It's fiercer and denser than their 2009 debut. [Nov 2011, p.107]

A fine racket it is. [Apr 2021, p.32]

It all sounds fabulous. [Feb 2018, p.29]

Volume 2 contains more talk than its predecessor, and by linking the 39 songs on these two discs with snippets of dialogue, the compilers attempt to replicate the mood and flow of those shows, showing us how the group broke through the barriers of formality hitherto erected between performers and audience. [Dec 2013, p.77]

An impressive deepening of Marling's explorations, and a timely testament to change as a positive force. [Apr 2017, p.24]

These 12 songs have a resonance that's deep and wide, examining intimate/romantic connections and their power to wound and confuse, as well as relationships in the broader contexts of existential identity and being fused to a genealogical history. [Apr 2019, p.38]

Enjoyable stuff. [Feb 2012, p.81]

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]

Wig Out At Jagbags presents Malkmus at his most eager to please. That it does so while still honoring his idiosyncrasies makes it a particular delight to behold. [Feb 2014, p.82]

The effect is somehow lush and minimalist at the same time, and utterly immersive. [Apr 2025, p.35]

Her new album whizzes by in a 28-minute blur of finger-tapped melodies, lopsided time signatures and arrangements that, on tracks like "earth Eater" and "Believing IS Seeing", whip from jazz to glitter to metal with neck-snapping precision. [Dec 2023, p.36]

Home Video is Dacus at her most autobiographical and lyrically direct. [Jul 2021, p.28]

The sound here is plastic, pliant, gentle--tonal driftwood punctuated by sun-dappled synths and ruminative piano, like Eno's Music For Airports gone miniature. [May 2019, p.37]

The frenzied, immersive and hard-charged psych the band has explored previously gives way to an album that is woozy, melodic and reflective. [Jul 2018, p.37]

Nine Types Of Light suggest they're settling in nicely. [May 2011, p.78]

It all adds up to an immaculately composed, if soft-centred, avant-pop proposition, and suggest Frank might just turn out to be the British Justin Timberlake. [Aug 2009, p.92]

The real revelation here is 25-year old James Francies, who plays Jimmy Smith-style Hammond on "Timeline," heavy rock organ on the Hendrix-inspired "Lodger" and mischievous Monk-style piano on a version of Ornette Coleman's "Turnaround." [Oct 2021, p.29]

Kin Sonic is a far more expansively international affair. [Aug 2017, p.32]

Superior adult-contemporary rock. [Dec 2004, p.152]

Anima feels like a dive into an inner world, profoundly intimate and emotional even as it remains enigmatic and blurred at the edges. [Sep 2019, p.25]

Achieves a drifting, beautiful desolation that many of their peers lack. [Sep 2017, p.24]

Guitarist Glenn Page appears to be channelling namesake Jimmy in his Yardbirds days, while the spot-on harmonies of "After You're Gone" suggest a live anthem in waiting. [Mar 2010, p.93]

Immunity's greatest rapture, however, lies in Hopkin's welcome reunion with King Creosote for the title track's glistening melancholy. [Jul 2013, p.76]

The Mood is subdued but cavalier, more of a mixtape. [Nov 2016, p.24]

Psychedelic touches percolate subtly through the songs. [Oct 2015, p.79]

This 11-piece ensemble of accomplished veterans positively struts on its third LP since forming in 2011. [Sep 2013, p.95]

The concept is implicit in the music's gospel-soul communion, the lyrics' yearning and reckoning, and the rousing, towering power of Jones' purposively nostalgic soul vocal. [Jun 2023, p.31]

[The Silver Gymnasium is] the sincerest, most heartfelt album they've yet assembled, and it's all the more powerful for it. [Oct 2013, p.60]

The Sleaford Mods we hear on Spare Ribs sound more comfortable in their own skin, relaxed enough to explore their eccentricities. A tart, sometimes topical edge remains. [Feb 2021, p.35]

