For all the stray premonitions of patchouli-scented funk-rock, these are less jazz-rock meltdowns and more muscular free improv sessions, ones which suggest a very different direction from Bitches Brew. [Mar 2013, p.89]

Rose City Band’s third album maintains those impeccable vibes of lush country charm, with Earth Trip offering a series of beautiful moments. [Jul 2021, p.33]

If only all music was this fun. [Nov 2008, p.102]

At a time when a generation of US roots guitarists are reaching creative maturity, Modern Country reasserts Tyler's place at their forefront. [Jul 2016, p.81]

Watson's snarky humour prevents anything from feeling too weighty. [Aug 2018, p.35]

Young In All The Wrong Ways may be Watkins' third solo album, but it feels and sounds like her first, reintroducing her as a writer/artist of uncommon eloquence and consequence. [Aug 2016, p.70]

Five long pieces allow for the tussle of improv. [Jun 2014, p.71]

A tough one to make but astonishingly realised, Fields of Reeds is further evidence that they're out there, on their own. [Jul 2013, p.65]

Even if you can't understand the radical message, you can at least revel in the kind of freewheeling summer backpacking soundtrack at which Chao excels. [Jul 2011, p.94]

For the first time, Longstreth's words offer real value rather than verbose decoration. [Aug 2012, p.81]

Intimacy is still her trump card. [Dec 2021, p.26]

It finds Suede wrapping up a triptych of records since their 2013 reunion and in doing so they feel positioned with one foot in the familiar camp of old while striding forward with the other into fresh, unknown territory. [Oct 2018, p.34]

Cobb gives them his distinctively sweltering Southern soul treatment - drenching "In The Garden" with humid electric piano, reimagining "Are You Washed In The Blood?" as the Allman Brothers might have played it. [Mar 2022, p.26]

Edan's punch and broad vision distinguish him from the rest of the pack. [Jun 2005, p.110]

Four Tet's epiphany is concerned entirely with the properties of sound itself. [Jun 2005, p.117]

Much of what is great about Stockholm's Holograms can be located in their debut single "ABC City," a testament of the "desolation" of the grim suburbs of their home city delivered in a rowdy street-punk sneer. [Oct 2012, p.81]

There are jarring moments but Holter's quest to channel the clatter of the universe produces transcendent beauty too. [Nov 2018, p.24]

The Mirror is, in many ways, peek Meek - a batch of candid and deceptively affable country/folk-leaning songs that occasionally kick up dust and whose lyrics are an unfussily poetic pleasure. [Mar 2026, p.32]

Future Standards is both an intimate, low-key experience and a highly welcome new detour. [Jan 2017, p.25]

More than witty and vivacious enough to satisfy anyone who's stuck with the saga thus far. [Mar 2020, p.35]

As much as Volumes: One demonstrates the power of the collective, Vernon's own extraordinary voice remains the star of the show, whether delivered straight or stunningly refracted through his custom Messina effects unit. [Jun 2026, p.42]

He’s got a trippy sense of humour (sampling a bong hit on “MORBUD4ME”), but there’s a pervasive melancholy running songs like “In The Clear” and “Gild The Lily”, as though what he leaves behind is just as important as what he discovers on that endless highway. [Jan 2024, p.40]

Oddly calming, even if it chills. [May 2021, p.24]

But where Black Mountain's message begins to get woolly the music is never anything less than exhilarating

It brims with psychedelic electro-pop of the most inventively buoyant and sweetly retro-futuristic kind. [May 2008, p.106]

The beauty of the album is that it draws its charm from the natural collision of styles. [Feb 2015, p.74]

Finn's third solo album is a lush, multi-layered affair, making full use of its producer. [Mar 2014, p.76]

Will is an irresistibly immersive set-piece. [Jun 2016, p.69]

Now reissued and remastered, those principals are still sound: classic riffs and also more toothsome and unswinging structures, what ch are nice, especially when they stop. [Apr 2011, p.94]

The whole thing underlines how productive McCartney was during this period. [Sep 2020, p.48]

There are reminders of St. Vincent on "Happy" and "Thursday Girl," while "A Loving Feeling" boasts The Breeders' punkish brevity. [Jul 2016, p.78]

Lee's overarching theme is loss and despair at the damage done to the natural world, but with an approach that is emphatic rather than abrasive, the anger palpable but not overbearing. [Mar 2024, p.29]

A triumph indeed. [Sep 2003, p.102]

