seemingly disparate styles. [Dec 2012, p.61]

As it is, it's a new Godspeed album and it's a good one, but when you have set your standards as high as they have, it can only seem like a failure. [Nov 2012, p.59]

The album is a fairly effective sampler of Ambarchi's various modes. [Dec 2012, p.58

More impressive is how well he and his production circle weave their microfibre soul samples as to draw perpetual tension out of complete simplicity. [Nov 2012, p.73]

There's a feeling of disconnect between idea and result, with Construction Sounds tending towards solid but unremarkable investigation of texture. [Nov 2012, p.72]

A certain stillness remains at the heart of Ital Tek. [Nov 2012, p.72]

It's cleaner sounding for a start--each track gleams like a freshly sharpened butcher's knife--and the sense of dynamics is rather more acute. [Nov 2012, p.70]

Their third post-reunion effort is less immediately engaging than its predecessor--perhaps due to a slightly uneven mix--but it remains true to the Dinosaur spirit while asserting a textual adventurousness that's often overlooked. [Nov 2012, p.70]

Nothing here sounds forced, and Bailiff's continued use of effects doesn't so much obscure as communicate the heartfelt content of her songs more effectively. [Nov 2012, p.70]

[Co-producer Rick Rubin] is a reductionist, an essentialist, which suits ZZ Top just fine. [Nov 2012, p.67]

As on their first album, he [Jim Jarmusch] blows gusts of electric noise through the open spaces in van Wissem's patiently articulated structures. [Nov 2012, p.67]

Parts of Dark Crawler are thrilling. But it sounds less like a confident stride forward than a cautious toe dipped into an unpromising future, one eyeball trained wistfully on the past. [Nov 2012, p.66]

It's fun but nonessential. [Nov 2012, p.64]

Some moments on the Pet Shop Boys' 11th album are as unsettling as any music released this decade. [Nov 2012, p.64]

Honor Found In Decay is a solid Neurosis album, but it doesn't find them doing anything new. [Nov 2012, p.63]

[Tempest has] a sense of dues paid as a continual creative replenishment, rather than a swansong. [Nov 2012, p.63]

They play out as fascinating (and funny) monologues in themselves. [Nov 2012, p.62]

Smalhans is something of a palate cleanser, but a satisfying one nonetheless. [Nov 2012, p.62]

Its best tracks suggest a similarly abrasive, exploratory and jammed on the fly approach to House music [as Jamal Moss].

A return visit for these two tourists would be welcome. [Nov 2012, p.60]

Overall, as a listening experience in itself, The Master feels like a retreat. [Nov 2012, p.59]

Until the Quiet Comes is cluttered and schmaltzy. [Nov 2012, p.59]

Just as there's something inescapably seductive about fast cars in a nocturnal metropolis, there's something innately pleasurable about this Emeralds release. [Nov 2012, p.58]

By zeroing in on the darkness at the heart of an economy demanding a constant turnover of novelty, they've made something deeply essential for the moment. [Nov 2012, p.57]

With Drumm at the helm, the album resolves itself as a spooky and nuanced maelstrom. [Nov 2012, p.56]

Lyrically it is all shamelessly hollow, but Ross's album is seductively swish, its production sophisticated and strings and saxophone abound. [Oct 2012, p.75]

The rest offer artful and discerning combinations of a number of genre hallmarks, making for a smooth and modern drive. [Oct 2012, p.74]

Slug Guts embrace their destiny as swaggering, bar-destroying dirtbags, and we're all better for it. [Oct 2012, p.68]

"STP3/The Killer," "Silent Witness," and "I Come By Night" are exceptions, however--somewhere along the line a spark's been snuffed out. [Oct 2012, p.67]

The jazz moments here are thin, singsongy, almost marcato melodies. [Oct 2012, p.64]

There's a subtle psychedelic twist in these phony hits that somehow renders the best of them compulsively listenable. [Oct 2012, p.64]

The musicians' sensibilities combine to create a bliss pop which doesn't simply evoke the spirit of summer, but allow it to bleed into every chord. [Oct 2012, p.64]

There is a roughness and a sense of surprise to these tracks completely lacking from many other Four Tet productions. [Oct 2012, p.62]

