A better-than-respectable restatement of many of their original virtues, the primary being the flair for sunny, Hollies-like melodicism. [Apr 2022, p.25]

Instrumental understatement and forlorn romanticism define The Jacket. [Apr 2022, p.36]

This is Raum's greatest gift—it's not just a trip to the past but a truly worthy addition to one of the most important but overwhelming catalogues in electronic music. [Apr 2022, p.35]

It's entirely fantastical stuff. [Apr 2022, p.32]

It's a tart set but not a sour one - concerns are laid bare and life lessons shared, with whip-smart confidence. [Apr 2022, p.25]

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

Alex Cameron returns to the more overtly acerbic studies in modern male toxicity that established the Australian singer-songwriter as a suave provocateur. [Apr 2022, p.25]

Classic Objects is, on its face, Jenny Hval's most straightforward work: her songs flirt with conventional verse-chorus structure, her lyrics are clear nd direct, drawn from life. Closer listening, though, reveals Hval interrogating those experiences. [Apr 2022, p.29]

Old-school techno beats dominate as Flür cuts a dance-pop swathe through his own history and back. [Apr 2022, p.26]

There's no revolutionary do-over taking place here, just solid, reliable indie rock from a songwriter who knocks it out with what's bordering on flippant ease. [Apr 2022, p.28]

The whole work glides in one long, soft landing. [Apr 2022, p.35]

Her supple voice is a thing of understated beauty, bonded to tales of emotional attachment and release in a way that suggests full closure is still a little way off. [Apr 2022, p.28]

More inward-looking than her conceptual debut, its emotive lyrics lending themselves to a more tightly focused musical palette. [Apr 2022, p.36]

A lively, impassioned record that proudly eschews convention and celebrates its outsider roots. [Apr 2022, p.31]

It is quite simply stunning. [Apr 2022, p.30]

He roams a palette of solo guitar modes, from Sonic Youth-y harmonics, through melodic lines, all slight but identifiable his own. [Mar 2022, p.32]

The arrangements - as ever - are more Les Misérables than Les Cousins, but her voice and her writing have lost non e of their chandelier sparkle. [Apr 2022, p.26]

Another stunning album. [Mar 2022, p.29]

Here, informed by the BLM movement, the lyrics on his third Black Radio LP are often mournful. ... Sometimes the mournfulness is sublime. [Apr 2022, p.32]

As stylishly coherent as it is surprising. [Mar 2022, p.26]

That unsubtle drive for huge hooks can sometimes be a bit exhausting, but tracks like "New Age Millennial Magic", the groovy "Feel The Change!" and "Demolition Song" come so loaded with good vibes it's hard not to smile. [Mar 2022, p.25]

The graceful arrangements of Owen Pallett and the pristine production of Mark Lawson, both best known for their Arcade Fire connections, ensure that the results are lovely, while the gorgeous purity of Bulat's voice glides elegantly above it all. [Mar 2022, p.25]

Subtle this isn't, but ironically, for a band once compared endlessly to Interpol and Editors and their Joy Division-inspired brooding indie, White Lies Have probably shown more versatility and evolution than either on their latest. [Apr 2022, p.36]

Feeding The Machine operates in a bold and unorthodox way. [Apr 2022, p.34]

"Don't Worry 'Bout What I Do" get quite heavy-metally, while James takes tracks like the wah-wah-infused "This Is Who I Is" in a distinctly Hendrix-inspired direction. [Apr 2022, p.29]

It's often mournful in tone, dwelling on loss and abandonment. But Bevan infuses his music with a glowing warmth, these tunes framed like prayers for happier times ahead. [Apr 2022, p.25]

Even if it doesn't push the needle for Ono in terms of broader cultural awareness, it reinforces the crucial idea that those who know, know. [Apr 2022, p.24]

An altogether less whimsical - and much more Pearl Jam-esque - undertaking than 2011's Ukulele Songs. [Apr 2022, p.36]

The follow-up, recorded in isolation during lockdown, has a mellower, be-thankful-for-what-we've-got vibe. [Apr 2022, p.35]

It's a lovely listen, unassuming as ever. [Apr 2022, p.32]

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]

Four albums in, feels like Marr is finally settled into the business of a solo career. [Mar 2022, p.31]

Sasami's aim is clear: she forces you to pay attention. [Mar 2022, p.35]

Sa Cities puts more weight on mood than on song, though, which means Shapiro, always an elusive singer, sometimes gets lost among all the synths. [Mar 2022, p.35]

A record that is heavy on textures and atmospherics. [Mar 2022, p.36]

The finest moment is the moving wartime ballad, "No Man's Land." [Mar 2022, p.35]

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

Modestly presented, then, but as skillfully turned as ever. [Mar 2022, p.31]

Trupa Trupa's sixth album favours often lovely, mysterious ritualistic sounds. [Mar 2022, p.36]

Terrific collection. [Mar 2022, p.49]

Without sacrificing urgency, outrage or compassion, Alynda Lee Segarra gives these story-songs a light touch musically, favouring airy, even breezy arrangements driven by insistent drumbeats. [Mar 2022, p.31]

Rae’s measured, river-clear voice is a thing to behold too, buoyed by piano, organ, pedal steel and unobtrusive guitar. It’s the kind of record that recalls the muted grandeur of Bobbie Gentry or Judee Sill.