These are not times for ambiguity. Ultra Mono scours like bleach, its fury a purifier. [Oct 2020, p.31]

The contrast between Adele Bethel's sassy snap and Scott Paterson's rousing holler is expertly deployed, resulting in a stirring record, packed full of ideas, from a band who seem to have rediscovered their spirit of adventure. [Jul 2011, p.94]

What could have been merely clever becomes soulful and poignant thanks to Shauf's understated vocals, his eye for mundane details and flourishes. [Mar 2023, p.35]

She's now made another quantum leap with A Beautiful Life. [Jan 2022, p.25]

Vivid and unsettling [Dec 2025, p.33]

It's the gravitational pull of Williams' great jowly voice that remains the defining feature of an often vitriolic set of songs that veer between snake-hipped R'n'B and blasted soul'n'roll.

Though his songbook, like theirs [Jagger and Richards], is already abundant, Seeds We Sow suggests that there's plenty more to come. [Oct 2011, p.88]

This is Raum's greatest gift—it's not just a trip to the past but a truly worthy addition to one of the most important but overwhelming catalogues in electronic music. [Apr 2022, p.35]

Ethan Johns' stripped country settings on Willie Nelson and The Milk Carton Kids tunes immediately find Sir tom's grit and gravitas. [Nov 2015, p.77]

The overall effect is a carefully constructed, complex yet breezy, psych-pop collection. [Dec 2015, p.69]

Paint This Town is the work of a group who understand that the genre is sufficiently robust to withstand an amount of affectionate roughing up. [May 2022, p.30]

The giddy rush of "I Citizen The Loathsome" and spectral funk ot "To" in particular begin a new page in electronica's tatty textbook. [Aug 2006, p.108]

With pleasing inevitability, A Shadow In Time does not disappoint. [Mar 2017, p.25]

As a listener, it’s equally hard not to feel the love. With Hot Chip, it now feels like the right time to commit.

Curlicues of psychedelia also lap intermittently at the edges, once again making for a gloriously idiosyncratic listen. [Jan 2025, p.41]

This arrestingly adventurous debut is a densely layered mash-up of shudders and drones, narcotically twisted beats, gospel-infused vocals and surreal wordplay. [Mar 2014, p.85]

Wong works up from trickling sounds as seemingly innocuous as mid-morning TV music to a rumbling, looped ferocity. [Mar 2012, p.107]

This is much more than the sum of its parts, and a richly rewarding listen. [May 2009, p.95]

Chaimbeul brings a seriousness to her music, her smallpipes conjuring a range of intense drones and hypnotic ululations. The Pipes, though, are just the frame fir a deeper dive into Gaelic tradition and folklore. [Jul 2025, p.26]

Stasis Taylor enriches with resonant atmosphere. [Oct 2021, p.33]

The words are often stark and painful, the singing is almost religious, and the tunes tend towards exultant. When they remember to be lovely, as on "Yes I Would," the chemistry is intoxicating. [Mar 2010, p.84]

If their third album is perhaps not quite as austere as previous offerings like 2012's Clay Class, it;s still like sticking a quarter-inch jack into a George Foreman grill. [Jul 2015, p.81]

Marked by lovely, unobtrusive backing by various Lambchop alumni, the overriding impression is of Wagner and Tidwell serving the songs rather than playing out lingering Conway & Loretta Fetish. [Nov 2010, p.92]

This 2Cd singles set shows them to be capable of more mainstream, dreamy pop. [Feb 2011, p.96]

This latest outing does suitable state-of-the-nation stuff on "Next Generation" and "American Crisis," but the big AM radio melodies in "Everything To You" and "Little Pieces" (plus the unusually lubricious "Leather Dream") show how much fun Mould could still have. [Oct 2020, p.34]

Currents may be equally exhilarating to any listener willing to adjust to Tame Impala's new paradigm. [Aug 2015, p.65]

Based On The Best Seller is a high water mark. [Nov 2025, p.39]

Crisp, tight and fluid. [Aug 2004, p.92]

This is actually a solid and adventurous collection. [Jan 2022, p.25]

Spanning conflicts from China to Chile, Algeria to Israel, the songs have a shared universality and power that makes up for the way the Anglification process erases cultural context. It works because Moddi's delivery is empathic and superb. [Nov 2016, p.32]

Some of his most seductive melodies to date. [Jan 2020, p.28]

If there is a more beautiful and ambitious song this year than "White Foxes"... well, there just isn't. [Nov 2012, p.83]

RTJ3 is the pair's most focused and mature work to date. [Mar 2017, p.34]

Hampson has a discerning ear for when and how to place sounds to best offset each other. [Aug 2012, p.73]

Lambert sings his heart out over finger-picked electro-folk, odd industrial interludes and exhilarating, jittery pop. [Feb 2013, p.75]

Regal's freewheeling eccentricity brings a wild new dimension to White Denim's sound; he should stick around. [Review of the Year 2023, p.30]

Despite its obvious debt to the ’80s and its (appreciated) nods to the trio’s own past, it’s their most modern, innovative record yet.

