Unsurprisingly, the comp is most interesting in its lesser-known material found between bigger names. [Aug 2019, p.51]

Britfolk's most adventurous neo-traditionalist takes the surprise quotient to new heights on this conceptual set. [Feb 2020, p.30]

It's a rare thrill to come across a time capsule like Dancing Mogadishu, , particularly when its contents appeals to funk connoisseurs and cultural anthropologists as much as the casual listener. Feb 2020, p.48]

This set traces a downward trajectory toward disco, but every album has its highlights. [Mar 2020, p.47]

Filled to the brim with usual abundance of trademark lyrical zingers, tenacious earworm melodies and stylistic zigzags. [Jun 2020, p.26]

There's a wistful tone to tracks like "Cherry Cola," the folky "I Was Alone" and fine single, "Love Comes In Waves," which attaches an invasive melody to the soft one of surrounding fuzz. [Nov 2020, p.27]

Tim Showalter has channelled his grief after losing loved ones and the agony he endured getting straight into a set of nakedly emotional songs, while producer Kevin Ratterman has erected a reverberant wall of sound to match the scale of his outpourings. [Dec 2021, p.35]

Punk-rock and post-punk templates are smashed as needed by guitarist Mark Bowen and co-producer Kenny Beats. [Dec 2021, p.29]

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

A mood of high seriousness pervades, but Spirit Exit’s blend of spirituality and futurism is often transfixing. [Aug 2022, p.25]

Particularly interesting among the demos (and these really are early sketches) is the entertaining “Out In The Country” (banjos, acoustic guitars, an Eagles vibe), which is taken two radically different ways; seeming to show that the band didn’t just have one route out of the perpetual summer of 1964 and into the introspective, soft-rock 1970s, they had several – this one even involving country rock. [Jan 2023, p.28]

Lyrically, relationships dominate, if unconventionally. ... Her effervescent voice like muted Liz Fraser. [Jun 2023, p.32]

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 charisma, charm, galvanising dynamism and radical positivity of frontman Bobbie, aka Pascal Robinson-Foster, works better on stage than in the studio; even so, his hilarious takedowns of Marx-quoting armchair revolutionaries and Brexitvoting Top Gear fans reveal a sharp, self-aware wit behind the headbanging polemic. [Apr 2024, p.31]

As a standalone soundtrack Evil Does Not Exist is a fine addition to Ishibashi’s singular work – the mood is darker and eerier than her fêted Drive My Car, but it’s the stronger album nonetheless. [Jul 2024, p.33]

It’s a decent primer on the culture, but the real treasures are the deep cuts, namely some radical dub remixes of punk also-rans (Generation X’s “Wild Dub”, Angelic Upstarts’ “Different Dub”) and a string of projects from Dennis ‘Blackbeard’ Bovell, including the gloomy skank of 4th Street Orchestra’s “Za-Lon” and Matumbi’s sunny, horn-powered “Point Of View”. [Aug 2024, p.53]

The band's deepest and most accomplished effort yet. [Oct 2024, p.40]

Singer-guitarist Taylor Goldsmith and his drumming brother Griffin laid down Oh Brother’s basic tracks by themselves, and the foregrounding of their live-off-the-floor parts adds to the immediacy of Taylor’s narratives. [Nov 2024, p.33]

They take a clear delight in topping their scrappy indie-pop tunes with folk-rock vocal harmonies. [Jan 2025, p.34]

Mostly, on Friar Tuck, that leads to an exhilarating 40 minutes. It doesn’t have the madcap range of 1991’s Peggy Suicide or the following year’s Jehovahkill, records on which Cope explored the rough and ready, first-take ethos he’d discovered on 1989’s Skellington and 1990’s Droolian, but these 12 songs are brimming with a breezy vitality that’s not always been present on Cope’s epic releases over the last couple of decades. [Jan 2025, p.28]

Lonesome sounds, but comfortably familiar. [Feb 2025, p.34]

Here, on "Afraid" and "Theo", she articulates her feelings in lush folk ballads, whose effortless warmth belie the challenges facing Wasner. [Nov 2025, p.32]

It’s a deep, melodic record, preoccupied – as you might expect from a sixty-something punk troubadour – with dreams, small kindnesses and the end of the world; all of these things feeling suddenly more prominent. [Review of the Year 2025, p.22]

Producer Luke Potashnick (Paloma Faith) has collaborated in a polished sound, as Motown-style brass lifts Bailey's gritty soul shout on "Take A Step Back". [Feb 2026, p.30]

Utopia really delivers on the transcendent promise of its title with the closing "Future Forever." [Jan 2018, p.12]

Cousin is deliciously weird and intoxicatingly angular, but it still sounds like a Wilco album. [Oct 2023, p.24]

What these titles lack in detail, the songs themselves quickly fill with lashings of lurid prose. [Jul 2017, p.18]

It's pure, distilled Quasi. ... Sam Coomes's songs are all killer. ... Janet Weiss, meanwhile, once again proves herself to be a fine vocal foil, and perhaps the greatest rock drummer alive. [Mar 2023, p.35]

Alongside collaborator Warren Ellis [Nick Cave has] mastered the subdued, unobtrusive yet sinister piano ripple and the occasional unsettling rumble, gilding them with rare, understated vocals.

