What elevates Under The Covers above mimicry is the poignancy of the performances from all concerned. [May 2006, p.124]

Mystic Pinball is another assemblage of breezy balladry and snarling storytelling, delivered in the familiar Cookie Monster drawl. [Nov 2012, p.75]

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]

A soaring, Ian McLagan-dedicated Small Faces cover, "All Or Nothing," is the spiritual centrepiece of the set, but every song arrives with crisp melodies, burning guitars and impassioned vocals. [Apr 2016, p.81]

[An] utterly wonderful record. [May 2015, p.76]

These compositions are crammed with imaginative flourishes. [Jul 2025, p.33]

Suffused with optimism and defiance. [Aug 2020, p.34]

The best cuts have staying power. [May 2015, p.80]

If Metronomy appeared glib in the past, here you'll find musical and emotional depth. [May 2011, p.91]

All the hustle, serendipity and moments of beautiful clarity that characterise urban life are here in nuanced, very modern song. [Jul 2013, p.78]

Despite his recent move to a major label, these songs do retain the malicious edge that made its predecessor so enjoyable. [Sep 2016, p.75]

It's a beautiful-sounding record with tracks like "Somber The Drums" and "Everyone Out" providing moments of tender poppy beauty amid the general sense of decay. [Jun 2024, p.32]

Thrills and dazzlement abound. [Dec 2025, p.33]

An LP that reaffirms your faith in hip-hop. [Aug 2012, p.75]

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]

Thanks For The Dance has the intimacy that characterised Songs Of Leonard Cohen and Songs From A Room half a century ago, only rarely making the listener conscious of the resources at Adam Cohen's command. [Jan 2020, p.14]

These 10 art-pop and jazz-inclined abstractions are as elusive as they are instantly likeable, slipping away from definition even as you're listening via sweet melodic overplaying, elegant spaces and meandering/urgent grooves. [May 2019, p.32]

Deliberately daft, but also bold and adventurous, Late Of The Pier are a hyperactive British answer to MGMT. [Sep 2008, p.90]

There are moments of terrific turbulence, solemn quietness and some sadness, but the collection eventually lights on safe harbor. [Apr 2012, p.70]

Escape From Evil is a record about grief, and at times hits hard. [May 2015, p.76]

Nine luminous, clean0lined songs focus on love's myriad complexities. [May 2015, p.84]

The entire album sounds as if it was made to be heard on a Fifties jukebox rather than a state-of-the-art super-audio digital system. [Sep 2002, p.112]

The unlikely collision between Jimmy Webb and Talk Talk that is "Hell" repping particularly strongly for his new sound. [Aug 2020, p.36]

It's actually more satisfying as a piece, a folksy ambience lapping up against muted psychedelia and reverb'd pop. [Nov 2009, p.102]

Intriguing, enigmatic and one of a kind. [May 2010, p.90]

A squealing noise-rock juggernaut that balances gruff anthemicism with a certain improvisatory elan. [May 2024, p.38]

There's some filler among three hours of material but the instrumentals are staggering, pulsating pieces that breathe life into soul-jazz. [Jul 2015, p.84]

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]

Sometimes, beats and basslines are distinct; other times, as on "Mysteries" and "Lighthouse," you just get a sense of them, as structure dissolving into mist. [Oct 2015, p.78]

[Broder's] bodged tracks are the equivalent of Napoleon Dynamite's hybrid animal, the "liger", with beats that kick like a flogged mule. [Jun 2005, p.114]

Amid the superior pieces like "No Expectations" and more minor moments of parody and innuendo, jammed endings on songs like "Salt Of The Earth" embrace a real joy in improvisational ensemble playing. ... "Sympathy" also sits apart from the rest of the songs as a separate 12in, much as it towers above the rest of the songs on the album. [Jan 2019, p.40]

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]

Looser in feel and texture than their last couple of discs, with Dylan's husky vocals leading the way. [Dec 2012, p.78]

Nadia Reid's impeccable debut will maybe set a wider orbit in motion. [Dec 2015, p.77]

Boys Outside is truly lovely, Mason's finest solo record, but it's safe to say an album of sentimental ballads may not satisfy those who still hanker after the maverick, impulsive spirit of The Beta Band. [May 2010, p.95]

