Inside Problems is a rather less meticulous and more spirited band set that examines the questions that keep him awake at night, in ear-snagging songs shot through with ’70s country rock, chamber pop, Balkan and Appalachian folk and Tin Pan Alley eccentricity. [Jul 2022, p.23]

They stew in the rich absurdity of it all, and offer a collection that rings of the band’s tendency toward Southern-gothic neo-noir, but with frequent punctuations of light. [July 2022, p.32]

Raggedly glorious covers of Muddy Waters’ “Mannish Boy” and Bo Diddley’s “Crackin’ Up” rate as major highlights along with the live debut of Tattoo You’s “Worried About You” and a blistering take on “Hot Stuff” that amply demonstrates the liberating effects of the band’s temporary escape from baseball stadiums and hippodromes. [Jul 2022, p.44]

The album is a deeply textural listen, led by Leaneagh’s impressive voice. [Jul 2022, p.31]

Her sixth, co-produced by Jonathan Wilson, executes no radical stylistic swerve but neither are its 10 songs of a single type. Rather, they’re a balancing of country – here are echoes of Tammy, Emmylou and Lee Hazlewood – and torch song (kd lang, Roy Orbison), with the odd flourish of cocktail-lounge melancholy (a la Badalamenti) and classic, MGM-style orchestrations. [Jul 2022, p.28]

There’s a new sense of maturity, even kindness, starting with “More Power”, a song of odd, regretful sentiments, reputedly addressed to Noel and full of family references. ... Songs mostly remain Frankenstein stitch-ups, though: Jeff Lynne’s softly simulated psychon the Threetles’ “Real Love” seems the production template, when not mixed for terrace power, minus tunes. [Jun 2022, p.26]

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]

It’s a little stiff and metronomic in places, working more as a calling card to Hollywood than a standalone album. [Jul 2022, p.31]

Past Life Regression is a perfect distillation of Quever’s aesthetic – 10 hook-filled tracks that bring to mind vintage Paisley Underground excursions, Barrett-era Floyd and jangly C86 moods. [Jul 2022, p.31]

As thrilling as it is unexpected. [Jul 2022, p.30]

Vincent Belorgey’s obsession with buffed-up synths and corny lyrics earnestly sung (“Reborn” by Romuald, “Renegade” by Cautious Clay) does pay off, but the air-tight production and endless cascade of saccharine arpeggios – plus a lovesick Sébastien Tellier pining on “Goodbye” – lays on thick the sentimental shtick. [Jul 2022, p.29]

Feels more like a refreshment, refinement or even fulfilment of Radiohead core principals, rather than an extracurricular dalliance. [Jul 2022, p.24]

Closer "Underdog", a stripped-back self-portrait of a striver still "trying hard [to] leave a mark", provides an intimate coda to Harwood's depiction of his teeming inner world, a hermetically sealed ocean of emotion. [Jul 2022, p.27]

The result, unsurprisingly, is a downbeat, ruminative affair. [Jul 2022, p.31]

An album that feels charged by forward momentum while also embracing the comforting pulse of a locked groove. [Jul 2022, p.31]

A reflection on memory and transience amid which his deadpan drawl is frequently draped in incongruous but effective orchestral splendour, while Finn’s character sketches are as deft as ever. [Jun 2022, p.26]

The 76-year-old virtuoso is at his most poignantly expressive on the album's inward-turned, stripped-back blues ballads. [Jul 2022, p.34]

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]

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]

With This Is A Photograph, he offers the wisest and most assured rendering of the Middle American vision he’s been honing of late, one where Dylan-esque anti-singing narrates impassioned, earnest and earthen tales of family, place, love and heroes, and a crack band shakes the rafters. [Jun 2022, p.32]

A “Time Of The Season”-like Latin groove powers standout “It Ain’t Over”, syncopated by percussionist Sam Bacco, whose tambourine and shakers are the album’s secret sauce. [Jun 2022, p.25]

Taken on their own merits, Royce Hall and Dorothy Chandler are prime examples of Young in early ’71 … but maybe we can move on to other territory now? [Jun 2022, p.43]

This is their best set of songs since the band’s sex-crazed 2004 debut, continuing some of the debt-to-the-’80s feel of 2014’s Get Back on homage-paying tracks like “Nikki Go Sudden” and “Swollen Maps”. [Jun 2022, p.31]

It’s an affirmation of their relationship and personal and creative identities in an(other) electronic-soul set with muted beats and a meditative, rather than impassioned bent, though no less righteous for that. [Jun 2022, p.29]

