All the more powerful for jumping from comic invocations of Ric Flair and Friday The 13th to casual and viciously flippant references to Xanax and other addictions. [Jan 2018, p.78]

A welcome return from Baxter Dury, as he turns his gaze to the past to offer up a typically wry dissection of his upbringing and his formative years. [Aug 2023, p.50]

Heavy with lurid and dazzling detail, seeking to put drum ’n’ bass-like textures and hyperkinetic beats against the gruff distortion of rock, it recalls Pitchshifter and Asian Dub Foundation in its genreless aggravation and futurist push. [May 2022, p.55]

The outcome is a typically serene and spacious deconstruction of concept and melody; a compression, or reduction of a vast palette of reference points, ideas and processes into a remarkably integrated set of movements. [May 2019, p.64]

Septet is beautifully appointed make-out music, redolent of Adrian Younge, Miles Davis’s 1980s re-emergence and late 70s pre-electro Herbie Hancock. [Sep 2021, p.54]

Thrilling even as it plumbs the depths of anguish. [Aug 2021, p.52]

More choppy and scattered than its predecessor but equally compelling. [#241, p.61]

This album emerges as too tangled to be pulled into a simplistic linear narrative; throughout, innocence and trauma co-mingle both lyrically and sonically. Fawn/Brute is as complex and irresistible as its themes would suggest. [Apr 2023, p.54]

Xiu Xiu’s music compels you to empathise even if you cannot fully relate to it. The poignant, pulsing curves of “Piña, Coconut & Cherry” bring this perspective into focus: “You must love me, love me, love me, you are mine, this is mine”. [Oct 2024, p.60]

Let God Sort Em Out, their first LP in 16 years, might be their richest to date. [Sep 2025, p.50]

The warm campfire feel to much of Bardo Pond indicates just how much the likes of MV&EE owes this outfit, but MV&EE seldom sound this convincingly elsewhere. [Dec 2010, p.58]

All of the music is a kind of West African funk, a loping groove that’s an ideal platform for long, discursive but rhythmically grounded solos. ... “Leta’s Dance” has the feel of a mellow track from an early 70s Pharoah Sanders album, sweeping along like a river of electric piano and gentle guitar chords but ending with Bartz alone, keening on the bank, the new song leading seamlessly into the old ones. [Jun 2020, p.46]

Susanna is backed by a quintet of musicians who move in perfect harmony with her slowly uncoiling vocal. Shifting between jazz, orchestral and synthesized sounds, her approach to the time-honoured love song format is a much needed breath of fresh air. [Oct 2024, p.62]

I consider 2018’s Digital Garbage one of their finest albums and the fact that Plastic Eternity doesn’t quite measure up to its scorching brilliance is understandable – few records do. This one is looser, less wound-up and perhaps a little less cohesive. But it is always, always nice to have them back. [Aug 2023, p.62]

Air is also an omnipresent agent in Davachi’s extensive use of the pipe organ, as on “Vanity Of Ages” – an exquisitely slow unfolding of clustered tones that give rise to a shimmering microtonality. ... A similar compositional approach is used for the string pieces “Icon Studies I” and “Icon Studies II” but the effect is intimate and fluid rather than cosmic and imposing [Sep 2022, p.44]

This 17 track album is the perfect embodiment of the sound and ethos the label has been pushing over the last nine years. [May 2019, p.66]

The more we listen, as the images and phrases and grooves swim past, we're glimpsing pieces of a private puzzle, an exhilarating series of riddles with no answers. [Sep 2025, p.50]

Sunny Border Blue marks a return to a less considered, rawer style, and to lyrics which are nakedly confessional, mercilessly exposing her own and other people's weaknesses. [#206, p.67]

It’s Shellac as usual, so lean, mean experimental rock music which sounds like you are right there in the room with the band. There’s a hint of mature craftsmanship in the classic descending chord sequence of “WSOD” and the waltz time of “Girl From Outside”. [Jul 2024, p.60]

An upbeat yet ultimately wistful record about living, dying, youth, age, wasting time, but also trying not to waste time. [Oct 2017, p.59]

The music they make is as quirky, infectious and amusing as the theme that powers it along, and Memorial Waterslides turns out to be a work of inspired joy. [Oct 2024, p.62]

