For all the overwrought sentiment, A Wave... is strangely compelling. [Jun 2026, p.35]

Here they come dressed in post-punk garb. The arena singalong "Wild Rut" mutates into a piece of motorik new wave; the toytown confections of "Leave You On A High" and "Loyal" both come wreathed in ice gothic synths and Peter Hook-style bass plunking. [Jun 2026, p.33]

These esoteric pieces sometimes splash around in puddles of flimsy whimsy, but with enough moments of luminous beauty to reward an immersive dip. [May 2026, p.26]

"Greetings From Mars" touches on Lana Del Rey's desolately pretty Americana, with Nagler's voice reserved yet reaching ecstatically high. [Apr 2026, p.36]

A stepping stone to more original work to come? Could well be. [Apr 2026, p.29]

Too often the slick production feels overwrought like a bad Cure facsimile and the songs struggle to breathe, though the murkiness at least conveys the sense of doomed romance. [Apr 2026, p.26]

"Turn Your Heart Back On" shows the pair can still cut it when the moment is right. [May 2026, p.33]

The naked, more soul-leaning titke track works nicely, as do the almost cosmic jazz explorations of "Didn't Come To argue" featuring Monica Martin), but for all the heavy sentiment and weight here, the results sometimes feel hollow. [May 2026, p.26]

On this outing it sounds more like step-by-step calculation than natural evolution. [Apr 2026, p.36]

Curiously retro-sounding production and accompaniment. .... Her gift for infectious topline melodies manages to transcend such stylistic quirks. [Feb 2026, p.31]

Peaches still bangs, in more ways than one. No Lube So rude, her first album in a decade, drips with fluids, fragrances and various viscera. [Mar 2026, p.36]

Lightweight but charming covers collection. [Jan 2026, p.29]

Despite the references to Oxford Circus and the Northern Line, Smith's baritone voice often strays into mid-Atlantic territory, but the highlights see him lean into English pastoralism. [Jan 2026, p.35]

An almost comically seductive blend of luxe funk, disco strings (arranged by Owen Pallett) and analogue synths, which he pastiches with affection and elan. [Feb 2026, p.39]

The vibe is mid-'60s grindhouse. [Jan 2026, p.25]

Unabashedly emphatic songs that nod to Robyn (notably on skyscraping opener "Good Intentions"), Cyndi Lauper ("Every Ounce Of Me") and Kate Bush ("Appetite"), though the settings are largely those of a US mainstream, '90s grunge-pop band. They flatten the resonance of Hollingworth's lyrics. [Feb 2026, p.35]

It's a shame that Night Light fails to cohere, especially since the suave, Roxy Music-like shades of Euro-disco in "Going Nowhere" and "In The Middle" suggest another route out of the stylistic quagmire of recent efforts. [Jan 2026, p.36]

Using banal sample does lead to some fairly bland passages, but Lopatin and his studio partner Nathan Salon squirrel enough unorthodox ideas into their sound design to give the likes of "Lifeworld" and "Rodl Glide" real verve. [Jan 2026, p.35]

Shifts them into a warmer, fully 3D landscape without sacrificing the songs' imposing build or the solipsistic intensity of Katie Ball's lyrics. [Jan 2026, p.34]

Downey has the chops to convince as an alt.country diva if she can step beyond this pleasant ambling contentment into more trenchant and ambitious songwriting territory. [Nov 2025, p.31]

Too much here feels diaphanous and directionless. [Review of the Year 2025, p.29]

Ashcroft's ornery, sometimes conspiratorial resentment of authority and spiritually minded uplift feel of the moment. [Nov 2025, 28]

McKenzie tries to have it both ways, peppering Freak Out City with schlocky tunes like the title track and "Too Young" that fail to deliver comedically or musically. [Sep 2025, p.33]

You Heartbreaker, You lands like an accusation, with love (and other) songs which draw blood. [Oct 2025, p.23]

Take the modulated soundscapes of, say, Terry Riley or Max Richter, add some beats, more warm analogue synth arpeggios and some fuzzy vocals and you've got a close approximation of Gush. [Sep 2025, p.39]

A bell-bottomed soft-rock glaze courtesy of Greg Kurstin that gives their new songs real heft - "Bloom Baby Bloom" splits the difference between Spinal Tap and the Carpenters - but leaves some tumbling along like Elton John offcuts. [Oct 2025, p.35]

