The abundance of dreamy, placid wonders like "Between The Past" and the instrumental "White Wonder Melody" doesn't entirely negate one's longing for more of the ferocious, Ira Kaplan-worthy shredding that fills the final moments of "Another Dream" or other touches that add a wobblier, woozier feel to the proceedings. [Oct 2023, p.37]

The music is varied, best expressed by "Peace Or Quiet", which stretches their loud-quiet dynamic as far as it can go. [Oct 2023, p.28]

An inspired left turn. [Oct 2023, p.25]

Striking successor to 2021 breakthrough Pohorylle. .... Her phrasing is exquisite throughout. [Oct 2023, p.26]

This soulful, spiritual, experimental collection is a rich testament to the chemistry of collaboration. [Oct 2023, p.26]

A surreal sense of the macabre in everyday life remains their MO, from "Skunks"' shuffling crawl space inhabitants to the winged appetites of the softly intoned "Mothballs". [Oct 2023, p.29]

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

Confirming the band's Merseyside-'67 LA space-time portal, retracing familiar if melodically firm ground. [Oct 2023, p.26]

If these [tracks] feel like throwbacks, they're no more so than Norah Jones' best work, and there's nonetheless something timeless about the breezy "While You Were Sleeping" and, with its chugging guitars, "Lovesick". [Oct 2023, p.29]

Deliciously dark and yet full of an elegant lightness, this is Hersh at the top of her considerable game. [Oct 2023, p.29]

While Mid Air is an album occasionally rooted in grief following the loss of Romy's parents, it seeks to take those moments of joy and dancefloor elation. [Oct 2023, p.34]

They produce a whole lot of full-fat dance-pop joy. [Oct 2023, p.85]

It's a rather ragtag collection. .... You do, however, really get a sense of what a playful, unique and ahead of his time composer Garson was. [Sep 2023, p.42]

Bursting with warmth and character even when nearly tweaked beyond the point of recognition, Murphy's voice has rarely had a more satisfying showcase. [Oct 2023, p.31]

Held together by a unifying drone, End Of The Day is a welcome if unusual addition to Barnett's catalogue. [Oct 2023, p.25]

12-song collection brings together four elders, three younger practitioners and original James Gang singer-guitarist Glenn Schwartz, along with The Black Keys in Deep-blues mode. [Sep 2023, p.37]

What should have been the next step in Branch's innovative career became a tragically beautiful final document that captured an artist cresting a peak. [Oct 2023, p.30]

This is the Slowdive you've been waiting for. [Oct 2023, p18]

She has crooned before, but the freight of intimate emotion here, letting low notes waver within the ferally alive arrangement, is masterful. Ending an album of looking back, this is the new prime of Chrissie Hynde. [Oct 2023, p.22]

It's a warm, modestly confident record with elegant touches, and one that spits out occasional sparks, too. [Sep 2023, p.27]

The album finds the 69-year-old musing on mortality and checking in on his past with poetic articulacy. [Oct 2023, p.37]

It's all great fun and played by a road-hardened band full of vigour. [Oct 2023, p.26]

They're bummed to learn that adulthood breeds more angst than adolescence, which inspires a sharp-edged '70s hard rock, with songs celebrating kink and demanding equal pay and full-body autonomy on "Big Trouble". [Sep 2023, p.23]

Meek and producer Mat Davidson took the band to Sonic Ranch in Texas and gave the record a much more expansive, full-sounding presentation, a resounding and confident tone that matches these optimistic and often unfiltered emotions. [Oct 2023, p.33]

Jump For Joy is a panoramic, magical reverie on the sometimes hard gift of a life in American music. [Sep 2023, p.36]

The extraordinary power and jaded romance of Suede, which has been given renewed depth and sparkle in this new version. [Sep 2023, p.49]

Isakov's most panoramic album. [Oct 2023, p.29]

Suitably laid back and gently psychedelic, unhurried guitars wringing through the breeze, harmonies washed in from The Notorious Bryd Brothers. [Sep 2023, p.32]

The deep-cut-heavy, career-spanning set is manna for the faithful. [Oct 2023, p.48]

This is the most approachable and therefore unexpected Osees album for some years. [Sep 2023, p.32]

"De Selby Part 2" shows he can stylishly bring funk and R&B influences to bear. But most distinctive are the afrobeat touches that lace "damage Gets Done" and "Anything But". [Oct 2023, p.29]