[A] cunning, witty album. [Oct 2012, p.62]

A mixed bag. [Oct 2012, p.62]

Lacking the eldritch weirdness of Actress's music, their faded grandeur somehow feels strangely mundane, despite their inherent beauty. [Oct 2012, p.62]

The results are sketches, in the best sense: unplanned, absorbing accidents as new pathways, concerned with mood rather than architectural precision. [Oct 2012, p.60]

Cale is producing involving, forward-moving music that still capable of catching you unawares. [Oct 2012, p.58]

It's like being in a church of flesh, a satin abattoir, an immersive video game of obsessive love--sickly, addictive, raw. [Aug 2012, p.46]

His murky but upbeat productions augment this sensation, giving Skelethon a sort of B-boy gothic feel, an old school park jam recreated by Tim Burton. [Sep 2012, p.74]

LV's South African explorations sound fresh in the current vogue for Footwork and trap rap references. [Sep 2012, p.73]

Clark [is] aiming for what he calls full mind distortion. The title track delivers. [Sep 2012, p.72]

While Clockwork Angels is energised and intense, it neither sounds nor feels like heritage rock or a return to first principles. [Sep 2012, p.70]

This is his second essential album of 2012. [Sep 2012, p.70]

This is music with character. [Sep 2012, p.67]

Some of the tracks are dead ringers for math rock, but in Bishop and Chasny's hands that ornate form attains gut-level thrust. [Sep 2012, p.64]

It should still be appreciated for its sonic density, its sustained mood of dread and the universality of its themes, at least one of which--the condemnation of usurers--is painfully relevant today. [Sep 2012, p.63]

It's one of the most personal recordings from any of the three collaborators. [Sep 2012, p.63]

Every now and again a ray of sun shines through, a warmth and homeliness that Buena Vista Social Club and its ilk condition you to expect, but more often they're glazed with a chill. [Sep 2012, p.62]

Another slapdash cash-in from masked rap's last bastion. [Sep 2012, p.60]

It's the lighter, trickier touches that stick in the head. [Sep 2012, p.56]

Ariel Pink's writing is completely scattergun, but this is what can make it so disarming. [Sep 2012, p.56]

Despite their pop savvy, it's a surprisingly difficult listen. [Sep 2012, p.57]

Exo alternately provokes astonishment at its kitschiness and the sensual thrill of its dazzling inhumanism, but that's probably the whole point. [Aug 2012, p.58]

An unequivocally rocking set on which Chasny is backed by his former group Comets on Fire. [Aug 2012, p.56]

Strange Passion's careful curation and lavish sleeve notes give a belated but generous and welcome salute to an overlooked epoch in musical history and the passions it provoked. [Aug 2012, p.52]

The thick consistency of America is of a different sort: lusher, more polished, wider in scope, almost symphonic in its conception and structure. [Aug 2012, p.43]

The closing track "Temptation" proves that electronic producers who refuse to be typecast are the ones who keep the music exciting. [Aug 2012, p.44]

The track ["Power Circle"] and the entire album seems to lose its air after he [Gunplay] makes his exit. [Aug 2012, p.59]

Totem is a pensive and heterogeneous offering, with glitchy and glittery textures, wandering melodies and echo. [Aug 2012, p.58]

Were it only instrumental, Dopesmoker would be some kind of masterpiece. [Aug 2012, p.55]

He doesn't sound very dangerous. Just glad to be out. [ Aug 2012, p.55]

Fetch sinks below the high water level of conscious synapses firing to collapse perceptions of time and warm the sheets of the subconscious. [Aug 2012, p.48]

This compilation gives voice to many lesser known artists who sang of the elation and estrangement of moving from the dirt tracks to the streets. [Aug 2012, p.44]

They most definitely lack a soloist. Yet the way in which these sunkissed survivors pull together is touching. [Jun 2012, p.42]

Others have their own versions of slow, simmering beauty, but rarely with so many other approaches and conceptions integrated. [Jun 2012, p.54]

Bongo Hotheads distils the feverish street feel of Dar Es Salaam. [Jul 2012, p.71]

Regional Surrealism has a quality familiar from Ghost Box releases and from Boards of Canada's discography. [Jul 2012, p.70]