The sense throughout is of awesome power, as effective simmering as it is unleashed. [Nov 2012, p.85]

At their best, on "Someone Far Away" and "Give Up," the group blends pop sparkle and melancholy indie charm in the manner of The Chills. [Jan 2017, p.21]

Bleak but brilliant. [Nov 2008, p.109]

A palatial record. [Mar 2009, p.89]

Over two decades on, in remastered form, these tracks have aged well, retaining their multi-layered, bass-heavy eclecticism, and moving back and forth between gentle melancholia and hands-in-the-air euphoria. [Jun 2017, p.49]

The result is a record that demands to live not in some mythologised '80s, but in the here and now. [May 2011, p.81]

At its heart, though, this is essentially a great pop album. [Jul 2016, p.83]

She's still a class act. [Jul 2003, p.118]

Mann's striking vocals, empathetic and emotional, weave through anxiety and depression, crisis and loss. Melodic arrangements abound. [Dec 2021, p.29]

A deeply enjoyable pop-funk record. [May 2006, p.114]

A rather beautiful debut. [Mar 2017, p.32]

An album of unexpected depth and originality. [Oct 2014, p.68]

Rhythm is even more thrilling than the latter's recent Nikki Nack. [Jan 2015, p.78]

Musically, the tunes blend pop stickiness with sonic experimentation, but there is a strong sense of place. [Mar 2025, p.24]

10 duets of intricate stringed alchemy. [May 2020, p.27]

There is much to love about this new, more earthen mode. [Jul 2020, p.30]

Newdad's first full-length shows them expanding on their indie-pop roots, adding extra gnarly, post-punk bite and more sophisticated textures to their updated mix of The Cure, Slowdive and Curve. [Jan 2024, p.34]

Yorkston may have set aside his “personal muse” for a moment, but Folk Songs is still part of his rich re-imagining of our heritage.

They're not quite as cerebral as Vampire Weekend, but Camera Talk and Cards & Quarters are studded with synapse-snapping shifts in tempo and tone, making this record the place to be as the year ends. [Dec 2009, p.119]

There's depth, vulnerability even humour to the lyrics. [Nov 2019, p.27]

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]

After two decades, a band that could easily feel like part of the wallpaper remain hungry to show that you never know what lies beneath. [Oct 2015, p.68]

The soundtrack works beautifully without reference to the [1975] movie. [Sep 2012, p.96]

Wilderness take the clang of post-punk and invest it with an elatory fervour. [Sep 2005, p.111]

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]

The follow-up is a considerable upgrade. [Jan 2017, p.23]

Shabason again blurs genre boundaries with impeccable judgement and such understatedly emotional approach that the tag "ambient jazz" sounds like a slight. [Jan 2019, p.25]

Sometimes, More is more. [Nov 2014, p.73]

Enchanting debut Oh My reveals itself slowly with each listen. [Feb 2018, p.30]

She has crooned before, but the freight of intimate emotion here, letting low notes waver within the ferally alive arrangement, is masterful. Ending an album of looking back, this is the new prime of Chrissie Hynde. [Oct 2023, p.22]

Few chronicle heartbreak with such methodical, forensic attention. [May 2008, p.111]

There's plenty to fall for here, but the anguished, bongo-driven 'Love All Of' is especially irresitable. [Feb 2009, p.93]

The Weather finds them anchoring their sillier musical excesses with solid pop tunes and heartfelt existential concerns. [Jun 2017, p.37]

While ['You Are The Best Thing'] gets the LP off to a rousing start, the song also serves a thematic purpose by celebrating the pleasures and synergy of a smoothly functioning conjugal unit--an ideal that stands in stark contrast to the romantic torment that follows.