Atmospheric and engrossing, Birds & Beasts is a quiet triumph. [Oct 2024, p.62]

A delightfully disorientating new missive from David Thomas and his band of talented reprobates. [Aug 2023, p.62]

Not a visionary rollercoaster thundering around the heavens, but a rewarding slow and subtle grower. [Oct 2011, p.53]

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]

Metallica's unrelenting sledgehammer style works as the perfect complement to Reed's vision of compassionless love, with monolithic chords deployed with almost surgical precision wile he dissects relationships w of masochism and power. [Dec 2011, p.63]

This 21st century Berlin sounds more muscular and dangerous, but not without a certain delicacy either. [Nov 2008, p.68]

True to her reputation as an uncompromising force, at no point during Edge Of Everything does Temple show any mercy. [May 2019, p.66]

For the most part this album is unadulterated joy, and even in the instances where things feel a little more serious, it’s still entertaining as hell. [Aug 2021, p.69]

Walls Have Ears is a postcard from Sonic Youth in their salad days, with newly recruited drummer Steve Shelley cementing a core line-up that would endure until disbandment 26 years later. [Apr 2024, p.75]

Electric Trim is Lee Ranaldo’s 12th solo album but it sounds remarkably fresh. [Oct 2017, p.59]

Dreamy stuff for sure, but tinged with a lingering sense of nightmare. [May 2023, p.60]

Raw and emotional, the work ripples with atmosphere and melody, each movement brimming with youthful optimism. [Oct 2024, p.65]

With her second full-length album MHYSA has curated a minimalist smorgasbord of experimental arrangements, classic R&B tropes and seductive melodies, blending to bring the raw, naked emotion of the artist to the fore. [Mar 2020, p.52]

The remixes feel fresh and tight. ... 30 Something is a fitting way to celebrate their impressive body of work. [Aug 2022, p.54]

It’s clear he’s still able to switch on a plausible menace when the situation demands. In that balance and his gleefully amateur unretouched singing lies the heart of a great album. [May 2019, p.68]

A strong addition to Tyler’s catalogue and a good intergenerational connection for the fans. [Aug 2021, p.69]

Its ten tracks are heady, contemplative, spacious with a sense of impending loss. [Mar 2024, p.56]

This time round the likes of Lancey Foux, Unknown T, Skrapz and Tiggs Da Author inspire and complement rather than distract from an artist settling into the elder statesman role he’s been primed for since day dot. In their company the righteous gospel sermonising of “Double Standards” shines, and “Blessings” reveals itself as the most potent earworm I’ve had the pleasure of contracting this year. [Jul 2024, p.65]

A set of vigorous yet highly intricate arrangements of new material. [Oct 2017, p.60]

The whole album feels like a coda, a soundtrack to the closing credits of a career that has taken them far beyond the exploratory punk of their roots. [Nov 2010, p.53]

Pitiless, but ultimately forming a sanctuary for Xiu Xiu’s irredeemable sadness, Ignore Grief might just be their most startling record to date. [Apr 2023, p.63]

The result is an album which will satisfy fans of all the band’s distinct phases without necessarily ingratiating itself to anyone. [Oct 2017, p.61]

The final few songs swap flash-saturated self-portrait for figure in landscape, brooding and blurred. Their hermetic sound is breached – their future more uncertain than ever – and all the better for it. [Feb 2022, p.47]

Almost every track has a fearsome radiance to its high end and even in those parts without drums or squared off structures, the surges of sound recall collective dancefloor ecstasies. [Dec 2015, p.44]

Widow City is endlessly enjoyable, yielding new detail every time you slip through its song mazes. [Oct 2007, p.59]

It's one earthquake/windstorm after another for an hour, possibly the group's best release since 2009's Bag It! [Nov 2013, p.55]

One thing that makes this music feel so good is the way it puts such skilled players through their paces. You can almost hear them rising to the challenge. [Jul 2025, p.52]

Given the remit of this collection, you’d be forgiven for anticipating a jumble of two-bit Human League and Gary Numan rip-offs. Thankfully this unexpectedly odd compilation delivers a whole lot more. [Jul 2025, p.68]

At nearly two hours long, it can get claustrophobic and anti-exuberant out of these tunes' native club element.... Nonetheless, there's an undeniable freshness.

