It's a rich ensemble sound, full and complex, but not overly dense. [Feb 2021, p.30]

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

On older Bartx compositions "Uhuru Sasa" and "Dr Follows Dance" they sound like a Herbie Hancock-less Headhunters; while "The Stank" is a jaunty boogaloo. [Jul 2020, p.27]

Certainly a claustrophobic listen, and not for the faint-hearted. [Feb 2021, p.25]

The prevailing mood is one of stately elegance but there are flashes of wit, too. [Jun 2021, p.25]

Marten’s stripped-back early work drew comparisons to Lucy Rose and Nick Drake, and while her voice is as gentle as ever, a wider sonic palette adds both brightness and depth. [Jul 2021, p.31]

At 68, Hiatt is producing some of the best work of his career, mapping his inner life with an eloquence that most can only aspire to. [Jun 2021, p.24]

I Be Trying sounds as stark and untamed as a field recording, belying the perfectionism with which it was made. [Aug 2021, p.24]

“Concrete Tunnels” and “Hari” communicate the cold isolationism of deep space. But deeper in, the album deftly channels the film’s themes of memory and consciousness, with “In Love With A Ghost” achieving a kind of terrible beauty. [Aug 2021, p.29]

Carnegie Hall has its own distinctive vibe, with the songwriter coming to terms in real time with his burgeoning, sometimes over-enthusiastic fanbase. [Nov 2021, p.49]

With each track the listener sinks deeper into their world, and though the punchier rap numbers like "B£E" cut through, these scruffily celestial miniatures add up to present a compelling picture. [Dec 2021, p.33]

On this generous and kaleidoscopic soul album, Harding holds nothing back. [Dec 2021, p.30]

You Get It All shows no dip in quality. [Nov 2021, p.26]

This is chamber music taken into a different dimension. [Jan 2022, p.30]

The Sea Drift owes something to the classic sounds of Kristofferson, Gentry, Chips Moman/Dan Penn and Glen Campbell, but there’s no throwback nostalgia here. The Delines’ way with romance is all their own, and for 41 sweet, orchestral minutes, time is somehow suspended while we watch with our ears. [Mar 2022, p.34]

Flicker is never derivative or predictable, with Bell using these influences to craft often beautiful songs, from the groove of "riverside" to the lovely strum of the Simon And Garfunkel-influenced "lifeline" or the springy disco-beat of "Sidewinder." [Apr 2022, p.32]

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 thoughtful A Beautiful Time finds Nelson in remarkable voice, giving thanks for a life well-lived over songs that feel wise and wily without being overly sentimental. [May 2022, p.30]

The album never becomes a dry documentary, though, because the music adopts the station’s spirit of dissent and subversion. [Jun 2022, p.31]

While the tempo and patterns vary, with “I” featuring Christer Bothén on the six-string donso n’goni, the vibe is pleasingly uniform, with a boundless feel akin to Neu!’s “Hallogallo”. [Jun 2022, p.23]

Les Racines is ultimately a full and fierce showcase for Vieux’s own prowess, and his restatement of desert blues. [Jul 2022, p.27]

Purim blends new material with rebooted old favorites here, applying her lush liquid harmonies and dazzling six-octave vocal acrobatics to voluptuous bossa nova reveries. [May 2022, p.32]

"Living Torch I" is gentle and organic, a hypnotic four-note refrain offering some of the spiritual uplift of her organ work. The shorter "Living Torch II" presents something like the same ingredients, but strafes them with electronic attack. [Oct 2022, p.33]

This fully formed debut is incontestable evidence of an important new act. [Sep 2022, p.30]

There’s something about the funky syncopation between the two and their slightly punky sensibility that elevates GA-20 way above so many dreary blues revivalists. [Oct 2022, p.29]

Songs such as the languid “Deeper” and the joyous “Stoned Love” are full of spiritual healing, as self-doubt is replaced by a hard-won inner radiance. [Oct 2022, p.32]

Irresistible. [Dec 2022, p.35]

The band continues to elevate themselves into one of the country's finest pop exports. [Jan 2023, p.23]

Its focus is tighter, its punches more considered. [Dec 2022, p.26]

An album that takes in atmospheric ambient, immersive synth soundscapes and ripples of cosmic electronics that shift from beautifully immersive to hauntingly eerie. [Dec 2022, p.26]

There's no shortage of Hendrix live recordings out there, and while this isn't essential, it's very good recording of a fantastic performance. [Dec 2022, p.44]

Beguiling and really rather wonderful. [Jan 2023, p.21]

Features passionate songs that defy categorisation. [Feb 2023, p.33]

With this devastatingly personal song cycle, Price completes her transformation from retro-country preservationist to anything-goes auteur. [Feb 2023, p.35]

There are moments where this French-Algerian collective truly get deep into "acid house". ... Elsewhere, three decades of Western club culture are put through the prism of North African music. ... Best of all is the galloping afro-house of "Habaytak", featuring the haunting voice of Ghizlane Melih. [Mar 2023, p.23]

