Delicate, desert-baked confessionals a plenty. [Nov 2020, p.33]

It is arguably, the Replacements album that best balances the tension between the snotty punk rockers they began as, and the crossover success they were terrified of becoming ... [The included demos and mixes] will find favour with adherents of the rougher, readier Replacements, who around now were struggling with whether or not to blossom into something bigger. [Nov 2020, p.52]

An album filled with soft, tender indie-folk. [Nov 2020, p.29]

Her fourth sees her exploring darker, richer tones, drawing herself up to mythic height as she conjures a fiery, fantastical rebirth. [Nov 2020, p.29]

Healy's songs have always been suffused with nostalgia; now, far removed from those innocent days, the poignant pull is overwhelming. [Nov 2020, p.37]

A mesmerising slowdive into the sonic depths. [Nov 2020, p.31]

The Toronto band maintain a formidable degree of power and velocity throughout their fourth album, yet songs like "The Mirror" and "Framed By The Comet's Tail" are well-served by their willingness to ease up on the gas pedal. [Nov 2020, p.33]

herring's poetic analysis of a recent break-up makes it all a compelling listen. [Nov 2020, p.29]

Musically it's more grounded, though, if still diverse. [Nov 2020, p.27]

Several songs that aim for Springsteenian grandeur but land nearer to John Mellencamp before he dropped the Cougar. Thankfully, Goldsmith's level of craft elsewhere means there's still plenty here to savour. [Nov 2020, p.29]

Their latest brings welcome variations in tone and tempo. [Nov 2020, p.29]

[An] exhilarating companion piece. [Nov 2020, p.49]

Flitting from sublime to the ridiculous, from the personal to the universal, and from a time before people to a time long after them, it's a mess, but a glorious one all the same. [Nov 2020, p.30]

Producer Ross Orton helps sharpen their attack, and the quartet are at their very best on "White Rooms And People's" fierce synth-funk, the Suicide-like "Tomorrow" and the thudding grooves of Valleys." [Nov 2020, p.37]

Though less avidly adventurous than his band's recent outings (or his own past activities with EL VY), the music here may be stronger for it. [Nov 2020, p.27]

Shiver sometimes feels like a glitchcore sound collage, where ambient passages are ruptured by harsh beats and clamorous noise. [Nov 2020, p.31]

Much of New York still resonates over 30 years on. ... The new remaster is crisp - it's hard to mess with the original's direct, unadorned musicianship. ... What this second disc [of live tracks] demonstrates is the quality of Reed's New York band. [Nov 2020, p.44]

Patti Smith's bewitching poetry readings make this an experience that demands full attention. [Oct 2020, p.36]

The catch-all quality of this reissue presents a kaleidoscopic vision of what pop music could be. ... One of the most compelling and joyous albums of Prince's career, not to mention the most fun.[Oct 2020, p.44]

It's not always successful, but if the thrilling likes of "Lead Sister" and "Renegade Breakdown" constitute a fresh start, we'll take it. [Nov 2020, p.28]

The overall mood is slinkily, scuzzily surreal. ... It's a deep trip into Murphy's past and future. [Nov 2020, p.33]

Offers something for everyone. [Nov 2020, p.25]

It all feels quite timely. with Butler exploring the state of the world. [Nov 2020, p.27]

His tidiest folk-pop tunes to date. ... Irresistible. [Oct 2020, p.27]

Singing in a voice roughly as big as the Saskatchewan plains, the cattle rancher writes lyrics full of violence, darkness and death. [Oct 2020, p.39]

Inside there’s one masterpiece and three very fine records, all remastered. ... As on most of Hard Luck Stories, the remastering is barely noticeable, but the previously unreleased bonus tracks are more notable.

His music is now more about the deep, nuanced dig into established territory than striking out to plant a flag someplace new, plus exploring different contexts for his signature sound through continued collaboration. [Oct 2020, p.30]

The focus is on the sad-sounding uke and kohl-eyed vocals Simmons brings. [Nov 2020, p.34]

On this sometimes obstinate, sometimes sublime record, Stevens shows he contains multitudes. [Nov 2020, p.24]

This latest outing does suitable state-of-the-nation stuff on "Next Generation" and "American Crisis," but the big AM radio melodies in "Everything To You" and "Little Pieces" (plus the unusually lubricious "Leather Dream") show how much fun Mould could still have. [Oct 2020, p.34]

These are not times for ambiguity. Ultra Mono scours like bleach, its fury a purifier. [Oct 2020, p.31]

