bdrmm have expanded their sound, retaining that youthful energy and combining it with ambition and impressive marshalling of dynamics that creates a strangely serene album. [Aug 2023, p.25]

On Chaos For The Fly, Chatten is able to chase down a succession of personal demons, while broadening his emotional, musical and vocal range. [Aug 2023, p.24]

There's little on her 16th album to suggest it's anything other than business as usual. [Jul 2023, p.36]

He too, has become more of what he always was. And somehow he's achieved that by paring his music down t its rawest essence. [Jul 2023, p.26]

The set offers power-pop gems like "Darlin'", a prospective Strokes classic in "818", and the closing surprise "Alright Tomorrow" a disco burner sung by actress/vocalist Rainsford. [Jul 2023, p.27]

Ornery eloquence. [Aug 2023, p.34]

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

Demonstrates that PSB are without peer as exponents of the pop single. [Aug 2023, p.50]

If Segovia had gone electric, one could imagine the results might have sounded something like this. [Aug 2023, p.34]

Pure musical alchemy. [Aug 2023, p.29]

Amiably gentle but uplifting follow-up. [Aug 2023, p.25]

Their sixth sees the band hitting a peak of airy, classic modernism, marked by elegant polyphony, smart dynamics and Kate Stables' thoughtful lyrics. [Aug 2023, p.38]

Setting out their stall with mannered glitch-pop and sardonic art-rock, both usually entangled. [Aug 2023, p.38]

Margaret's melodies are often submerged, but her approach is not entirely ambient. [Aug 2023, p.34]

The drama can recall Florence + The Machine more than their dream-pop origins, but the mood - lacerating self-doubt becoming decay-defying euphoria - is Lanterns On The Lake's own. [Aug 2023, p.33]

It takes up where 2019's Infest The Rats' Nest left off, though was pieced together from improv jams. [Aug 2023, p.33]

A potent, heavy distillation of everything the group have done. [Aug 2023, p.30]

The Foos album closest to Nirvana. [Aug 2023, p.29]

Infectious. [Aug 2023, p.26]

Hardly groundbreaking, but bursting with charm. [Aug 2023, p.26]

The songs' sense of drive and drama demonstrates RVG's growing confidence. [Jul 2023, p.33]

What sometimes seems like attrition - "Paradise Is Mine's" relentless hammering, "Ebbing's" pounding 11 minutes - can, nevertheless, deliver ritualistic euphoria. [Jul 2023, p.34]

LaVette remains at the peak of her considerable powers at the age of 77. [Jul 2023, p.37]

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

As autobiographies go, it's fairly oblique but no less intriguing for it. [Jul 2023, p.36]

While the length of the album is a little exhausting, there's no denying that this is the band's most accomplished and ambitious record to date. [Jul 2023, p.27]

The LP plays like the soundtrack to a pedal-to-the-metal road trip between Willaimson's LA base and her native Texas, desert air whipping through the open windows. [Jul 2023, p.36]

That Jarak Qaribak manages to combine that respect - for the songs, the singers and their various cultures - with a free-flowing, light sense of exploration that feels joyfully current, is its triumph. [Jul 2023, p.31]

Highlights include the distinctly Davis-ish "Apples And Oranges", the spectral soul of "Giddy Up", and the country trundle of "A Puppy & A truck". [Jul 2023, p.30]

Supremely satisfying comeback album. [Jul 2023, p.36]

O Monolith channels the shapeshifting patterns of Steve Reich and late-period Radiohead to fashion a kind of lush English pastoral that seethes and shimmers at every turn. [Jul 2023, p.34]

The Lemonheads' sixth album is looser and shaggier than its predecessor; his purpose beginning to waver, though essentially Dando is continually saved nu his songwriting gifts. [Jun 2023, p.47]

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

Weathervanes is another imperious demonstration of Isbell's signature ability to simultaneously project confidence and vulnerability, both musically and lyrically. [Jul 2023, p.32]

It's indie rock like Mum used to make, and comfortingly invigorating as such. [Jul 2023, p.23]

Following the pattern of 2020's Ultimate Success Today, this is more expansive and less claustrophobic than previous Protomartyr releases, but no less intense. [Jul 2023, p.33]

Here “When I Paint My Masterpiece” has a lovely jug-band lurch, “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” loses its country lilt but sounds as if was always destined to be mated with the taut riff from Roy Head’s “Treat Her Right”, and “Queen Jane Approximately”, hung against a latticework of accordion and finger-picked guitars, is almost unbearably tender. [Aug 2023, p.46]