Heavy and heady, free jazz shot through with the urgency of spoken word and pleasure of experimentation. [Jun 2023, p.32]

Startling stuff. [Jun 2023, p.29]

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]

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

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]

Infectious. [Aug 2023, p.26]

Ornery eloquence. [Aug 2023, p.34]

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

LeBlanc wears his canyon-rock influences proudly on his sleeve, all high harmonies and chiming guitars, from the yearning "Stranger Things" to the tender "No Promises Broken" and the cathartic closer "The Outside". [Dec 2023, p.33]

The manic, galloping "Susie Mullen" proves Anderson's still got a nose for fun. [Dec 2023, p.31]

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]

Classy Americana with a restless pulse and a passionate heart. [Jan 2024, p.33]

There's justifiable anger, not least "History"'s confrontation with generational trauma, but her potent self-respect is an inspirational as Roots Manuva, to whom the eerie "Marginalized" nods. [Dec 2023, p.27]

The band's sophomore effort feels like more than a photocopy of past indie-pop glories thanks to the surprisingly punchy contributions by bassist Nick Oka and drummer Keith Frerichs and the degree of craft and care evident even in songs as breezy as "When You Find Out". [Jan 2024, p.36]

The songs are rich in both melody and syncopation. [Feb 2024, p.25]

When approached on its own merits, the Dave Cobb-produced Be Right Here is a minor classic of the genre. [Feb 2024, p.27]

A voyage in time and space - exploring the Amazon rainforest and transversing the African Diaspora. [Apr 2024, p.32]

He's one of the few guitarists around who can make a guitar solo an article of faith. [Mar 2024, p.25]

Love In Constant Spectacle, is by some distance her most satisfying album. Full of surprises and tantalisingly familiar, it’s the sound of Weaver stretching out and drawing from her wealth of experience to fashion a heartfelt, head-spinning account of grief and solace. [Apr 2024, p.28]

Who Will You Believe is the sound of a man who has not only grown into himself, but is finding that, despite dents and losses, he's kind of enjoying life. His trademark country-rock jangle glistens. [Apr 2024, p.39]

Metz's latest combines the Jesus Lizard's Goat-era aggression with PiL's Album-era rigour. [May 2024, p.38]

Their creative freedom is evident again on their final album. [Aug 2024, p.30]

The melodies are uniformly strong, the guitar playing never less than stunning: This is top-quality Thompson. [Jun 2024, p.39]

His ninth album rests on his strengths. His balladeer’s voice is a steadying comfort on “Heavy Rain”, adding subtle Orbison shivers on “I’ll Never Get Over You”. Duane Eddy-like twangs judder through murder ballad “Two For His Heels”, and a guitar solo scorches “Deep Space”. The album’s beating heart, though, is “People”, a supernal acoustic tribute to Sheffield. [Jun 2024, p.33]

The peppy “Setting Sun” recalls the guitar jangle of the band’s early days, but for the most part this is a bold and seductive exploration of symphonic pop that relishes pushing envelopes at will. [Jul 2024, p.31]

Accompanied by a swinging combo in which double bassist Ferg Ireland, pianist Joe Webb and Giacomo Smith on clarinet/sax are outstanding, she captures Vaughan’s depth of expression with perfect control, but proves she’s more than just a talented imitator by authoritatively stamping her own considerable personality on a stark, radical take on “Inner City Blues”, very different from Vaughan’s 1973 version. [Jul 2024, p.38]

The result is her most diverse and audacious album to date. What remains rooted in her jazz origins, though, is her voice. [Jul 2024, p.40]

“Day 2000 Awake”’s warmth, inspired by parenthood, is perfectly poised too, and if “Poor Symmetry” seats her at a piano in Joni Mitchell mood, the pulsing “My Hands In The Water” recalls Kate Bush’s mature, sumptuous pop. [Jul 2024, p.31]

A 3LP set captures Sunday’s entire show, and there’s a shorter ‘best of both nights’ version – which surprisingly, but perhaps thankfully, skips “Country House” – but there’s no questioning the band’s enduring energy and charismatic chemistry, whether emphasising “Under The Westway”’s Bowie fixations or “The Narcissist”’s unforgettable hooks. [Sep 2024, p.29]

Hang In There With Me radiates everything great about Rigby’s trademark Phil Ochs-y folk-punk, and the spectacular “Dylan In Dubuque” is a droll, defiant promise of more where it came from. [Sep 2024, p.39]

Whatever the provenance of these songs, Indoor Safari is marvellous, by any reasonable critical metric a glorious confection. [Sep 2024, p.26]

With Wasser’s careworn voice centre-stage and basic parts recorded live with her simpático band, there’s a new simplicity, swing and airy languor in play on these 12 eloquent, soul-pop songs. [Oct 2024, p.37]