A wonderous, modernist mix of LiLiPUT, Husker Du and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. [Mar 2022, p.28]

Once Twice Melody's greatness lies not in its hugeness - it's in the duo's ability to create music that possesses the same intimacy regardless of its scope. [Mar 2022, p.33]

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]

Layered with folklore and mysticism, lustrous synthesiser textures and twangy surf-punk guitars, the band's third album maps an expansive musical cosmos. [Mar 2022, p.26]

An album of soaring pastoral symphonies, grand emotional vistas, knowing nostalgia and surreal wordplay. [Mar 2022, p.35]

If a few concessions are made to mainstream mores here, it still works on its own idiosyncratic terms. [Mar 2022, p.25]

The bleak but beautiful moments here represent a suave, dignified coda for an artist whose work never quite got the hugs it deserved. [Mar 2022, p.31]

Spoon display their signature style, precision and immediacy in real time, locked together through 10 taut tracks. [Mar 2022, p.36]

It's familiar territory but there's plenty to enjoy being pummelled by here. [Mar 2022, p.23]

Instantly satisfying, but its charms and mysteries will resound for years. [Mar 2022, p.25]

This is good-time instrumental party music that mixes Turkish Psych, South American cumbia, surf-rock and reggae, sometimes with the poise of Khruangbin but more often with the tequila swagger of a Tarantino caper. [Mar 2022, p.31]

There's a relentlessly macabre tension and ultimately savage catharsis to these six songs. [Mar 2022, p.36]

For him a song is no older than the last time it was sung. His fifth album, Good And Green Again is his most thoughtful, his most eloquent, and his most poignant explication of this idea. [Feb 2022]

Delicious desolation. [Mar 2022, p.23]

As with all of Le Bon's projects, the claustrophobic, wonderfully awkward whole is very much her own. [Mar 2022, p.31]

Ants From Up There is often beautiful, but its not an album you can listen to casually. Its relentless emotional pummelling is quite an experience, a rollercoaster ride for the soul that is likely to leave you feeling distinctly and permanently rearranged. [Mar 2022, p.18]

The songs, reworked with producer Patrick Hyland over a three-year period, shapeshift in time to the lyrics. [Mar 2022, p.32]

Yes, they're really that good. [Feb 2022, p.37]

The passion of a precarious life lived by a gospel of poetry and rock’n’roll is, though, undimmed, in music of acoustic intimacy, helped by Kieran Hebden’s spectral guitars and the Webb Sisters’ choral harmonies. [Feb 2022, p.29]

It’s always going to be tough to unequivocally celebrate your hometown when the everyday reality is poverty and disenfranchisement. But as Sadam says, Imarhan’s music aims to bring those issues to wider attention while simultaneously representing the richness of their culture – a feat that Aboogi pulls off with passion, skill and no little style. [Feb 2022, p.30]

It's a cryptic approach, to say the least. [Mar 2022, p.31]

Made for uncertain times, Optimism is funny, clever and elegant, but it’s not a record that seeks approval or constructs a tidy narrative.

Bloodlines and geography figure into every NMAs album, but on Set Sail, Luther and Cody Dickinson make family and setting the conjoined theme. [Mar 2022, p.32]

Songs such as "Don't Want Move" and "Making The Most of It" compellingly frame the narrative, while "First Drum Set" and "Teenage Sequencer" joyously chronicle his escape route out of the alienation. [Mar 2022, p.35]

Amid all this weirdness, the sleek disco banger "The last Dance" stands out like a beacon in a cave, lighting the way towards a more sustainable reinvention. [Feb 2022, p.34]

Mayall enthusiastically opens the door to funk and soul elements. [Feb 2022, p.32]

Sonically, the album has a muted palette, an approach that suits the colourised introversion of Mitchell's writing. even so, there are occasional flashes of illumination. [Mar 2022, p.24]

While her new, synth-led turn can feel a little awkward - the keyboards on "Guardian Angel" overwhelm the tenderness of the song - there are moments, such as the sparks of synth noise on "Hum Menina", that fire her folk songs into another dimension. [Mar 2022, p.28]

