This is by some way their most fully developed and experimental set to date. [Jul 2020, p.30]

Joseph's craggy voice is perfect for such heavy-duty topics. [Sep 2020, p.28]

Sixty Summers sees the kitten-voiced Julia take even bolder steps into uncharted territory. [Mar 2021, p.37]

Flitting between Black Sab homages such as “Busted Room” and the Zep-esque quasi-Middle Eastern “Recessinater”, and shorter rockers such as the Stooges-like “Front Street” and “BFIOU”, which opens with the riff from the Beasties’ “Sabotage” before exploring even scuzzier directions. [Jul 2021, p.24]

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]

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]

You're left wishing these jazz quintet pieces breathed more. [Aug 2022, p.26]

If it's not as striking as its predecessor, its colourful patchwork exterior clothes some of Hitchcock's finest recent songs. [Nov 2022, p.29]

On Grace & Dignity is his best yet. [Apr 2023, p.28]

His melodic approach remains minimalist, dependent on hypnotic rhythms and crescendo - there's also a Screamadelica familiarity to "The People Say" and "Let It Go" - but his sloganeering encourages unifying empowerment. [Apr 2023, p.32]

While Mid Air is an album occasionally rooted in grief following the loss of Romy's parents, it seeks to take those moments of joy and dancefloor elation. [Oct 2023, p.34]

"Bad Apples'" Sonic Youth guitars provide a punkish response to policing following Sarah Everard's murder, while "Company Culture" breathlessly addresses workplace harassment. They boast a grim wit too. [Feb 2025, p.36]

This is an explicitly fallen world and yet, with its "Super-8 mote" and "temples of tragic skyscrapers", one of strange Lynchian wonder. [Jul 2025, p.31]

The most straightforward of Oldham's catalogue, and yet still rich with the oneiric and mysterious qualities that drew so many listeners to his art. [Apr 2026, p.20]

This wildly varied collection begins with their first release in 2002, "No Pasaran" about the Spanish Civil War, and include treats such as "Dream Come True," a self-released 7" given away at gigs, which sounds like Henry Rollins singing the "Grease "soundtrack while vomiting marbles. Yes, it's that good. [Feb 2010, p.84]

It's a tough, late-night, soul-searching kind of process that Kurt Vile signed up for here. It's a testament to his talent that he takes it so seriously, but makes it all sound effortless. [May 2013, p.61]

Loveless' songwriting on Real is sharp, economical and wickedly funny. [Sep 2016, p.77]

The music is straight and soothing, a band coming together in a rootsy salve as Williams returns to a favourite theme, deliverance through music. [Feb 2026, p.24]

We can enjoy Foxing's prophecies of impending doom, particularly when they're clothed in Animal Collective harmonies, U2 bombast and even avant-garde R&B. [Sep 2018, p.29]

Gibbard's freighted eloquence gives Asphalt Meadows its unsettling immediacy. [Oct 2022, p.26]

Stelmanis using her hurt as fuel for a series of sleekly designed tracks that alternate between surging, propulsive pieces of dancefloor-ready catharsis and more delicate yet still dramatic passages that emphasise the most crystalline properties of Stelmanis' voice. [Review of the Year 2025, p.21]

Hot Thoughts finds Spoon at the peak of their considerable powers, their ninth album effortlessly unfolding and revealing its mysteries as they cement their place in the firmament of undeniably great rock bands. [Apr 2017, p.34]

[It] sidles forth with an easy-going aura, belying the artistry within. [Jul 2007, p.107]

Lush and lively. [Feb 2017, p.29]

The best moments of Inferno are tender hymns to everyday pleasures. [Apr 2019, p.29]

The real heart of this record seems to lie in moments of stillness and rest, where strung-out slackerdom attains an almost sacred quality. [Apr 2011, p.88]

Raitt isn't breaking new ground--she's emphatically marking out the turf she's owned for 45 years. [Mar 2016, p.78]

Reaffirms their status as masters of white heat smoulder, turning down the amps but heightening the ravaged intensity.... A career high. [Oct 2002, p.119]

Murray Street contains some of the best music Sonic Youth have recorded since the landmark Daydream Nation in 1988. [Jul 2002, p.122]

Five tracks of interlaced and overlapping open tunings and drone where individual parts shape the eloquent whole, to irresistibly radiant effects. [Jan 2025, p.31]

Africa's new axe hero marches on. [Aug 2011, p.104]

An album that takes nothing for granted, that doesn't consider your attention a gift, that wants to impart something profound to you. Trust her. [Sep 2019, p.28]

For all the haunting, dislocated atmospheres here, Coombes still has an ear for melodies. [Feb 2015, p.75]