In his own quiet way, Texas Piano Man finds Ellis maintaining a degree of reckless abandon in his creative life. [Mar 2019, p.26]

A rich, evocative portrait. ... The album's raw honesty is also highly tuneful. [Mar 2023, p.34]

His most expansive statement to date, a swaggering collage of blues, boogie, hip-hop and fuzzy rock riffs on which - unlike with, say, Joe Bonamassa - the songs are never subjugated to grandstanding guitar pyrotechinics. [Apr 2024, p.31]

He's the kind of singer whose voice you instinctively trust. It's a resource that brings continuity to a fifth album touching on greed, death and dogs. [Feb 2015, p.72]

As a representative trawl through Lanegan's solo albums, Has God Seen My Shadow? gets it very right indeed. [Feb 2014, p.94]

Deft lyrical touches and a persuasive commitment nonetheless lift Happyness well above pastiche. [Jul 2014, p.74]

At Saint Thomas The Apostle Harlem proves she's become just as expressive as a pianist as she is with her bloodcurdling wails. [May 2017, p.30]

Tuba can feel somewhat unwieldy, but in Cross's hands it's anything but. his style a blend of New Orleans brass-band music and a grime and soundsystem culture that's somewhat closer to home. [Apr 2019, p.26]

There's barely a track above three-minutes as it charges along with spiky intent, bursting with energy. [Sep 2025, p.32]

Line for line it's her best and funniest album in a decade. [Jun 2026, p.33]

The outpouring of creativity is exciting: but where this clearing-out of the songwriting archives leaves The Smile now is anyone’s guess.

She sings achingly slow, self-loathing, minor-key ballads which would function well with just a clawhammer acoustic guitar accompaniment. But she transforms the rest of them into epic pieces of sludge metal. [Dec 2022, p.36]

The mess is the whole point. It's a fascinating place to be, largely because she finds so much meaning in everyday observations and mundane ironies, in the small moments many other songwriters might overlook. [Mar 2024, p.30]

Brawny, anthemic hard-rock chug remains their backbone. [Aug 2012, p.69]

...Like Clockwork is the sound of the band, oddly, albeit entertainingly unsettled. [Jul 2013, p.79]

The sextet's latest displays a newfound confidence, brokering country-soul, Southern rock and R&B with some panache. [Oct 2017, p.34]

The end result is a rich, luxurious take on bass music that could probably have only been made by outsiders. [Dec 2011, p.96]

She summons the spirits very effectively here. ... John Parish's production of Hoop's delicate finger-picking adds to the sense of beautiful, bewitching isolation. [Aug 2019, p.31]

These are recorded almost as demos, in a more intimate and lo-fi way than usual, bringing him even closer in sound as well as spirit to the likes of Townes Van Zandt and Ron Sexsmith. [Dec 2021, p.33]

His style is exquisitely restrained and deeply soulful. [Jan 2023, p.25]

In Conflict feels starkly personal. [Jul 2014, p.77]

If it's a little too impressionistic to last the 17-track distance, then Freetown Sound still seduces. [Aug 2016, p.73]

It pitches up somewhere between devotional music, modern classical and shoegaze and plays as a set piece, though the powerful ebb and flow of "Skel" stands out. [Nov 2023, p.32]

Bassist William Cashion and keyboardist Gerrit Welmers match him for breathless passion, whipping up a stirring synth-pop writ in bold emotional colours. [Apr 2014, p.74]

Brewis constructs songs with architectural scale and precision--in its own prim, nostalgic, English way, it’s pretty dazzling stuff.

Long on rhetoric, short on melodic structure, it's hard going. [Dec 2002, p.150]

A candidate for country album of the year. [Nov 2002, p.130]

Another treasure. [Mar 2003, p.95]

At two hours, it's a lot to stomach, but worth staying for the closing "Streets Of Fire," a love song that trickles tears over the end credits. [Apr 2012, p.87]

As bleakly dystopian as that sounds, the music is colourful and bursting with joyous melodies. [Mar 2024, p.26]

It's warm and weird, but suddenly no stranger than the world around it. [Jul 2018, p.32]

Drum machines clank and scrape, evoking not just early acid house but industrial post-punk and '80s sci-fi soundtracks. ... Yet these potentially abrasive, alien sounds are marshalled into fresh, inviting shapes. [Sep 2018, p.30]

The greatest compliment it can be paid is that it sounds like no time at all separates it from its predecessor. It's a(nother) fine album of gently joyous country songs. [Dec 2019, p.25]

Too eclectic for his own good, perhaps? [Sep 2005, p.100]

So distinctive and confessional is Eska's voice that she's created a British pastoral music that defies classification. [May 2015, p.73]

