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]