Odd--and oddly impressive. [Jul 2014, p.81]

Memories Are Now is built on stacked voices, sparse rhythm and twisted folk shapes, but the execution varies pleasingly. [Mar 2017, p.32]

Whatever reductions Kinawuka and his producers may have made in regards to the music’s breadth, the songs on Small Changes more than compensate for that when it comes to depth. Nor is there anything small about the emotions they contain or the pleasures they evoke. [Review of the Year 2024, p.37]

This is a colorful mix of styles, filled with feedback, mangled solos and manic vocals, and rocking like The Cramps on a good night. [Dec 2011, p.100]

It comes from a place of vulnerability, but speaks the language of strength and self-belief, with enough to share around. [Oct 2024, p.38]

Cunningham and Stewart also know how to write a killer pop melody. [Jul 2020, p.33]

A head-first plunge into the psych-punk muck. [Aug 2012, p.76]

Zauner adds peppier number like "Machinist" and "Road Head" without ever sounding like she's spread too thin. [Aug 2017, p.32]

Seed Of A Seed is simultaneously more confident and more jittery than its predecessor, as though absolute candor was her ultimate musical ambition: the more uncertain she is about something, the more certain she is that she wants to sing about it. [Review of the Year 2024, p.28]

[The album is littered with songs that are grand, detailed and ambitious. [Jun 2025, p.39]

It's the darker numbers in which Jewel's muse gleams brightest. [Sep 2013, p.95]

Fans of Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal will find more than enough reminders of their glory days. [Mar 2022, p.36]

In many ways, it’s everything you could want in a Spiritualized album. [Mar 2022, p.22]

Road-toned chops and anticipation of desert homecoming combine to evince a mighty set. [Jan 2016, p.81]

Theirs is a maniacal mish-mash of seemingly incompatible musical styles--Krautrock, psychedelia, no-wave, prog, synth-pop, '70s stoner rock and punk--wrought from a deeply felt, genre-leaping love of challenge. [Feb 2004, p.80]

Songs, without exception, are well crafted but more often than not collapse into cloying jauntiness. [Dec 2004, p.153]

There are a few stumbles into the synth-pop abyss, but this material feels somehow less galling than examples from Western Europe or the USA, as though the evident excitement in exploring new technology gifts the songs a certain, welcome, naiveté. Even The Forest Hums really kicks into gear when we hit the Kyiv underground of the late ’80s and early ’90s. [Dec 2024, p.52]

"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]

Asha Lorenz's dreamy, deceptively casual vocals soften the sharp edges throughout and help foster an overall coherence even amid Cosplay's outbreaks of giddy chaos. [Dec 2025, p.36]

FLOTUS ranks as one of Lambchop's most confounding to date, an album whose form and content are united in intimate, private purpose, but which may well turn out to be one of their best and most accessible. [Dec 2016, p.18]

Close to monomaniacal in their passions--weed, Satan, vintage British horror--Time To Die nonetheless introduces a gnarly edge to their downturned churn. [Nov 2014, p.73]

It's remarkable that the cosmic Ekstasis--recorded in Holter's home with only five musicians--feels surer of itself than Tragedy, a record rooted in millennnia-old practice. [Apr 2012, p.72]

Martin continues to brew new hybrids of dystopian dub reggae, industrial noise and experimental hip-hop. [Sep 2014, p.70]

At times all this vim can slip into noise. [Jul 2012, p.74]

There's some filler among three hours of material but the instrumentals are staggering, pulsating pieces that breathe life into soul-jazz. [Jul 2015, p.84]

His music is now more about the deep, nuanced dig into established territory than striking out to plant a flag someplace new, plus exploring different contexts for his signature sound through continued collaboration. [Oct 2020, p.30]

She's brought feelings to the surface that previously she may have kept veiled. It feels like a significant breakthrough. [Feb 2023, p.22]

It brings together the many facets of Sudan Archives--religious and sensual, independent and codependent, tender and menacing--in a way that feels very deliberate, particularly when you learn that the final tracklisting was whittled down from around 60 potential songs. [Dec 2019, p.28]

The result is a rich, easy-rolling album that finds King's fingers still nimble and his megaphone voice barely creaking. [Dec 2008, p.100]

It's a thrilling start but, after the breathless thrills of the first six songs, things tail off sharply. Still, it's hard to begrudge them. [Aug 2017, p.37]