For all the received wisdoms that encircle the desert blues of these groups, what's most seductive about songs like Imarhan's "Alwak" and "Addounia Azdjazzaqat" is the intimacy of the performance, a hushed wonder that breathes its poetry on the neck of the listener. [May 2016, p.74]

The resulting album is a homage that feels and sounds fresh. [Nov 2016, p.26]

Southern Blood is a timeless regional soul album. [Nov 2017, p.31]

His blazing guitar leads contrast with the sombre tone of the 20-track We're Your Friends, Man, the fragile-voiced Saloman haunted by third-age problems. [Jan 2019, p.19]

A deep-breathing, ecstatic joy. [Sep 2019, p.34]

White Noise/White Lines is a compelling showcase for both her admirable songwriting skills and, as Prine puts it, "One of the more authentic country voices I've heard in a long time." [Nov 2019, p.24]

A spellbinding listen. [Jul 2020, p.36]

The result is the friskiest, most rock'n'roll album of his career. [Nov 2020, p.37]

The deliciously tense opener, “Make Worry For Me”, proves their close chemistry persists, but it’s the quieter, more solemn back half of this long album – in particular the delicate “You Can Regret What You Have Done” – that fi nds them leaning on each other like best unbeaten brothers. [May 2021, p.32]

This is a generous, curious and commendably weird LP. [Jul 2022, p.26]

These empathetic tales teem with life. [Sep 2022, p.32]

On a musical level, Lynn imparts these songs with an unhurried grace. And while there’s an agreeable twang to “Black River” and folk-country steel on “In A Moment”, synths form the album’s bedrock.

While some moments feel more familiar - the sneering delivery of "Leisure Activities" borders on John Lydon mimicry - they embellish this punk undercoat with rich textural and atmospheric explorations, as well as tracks that glide between moments of industrial, goth and new wave. [Feb 2023, p.29]

The quick-take, live-in-the-room approach serves these songs well. [Feb 2024, p.30]

Bold, brilliant and experimental. [Apr 2024, p.34]

This merging of hypnotic rhythms with pulsing electro is apparent throughout, especially on squelchy tracks like "Got To Be Who U Are", and the result is a potent fusion. [Jun 2024, p.36]

The current lineup lacks that ritualistic Jamaican component - the nyabinghi-style conga playing of the late Pablo Gonsales and the Skatalites-influenced sax of Mike "Bammi" Rose - but there are still great moments. [Jan 2025, p.32]

Eight tracks range from menacing, acid rain drone to jagged rhythmic gut-punches. Here they summon the raw energy of The Young Gods in their prime, hobbling through grey ruined cities that have dominated our news-screens in recent times. [Jul 2025, p.33]

Hannon is in his element, from the bittersweet ba-ba-Bacharachian title track to the glam, high-kicking chorus of "Down The Rabbit Hole". [Nov 2025, p.31]

Monster Magnet and Mudhoney's sludgy heaviness and Hawkwind and Stooges prototypes form the mulch for this unexpected double. [Mar 2026, p.33]

Pleasingly, Segall's root wildness is enhanced by their [Ben Boye, Mikal Cronin, Emmett Kelly, and Charles Moothart's] jamming virtuosity. [Feb 2017, p.37]

Infectious stuff, and 30 years on from the first Pastels single, there is still no escaping indie's fey power. [Jul 2012, p.67]

Mering's atmospheric second album is a masterclass in spooked melancholia, clothing her cool Nico-esque vibrato in spine-shivering folk-noir arrangements. [Nov 2014, p.84]

Polished but never bland, and comes dotted with a wealth of special guests. .... But a big part of what makes Tonky compelling is how he stitches his tales into a wider fabric of African-American experience. [Mar 2025, p.36]

For all its diverting technical backstory, for all our attempts to manoeuvre Tim Hecker into various neat genre boxes, ancient and modern, his music is ultimately ravishing in a way that transcends method and contest, [May 2016, p.83]

Throughout the album, melodies stop and start like film scores: they change key, tempo, time signatures and even musical genres to suit the flow of the story. [Sep 2017, p.22]

While Williams can operate at either extreme of the spectrum, the softer likes of "Dirt" - a haunting duet with Tom Fleming of Wild Beasts and One True Pairing - suggest where her true forte lies. [Aug 2020, p.39]

Some of her finest vocals, full of wit and humour and immense loneliness. [Jan 2026, p.34]

There's a real effort to forge beauty out of chaos without losing any of the chaos. [Album of the Month, Jan 2006, p.100]

They've unleashed the rock monster within. [Feb 2015, p.87]

Lyrically, The Murder Capital are less direct than Idles and Fontaines, but musically they're more expansive, bringing a brooding brain-twisting gothic feel. [Sep 2019, p.30]

While some moments fee contrived to win headlines [...] it's the stories of grind under dour circumstance, such as "Grow Up" featuring Birmingham MC Jaykae, that shine the brightest. [Jul 2019, p.34]

It's rhythmic patterns and twisting beats are surprising throughout, making the record as unpredictable a voyage as the times we live in. [Jul 2019, p.33]

It's all inimitably Sparks. [Jul 2025, p.37]