When delicate motifs from accordion, harmonica and piano join her softly plucked acoustic guitar it can make for a sweetly seductive sound, but just as often her vocal melodies meander without leaving a mark. [Oct 2025, p.31]

All pleasant enough, but much like its predecessor, Flux suffers from too much frictionless filler and too few actual dancefloor bangers. [Sep 2025, p.31]

Time-served Carll fans may lament a relative lack of his signature snarky wordplay, but it turns out that sincerity suits him just as well. [Sep 2025, p.29]

Haines' references are as forensic as ever. .... Buck, meanwhile, rolls out his repertoire of languid 12-string jangles, swaggering glam riffs, psychedelic phrasing and jittery feedback. [Aug 2025, p.31]

While clearly a cathartic outing, most of it slips into pretty formulaic and repetitive territory. [Sep 2025, p.29]

An ambitious collaborative affair showcasing female and non-binary musicians. [Jun 2025, p.33]

At times it's too MOTR for its own good, verging on easy listening - but who would blame these two, 82 and 73 respectively, for kicking back in the autumn of their years. [Jun 2025, p.39]

It reprises their indie-modified take on panoramic, heartland rock and synth-pop, though with little emotional impact and no clear intent. [Jun 2025, p.30]

Though the apple doesn't fall far from the electronic/art-rock tree, the writing isn't as fully realised as TVOTR's and the playing lacks their meaty resonance. [May 2025, p.27]

Echoes of early MGMT also haunt the like of "Delete Ya", but he's at his best when he lends a touch of falsetto-sung acoustic soul to "Potion" and "Fly" floats off into wistful wanderlust. [May 2025, p.29]

It's relentless, formulaic and irritating - and although things improve hugely when they drop the bombast on later tracks such as "where It Belongs", "Blood On The Page" and the gorgeous "Carry On", by then it's almost too late. [May 2025, p.33]

Plenty of charm and style, not much originality or depth. [Apr 2025, p.29]

The mix of prog, neo-classical and folkish influences, with Anderson's flute as ubiquitous as ever, is exactly as you'd expect, yet he has plenty to say of contemporary relevance in songs about Israel ("Over Jerusalem"), climate change ("Savannah Of Paddington Green") and the avarice of politicians ("Dunsinane Hill"). [Apr 2025, p31]

It's more of a halfway house, with both acts' distinctive styles diluted as they server up '90s breakbeats ("Kokiri", "Fleece") and light industrial spoken-word pieces ("Nowhere"). Only the jangly promise of "passerine" sung by Emma Acs, hunts at a newish direction. [Mar 2025, p.35]

The somber mood is finally blown away by Crazy Horse-style closer "So Long" as The Lumineers churn into intriguing new territory while doggedly holding onto their entrenched melancholy. [Apr 2025, p.35]

It's a good snapshot of how Hecker approaches such [soundtrack] commissions. But it also suggests there's an occasional paucity of ideas here. [Apr 2025, p.31]

The inconsistent textures, pace and flow of the album all point to a band still trying to work out who they are. [Feb 2025, p.37]

That he can still write a timeless folk-rock melody is evident in songs such as "That Day Must Surely Come" and "After The Harvest", but the contemporary pop orthodoxy of the arrangements and production is disheartening. [Jan 2025, p.35]

While this is a deeply experimental record, it is also subtly stunning in parts. [Jan 2025, p.31]

Vicious Creature is more compelling than Mayberry's Chvrches material, but may not be thrilling enough to take her where she wants to be. [Jan 2025, p.39]

“Flowers For The Unsung” teases out some quietly pretty melodies. However, the freeform avant approach of the album is not always an easy ride; the wildly experimental playing makes it a constantly surprising listen but often one that is very heavy, dense and a little overwhelming. [Review of the Year 2024, p.28]

Agreeably gruff-voiced, world-weary, Yello-ish electro-ballads dominate, but too many lyrics strain for portentous poetic melodrama, accidentally invoking Father Ted’s “My Lovely Horse” instead. [Nov 2024, p.34]

Echoes of Conor Oberst abound but the tunes lack the same charm, with even covers of Spacemen 3 (“Sound Of Confusion”) and Townes Van Zandt (“No Place To Fall”) unable to keep ears pricked up. [Dec 2024, p.37]

Public Service Broadcasting devote a concept album to the tragic aviatrix’s final voyage, this time overlaying their soundscapes not with samples but with her writings brought to life by actors. These retain our interest more than some of the music they punctuate. [Nov 2024, p.41]