It’s a unique performance, with a wealth of rarely played material. ... The Bottom Line bootleg was the kind of listening experience that turned casual fans into obsessives. Now remastered and officially part of Neil’s ongoing saga, its seductive power remains undimmed. [Jun 2022, p.43]

Dorothy Chandler is the one to get; the 8+-minute “Sugar Mountain”, with numerous spoken-word digressions, is Neil at his most hilariously droll. [Jun 2022, p.43]

We’ve Been Going... is above all an incredible sounding record. Across its 10 tracks, it incorporates the Jupiter synths and saturnine beats of Remind Me Tomorrow and the stark, swooning strum of her early records to create truly a cosmic dynamic range, from the softest whisper to the most desolate scream. [Jun 2022, p.18]

Far from a series of intimidatingly empty spaces, Endless Rooms is more like RBCF’s shared mind palace, a place rich with experiences and emotion in which they’re stretching their creative legs, throwing open door after door and rushing eagerly through, to play. [Jun 2022, p.22]

While these dozen faithfully and fabulously Soft Cell-ish songs do not stint on paranoid foreboding, they are buoyed by an undimmed pop instinct and Almond’s waspish wit. [Apr 2022, p.35]

It all combines to paint a picture of a band entering a distinct new phase. [Jun 2022, p.33]

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

There’s always a risk with these kinds of collaborations – too many cooks, watering down the essence – but that’s largely avoided on Where’s The One?, thanks to the openness and playful spirit of the music. [Jun 2022, p.25]

Leaning lightly into their love of R&B on the likes of “Proof” and “Stevie”, and relaxing into expansive, stoned-in-the-sunshine grooves on pulsing lead single “Champion” and “Like Sweetness”, it’s a perfect goth summer record. [Jun 2022, p.34]

For all the record’s sonic invention, though, its Sangaré’s voice that commands attention, a rich, textured instrument that has only grown more nuanced and subtle with age. [May 2022, p.34]

Arcade Fire have delivered a triumphant restatement of purpose that 2022 probably doesn’t deserve but is brightened by all the same.[Jun 2022, p.35]

LP number nine features meditations on ageing: “Deathbed Of My Dreams” does it in a Nashville style; “Young And Stupid” does it like an early 1970s Eurovision entry. There’s also joyous self-affirmation. ... Best of all are “Prophets On Hold” and “Talk To Me Talk To Me”, AOR masterpieces that should have been on the last Abba album. J[Jun 2022, p.25]

Playful homages to country at its most synthetic and dancefloor-friendly, “Better Than Any Drug” and “Fall In Love Again” bridge the gap that once existed between Madonna and the Mandrell Sisters. [May 2022, p.29]

Woozy psych-folk remains her default setting, but there’s a fresh sense of experimentation at play here. [Jun 2022, p.26]

An eventually rousing album. [Jun 2022, p.34]

The constant is Wilson’s fiery vocal, still powerfully passionate well into her seventies. [May 2022, p.36]

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]

It absolutely stands on its own merits, however, as an album replete with the sinister strangeness and bleary whimsy which has characterised Laibach’s best work. [Jun 2022, p.29]

This Liverpool duo’s debut full-length occupies a brooding space somewhere between Mazzy Star and overlooked early-’90s slowcore heavyweights Idaho. [May 2022, p.29]

Palomino is upbeat, glossy country, tending somewhat towards the generic, but redeemed (as usual) by the rich twang in Lambert’s voice and the waspish humour which frequently enlivens her lyrics. [Jun 2022, p.29]

“Sex Magik” and “If We Get Caught” offer unashamedly lusty visions punctuated by agreeable glimpses of pop glitter. Otherwise, though, waspish, charismatically delivered lyrics are let down by workaday instrumental backing. [Jun 2022, p.25]

Fear Of The Dawn succeeds better when it surprises. [Jun 2022, p.34]

Tomberlin's second long-player seems to semi-consciously urge you to move along – nothing to hear here. Yet it creates its own slow-burning allure on repeated listens. [Jun 2022, p.34]

On her 2019 debut album Keepsake, Harriette Pilbeam, who records as Hatchie, showed an inclination to take her shoegaze-infused pop onto the dancefloor. That’s something continued on Giving The World Away. [Jun 2022, p.28]

It makes for another assured chapter in a celebrated life, a celebrated achievement. [Jun 2022, p.24]

At low volume, the album could serve as dinner music, but crank it up and its hushed intensity will gut you. [Jun 2022, p.25]

An exceptional, disarming collection of mutant electronic music. It’s a dense, disorienting 40 minutes of hyper-punctual edits, very tonally bright and often overwhelming; a sensorial bombardment. [Jun 2022, p.29]