With each successive listen, more detail – in the organ arrangements, the vocal compositions and their harmonic interplay – is revealed. [Aug 2021, p.72]

This is Pole at his most expansive and communicative. [#233, p.69]

Here Dakar covers country with “Walking After Midnight” and “Love Hurts”, but the outstanding cuts are her takes on The Kinks’ “Stop Your Sobbing”, as once claimed by The Pretenders, and a remarkably affecting reggae treatment of the old Louis Armstrong chestnut “What A Wonderful World”. [Jun 2023, p.64]

Songs like "My House Is Not My Dream House", "Constant Companion" and "Harmonizing With Myself" continue the theme of domestic solitude running through recent work, addressed with an eye for detail that elevates the songs far above standard confessional singer-songwriter fare. [Apr 2026, p.60]

The framework is so decentered there's barely a frame. That, it turns out, leaves room for the work. [Dec 2011, p.52]

Off The Record's off the cuff feel would probably appall his former comrades but it lends the music an appealing immediacy. [Mar 2013, p.48]

Hard edged synths and massive, crunchy beats lend righteous swagger to Gordon’s bleary guitar squalls and jetlagged sprechstimme. [Mar 2024, p.46]

Throughout the album Nas sounds engaged, and his choices are unbeholden to the whims of the market. [Jan 2023, p.78]

Darran Cunningham's most immediate and body-rocking record to date. [May 2017, p.44]

What's striking, and moving, is how the old communal spirit of Pullman's music feels stronger than ever, despite (or because of) the distances of time, geography and memory that had to be patiently overcome. [Apr 2026, p.56]

Invite The Light is determinedly adventurous. [Dec 2015, p.46]

Dunn’s production is broad and volatile yet retains a measure of mainstream appeal. At all times Danilova’s voice threatens to destroy – the compositions that try to contain her, the recording equipment that seems to clip and distort, reverb effects that overload and scream, speakers and ears that feel like they might melt from the sheer intensity. She’s never sounded better than this. [Jun 2022, p.48]

The thrill of Fetch is in its precision, its Bachian joy in maths. [Dec 2013, p.54]

Despite the use of repetition and layering, Street Horrsing's sonic make-up is often unpredictable, which is where their strength stems from. [Apr 2008, p.57]

All of the six songs feel epic in structure, each gradually building from a subtle breeze into a fiery windstorm as Michael and John Gibbons's sustained guitar mantras bleed into each other. [May 2017, p.44]

A feeling of survival against the odds often permeates his music. Personally I would have enjoyed a few more drum-backed beats, but even those without are crafted to a point of excellence. [Dec 2021, p.63]

Big | Brave roars into action with the immense “Carriers, Farriers And Knaves” and proceeds through five subsequent tracks whose heaviness is substantially derived from a keen sense of texture – abetted and encouraged by producer Seth Manchester – and the anguished wail of guitarist/vocalist Robin Wattie. [Apr 2023, p.64]

His curatorial vision is matched by vocals which have never sounded so assured and impressively soulful. [Apr 2023, p.58]

Revel in the poppy darkness of Beaches--sunset drenched “ba-ba-ba” vocals, upfront drums and twangy guitars--but also marvel as the Australian psych rockers draw out their swirling sounds into extended hypnotic workouts on this double album. [Oct 2017, p.64]

Companion Rises does not choose between the structure of a catchy acoustic guitar motif and those sometimes abrasive electric moments where composure is allowed to drift away. Instead it opts to combine them. [Mar 2020, p.56]

Like Eye Of I and The Messthetics & James Brandon Lewis, it seeks to engage a larger audience while remaining true to the musical values that Lewis has affirmed throughout his career. [Mar 2025, p.51]

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

Fans of retro-styled chamber pop should find the vibes here to be exquisite. That said, Mering cleverly balances the sumptuousness with a lyrical orientation that taps into a universal melancholy, cutting through the fog of nostalgia with a sober, contemporary sensibility. [Jan 2023, p.74]

The London based producer integrates his maternal Polish roots in the spotty, fragmented and incidental way that only a truly intercultural artist can. [Sep 2018, p.49]