He’s less distinctive-sounding on the Oasis-style anthemics of “Got To Let You Go” and “Never Said Goodbye”, however. The boyish high register of Bugg’s voice lends itself most effectively to a certain ’60s beat group sound, which helps “All Kinds Of People” and the La’s-style rumble of “Breakout” get pulses racing more effectively. [Dec 2024, p.32]

The Prodigy are an influence on tracks like “So What” but the sound of KLF and Underworld underpins “Sicko” and “I Can’t Lose You”, while Madonna’s ’90s collaborations with William Orbit are in the background of several tunes. [Dec 2024, p.33]

It is difficult to argue, however, that the second batch of Pixies records have been as thick on quality. It’s a trend that The Night The Zombies Came does little to buck – though the spectacular surf-psychedelia of “Motoroller” could have made Bossanova, and the glorious thrash of “Oyster Beds” snuck onto Trompe Le Monde. [Dec 2024, p.37]

It can be quite hard to pin down what they’re trying to do. This makes Orchestra Hits curious, even if their mining of goth and the ’80s, with its attendant melodrama and gestural angst, isn’t always successful. [Oct 2024, p.41]

It’s all interestingly varied stuff, although the chopping and changing of styles makes it hard to get a handle on who The Voidz really want to be. [Oct 2024, p.33]

Generally things are slower and less musically direct, and so you have an amalgamation of alt.rock, leftfield folk, pop, jazz and touches of electronica. However, while stylistically varied, it can feel a little lacking in variety and dynamism at times, as it very much sits in mid-tempo mode for much of the 12 tracks, the sprightly pop of their early period rarely appearing. Johnson feels nicely in sync with his band though, who possess both precision and personality in their playing. [Oct 2024, p.42]

This is deluxe lava-lamp music, pleasantly pretty at worst, hypnotically beautiful at best. [Sep 2024, p.33]

There’s a suitably euphoric rush to tracks such as “Sun Come Up” and “Golden Hour” as McAlmont’s vocals soar gloriously over Dickson’s layered synths, the banging dance rhythms and surging choruses evoking Ibiza rather than California, Faithless rather than The Beach Boys. [Aug 2024, p.35]

The chugging arrangements are often overwrought, and the lyrics slightly too pleased with themselves, but Hawk's lusty baritone croons lend passion and swagger to salacious funk-pop confessional "Big Cat Tattoos" and the sardonic, self-lacerating "Questionable Hit". [Sep 2024, p.33]

Justin Moore’s “Here Comes My Girl” and Brothers Osborne’s “I Won’t Back Down” both sound like expensive karaoke. The best tracks take more than a few liberties with the source material. [Jul 2024, p.41]

The pair share a fascination for esoterica and ritual, and it’s this impulse that powers their new collaboration, Jinxed By Being. [Aug 2024, p.40]

Lyrically, the album plunges into some vulnerable and troubling places, but musically it lacks a similar emotional range, instead feeling static and one-note. [Aug 2024, p.31]

There are moments when the orchestrated bathos feels promising. .... But the lyrical clunkers pile up and ultimately capsize an intriguing venture into sophisti-pop. [Aug 2024, p.39]

Ghostface is still, occasionally, a force to be reckoned with on the mic. but Set The Tone feels unworthy of his talents. [Aug 2024, p.34]

He sounds distant during "Shy Eyes'" woozy synth-funk, while "Over Your Shoulder" seems to connect his own separation and his mother's divorce in a resolute folk-pop ballad. [Aug 2024, p.31]

His guitar and bass playing are rather more agricultural than his rhythm-keeping but this all adds to the character of his freestyle philosophising. [Jul 2024, p.39]

Crowded House’s eighth studio release ticks all the expected boxes. Pitch-perfect harmonies and inventive chord sequences abound. .... Where it falls short, perhaps, is the absence of the full-blooded radio-friendly hits of old, although the shuffling “All That I Can Ever Own” is a close cousin to 1993’s “Distant Sun”. [Jun 2024, p.32]

Opener “I Suck At Grieving” is a musical marvel, a song about losing a parent that’s genuinely fun to sing along to. “Jealous” is a garage-rock Gen Z remake of Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated”, while “Pretty Good For A Bad Day” – a duet with All Time Low frontman Alex Gaskarth – offers a clever sense of perspective. [Jun 2024, p.33]

On the first LP, the 60-piece Brussels Philharmonic adds top-heavy accompaniment to his melodic playing. .... On the second LP, however, the 11-member Umbria Jazz Orchestra sounds simultaneously nimbler and heavier. [May 2024, p.32]