Sprout can get a little too earnest - greater distance might, perhaps counterintuitively, make these songs more globally affecting - but he's still a great pop writer. [Oct 2020, p.36]

Most divine is Knxwledge's production on "Make Ya Say Yie," with its twisted brass sample. [Nov 2020, p.27]

It's a record that begs for repeat listens. [Oct 2020, p.36]

Breach is an often quiet, hushed album, but its message - one of discovering happiness in solitude - comes over loud and clear. [Nov 2020, p.31]

Strikingly, Stevens' craggy baritone is virtually identical 50 years later; but whereas in 1970 he sounded prematurely aged, hearing him now we can't help but envision that innocent, introspective 22-year-old. [Oct 2020, p.39]

Unfussy poeticism abounds. [Oct 2020, p.27]

A darkly urgent "Saturnine Night" and "The Illuminator" with its wood blocks and linear beat pattern set the tone, but as "Red Sky" with its meaty, psych-folk swing shows, it's not all out with the old. [Oct 2020, p.31]

Glorious soundsuite. [Oct 2020, p.37]

John Dwyer returns to thrashing, galloping warped punk, albeit with a more pronounced funk feel. [Oct 2020, p.34]

Her latest is more remarkable for its beguiling softness as well as a sometimes woozy feel that befits the contents' absinthe-soaked origins. [Oct 2020, p.36]

Making avant-garde sound both formally inventive and somewhat otherworldly. [Oct 2020, p.29]

Another generous serving of sparklingly cinematic guitar rock, largely inspired by (and dedicated to) band confidant, producer and musician Richard Swift, who died in 2018. But this is no sombre remembrance, rather a full-throttle celebration of the unifying power of music. [Oct 2020, p.29]

Terrific follow-up. [Oct 2020, p.29]

Everything Everything continue on their quest to make intricate yet seamless electronic art pop. [Sep 2020, p.29]

Help is overloaded with tastefully spare sketches, but there are enough sublime soundscapes and rich ideas here. [Sep 2020, p.36]

Much like The Head And The Heart, it's all mid-paced, with subject matter also inevitably static. [Oct 2020, p.32]

Their fifth album comes with a cathartic feel. Densely layered - four of the 11 tracks are over five minutes - it's also as complex as a Rubik's cube, the elaborate arrangements owing more to progressive rock than contemporary pop. [Oct 2020, p.38]

The whole of American Head finds Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd examining the nature of family, love, death and nostalgia with a sincerity and tenderness that's been missed. [Sep 2020, p.29]

Touched by sadness but tinged with hope, this is a masterful album on which the sound of tradition is rendered vital and visceral in a very present sense. [Oct 2020, p.33]

Fall To Pieces is too slight and elusive to move Adrian Thaws beyond his cult-level comfort zone, but there are appealing forays into flamenco guitar, light-headed Eurodisco and gleaming robo-funk here. [Oct 2020, p.39]

This is all about the warm, soft glow of his voice and band, mostly taped together on the studio floor. [Oct 2020, p.36]

There's a more pronounced sense of drive and velocity. [Aug 2020, p.36]

[Producer Dessner's] immersive production, including layered keyboards and twinkling harmonics, pairs perfectly with her elegant voice. [Sep 2020, p.29]

McKenna merges glam, pop, indie and a touch of electronica to make a contemporary sonic exploration of a tumultuous world. [Oct 2020, p.34]

It's the band's ability to so gracefully coexist in these seemingly contradictory worlds that makes them such an inimitable outfit all these years on. [Oct 2020, p.39]

Krieger's fuzzy, sustain-heavy guitar solos drift along pleasantly. [May 2020, p.28]

"Blue Motel," with its drunk payday regulars, is a classic Penn narrative conceit, while "One Of These Days" nods to mortality at 78, but this craftsman keeps working. [Sep 2020, p.35]

Gold Record is very assured, marking a refinement of the Callahan sound. [Oct 2020, p.28]

Rarely bubbles over into the remarkable. [Sep 2020, p.25]

It's as stylistically free as any GAM record - and as exquisite. [Oct 2020, p.32]

Is often guilty of over-earnestness and sentimentality. [Oct 2020, p.27]

They've drawn their inspiration from a wider constituency. [Oct 2020, p.25]

She approaches the material with understated expressiveness. [Sep 2020, p.32]