Every moment shimmers with atmosphere, as the rippling melodies and contoured choruses enclose Payseur's knotty ruminations in sun-dappled serenity. [Jul 2023, p.23]

A vibrant record that is a self-deprecating yet poignant reflection on a complicated and chaotic upbringing. [Jul 2023, p.27]

He puts a uniquely Rufus twist on the likes of "Shenandoah" and "Wild Mountain Thyme" of course, singing them in his best operatic tenor with a touch of John Jacob Niles. [Jul 2023, p.36]

Some of the group's most personal work. [Jul 2023, p.24]

Reaffirming his faith in rock as transformative thrill, and adding atmospheric detours recalling late-period Weller and Bowie. [Jul 2023, p.27]

Stills is dynamic vocally and instrumentally throughout, but the underutilised talent pool makes this document of what was incongruously dubbed The Memphis Horns Tour and odd curio that exemplifies the wigged-out extravagance of the era. [Jun 2023, p.49]

Deeply hermetic then, but catchy as hell, too. [Jul 2023, p.34]

Although the record is unlikely to convert any sceptics, the presence of wide-eyed improviser Alex Ward gives Thomas the perfect foil. [Jul 2023, p.33]

This album proves that Collins – if she so wishes – still has more to give. [Jun 2023, p.18]

While there's a groovy sweetness at work in "Clutch Pearlers", and "Bully" is anything but - a woozy, neon-pastel comforter with a head-nodding pulse. [Jun 2023, p.25]

She threads Lou Reed's vocal rhythm over the band's brisk skank on "Hangin' Round", while "Song To The Siren" and "The Man Who Sold The World" slip with similar ease into reggae mode. [Jul 2023, p.24]

Thrillingly pioneers its 21st century sound. [Jun 2023, p.26]

This middle ground between jazz and hip-hop is the crux of the record, ad while it's loaded with deft playing, rich production and complex compositions, the constant rotation of differing voices can often kill the flow and coherence of what is otherwise a meticulously crafted record. [Jul 2023, p.33]

Eyes may be on the US market, but the honesty of Parks' expression holds. [Jul 2023, p.33]

As always they are best when singing of brief encounters and regret. [Jun 2023, p.36]

In making work that continues to challenge oppressive systems and relay his tender feelings, it’s clear Nash is very much alive in the now. [Jun 2023, p.22]

Villagers' sleeve is telling: a pile of disparate old junk that somehow sites together as a piece. The remarkable thing is that this album achieves that so spectacularly. [Jul 2023, p.16]

Joan Of All rarely feels ordinary. ... As a whole, this is a work of strength and variety. [Jun 2023, p.24]

Her debut full-length retains the intimacy of those bedroom recordings [on Soundcloud] while making good on their promise, with cleaner melodies and production texture pulled from the pop, hip-hop and indie music. [Jun 2023, p.31]

An album heavy on moody atmospheres and dese riffs. ... There's also pleasing variety to this immersive and enveloping debut. [Jun 2023, p.36]

Playful wordplay and minor-chord ingenuity bound. [Jun 2023, p.23]

Lanois, along with other western guests, fits organically into Tinariwen's desert blues. The collaborations help even the most furious lyrics slip down nicely. [Jun 2023, p.30]

As much as the likes of "Injury Detail" and "Peach Fuzz" evoke Clock DVA and early Psychic TV at their most unnerving, the group nevertheless achieve a grimy grandeur that feels modern, too. [Jun 2023, p.32]

It would be a magnificent way to end a magnificent career, but Simon probably has more ideas in him. [Jul 2023, p.20]

The songs tap '80s electronic pop, art-house soundtracks of the same era, psych-prog ad house and constitute a compelling set-piece. [Jun 2023, p.32]

Lahey excels at crafting chewy pieces of bubblegum-punk whose exuberance and smarts are often matched by their emotional potency. [Jun 2023, p.32]

At 15 tracks it rather drags its anchor, but there's much promise here. [Jul 2023, p.23]

Even without the backstory or an understanding of how difficult this record was to make, …Frankenstein is a skilful portrait of what it means to feel disconnected from the joy and urgency of life.