There’s a sweet sadness to the end-of-relationship duet with Dave Gahan on “Stop Speaking”, but while the melancholy romantic meditations of other tracks can also be initially intriguing, the songs then lack the peaks and troughs to keep you from disengaging. [Jun 2022, p.29]

Prochet crafts another bewitching set of songs that weave together strains of vintage Gallic pop and gentle shoegaze with the gnarlier elements. [May 2022, p.30]

Thanks to a glut of albums by introspective piano students, there are elements in these largely reflective pieces that may seem familiar, but James Heather is still capable of subtly defying expectations. [May 2022, p.29]

There are some pretty melodies here, like “Bells”, “Hymn” and “An Intimate Distance”, but there are some tracks where Eno’s melodies are so minimal that they become quite mind-numbingly banal. [May 2022, p.26]

Heartbeat rhythms raise the emotional temperature. Joseph’s theme is abuse, and survival. Her voice coils and swirls in songs that play like maternal nursery rhymes rendered for comfort. [May 2022, p.29]

On “Tangerine” and “Fuzz Jam”, The Lazy Eyes strike an appealing balance between Beachwood Sparks-calibre prettiness and their gnarlier, squigglier impulses. [Apr 2022, p.31]

A record that acts as both a good-humour history lesson and a rousing party-starter for future generations to discover. [May 2022, p.22]

Spencer Gets It Lit is the strongest recorded offering from the rocker since the Blues Explosion’s 2012 album, Meat + Bone.

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]

It’s a fantastic album, containing poppy firecrackers like “Jackie Down The Line” and moments of timeless, mature lament such as “The Couple Across the Way”. [May 2022, p.28]

Far from reining it in on his major label debut, he's stretching out even further. [May 2022, p.36]

A fairly respectable blend of new and reworked older material, deconstructing vintage 1970s tracks like "Mr. Bassie" into airy melodica ripples and sinewy basslines. [May 2022, p.23]

On the feverishly catchy bubblegum punk of tracks like “Talk About It” and “Petals” they sound something like Dolly Parton fronting Blondie ... And, on tracks like “Happy Hour” and “Crossing Lines”, the interplay between twin guitarists Adam Johnstone and Fergus Sinclair is reminiscent of Television, which adds to the CBGBs vibe. [May 2022, p.35]

Joyous cosmic weirdness. [May 2022, p.36]

Add sublime dimensions to James's already impressive canon. [May 2022, p.36]

Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig apply a dance-pop shine to the 10 songs here, an approach that lightens the load of heavy-hearted lyrics rooted in changes and challenges like Wolfe’s recent divorce. [May 2022, p.30]

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

Though the motherlode of unreleased music found on Slanted And Enchanted and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain’s reissues is absent, many of the extra tracks here are worth checking out. ... The rest of this set shows that it’s still a station very much worth stopping at, now more so than ever. [May 2022, p.42]

Fletcher’s and Pursey’s The Catenary Wires offer sweet vocals and dirty guitars on “Wall Of Sound” and Heavenly comrade Peter Momtchiloff jangles in French on Tufthunter’s “Monsier Jadis”, while Secret Shine still pursue shoegaze, Boyracer remain appealingly chaotic, and Sepiasound’s bucolic instrumental “Arcadian” maintains Blueboy’s yearning. [Apr 2022, p.36]

You Belong There is an album rich in moments of beauty and wisdom, even as it confesses that there are no easy answers. [May 2022, p.18]

He sings the gospel with everything pared back to its essence: a flinty guitar tone, that surprisingly recalls the chipped, clanking tones of Pip Proud or Mayo Thompson; a throaty, gorgeous voice; beautiful, soul-informed backing, only when it’s needed. [May 2022, p.24]

The legendary guitarist-turned-frontman leads his mates through supercharged honky-tonk (“Brigitte Bardot”), headbangers (“Cheap Talk”, “External Combustion”) and a ZZ Top-style tailfin rave-up (“Lightning Boogie”).

Smart, sharp and endlessly stimulating. [May 2022, p.36]

Brisk and adrenalised, Wet Leg leaves little room to get bored, and is impressively low on filler for a debut. Even the sketchy minor tracks earn their place here. [May 2022, p.33]

His honeyed, Elliott Smith-esque vocal adds to the lush warmth of spare but forceful arrangements, softening the blows soaked up by his songs’ baffled and blitzed Angelenos. [May 2022, p.29]

Like The Knife's opera about Charles Darwin, The Unfolding tackles the biggest themes in a way that's awed, never overwrought. [May 2022, p.32]

While songs like “Nashville Mess Around” heighten the good-time vibes, Crooked Tree’s often playful manner is balanced by deeper considerations.