While Jack McNeill’s woodwind accompaniment lends “In The Green Chapel” and “As” a bucolic atmosphere with an edge of ever-present threat. Meanwhile, snatches of Macfarlane’s elegant words add further intrigue to a wonderfully original piece of work. [Oct 2024, p.43]

Seun Kuti leaves no doubt as to who wears the crown on six songs that exude enormous confidence. [Oct 2024, p.37]

Aged 91, Nelson brings gravitas to any lyric, the more world-weary or wistful the better, and these covers fit him like a glove. [Dec 2024, p.36]

Tuttle takes the krautrock flavours even further, with hypnotic Tangerine Dream-ish accents cohering around Michael’s manic melodies. It ends up sounding like nothing else in either Chapman or Tuttle’s respective oeuvres – and there’s where the magic lies. [Sep 2024, p.34]

The album is a fantastic ride along well-travelled spaceways, balancing Ra compositions with an eclectic mix of early 20th-century American music. [Jan 2025, p.30]

It helps that Karen Peris’s voice continues to convey so much warmth and wonder. Likewise, her lyrics captures the tiniest joys of everyday life in modest but very finely crafted songs. [Jan 2025, p.35]

A world of suffering and ribald survival breathes here. [Review of the Year 2024, p.34]

With what Garba Toure terms their Afro-rock'n'roll dialled down, Paul Chandler and the band's co-production deploys their epic cast as distinct elements in ultimately communal music. The studio sounds packed yet with sufficient space for individual contribution. [Feb 2025, p.38]

Just gorgeous. [Jan 2025, p.40]

At other times he falls back on elegantly vintage-clad pastichery, but then the stomping baroque pop duet of "I Gotta Limit" and the sun-dappled wistfulness of "To Live For What Once Was" prick up our ears once again. [Jan 2025, p.31]

Weirdest of all is "Don't Forget Jayne", where JBL freaks out over a wonderfully odd fusion of Taylor's disjointed samba drumming and Wener's smooth jazz guitar licks. [Mar 2025, p.34]

Now in his forties, Lakeman may no longer be the great white hope of English folk music - but he's never sounded more compelling. [Feb 2025, p.36]

If "The Liquid Hour" is restless over a longer stretch, its conclusion is nonetheless charming. [Apr 2025, p.39]

Antigone is one of most intelligent, beautiful and entrancing albums you're likely to hear all year. [Apr 2025, p.26]

Against all odds it works, distilling shots of Bowie, Billy Idol and inevitably, Pulp into a surprisingly potent cocktail of list and regret. [May 2025, p.35]

Elemental and beautiful. [Apr 2025, p.31]

Quade's trump card is the way they balance graceful solemnity with little sparks of discontent. [May 2025, p.35]

Eight lively compositions that strike a sometimes uneasy balance between structural rigour and woolier, woozier inclinations. [Jul 2025, p.29]

This LP is accordingly freeform and exultant. [Jul 2025, p.29]

The highlights are "TH", "RL", "KTYWS" and "WAL", which all dig deep into Quincy Jones=style late-70s boogie and disco: a riot of rubbery, pitchwheel-assisted synth basslines, smart horn stabs and Cleo Sol's flirtatious, harmony-laden vocals. [Aug 2025, p.37]

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]

With its scratch groove and percussive shuffle, "Back At The Start" is about as busy as they get, but it's a masterclass in the persuasive power of less is more. .... For the most part, Crown Of Roses succeeds via its concentrated hush, a rootless simmer that suggests the imminent arrival of a full storm. [Sep 2025, p.32]

There are a few dated misfires here, but overall, All The Young Droids is a warm-hearted, playful and sporadically dazzling tribute to the futurist dreams of yesteryear. [Jul 2025, p48]

So Long... is deeply rooted in west Coast sunset pop, more Fleetwood Mac than Del McCoury, although her guitar picking is always precise, imaginative, and, on "The Highway Knows", utterly joyful. [Oct 2025, p.35]

That it all hangs together so seamlessly is testament to his inherent charm. There's a warmth and looseness to these songs that feels deeply convivial. [Oct 2025, p.28]

Perhaps the richest and most varied of the trilogy. [Sep 2025, p.29]

It's a chronological trip, serving as a scrapbook of memories for Gedge himself, borne out by his lively track-by-track annotation. [Nov 2025, p.51]

Often sounds like a man having his most wretched suspicions of the human conditions confirmed, especially on the self-explanatory " The Body Keep The Score" and "I Keep On Coming Back For More". However, his signature bleary wit remains radiant, especially on "Rita Wrote A Letter". [Review of the Year 2025, p.26]

A most welcome return. [Dec 2025, p.31]

While Workin' Man also marks the final studio contributions of Nelson's pianist sister Bobbie and drummer Paul English, the mood is very much celebratory. [Review of the Year 2025, p.27]