This Valley is deeper and wider, thanks in no small part to Gelb’s voice, which has matured beautifully over the decades while retaining its waywardness. It’s exceedingly rare that a Gelb/Sand release is a waste of time, and Returns doesn’t buck that trend. [Sep 2018, p.63]

With its mix of anxiety, fun and catharsis, it provides a compelling listen for a tumultuous year. [Oct 2020, p.56]

DJ Paypal's take on footwork does to R&B, disco and 1980s adult contemporary smoothness what sometime collaborators AG Cook and SOPHIE of PC Music do to bubblegum ad teeny pop. [Dec 2015, p.47]

On How The Thing Sings, Orcutt reveals a more open vision. [Oct 2011, p.58]

His most intimate work to date. [Jan 2015, p.68]

Wow, does it reward your attention. [Feb 2015, p.54]

An album whose fragmentary and ephemeral structure is mirrored in its often ethereal, distant sound. [Mar 2013, p.54]

From its cryptic title to its discombobulating assemblage of stylistic approaches in the track listing, Oil Of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides is chaotic and disjointed. ... Bringing a range of seemingly contrasting elements together, SOPHIE has been problematising commonly accepted binaries since dropping the berserk dance pop of “BIPP” on Glasgow’s Numbers label in 2013. [Sep 2018, p.49]

Nearly a quarter of a century after its initial release, My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts remains a beautifully finished work, despite its complexity: every line and fragment in place, every surface and effect neatly separated out. [#266, p.56]

Aesop’s penchant for storytelling – particularly on “100 Feet Tall” and “Aggressive Steven” – is still incredibly engaging, delivering a fraught narrative that touches on mental health, exploitation of the vulnerable and human responses to corporate stimuli. [Jan/Feb 2024, p.77]

There are still hints of Gnod's more psychedelic aspect, but these tracks feel lean, stripped back and sharp-eyed. [May 2017, p.46]

Devour is unwaveringly formless; drills, drones and hysterical screeches become food for trauma. It’s frightening, at many points torturous, but not without emotional weight. The record mirrors what oppression really looks, sounds and feels like – no pool parties, ice tea, sunglasses and shiny colour palettes, just untamed agony, screaming and pain. [Sep 2019, p.60]

The sound has a new depth. [#249, p.65]

The sonic immensity and detail of the album, an extended paean to the power of the imagination, with the feel of a dark fairy tale, rivals the most ostentatious of Bob Ezrin's productions for Alice Cooper, Kiss and Lou Reed. [Dec 2015, p.50]

With Carter Tutti's canny use of space, it's slick as heck--mainstream, almost. [Feb 2015, p.44]

It’s all well played and lusciously presented, and if you’re meditating to the album, little here will disrupt your vibe. [Jan/Feb 2024, p.77]

The effect of these new elements is to bring a new solemnity and calm to Pioulard's already gentle brand of blissed out songwriting. [Mar 2013, p.62]

The Elephant Man’s Bones is no disappointment – the factors that have cultivated reverence are displayed in full force, with Marciano’s pen game as sharp as ever and The Alchemist’s production showing no sign of peaking. [Jan 2023, p.68]

Band Red suggests they have reached meltdown and anybody encountering their post-punk roar would be advised to stand well back. [#243, p.74]

Protect Your Light, recorded at the late Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in New Jersey, is the group’s warmest work yet. [Sep 2023, p.57]

Lost Themes satisfies more than it irks, and it's unambiguously the most enjoyable creation Carpenter has put his name on in probably 27 years. [Feb 2015, p.44]

Where Vernon’s album [For Emma, Forever Ago] registers like a melancholic exorcism of listless youth and failed relationships, Bachman does not engage in that kind of soul searching, though he elicits a similarly potent emotional response. [Jan/Feb 2024, p.77]

Mogwai eschew their trademark squall and fuzz for measured and clenched guitar chords, echoed piano notes and eerie arpeggios of guitar that stalk unresolved through a stark, naked soundscape. [Mar 2013, p.62]

The recording and mixing is impeccable, with each instrument distinctly isolated, enabling the tracks to take on lively 3D forms. This does result in a striking directness, but the tightly wrapped sound sometimes feels like it’s in battle with the naturally inventive playing of the trio. [Sep 2021, p.56]