Amelia Fletcher and Cathy Rogers' harmonies remain charmingly sweet. [Mar 2026, p.33]

Imaginative, poignant and fundamentally, achingly human. [Feb 2026, p.30]

Nina Nastasia’s contributions to “Iron Bones”’s Enomeets-Yorke somnolence reminds us how Strawberry Hotel, like so much of Underworld’s catalogue, frequently renders the prosaic romantic and the banal consequential. [Dec 2024, p.34]

A mighty feat of reinvention. [Mar 2026, p.36]

Most compelling are the variety of vocals--some spoken, some hollered, some sung in spinetingling harmonies. [Sep 2008, p.98]

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

Atmospheric, good-natured and often very beautiful. [Nov 2025, p.33]

There are many sterling moments to escape from Young's vault--but none seem quite as unguarded as the best ones here. [Jan 2014, p.84]

I've Been Trying to Tell You is immediate and soulful. [Oct 2021, p.26]

They're every bit as gleeful as they are virtuosic. [Jun 2026, p.26]

No other pony does his one trick half as well. [Apr 2016, p.76]

Lights may be bleak, but that only makes the moments of catharsis all the more illuminating. [Dec 2017, p.22]

It’s the work of a focused artist who is consistently attempting to stretch out the parameters of their own ever-expanding sonic world. ... Yet another late-career highlight. [Oct 2022, p.22]

Quietly devastating. [Dec 2002, p.131]

The emotional honesty displayed is equally effecting [as 2018's Warm]. [Jul 2019, p.37]

When The Roses Come Again feels like something impossibly ancient, sent back to us from some distant future. [Dec 2023, p.32]

Despite the obvious threads, songs as good as “Nullspace” and “Soonish” transcend any cynicism, and you’re left bathing in a welcome optimism. [Dec 2024, p.35]

Welcome signs of movement after a lengthy stasis. [Mar 2014, p.80]

Canyons Of My Mind amply confirms the considerable promise Combs has previously displayed. [May 2017, p.26]

Seldom is the personal married to the political in such an enchanting fashion. [Aug 2015, p.75]

An elegant, sculpted electronica that's cerebral of construction but robust enough to beat a dance floor into life. [Jan 2015, p.69]

Cruel Country is the rare album that throws everything that came before it into sharp relief – a small miracle for a band 30 years into its run. [Jul 2022, p.22]

Dig deeper, though, and what we have here is a record more in line with the excellent, vengeful Americana of frontman Michael Gira's latter-day Angels Of Light fare. [Oct 2010, p.106]

[An] utterly wonderful record. [May 2015, p.76]

Their breakneck energy highlights the thrilling strangeness of their structures and textures. [Mar 2017, p.40]

Sometimes the honesty gets close to discomfiting, but it's always compelling. [Mar 2018, p.47]

Magnificent. [Nov 2011, p.84]

There is sleaze here and funeral swing, and sass to spare. [Jun 2009, p.105]

While Food & Liquor struggles with its own contradictions, it does so over scorching beats and with lyrical flair. [Dec 2006, p.113]

The Wolf You Feed slithers through its dark business with reckless abandon and brute force. [Sep 2012, p.85]

An album of tremendous humour and empathy, less a comeback than a considered continuation of an unprecedented career. [Nov 2018, p.22]

Pursues the vibe [heard on 2022's We've Been Going About This All Wrong] further, enjoying a kind of midlife techno-goth glow-up, on tracks "Idiot Box" and the incendiary "Indio" coming on like a female-fronted Future Islands or Pet Benatar joining Curve. [Feb 2025, p.43]

Segarra is skilled at identifying the shifting goalposts that immigrants have to live by, and staring past them. [Apr 2017, p.18]

With strong ensemble backing Escovedo alternates gentle, reflective lullabies with incendiary Mott-styled rockers, to marvellous effect. [Aug 2008, p.93]

There's variety like never before: bludgeoning tech-punk, disco beats and Screamadelica-era Primal Scream eruptions. That it exists is exhausting; that it works is extraordinary. [Nov 2018, p.29]

His guttural, rat-tat flow is raw and unleavened, but it's the way he uses it--in flights of fancy and feats of mischief--that's truly the nub of his appeal. [Dec 2013, p.66]

Richly cinematic and more eclectic than recent efforts. [May 2022, p.25]