"No No Yes Yes" is way more an earworm than it has any right to be - but fluttery vocal flourishes ("Hell Island") and renegade horns creeping through the mire ("Golden Teachers") show there is still fun to be had at the end of the world. [Jul 2025, p.27]

A frequently startling record of no little beauty--which threatens to launch a new, esoteric generation of Williamsburg wonders.

On occasion, the production on Who IS The Sender? threatens to swamp the plain-speaking poetics of Fay's lyrics with soupy sentimentality.... But just as often, producer Joshua Henry correctly gauges the tenor of these songs. [May 2015, p.74]

The perfect soundtrack to summer in the city. [Oct 2002, p.111]

Opener "diaphanous" appropriately shimmers, its murmured refrain like a private pep talk as the song builds around it. [Sep 2020, p.31]

Lamp Lit Prose is another outstanding chapter in what is shaping up to be one of the great 21st-century musical odysseys. [Aug 2018, p.29]

It's saved from twee tedium by Campbell's sumptuous orchestrartions and sly wit. [Dec 2003, p.115]

It seamlessly blends his classical talents with an avant-garde flair and experimental rock dynamics. [Jun 2014, p.83]

Finally finding a palatable singing voice, too, the musical acuity shown here still places him very much in front of guitar-hero peers like John Squire and Bernard Butler. [Dec 2002, p.129]

His more emphatic, aggressive muse is unique and subtly disquieting. [Jul 2011, p.96]

Page's notion of what might catch the ear was eccentric, but generally infallible. Duly, these remasters aren't asking you to extend your idea of the Zeppelin canon, but retract it--to realise why the albums have the power and mystery they do. [Jul 2014, p.86]

More often than not, Ben appears to be channeling his hero JJ Cale, although the spirited title track doffs a beret in the direction of Richard Thompson. [Mar 2011, p.97]

The material, largely chosen from recent releases, sounds primal and immense. [Aug 2016, p.83]

Taking the Rio Grande as a confluence point between Mexico and the American Southwest, it reflects TexiCali’s exuberant sense of musical inclusivity. [Jul 2024, p.34]

This is one of his richer projects: a breezy Laurel Canyon love-in. [Oct 2016, p.28]

There's a wistful tone to tracks like "Cherry Cola," the folky "I Was Alone" and fine single, "Love Comes In Waves," which attaches an invasive melody to the soft one of surrounding fuzz. [Nov 2020, p.27]

Several tracks sound like ruminative 1970s jazz breakbeats that have been sampled by hip-hop DJs. [Nov 2020, p.33]

No two tracks are stylistically the same--and yet there is a clear sense of cohesion. [Jan 2018, p.28]

After the crunchy riffs of The Next day, Blackstar has a more nuanced approach. [Jan 2016, p.67]

Their largely improvised debut explores a gorgeous cosmic jazz with shades of Michael Rother and Cluster, Benn helming modular synth, Duffin adding tasteful gusts of sax. [Mar 2017, p.40]

Outside of fashion, and as exciting as The Bunnymen's second, Heaven Up Here. [Oct 2006, p.133]

An enticing hint at other directions that Landreth could go in. [Mar 2020, p.30]

It's the raw-cut trinity of JB, Otis and Solomon Burke that informs this album. ... Expect delights throughout. [May 2016, p.69]

Stewart's preoccupation--narcissism, sexuality, body horror--translate into a sort of febrile synth-pop, dotted with orchestral excursions and abrupt electronics. [Mar 2012, p. 107]

For newcomers, Is It The Sea? offers a neat summation of Oldham’s quiet industry, while it may just mark the turning point from his darker years.

[He] appears to relish the chance to have some fun and revist classic Dr Feelgood licks. [Jul 2018, p.30]

A worthy West Coast counterpart to El-P's superb Fantastic Damage. [Apr 2003, p.108]

Political metaphors abound on this eclectically ramshackle collection. [Mar 2012, p.98]