It seems Allison has finally found her voice, on her own terms. [Sep 2023, p.23]

10 songs that glint like shards of glass yet brim with love, grief, courage, existential doubt and all the stuff that makes us human, to a soundtrack of grungy alt.rock cut with torch-song melodrama and Lenker-ish folk. [Sep 2023, p.27]

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

The countrier she keeps it, the better. [Sep 2023, p.43]

Opener "Ocean Mouth" is similarly enticing, as are the crystalline synth hooks of "Don't Believe It Now", as his singular approach to lo-fi dance pop continues to charm. [Sep 2023, p.28]

Variety is this album's strength. [Oct 2023, p.33]

There's a dusty charm to Little Songs, which lacks the gravity of his 2017 self-titled debut but has higher stakes than his albums since then. [Oct 2023, p.37]

In isolation, it’s a dozen of Young’s best songs, powerful no matter how many times they’ve been reshuffled since. But in reality, it risks getting lost in the shotgun spray of Young’s self-curation. [Oct 2023, p.49]

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]

The result sees them maintain high energy levels while showing off a richer musical palette and a keener sense of flow. [Sep 2023, p.31]

An open, compassionate record with a fierce spirit. [Sep 2023, p.33]

"D4N" is a shimmering piece of neo-soul featuring vocals from kindred spirit Sampha. even better are the tracks that dispense with the drums and moves into woozy, beatless territory, using choral harmonies and FX-laden electric pianos. [Sep 2023, p.27]

It's back-to-basics good fun garage rock, and while it's familiar territory it's undeniable that the band know their way around a hook. [Sep 2023, p.28]

If the production lacks the stark immediacy of their finest work, this is still music filled with hooks, abrasion and their signature swagger. Cynthia Sley is in particularly fine voice. [Sep 2023, p.24]

The best tracks gently slip their moorings, as with the sour fuzzed guitar and damaged lyrics of "Got The Fear", and hazy warp and alchemical concerns of the insinuatingly additcive "Green". [Jul 2023, p.33]

Loving You is a poignant last statement, rich with nuance and personality. [Sep 2023, p.34]

It's a calming, beatific experience. [Aug 2023, p.34]

The best bits mash up the retro influences, like the krautrock-meets-Motown collision of the title track, the glam grunge of "The Best Is Yet To come" or the Weller-ish ballad "Scared Of Love". [Sep 2023, p.31]

Epic eight-minute closer "Give Me Your Love" produced by Hot Chip's Al Doyle and Joe Goddard, will keep you dancing until dawn. [Sep 2023, p.27]

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]

The whole album, across a wildly varied and genuinely unique 18 tracks, feels like tuning in to some kind of revolutionary post-apocalyptic radio station. [Sep 2023, p.31]

The purposeful "Fast Asleep" or swirling "Dirtmouth" - featuring labelmate/saxophonist James Brandon Lewis - might loosely suit Parker's Chicago collective too. But "Solanin" with Brandee Younger, boasts a lush Cinematic Orchestra elegance, while Daedalus lends "(If You Don't Leave) The City Will Kill You" an irresistibly propulsive energy. [Sep 2023, p.27]

It's fair to say that Mitchell rarely does the heavy lifting here. Her role onstage is a fluid one: muse-goddess, North Star, shredder, comic foil and sometimes singer. The playing by her fellow artists is stellar and the backing vocals, in particular, ooze class. [Aug 2023, p.22]

The group confidently flits between low-key funk, lush symphonic Philly soul and the more punchy post-Motown dance grooves of Chairman Of The Board, the constant being Rowland's powerfully assured vocal delivery of his mea culpa confessionals. [Aug 2023, p.28]

Throughout all nine songs, Glenn-Copeland's voice seems to exist on the eternal plane, powerful and vulnerable in equal measure, an elder sharing his knowledge in stirring sonic form. [Sep 2023, p.26]

through his efforts to convey a profound experience of loss in a long-gone summer, these songs offer an uncommonly generous wealth of grace and beauty. [Aug 2023, p.32]

Georgia's also able to fuse a few different eras of electro-pop to create songs whose high sheen doesn't impede their intimacy or immediacy. [Sep 2023, p.27]

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]

A confident record that picks up where her recent DJ Kicks set left off. [Sep 2023, p.31]