Impassioned, sparkling with energy and absurdly bouncy, it's a reminder of everything the North Carolina quartet did well. [Sep 2013, p.95]

Those acquainted with the slow and soulful pace of Griffin's recent work may be surprised by her ability to let rip here. [Dec 2013, p.69]

The septuagenarian reintroduces himself as a lively and supremely compelling singer. [Jun 2017, p.24]

The result is pulsating electronic music that draws from the spontaneity and invention of free jazz. [Apr 2019, p.30]

These blown-out and clanking loops, atmospheric drones and jump-cut textures are more like the product of electronic collage than free-guitar improv, and all the more fascinating for it. [Jun 2020, p.34]

Best is "Sylvia", where Bon Iver's intimacy, Arcade Fire's ambition, Sigur Ros' other-worldly reach and Flaming Lips' psych experimentalism collide. [Dec 2009, p. 98]

Backed by a 15-piece band plus horn section, they delivered a spirited set of classic blues, R&B and gospel that concluded with “The Weight”, which Staples and Helm had first performed together at The Last Waltz in 1976 at the start of their 35-year friendship. [Jun 2022, p.33]

The results are exquisite. [Sep 2019, p.34]

Consolidates the experimentation of 2002's Phrenology and the conscious snap of 1999's Things Fall Apart into a focused, intelligent record. [Oct 2006, p.123]

The repressive weight of the production creates a micro-climate that's compelling to move through. [Feb 2015, p.83]

A remarkable accomplishment. [Jun 2016, p.79]

The music mirrors the persuasive charm of the narrator, hooking you in even as the singer boasts they're a bit of a heel. [Mar 2025, p.38]

Tempest is in many respects the most far-reaching, provocative and transfixing album of Dylan's later career.

At times Sheer Mag are miraculous pop hustlers, still pulling off the most absurd trick shots on the scuffed three yards of stained green baize. Which isn't to say that they're not above a little experiment. [Mar 2024, p.22]

They have the grit and immediacy of demos, but Whole New Mess sounds just as powerful and just as finished as its more polished predecessor, like we're hearing Olsen work through her ache and confusion in real time. [Oct 2020, p.34]

The Party is definitely worth celebrating. [Jun 2016, p.79]

It's a surly, spiky piece of work, on which the few shafts of sweetness are soon soured with guilt, recrimination and reproach. [May 2012, p.66]

Given that their spectrum of nods and references runs from early Warp techno to bluegrass to Trout Mask Replica - horn-heavy freakouts like the full-bore "May Brigade" also demonstrate a kinship with The Comet Is Coming - the focus and coherence of Comradely Objects is even more impressive. [Dec 2022, p.28]

Frequently appealing. [Nov 2005, p.103]

Songs such as "Golden Days" and "No Woman" combine the fragile longing of indie-pop with the superior songwriting smarts of classic early-70s rock, in a way that should reel in fans of Josh Rouse and Liam Hayes. [Jul 2016, p.82]

If the scale is almost beyond comprehension, Love also represents a sonic Da Vinci Code for Beatles trainspotters. [Dec 2006, p.104]

It is often reminiscent of auntie's work, but with a solid beat underpinning. [Nov 2012, p.73]

Bingham embellishes the arrangements with Exile-style female backing vocals and country-skronk raucousness. ... The reflective moments pack a wallop as well. [Mar 2019, p.24]

Timeless, tender and sparse. [Dec 2019, p.35]

Foil Deer is catchy, exhilarating and smart. [May 2015, p.81]

You won't find it hard to reciprocate Open Your Heart's approach. [May 2012, p.79]

You could call it happy hardcore, even if there's nothing particularly upbeat about its content. [Feb 2012, p.83]

Dwyer's unique hiccupping rhythm continues to dominate, ensuring the band are distinctively Osees, but this is the group's most experimental and unusual record for a few years. [Sep 2024, p.37]

These sketches give a sense of how Reed’s songs would be finessed. The less familiar tunes reverse the telescope, throwing the focus on the way Reed bullworked his writing muscles, toying with novelty and genre. ... What these early sketches show is that by combining novelty and song craft with the soul of a poet, Reed could reach higher. [Sep 2022, p.42]

These songs insinuate via a vaguely vintage sound that recall both Jonathan Donahue's spangled dreaminess and the (s)weary brio of Father John Misty. [Apr 2025, p.29]

Generally her pop is as adult as her lyrics. [Feb 2026, p.29]