Airy melodies and Rachael's breathy vocals combine to create music that gets under the skin. [Jul 2023, p.24]

Her vulnerability is more affecting on the wistful break-up anthem "Losing", before "Younger & Dumber" closes the set with a pedal steel-laced paean to the woman she used to be. [Jul 2023, p.24]

Though these tracks are fluid and often meandering, they never lose their immersive, pulse-like groove. [Jul 2023, p.24]

Their angsty post-rock elements have been largely superseded by quivering/rousing chamber pop reminiscent of early Arcade fire and Florence + The Machine, yet a weird emotional intensity remains - along with a talent for self-mythology that inspires audible devotion in an excitable crowd. [Jul 2023, p.23]

There are star turns from figures like the veteran tenor saxophonist Ari Brown. But this is a collective, community affair - never more so than on "Stigmergy", which sees multiple instruments feeding into a single, glowing master melody. [Jul 2023, p.30]

Finger-poppin' fantastic. [Jul 2023, p.36]

There's a lot to like, and though "Pilot Was A Dancer" runs close to standard, indie folk-pop fare, the title track, with its Fairport-ish twangling and braided harmonies, and the wintery, Croz-styed "Give" compensate. [Jul 2023, p.36]

The bewitching tone varies from languid to experimental. [Jun 2023, p.35]

The smoky drawl and casual phrasing of her vocal often seems to channel Billie Holiday. [Jun 2023, p.31]

She relies on relatively conservative house music tropes sometimes, but the hooks never fail to cut through. [Jun 2023, p.29]

It's sunny and optimistic and mostly dynamic (sans a few sleepy, repetitive moments on the six-minute-plus tracks). [May 2023, p.35]

Nelson remains the supreme interpreter of American song, and age has wearied his fretboard fingers not even slightly. [May 2023, p.32]

They're both incredibly deft players, executing taut riffs with obvious charisma. [May 2023, p.35]

Jean plays a mean guitar and the trademark rockabilly romps of "fate" and "trouble", or heavier numbers such as "Godmother", are perfectly fine. ... The wild, carnivalesque cover of Enya's "orinico Flow" - a novelty but a thoroughly enjoyable one. [Jun 2023, p.31]

At 72 years of age, Crowell remains both a vital link to Van Zandt's classic sensibility and an enduring force whose vitality shows few signs of waning. [Jun 2023, p.28]

Confirm that the brothers have fully absorbed their influences in a work of stunning sophistication. [Jun 2023, p.32]

The concept is implicit in the music's gospel-soul communion, the lyrics' yearning and reckoning, and the rousing, towering power of Jones' purposively nostalgic soul vocal. [Jun 2023, p.31]

The band's creativity, imagination and power remain undimmed. [Jun 2023, p.29]

Ultimately, too much easy-listening stoner-tronica makes Prism yet another pleasant but inessential late-career Orb album. [Jun 2023, p.35]

It's the more emotional moments which prove The Damned's undimmed commitment. [May 2023, p.28]

Self-imposed limitations allow Lawrie to create unusual textures and sounds and force him to be more resourceful in how he deploys them. [Mar 2023, p.36]

Each song is so confident and perfectly formed, unravelling with cascading flurries. Orcutt is so confident and comfortable in his own skin that he has become a maser oif phrasing and economy. [Jun 2023, p.35]

Bullion's smooth, rounded sound burnishes what is a dynamic collection of songs. [Jun 203, p.26]

A set full of dynamic nuance with a filmic scope. [Mar 2023, p.23]

Dreamer is irrefutably dreamy. ... Nonetheless, she strays into other early-to-mid-'90s styles. [Jun 2023, p.31]

The subject matter sits somewhere between Wagner's Götterdämmerung and Led Zep. ... Yet the sounds owes little to either as flute and mandolin lend a folk-rock ambience and John O'Hara's keyboards and Jow Parrish-James' guitar essay '70s prog tropes like they never went away. [Jun 2023, p.31]

The Window Is The Dream is sonically richer than Horn's often sparse 2022 debut, Optimism, but each choice - the temporary Band-esque folk-rock swagger of "The Dream", the way "Old Friend" hovers at the edge of an extended jam that never quite breaks - is in service of, rather than overpowering, the song. [May 2023, p.30]

Alfa Mists addresses a key weakness in so much contemporary jazz - it actually has some decent tunes. He's helped by his guests. ... But Alfa himself (who also raps on a couple of tracks) can also develop a compelling melodic idea. [Jun 2023, p.35]

An elegantly spare showcase for her radiant voice, a tremulous yodel tinged with gospel and country inflections. [May 2023, p.31]

An intimate, ballad-dominated song cycle that melds their vintage and experimental sides. [Jun 2023, p.36]

If it lacks the politicised urgency of previous 21st-century Hunter albums, or much surprise, his faith in a rock'n'roll cause first signed up to in the '50s has its own majesty. [Jun 2023, p.31]

More intimate but still privy to occasional bursts of discordant, unsettling energy. Several tracks are exceptionally brief. [May 2023, p.38]

The music is spectacular, of course. But if you want to know how the deal really went down, you'll still have to go under the counter. [Jun 2023, p.48]