While "Godmother" confounds with its sci-fi babble, the likes of "Alienation" and "External" suggest that a tune is a tune in any language. [Jun 2019, p.29]

Historian fulfills all the promises of 2015's No Burden. [Apr 2018, p.26]

A rousing debut that constantly eschews genre conventions. As a result, the record manages the impressive juxtaposition of perpetual unfurling in unpredictable ways yet remaining tonally coherent. [Aug 2019, p.26]

It's the range of styles that impress most, from slow cowboy ballads and Western swing to full-throated honky-tonk, Tin Pan Alley and exquisite break-up songs. [May 2009, p.90]

It is this methodical exploration of the ancient and modern that makes Weyes Blood such a seductive proposition, and the ambitious Front Row Seat To Earth--intimate and enveloping, romantic and psychedelic--marks a significant progression in Mering's increasingly impressive career. [Nov 2016, p.38]

The welcome brevity of most tracks gives Snaith even more room to vary tempos and textures. [Nov 2022, p.28]

Love's Holiday still kicks against the pricks, particularly on raging single "Icy White & Crystalline", but the primary themes here seem to be love and loss. [Sep 2023, p.34]

Where Moor Mother's usual free jazz band Irreversible Entanglements give warm instrumental life to poem which are ultimately hopeful for change, Sumac offer grinding feedback symphonies. [May 2025, p.39]

Several tracks are up with their best. [Jul 2006, p.88]

Desertshore is really only the jumping-off point (Beachy Head?) for an album of ultimately rather bleak electronic songs.... The strongest performances, in fact, come on the two tracks vocalled by Cosey herself.

Putting perfectionism aside hasn't lessen his knack for melody and texture. [Apr 2021, p.27]

That it so compellingly rescues a cache of unforgettable songs and signals the unlikeliest of artistic revivals, must rank it among rock's most trascendent tales. [Jul 2010, p.109]

Despite its obvious debt to the ’80s and its (appreciated) nods to the trio’s own past, it’s their most modern, innovative record yet.

Cherry's still youthful voice and angsty lyrics feel somewhat disconnected from these dubby rumbles and dirges. [Mar 2014, p.73]

Any sense they're simply re-creating the sounds of the past is dispelled from the first notes of opener "Morning in America." ... The band set every song in the present, drawing as much from sampling and turntablism as from old-school soul. [Apr 2019, p.31]

It's a long and winding road that has brought him to the thrilling eclectic destination that is Absolute Zero. [Jul 2019, p.29]

A genuinely beautiful, expansive record. [Dec 2020, p.36]

The result is a quietly moving hymn to home and humanity. [Mar 2021, p.29]

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.

The core sound is instrumental motorik rock with sweet licks. [Sep 2022, p.24]

Fastidiously complex, yes, but also capable of moments of disarming prettiness. [Oct 2022, p.23]

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]

Despite the silly title and gorilla sleeve, this 3CD compilation proves a respectable primer.

An irresistible set. [Sep 2013, p.97]

This album feels like a new beginning. [Apr 2014, p.70]

It's perhaps the best introduction yet to the sometimes-confusing world of Sun Ra. [Feb 2016, p.94]

The droll self-awareness and blunt strum of their songs may have you thinking of The Go-Betweens, but it's more a general stylistic flourish that has The Goon Sax coming across as classic Brisbane pop. [May 2016, p.74]

The lonesome trumpet-flecked "Sand," an easy-swinging "Laugh" and "Cali," with its late summer-in-Laurel Canyon vibe, prove this is no one-note set. [May 2017, p.35]

Pearson’s clear knack for melodic songcraft is plentiful, across the breezy “Talk Over Town” or the sugary indie-pop of “Alligator”, resulting in an album that nails introspective songwriting just as seamlessly as it does infectious pop. [Aug 2022, p.31]

This push-pull between melody and twisting beats, veering back and forth between dark and joyous moments, is the crux of this excellent album, one that glides snappily between acid electro, synth-washed indie, crunchy pop and dance-floor rippers. [Aug 2022, p.36]

Over a barrage of different beats, Hutching creates abstract-expressionist drip paintings using a single colour, or striking day-glo illustrations using broad brush-strokes, or pointillistic portraits using hundreds of identical dots. [Nov 2022, p.24]

Throughout all nine songs, Glenn-Copeland's voice seems to exist on the eternal plane, powerful and vulnerable in equal measure, an elder sharing his knowledge in stirring sonic form. [Sep 2023, p.26]

An instantly engaging, 11-track set with zip, heart, sly humour and real staying power, which shucks off the often dry terseness of the genre without trashing its template. [Feb 2024, p.34]