While Live Laugh Love could benefit from more of the tension that builds in "Tethered" lest it all start seem too comfortably slack, Chastity Belt's blend of blissed-out effervescence and sly wit remains very appealing. [May 2024, p.32]

Its themes are plainly evident in the earworm metal stomp of "Many Doors To Hell" and gothic menace of "Fingers In The Wounds", although more subdued (but equally sombre) hues inform the portentous, piano-led power ballad "Shadow Of The Gods". [Mar 2024, p.25]

Moody shades of The National and Tunnel Of Love-era Springsteen abound, though the whole thing never quite manages to fully convince. [Mar 2024, p.25]

Moments feel somewhat bombastic, but where Scope Neglect hits, it certainly hits. [Mar 2024, p.26]

Mixes have the tracks - stacked guitars and vocals, bustling basslines, played and programmed drums - hurtling along as if crammed into a tunnel. [Mar 2024, p.25]

It's all very tasteful and refined, but ultimately feels a little bloodless. [Feb 2024, p.30]

The music is largely uninteresting, a bland hotchpotch of dub-flavoured electronic styles. [Feb 2024, p.34]

A rich saturnine, baroque-pop set full of romantic drama. Strings, piano and keyboard combine with muti-textured guitar in songs that, though engaging, tend toward the florid. [Feb 2024, p.30]

Despite a few interesting textures, New Blue Sun never really takes flight. [Jan 2024, p.25]

Her gusto is undeniable. Sadly, the abundance of karaoke-night misfires among the 30 tracks makes Rockstar such a slog. [Jan 2024, p.34]

The music is decent enough. .... The problem is Jake Duszik's vocals, which are soft and blank of affect in a way that is oddly characterless. It leaves Rat Wars feeling, if not completely without merit, a bit of an empty vessel. [Review of the Year 2023, p.29]

It's only on the lengthy, ambient, vaporous "La Sirena" and the pretty, dramatic ballad "ICU" that everything gels together. [Dec 2023, p.31]

Smith has skill and ambition galore, but too often settles for tasteful stupor. [Review of the Year 2023, p.32]

While the material is frequently just serviceable, the arrangements are inspired thanks to the virtuosic interplay of JaRon Marshall's gilded piano, Brendan Bond's percolating basslines and Quesada's sizzling solos. [Dec 2023, p.27]

Less effectively soothing than 2022's A Journey..., it's unconventionally beguiling, more ambient predecessor. [Dec 2023, p.34]

Faithful and reverential throughout, there's nonetheless clear signs of Joe's own personality shining though. [Nov 2023, p.27]

As an artistic exercise, it's interesting enough. [Nov 2023, p.33]

The eight songs of Midnight Rose range from serviceable to cringeworthy. [Oct 2023, p.33]

The diversity here is testament to the sheer scope of his [Leon Russell's] writing. [Oct 2023, p.37]

There's a tense, nervous energy o songs such as "Obsession", "Our Song" and "Oversize Sweater" and surprises aplenty. [Sep 2023, p.34]

The better tracks are ones where Lydon stops grumbling about the modern world and creates his own mythic universe, both lyrically and musically. [Sep 2023, p.22]

Here it's his "Story Of An Artist", delivered with a disarming simplicity. With contributions from regular collaborators Jim James and Neko Case, the other eight songs are striking originals. [Aug 2023, p.38]

While lyrics like "this is the hottest summer I can ever remember 'cause the world is on fire" leave little to the imagination, the final product is hard to dislike. [Aug 2023, p.26]

Even a recreation of the harmonica sound from "When The Levee Breaks" on "The Falling Sky" and the same song's famous cavernous beat on "Sacred The Thread" can't help either song stick in the memory. [Sep 2023, p.27]

Had Lofgren trusted his considerable gifts to carry these earnest songs, Mountains would've been a more satisfying album. [Aug 2023, p.34]

Finds itself caught between emulating the original's enviable qualities and overhauling its almost four-decade habits. [Aug 2023, p.36]

It's hard to begrudge the Boos this sunny, mellifluous midlife comeback. [Aug 2023, p.25]

On first hearing it's a little underwhelming, but its subtle charms certainly grows. [Jul 2023, p.30]

Ultimately it's a record that happily exists in something of a fog - wilfully embracing hazy, almost groggy textures. [Jul 2023, p.30]