It is arguably more satisfying [than his debut, Queen of Denmark], in its artistic courage, its refusal to meet expectations and its willingness to paint a brand new picture of gay demi-monde where the triumphs and tragedies have a deeper resonance than simple melodrama or camp. [Apr 2013, p.70]

Nodding back to the Stones and The Band, these familiar sounds serve an open-souled gospel vision, rooted in upstate Nee York reality and dreams. [Jun 2019, p.27]

It's not quite experimental, but there is evolution in this superbly judged set. [Nov 2022, p.21]

This off-piste project has turned into a far more substantial, fully realised undertaking. [Jul 2017, p.24]

A lusty, witty, charismatic racket. [Jul 2019, p.30]

There's no shortage of invention and genre mashes to prick up the ears here. [Aug 2019, p.34]

Jara's story gives a dramatic, yearning quality to the libretto that suits Bradfield's epic style, and allows a sense of unity to emerge through individual songs. [Sep 2020, p.27]

Snaith's take on minimal dance music is brighter and more immediate [than his Fabric mix in 2007]. [Sep 2017, p.24]

An American oddball, for sure, but one to treasure. [Jan 2002, p.146]

Admonitions remains a fiery testament to Endless Boogie’s creative rejuvenation. And while this instalment of the saga may end with that imaginary action hero looking like a far cry from his usual condor self, don’t be fooled – he’s just saving it for the sequel. [Dec 2021, p.28]

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.

Broken Politics is a thoughtful, reflective record that twines the political and the person. [Nov 2018, p.26]

It's a scuzzy Swans-like behemoth. [Oct 2014, p.77]

Their latest leans Southern Gothic, in songs about death, drink and doing the hard thing. [Oct 2015, p.78]

Even more commanding on the follow-up [to its debut]. [Apr 2018, p.32]

Excels in its moments of mournful rumination. [May 2020, p.35]

A visceral, candid and thrillingly propulsive depiction of her efforts to work through her father's abandonment when she was a child. [Apr 2016, p.81]

All are by turns playful, impassioned, and intelligent. [Oct 2008, p.118]

They're following their "first thought" instincts while allowing space for the full expression of Garbus's mighty soul voice. [Jun 2025, p.41]

A sublime debut. [Jun 2025, p.30]

Even if the attitude feels snarly and confrontational, the craftsmanship speaks of deep love and high-level musicality. [May 2015, p.81]

Overall though--a quality 'One More American Song' shares with the whole collection--this is a song with an understated, but crucial, element of hope. [Aug 2009, p.100]

"Try To Sleep" and the Kool Keith quoting "Witches" are songs that join classics in their cannon. [May 2011, p.91]

It's their dirty, lowdown rock pastiches that truly score.... A bona fide blast of ageless, pretension-free rock'n'roll. [Mar 2003, p.98]

A surprisingly lively and assured comeback. [Apr 2024, p.29]

It's steeped in the snotty multi-coloured psych of the Elevators, the Seeds, Os Mutantes and, via the parping Farfusa of "Follow Me Home," early Doors. [Aug 2016, p.80]

The London-based trio of Matt Parker, Chris Amlion and Ayu Okakita reinvent the [trip-hop] genre on their terrific debut, a futuristsic sonic collage of dreamy glitch-folk, shimmering electronica and weapons-grade dubstep percussion. [Mar 2010, p.90]

McMahon has the same eye for poetically absurd detail as her compatriot Courtney Barnett. [Sep 2019, p.29]

You couldn't imagine anyone else pulling all this off with such grace and style. [Jun 2010, p.96]

There's both [commitment and respect] in spades on Coming Home, a throwback album that's also blessed with modesty. [Jul 2015, p.74]

Few other performers have electrified country blues to such plaintive and non-parodic effect since the heyday of Led Zeppelin. [Sep 2001, p.100]

Levi's penchant for cracked-up nursery-rhyme melodies and wry humour elevate what might've been an exercise in wilful primitivism. [Oct 2015, p.80]

It's a solid second-tier AC/DC record. ... And the best individual songs are well worthy of the AC/DC marque. [Jan 2021, p.20]

Another delightful exercise in musical brevity and lyrical snark. [Oct 2019, p.24]

Terrific collection. [Mar 2022, p.49]