It's four-square Manics Big Music, with James Dean Bradfield's guitar especially eloquent, echoing Keith Levene's sour whine on the title track and beautifully relaxed on "Being Baptised"'s Smith-like elegy. [Feb 2025, p.37]

Ten years ago this hand-stitched tapestry of astral-jazz harp, dusty acoustics, crackling breakbeats, music-box twinkles and twitchy "Intelligent Dance Music" might have seemed bravely genre-bending, but now it's as cosy a pair of favourite slippers. [Feb 2010, p.84]

Any sense of musical nostalgia is banished by the quality and restraint of the performances and the album's majestic, half-asleep flow. [Apr 2026, p.28]

It's an absolute belter if you like your R'n'B raw, red-blooded and defiantly vintage. [Mar 2016, p.75]

That quest to explore her true colors is tenderly juxtaposed with some grand arrangements--woodwind, strings, marching drums--that bring to mind Minnie Riperton, Bond themes and '40s Disney movies. [Aug 2018, p.24]

Crutchfield's distinctive, smoky voice couldn't be more different from Williamson's softer one, yet the way they melt together on the choruses you'd swear it was fated. [Dec 2022, p.35]

Heavy Light is no one-note affair. ... Artfully honest songs. [Apr 2020, p.36]

An album from a band that still sound truly individual. [Oct 2023, p.25]

The result is an album that displays Wolfe's versatility and ability to stir power from whispers as easily as she does howls. [Oct 2019, p.39]

Brothers is really all about The Black Keys; swaggering journey from sub-White Stripes curio to one of the best rock'n'roll bands on the planet. [Jun 2010, p.81]

[The first half is] all dismayingly unconvincing and lacklustre in execution... Then something changes.

A slight tendency to clutter is in evidence, but when the band pare it back, it's magical. [Nov 2013, p.81]

On this evidence, enough to suggest that Birch, now into her late sixties, might just be entering her next great creative phase. [Apr 2023, p.39]

Undeniably, they are a dance band first and foremost, but fans of Tinariwen will find plenty to love in raw soulful numbers like "Koana" and Farila." [Jun 2015, p.83]

There aren't many groups whose experimental cojones nestle comfortably alongside arch-classicist songwriting, but Califone solved that thorny equation long ago. [Sep 2013, p.85]

Humanely crafted, with a warmth unusual in the avant-garde. [Jun 2004, p.96]

In a world supersaturated with electronica, Broadcast are nonetheless bold, rare and crucial. [Sep 2003, p.97]

The quintet's transformation from schlocky garage urchins to ambassadors of thrilling new-wave can largely be attributed to Portishead's Geoff Barrow, who, alongside Chris Cunningham, produced "Primary Colours," uncovering a formidable band beneath the haircuts. [Jun 2009, p.86]

Cry Cry Cry is 21st-century rock at its most delectably omnivorous. [Nov 2017, p.39]

Musically, Wildcard is all over the place00and that might be its best quality. She ties all these various sounds and styles and settings together by sheer force of will and one of Nashville's mightiest twangs. [Dec 2019, p.26]

Attains new heights of intoxication on reconvening after four years away. [Aug 2024, p.38]

An album of their most beautiful tracks. [Dec 2020, p.27]

There's an intriguing version of Michael Jackson's "Human Nature" and tunes by Monk and Ellington alongside originals that lurch from freaky modernism to stately classical. [Oct 2010, p.108]

This addictive slab of retro rock is the work of gifted singer/guitarist Tash Neal and deft drummer.singer Chris St Hilaire, who've loaded the 13 tracks here with hooks. [Sep 2015, p.77]

Stand-out numbers include the sumptuous orchestral lament "Hi A Skoellyas Liv A Dhagrow" and the gorgeous "Herdhya", a breathy spooktronica ballad with an anti-Brexit theme. [Apr 2018, p.27]

A powerful, unusual record. [May 2018, p.24]

For all its old-time vibes, a typically inspired record from Ferry. [Jan 2019, p.21]

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

A mutant strain of noisy funk, hip-hop, subversive art punk and dirty disco. [Dec 2019, p.35]

You could say this kind of record - produced by Dan Auerbach, who's also on guitar duty, for his own label - that plays to a revered, even fetishised aesthetic. ... With a band of experienced session hands. ... [Finley's] mastery is proven. [Jun 2021, p.25]

His brightest and most vivid record. ... Here he finds new dimensions, rethinking his phrasing, tone and cadence. [Sep 2021, p.16]

Spans Essiebons' output between 1973-84 and gives some indication of its profile as both a prime mover of modern highlife and promoter of Afrobeat and funk. [Jan 2022, p.44]