While tracks like "Cherokee" take a gently pulsing and melodic groove and expand it into something quietly euphoric, before dipping happily back into quieter, odder moments. [Mar 2022, p.25]

Cobb gives them his distinctively sweltering Southern soul treatment - drenching "In The Garden" with humid electric piano, reimagining "Are You Washed In The Blood?" as the Allman Brothers might have played it. [Mar 2022, p.26]

Extreme Witchcraft snaps and snarls more than usual, but wit, tunes and third-degree self-awareness continue to serve the post-grunge Randy Newman well. [Feb 2022, p.28]

Nothing about their sixth album sounds like business as usual. Refreshed by time spent independently exploring their own musical interests (Ansell electronica and production work; Carter an Americana-inspired solo album) and inspired by true crime documentaries and podcasts, the duo sought to explore the darker side of the human psyche, leaning into haunted house synth lines and gothic horror bass. [Feb 2022, p.25]

Her solo works have generally furnished her extraordinary voice with more obviously congruent vehicles, and Age Of Apathy is no exception. [Feb 2022, p.34]

Wilds will continue to content those eager to brandish their knowledge of Ennio Morricone, Os Mutantes or Jacques Dutronc, but it nonetheless cries out for attention from those looking for more primal, immediate pleasures: beauty, bliss and release. [Feb 2022, p.24]

Pulverising noise is not entirely absent – the sludgy riffs of “The Fallen” growl ominously – but they are largely replaced with more atmospheric explorations, Wata’s gentle vocals and tracks that slow and quieten down to reveal a tender exploration of texture. [Feb 2022, p.26]

The deviations from the general upbeat mood vary - "Louder" is a clunky if well-meaning protest song, but the melancholy piano-led ballad "Marvelous To Me" is a thing of downbeat beauty. [Mar 2022, p.32]

Too often, though, good-not-great tunes can't quite make up for generic song structures and performances that seem to have lost a certain charismatic shine during the downsizing operation. [Feb 2022, p.37]

Kane has now made what he has called a "grand, souly album". And at times his bold move pays off. [Feb 2022, p.31]

From the electrifying first few minutes of Things Are Great, it's evident that Bridwell is revitalised. [Feb 2022, p.25]

While this second album adds a layer or two of extra accompaniment, the emotional core remains a formidably magnetic force. [Mar 2022, p.26]

A debut album bursting with character. [Feb 2022, p.37]

It feels slightly too long but there's much to like. [Mar 2022, p.36]

This is a lovely addition to an organic, forest-themed catalogue that works on the macro and micro levels. [Mar 2022, p.29]

The Boy Named if is a thunderous, furious reconnection with the more splenetic chapters of his catalogue - though if there's a difference between this and Blood 7 chocolate or This Year's Model, it's that Costello here sounds like he's thoroughly enjoying himself. [Mar 2022, p.26]

He may have worked alone, but in doing so he has created an entire sonic world, a welcoming garden for all to tread. [Mar 2022, p.37]

The 24-track album is a considered work, avoiding the trappings and tropes of string-heavy bombast and cheap urgency, instead allowing woodwind, strings and ambient textures to coalesce and build slowly. [Feb 2022, p.25]

The potency of Adams' guitar-playing is familiar enough, but he also emerges for the first time s a fine singer, with a deep nd bluesy growl which bears the influence of his years backing Plant. [Dec 2021, p.23]

At under 34 minutes, it necessarily swerves dense improv passages, instead highlighting the nimble, airy interplay of multiple guitars. [Feb 2022, p.29]

It's taut urban blues business as usual. [Dec 2021, p.26]

Where the haunted vocals and atmospheric production remain, it's in service of something bolder, more dynamic. [Jan 2022, p.22]

The project's success can be measured by the extent to which the tunes have been transformed. [Jan 2022, p.21]

Fragments could have been made any time in the last 25 [years], yet the down-tempo warmth, tasteful orchestrations and immaculate production are still a winning combination. [Feb 2022, p.26]

There is a dreamy, unconscious quality to the way Marshall inhabits a song. The covers sessions were big on spontaneity. [Feb 2022, p.22]

Boland’s previous releases (stretching back over 20 years) have only hinted at such levels of ambition, but The Light Saw Me is expertly realised, as playful as it is metaphysical.

Good vibes are much in abundance. [Dec 2021, p.31]

This is a thoughtful, empathetic showcase of his interests, of intense feelings translated into a dreamy sonic atmosphere. It’s an album that meets the world in its moment, where global issues and far-flung international voices are more amplified and connected than ever.