This is a deep but balanced record, elegant in its melancholia and experimental. [Jul 2017, p.57]

A definite return to form, Shook is the sound of a serious group equipped with the gravitas and shades of expression to carry their many ideas. [Feb 2023, p.44]

The percussive result is a monster truck rally of low end synths stomping the shit out of some scuzzy Gun Club/X/Flesh Eaters-style Los Angeles punk trash, while a cheering section of saxophones blast and honk away on the sidelines. [Sep 2024, p.58]

It’s powerful music for open roads and endless dreaming; once it’s turned on, time is suspended by the limitless layers of unbridled, electric sound. [Feb 2021, p.54]

While bound by established conventions, [it] is nonetheless rich and dazzling enough to soundtrack a saga that exists outside the bounds of normal human capabilities. [Oct 2008, p.60]

Together, these two collections add up to a desolate statement that is naked enough to make listening feel like a act of voyeurism. [Sep 2010, p.62]

This is resolutely a group effort, and freer and more fluid than, say, the proto-Americana of The Grateful Dead's American Beauty. [Sep 2013, p.52]

Each musician adopts a groove-plus approach, adding tunes, subtracting beats and spinning tension building, counterintuitive phrases off the common path, but never tripping it up. [Dec 2022, p.60]

A very nice slab of pan-generic, lof-fi, yearn-pop. [#231, p.59]

Obviously this is well-trodden ground, but even on the brink of corniness, the crunchy satisfaction of Sqürl’s sound makes them extremely listenable. [Jun 2023, p.60]

There's such a freshness to Brett Sparks's music that few comparisons can be made. [#269, p.42]

Though the compilation is vast and the songs hardly bleed into one another--we’re often jumping genres, pivoting off cascading basslines and quickly changing pace without missing beats--there is a level of thematic cohesion here. [Feb 2019, p.66]

Shell~Wave is as sharp and incisive as any of Surgeon’s recordings of the last 30 years. Like the best techno, while it resonates with many rhythms, it never forgets what it is or what it does best. [Jun 2025, p.60]

It’s up there with their debut as an introduction to the Goat sound – a sound that seems even more pertinent and gloriously openended the further we’ve come from its first explosion. [Sep 2021, p.68]

Across the album woodwinds and brass establish the atmosphere, allowing Callahan to revisit some darker parts of himself with the safety of knowing that everything will be fine. [Dec 2022, p.64]

Touching and beautiful. [#256, p.63]

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

Mikael Åkerfeldt’s death growls are back, as are the intricate sextuplet grooves familiar from Ghost Reveries – but the style is also restlessly omnivorous, deftly changeable between moments of brutal death metal, bucolic folk, orchestral segues, power balladry and the head-spinning melodic complexity of 1970s progressive rock. Recently recruited drummer Waltteri Väyrynen shines throughout. [Nov 2024, p.55]

Altın Gün’s unwavering commitment to Turkish psychedelic rock receives a glossy refurbishment here. [Feb 2021, p.60]

One of his purely enjoyable recordings. [Sep 2010, p.68]

Now far from young, and sounding a little tired, his voice is still tender with yearning, and devotees will welcome a further installment in his emotionally ramshackle story. [Sep 2013, p.52]

Just like the great dub albums of the past, this is one that will provoke revisits to the original. [Jan 2012, p.67]

As I spent more time with their tunes piercing through my earbuds, I finally succumbed to their truly infectious ways. [Jun 2019, p.65]

Black Girl Magic is Honey Dijon’s most personal work to date. Over 15 tracks, Dijon collaborates with notable guests like Josh Caffe, Hadiya George, EVE, Mike Dunn and Channel Tres. The energy here is infectious. [Dec 2022, p.64]

There are some satisfying rushes of buzzing sawtooth waves, and luminous passages that hail back to the Workshop’s glory days. But the most successful tracks let their beautiful and odd electronic timbres breathe on their own, rather than adding them as a dressing or a side dish for the piano melodies, or other attempts at constructing a more conventional pop backbone. [Jun 2017, p.65]

[An] excellently focused overview. [Nov 2016, p.70]

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

There’s a brace of humble attempts to get his head round his situation, tracks like “Trauma” and “Oodles O’ Noodles Babies”, brilliantly nuanced performances where Meek wavers on the edge between uncommon restraint and a violent simmer. Jay-Z showing up on “What’s Free” to boast about tax avoidance brings everything back into perspective.