Love's Holiday still kicks against the pricks, particularly on raging single "Icy White & Crystalline", but the primary themes here seem to be love and loss. [Sep 2023, p.34]

It's more fully formed than his solo work but gathers the same sense of melody and arhythmic quirk on a series of Zappa-esque jazz-infused avant-pop songs, interspersed by the sunshine burst of lo-fi boppers. [Aug 2023, p.29]

Clarke is both perpetuating and recontextualising the music of the mid-20th century. [Sep 2023, p.24]

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]

80 minutes of astonishingly powerful and beautifully preserved music. [Sep 2023, p.43]

These nostalgic confessionals stray into navel-gazing at times, but in a way that feels authentically adolescent. [Sep 2023, p.34]

Singing in Spanish in a deep baritone over the ringing tones of his tres guitar, the Cuban rhythms sway as enticingly as you'd want. [Aug 2023, p.36]

Delivers intimately detailed tales set to hushed arrangements. [Sep 2023, p.37]

A hugely enjoyable, idiosyncratic ride. [Sep 2023, p.37]

POTR's most playful outing, Stick And Stones comes off like a bracing exhalation of post-pandemic relief. [Sep 2023, p.32]

Spanning just 32 minutes, The Art Of Pleasure feels slight and light. Even so, the warm glow of liberated self-love on sparkly standouts like "Float", "Phenomenal" and "Haute" is infectious. [Sep 2023, p.32]

A sumptuous feast. [Sep 2023, p.24]

Kate NV's urge to pixelate manically - see recent album Wow - is reined in by ex-dirty Projector Deradoorian's cool krautrocking. [Sep 2023, p.24]

90s alt.rock influences proudly displayed. [Sep 2023, p.24]

This is a ceaselessly unpredictable and eclectic record that manages to sound as traditional as it does experimental. [Sep 2023, p.23]

All expertly tied together by Tuttle's rare gift for nuance and colour. [Aug 2023, p.28]

Better than simply a personal or a confessional album, The Ballad of Darren is clever in what it does and doesn't say about its creator's life. [Sep 2023, p.16]

Kempner's lyrics are visceral and specific. [Aug 2023, p.36]

The material here moves in the jazzier vein of Zappa's early '70s LPs. [Aug 2023, p.51]

Great-uh. [Jun 2023, p.31]

An LP that's cluttered, incoherent and frequently quite brilliant. [Jul 2023, p.34]

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

In a single sitting it can tend toward the soporific, but there's unforced sweetness in this groovy drifting off. [Aug 2023, p.34]

Younge and his horn octet create some fine pastiche of Fela Kuti's Egypt 90 band around Allen's beats. [Aug 2023, p.23]

There's a sense these weren't quite good enough for the main event - alternate versions - but even off-cuts "Memory Leak" and "Math Of You" swirl and swoon with a euphoric giddiness that comes with discovering new zones of pleasure. [Aug 2023, p.25]

Just about every song's a banger, but pay particular attention to the jagged metal shredding of "Persuasion Architect"; then contrast with the outstanding country rocker "Twins". [Aug 2023, p.29]

Here are profound expressions of timeless love, nostalgic memories of relationships past, reflections on fulfillment, grief, desire, belonging and habitual non-belonging. [Aug 2023, p.35]

A stunning record. [Aug 2023, p.23]

His songs' unruffled, hushed intimacy is an effective tonic. [Aug 2023, p.26]

The result is consistently thrilling and uncompromising music. [Aug 2023, p.28]

It's this mix of songwriting voices as well as the tight thematic concept of The Dirty South that makes this such a strong LP, and the new songs don't diminish that. [Jul 2023, p.44]

Hark! I Inside the Old Year Dying is a singular thing. [Aug 2023, p.18]

Each song plays like a breath exhaled. Steve Shelley's production, too, is wonderfully sympathetic. [May 2023, p.36]

Ayers duets with Simonon in Spanish and English on a set of quirky compositions oozing the kind of playful charm her dad was so known for. [Jun 2023, p.29]

Entirely irresistible. [Aug 2023, p.33]

The more menacing "Fuzzbuster #09" could almost be an interlude on Sonic Youth's Confusion Is Sex. A few other discoveries are equally astonishing. [Jul 2023, p.48]

A fine album that suggests more pleasure to come. [Jul 2023, p.23]