The monotone vocal diatribes can be a little waffly, but the urgent, Bloc Party-esque thrust of "Dig In" and the addictive synthpop throb of "Prism" are incisive backdrops that keep you engaged, if not completely converted. [Oct 2020, p.32]

The once robust voice is thinner but still gruffly effective. [Oct 2020, p.39]

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

The songs boast a quality of spaciousness and delicacy that was rarer on 2018's otherwise very fine Lionheart. [Sep 2020, p.32]

Rancid's "Olympia, WA" sounds like an Americana roadtrip rebel anthem with Old Crow Medicine Show's Ketch Secor in the passenger seat; Harry Styles' "Sunflower, Vol. 6" gets redone as acoustic lovestruck magic. [Oct 2020, p.39]

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

They have the grit and immediacy of demos, but Whole New Mess sounds just as powerful and just as finished as its more polished predecessor, like we're hearing Olsen work through her ache and confusion in real time. [Oct 2020, p.34]

A welcome development is Owens' voice: this time, when deployed, it's positioned centrally. [Sep 2020, p.35]

While these versions don't venture far from a cooing, lullabyish feel, it's a cosy, inviting one. [Sep 2020, p.28]

It's a familiar mode - "instant vaguely leftfield record collection"- but it's beautifully played, and a reminder that Dwyer can occasionally do restraint. [Sep 2020, p.25]

Here are 10, funkily inventive delights that fuse the driving, percussive-heavy folk tradition with his own "jibber jabber," using guitar, drum machine and electronics. [Sep 2020, p.32]

An album of passion, wit and spirituality that, like its title, invites us not only to evolve, but to revel in our evolution. [Sep 2020, p.30]

None of the best tracks here would have sounded out of place on Old 97s' mid-'90s classics "wreck Your Life" and "Too Far To Care." This consistency feels, by now, like confirmation of the purity of Old 97s' original vision. [Oct 2020, p.34]

Erasure has yet to really match the duo's early imperial phase, but here Andy Bell and Vince Clarke dish out the cosmic showstoppers with all the elan of their 30-year-old selves. [Oct 2020, p.31]

The 11 original compositions here are full of warm compassion and ripe wisdom. [Sep 2020, p.27]

Deeply melodic, brilliantly played, and blessed with a spirit that feels generous and boundless. [Oct 2020, p.26]

Utterly thrilling. [Sep 2020, p.32]

Unironically majestic set pieces that offer a ray of hope as this wild ride ends. [Oct 2020, p.28]

The tight knit trio waste nothing creating their dream dancefloor from sultry rhythms, mischievous drum beats and a glorious disco sheen. [Oct 2020, p.25]

Often as challenging as Justin Vernon's recent work. [Sep 2020, p.31]

Swift navigates Sansone's majestic folk-rock arrangements like the able captain of a frigate sailing over shimmering seas. [Sep 2020, p.36]

It's a sharp turn to the left for Swift and a fine reminder that she is more than just a gleaming pop phenomenon, but a remarkable songwriter too. [Oct 2020, p.36]

It's by some ways the finest of the three iterations. [Oct 2020, p.36]

Sometimes diaristic, sometimes philosophical, it's a long litany of past memories and formative moments that, while demanding patience, gradually inches its way to somewhere profound. [Oct 2020, p.34]

The result is a deeply eclectic yet remarkably cohesive record that unfurls in pleasingly unpredictable ways. [Oct 2020, p.32]

They could afford to take more liberties with the musical cliches thereof: listening to Gaslighter is a bit like eating 12 courses of dessert. [Oct 2020, p.29]

Though Caravan Chateau may match the tone of society's mourning, it does so through a navel-gazing lens. [Oct 2020, p.32]

This Chicago quartet have refined the psychedelic, gothic post-punk racket of their 2018 debut into punchier, more memorable songs. [Oct 2020, p.31]

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]

Lucifer Is A Flower contains something of the narcotic mischief that made his 1978 debut such a delight. [Sep 2020, p.27]

Raw, wild, beautiful and sometimes painfully human, the results are enough to make the world a little easier to beat. [Sep 2020, p.29]

Its 10 songs sing with warmth, love, gratitude and lessons learned. [Sep 2020, p.37]

Live At Goose Lake is messy, thrilling and utterly unhinged. In other words, it's The Stooges at their best. [Sep 2020, p.44]

Hassell's immediately recognisable trumpet-playing--a tone that's feathery, flute-like, wheezing, weathered--binds everything together. [Sep 2020, p.31]