The result is both pensive and romantic, a work filled with vividly poetic snapshots. [Jan 2013, p.79]

Superabundance sees the trio break away from the neo-post-punk pack, in one swoop, but without sacrificing one calorie of their furious energy. [Apr 2008, p.109]

The albums keep coming, with little stylistic variation, nor significant lapse in quality. [Feb 2015, p.87]

Beth Ditto's remarkable gospel holler and fervent anti-sexist agenda deserves--no, demands--to be heard by a much bigger audience. [Aug 2003, p.106]

This study of youthful misadventures gives the 97's ample opportunity to re-immerse themselves in the punk-fuelled exuberance they brought to the alt-country movement two decades ago. [Jun 2014, p.82]

Introspective, diaristic songs that make a virtue of their simplicity. [Jul 2015, p.76]

Scattershot, but so frighteningly intense and packed with ideas that you can't help but be impressed. [Apr 2010, p.100]

Despite the odd moment when you're not sure quite what she's on about, she still stabs like a stiletto. [Jul 2015, p.77]

It's a well-judged mix; safe enough to satisfy the easy-listening end of Peyroux's following, but bold enough to show that among the jazzy, post-Norah crowd, the wayward Maddy stands apart. [Aug 2011, p.83]

Unhurried passages of string melodies dominate, but often underpinned by unsettling notes of cello and bursts of shortwave radio as he explores the myth of Orpheus' escape from the underworld. [Oct 2016, p.32]

Martin continues to brew new hybrids of dystopian dub reggae, industrial noise and experimental hip-hop. [Sep 2014, p.70]

Olive doesn't have the strongest voice, but songs like "Traveling" and the choolin' "Strange Attractor" have a pure pop heart that blends beautifully with Auerbach's retro-rock aesthetic. [Sep 2011, p.93]

As Gerrard's voice recedes into the silence, we're left with the sense that the hungers for mystery and transcendence this music explores could be as fundamental to us as it was to those who partied so hard so long ago. [Dec 2018, p.32]

When the guitarist and singer pairs their familiar hard-boiled, in-the-red licks with Latin rhythms and transcendent B3 organ flights, the combination is revelatory. [Dec 2015, p.71]

An instantly engaging album. [Apr 2026, p.24]

Molina's at the top of his lonesome game throughout. [Oct 2006, p.117]

The results--notably 'Cheap And Cheerful,' which suggests that Britney Spears' 'Toxic' made quite an impact on them and the chaotic 'Alphabet Pony'--are a revelation.

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.

Another fine encapsulation of what has become Price's signature mix of bracing honesty leavened with droll self-mockery. [Dec 2023, p.34]

Their methodically slothful hybrid of Angelo Badalamenti, Bill Evans and Sunn O))) is much prettier and more restful than one might imagine, [Apr 2014, p.69]

A (rap-free) triumph. [May 2015, p.77]

Vanishing Point is a riot of dirty--yet never cluttered--Detroit riffs and Mark Arm's laconically enrage vocals. [May 2013, p.74]

This is a nourishing and deeply meditative record. [Oct 2021, p.27]

This largely instrumental album is lush and joyful, roaming and sweeping across the ivories, one to which you can create a dramatic narrative of your own. [May 2011, p.79]

Boldly treads a more adventurous path. [Sep 2025, p.32]

A certain gravitas is restored. [Sep 2019, p.46]

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

The entire album is a beauty.... The most adventurous album of their career. [Aug 2002, p.110]

It has everything you've come to expect from a Daft Punk album--innovation, cracking tunes, a palpable sense of its own absurdity--but this time the whole shebang's cranked up to 11. [Apr 2005, p.99]

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

Without altering her style drastically, Orton has broadened her approach on what is her most accomplished record to date. [Mar 2006, p.94]

A fine showing. [Jul 2006, p.84]

Wenu Wenu is at last the genuine article. That it also captures the chaos of his live show is no small achievement either. [Nov 2013, p.80]

Emotional Mugger is as funky as it is twisted--a heavy rock record that truly groves in a way that heavy rock rarely does any more. [Feb 2016, p.85]

On this hometown stop with his Quartet he parallels Monk's freaky, aslant piano attack in the serpentine stutter of his alto intro to "Rhythm-A-Ning", followed by quick, clenched phrases like compressed planets. [Jan 2025, p.32]