The Next 20th Century contains a bunch of songs – “Goodbye Mr Blue”, “We Could Be Strangers”, “Buddy’s Rendezvous” – that go right to the gut with their instant melodic charm, and a bunch more – “Kiss Me (I Loved You)”, “Q4”, “Only A Fool”, “The Next 20th Century” – that are deeply striking a few listens later thanks to their sumptuous arrangements, exceptional playing and emotional pull. [May 2022, p.24]

Huge, head-rushing opener “Happy New Year” and sad banger “Hall Of Mirrors” exemplify the giddy “new” LEG, while the country-folk “Sunday”, powerfully harmonised “Strange Conversations” and Angel Olsen-ish title track are maturations of their earlier sounds. [May 2022, p.30]

His verse is relentlessly positivistic and hippy-ish (“I go forward in the courage of my love”), delivered in a conspiratorial whisper, but the highlight is the backing, which drifts between spiritual jazz, skeletal dub and folksy minimalism, all the time featuring Fairbairn’s quiet, quavering tenor sax improvisations. [May 2022, p.26]

Occasionally it can feel like you’re listening to in-jokes playing on repeat, but good tunes like “Eight Minute Machines” (Sleaford Mods, 1978) and “Twitchin’ In The Kitchen” (“It’s Tricky” repurposed for drug users) emerge from the funky environs with characterful fuzz intact. [May 2022, p.36]

The piano house pop of “Woman” and synth-fuelled trance of “Holiday” could have been released in 1992, but they’re no less likeable for it. They’re shot through with CM’s trademark wry cool, as is “What I Like”, wherein Sugar Bones’ laconic vocal makes a dancefloor anthem sound somehow like The Dandy Warhols gone disco. [May 2022, p.25]

There's a sharper focus this time round. [Apr 2022, p.31]

Williams' charismatic performance, switching between English and Ibibio, keeps the songs grounded in the "rage, hope, soul" she sings about on "Freedom"; the synth, brass and rhythm make them dancefloor bangers regardless. [May 2021, p.29]

Margo's curled-lip rock sneer and urgent folk purity stay sides of the same coolly distanced conviction. [Apr 2022, p.26]

What threads these eight songs together into a true album rather than just a compilation is the idea – the threat, the inevitability – of leaving and being left. Partly that’s due to Auerbach’s judicious curation, but that fear of loss animates almost all of Son House’s music, if not all of the blues in general. ... House conveys as much joy on these songs as he does pain, telling us so many years after his death that we cannot experience one without the other.

His latest is less complex and makes a strong move to the dancefloor, without ditching the intrigue. [Apr 2022, p.26]

Harding goes wherever her voice takes her, and like fellow apostate traditionalist Richard Dawson, she is comfortable picking for shiny scraps of melody on the hard shoulder. As a consequence, these songs command close attention but – like the messy universe around them – do not necessarily beg to be decoded. [Apr 2022, p.18]

There are more weather-beaten back-porch vibes to the pedal steels of “Not The Only One”, and the sublime Jenny Lewis duet “Everybody” sounds like a dream date between Glen Campbell and Dusty Springfield. [Apr 2022, p.25]

It's a high-concept work that also stands on its own, radiating beauty, calm, comfort and energy. [May 2022, p.30]

A record that is intensely visceral, loud and charged yet not needlessly overblown. [May 2022, p.26]

Embellished with hints of country and Southern soul, it belongs to the same school of forlorn pop classicism favoured by Dennis Wilson or Emit Rhodes. [Apr 2022, p.29]

Opens with three tracks that feature his street set-up and have the sparse rawness of Lomax’s 1930s Mississippi Delta recordings. The other eight tracks were recorded in a studio with a full band and bounce and ricochet with the joyous energy of the Bhundu Boys at their most exuberant. [Mar 2022, p.29]

It’s her voice, always expressive and active, that anchors even the wildest experiments, whether it’s the children’s choir at the end of the title track or the ratatat rhythms of “Obligation”. [Apr 202, p.32]

This might have worked better as a single LP, but to ensure the collection doesn’t run out of steam, there are two new tracks: the bouncy “Curious” and retro rocker “Billy Goodbye”. [Apr 2022, p.44]

Island Family examines themes of identity, isolation and belonging against an endlessly inventive backdrop of sweeping electronica, clever samples and weirdy folk, sometimes strangely blissful and at others beat-driven and wakeful. [Apr 2022, p.32]

Wonky charmer of a third album. [Apr 2022, p.31]