Paradise... brims with life and imagination, humming with the brilliant paradox of a communal spirit imbued with Ahmed’s creative imprint over every note. [Feb 2025, p.32]

The default setting for Venn's debut album is a kind of punky Krautrock, all finger-bleeding ostinato basslines and hypnotic beats wreathed in doomy electronics. [Apr 2017, p.40]

The varied works of this Portland-born bassist and singer have suggested a giant talent that spills out of jazz into Brazil, R&B, music theatre and even thrash metal. This semi-autobiographical concept album pushes her deep into art-rock territory. [Apr 2016, p.79]

Just about every song is not what it seems. [Mar 2015, p.78]

It's frequently infuriating and sometimes amateurish, but nevertheless adds up to the most succinct introduction yet to the wonderul warped world of the Friedbergers. [Oct 2008, p.86]

Down There reveals a lyrical quality to Dave Avey Tare Portner's songwriting that's not always apparent amid the radiant clatter of the full band. [Nov 2010, p.81]

The title is Williams’ name for the world in which her music is set and it’s one where disaster looms large – dark, evocative and minor-key rich; menacing live drums and corkscrew bass hanging heavy in the atmosphere. [Aug 2021, p.33]

From A Room, Volume One manages to pull off that rare trick of sounding both fresh and familiar, as dauntless as it is consoling. [Jul 2017, p.28]

What In Colour reveals is the sheer scope of Smith's skills as a songwriter and producer. [Jul 2015, p.68]

Coombes' fourth is cultivated and considered, its detailed arrangements illuminated by Ian Davenport's muscular productiom. [Feb 2023, p.23]

Eitzel makes the songs his own, re-working them with a degree of affection and passion usually lacking from the covers-album genre. [Jul 2002, p.104]

The characters we meet in many of the album's other fine songs are just as vividly rendered. [Aug 2011, p.86]

A risk of pastiche is never far away, but Presley staves it off with energy, songcraft, cunning and a renewed, relatively streamlined focus. [Aug 2014, p.81]

Asha Lorenz's dreamy, deceptively casual vocals soften the sharp edges throughout and help foster an overall coherence even amid Cosplay's outbreaks of giddy chaos. [Dec 2025, p.36]

Midwesterner Pokey LaFarge infuses would-be moribund styles with rare vigour, though lyrical concerns are anything but nostalgia. [Jul 2013, p.77]

Wave finds beauty in the belief that all's not lost. [Dec 2019, p.35]

The Livelong Day is dark, powerful and disquieting stuff that resonates long after its final note has subsided. [Nov 2019, p.31]

Alias is where the giddy exhilaration and buoyant lift of early Magic Numbers grows into a bold, spacey and sensational creation. [Sep 2014, p.75]

The airy, uncomplicated sound recalls a rural expanse, with St Louis’s hushed confidence guiding the listener through fields and along banks. [Nov 2018, p.33]

Sol. Hz feels skeltal, with saffron threads of treated guitar slicing through piston-pulse rhythms and reverberant bass. [Jun 2026, p.34]

The album is a fantastic ride along well-travelled spaceways, balancing Ra compositions with an eclectic mix of early 20th-century American music. [Jan 2025, p.30]

The key is a rhythmic edge--be it tribal drumming or waves of sound--that trip these rainbow drones into full-on euphoria. [Apr 2008, p.94]

In his communions with nature, Elverum continues the American tradition of Whitman, Thoreau or Emerson, immersing himself in hymns to the land. [Mar 2015, p.78]

Lie Down In The Light is his most coherent LP since the bleak masterpiece "I See A Darkness." [Aug 2008, p.85]

Stephen McBean's merry bunch have toned down the heavier impulses of 2010's Wilderness Heart on this fourth album, plumping instead for a collision of gruff psychedelia, trippy space-folk and pulsing electronica. [May 2016, p.69]

I Be Trying sounds as stark and untamed as a field recording, belying the perfectionism with which it was made. [Aug 2021, p.24]

The morning moods are more immediately engaging, with Eno-ish rhyme schemes and country stylings. [Jun 2017, p.23]

A thrillingly inventive blend of alt.rock, fingerpicking folk, Latin flavours and--new this--electronic pop. [Apr 2013, p.67]