Authoritatively cements the status of Granduciel's Philadelphia-based sextet as the best American rock band to emerge in the 2010s. [Jan 2021, p.33]

The performance of a lifetime. [Dec 2020, p.27]

A brash and confident rebirth. [Dec 2020, p.31]

Dreamy found-sound interludes weave the whole thing together, demanding headphones and space. [Jan 2021, p.23]

Its songs run more freely and push at greater abstraction, without losing melodic strength. [Jan 2021, p.27]

A more concise affair [than II], with only one of its six tracks over eight minutes. It's also more laid-back. [Jan 2021, p.28]

There’s no brave new frontier here – and perhaps in these strange times many of us don’t really want to be challenged. Rather, these simple pleasures, full of reassurance and a satisfying indulgence, will keep us warm while we adjust to the ‘new normal’ – whatever that may eventually turn out to be.

They're breaking no new personal ground, then but. ... Their enthusiasm and wayward energy carry them. [Jan 2021, p.27]

This is the sound of celebration of life, and of music escaping confinement and coming to be freed. [Dec 2020, p.20]

A gorgeous melding of taut psychedelics, hazy Americana and a drop of the dreamier fringes of Britpop. [Dec 2020, p.36]

Attempts several tasks at once - and pretty much delivers on all of them. [Jan 2021, p.47]

Prophet's approach is tailored to suit, exploring modern and antique mythology through the vernacular of folk music. Despite the stylistic departure, The Land That Time Forgot is busy enough to accommodate trace elements of the roots-rock that made his reputation. [Jul 2020, p.28]

Play loud, and be transported. [Jan 2021, p.32]

It's a deeply personal and poignant exploration of loss. [Jan 2021, p.27]

The band's most orchestral album yet. [Jan 2021, p.25]

The likes of "Gadigal Land" and "First Nation" evoke an earlier Oils, circa the seething post-punk of "Head Injuries" - though the show is stolen by Alice Skye, who takes lead on the poised protest ballad "Terror Australia." [Jan 2021, p.28]

They sound positively in-your-face rather than isolated on garagey, throbbing stomps. [Jan 2021, p.27]

It's a nuanced handling of some of her recent song obsessions. [Jan 2021, p.27]

As ever, it's as unpredictable as it is beguiling. [Jan 2021, p.31]

Disco is too much of a safe, shiny, frictionless crowd-pleaser to deliver much more than mildly entertaining retro pastiche. [Jan 2021, p.31]

Certainly it is a record of two halves, its first batch of corroded box jams smothered in hiss, including two listless cuts with Sampha. [Jan 2021, p.21]

A set of well-crafted songs that resemble PJ Harvey's collaborations with John Parish, but which mainly recall various stages of David Bowie's career. [Oct 2020, p.29]

Leans heavily on the conceptual, but its 13 tracks can be enjoyed regardless of any familiarity with themes of Greek legends and seasonal cycles. [Dec 2020, p.30]

It's the smoother, almost surfy, tones of tracks like "Deep Infatuation" and "Earl & Duke" that offer a pleasing change of tone from the familiar indie racket. [Dec 2020, p.29]

Lamentations furthers Basinski's reputation as an empathetic conduit of tragedy, mirroring societal tribulation as a necessary act of communal release. [Dec 2020, p.27]

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]

Chris Stapleton rides roughshod over country music formulas on Starting Over, with assistance from a pair of Heartbreakers. [Dec 2020, p.39]

The Pylon Box is filled with moments that are equally exhilarating; evidently, what was feasible for Pylon was extraordinary by anyone else’s measure.

As odd and beautiful as it is thoughtful and contemplative. [Dec 2020, p.39]

Summerteeth captures the band as they shed the last vestiges of their alt-country beginnings and introduce the ingredients that would catch fire on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. [Dec 2020, p.53]

Nothing like previous portentous epics. This reissue comes with a bunch of interesting outtakes. [Dec 2020, p.47]

Plenty of liturgic rumbling, but it really works when she aims for something greater. [Dec 2020, p.39]

Through its grooves she invites the listener inside her world without the glow of a screen, a much needed respite from Zoom. [Dec 2020, p.27]

There's a surprising warmth to his work here as he gradually fills and empties out these eight immaculately sculpted soundscapes. [Dec 2020, p.36]

Most of the radical reinterpretations land wide of T-Rextasy. [Oct 2020, p.39]

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

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]

There are moments of real beauty, like the tenderly plucked "Of Unsent Letters," but what might be comfort via familiarity for some may well be lacking in evolution for others. [Dec 2020, p.29]

It holds together remarkably well, and has an atmosphere at least as distinctive and beguiling as that of, say, Punch The Clock or The Juliet Letters. It isn't typical Elvis Costello album, but then they never are. [Dec 2020, p.24]

Overall, this is a lavish, well-produced affair that still finds room for the kinks and chaos of the Arkestra. [Nov 2020, p.34]

Amidon's spry banjo and sky-blue voice give this music a gentle centre, light on ego or affection. [Dec 2020, p.27]

Droning brass, atmospheric melodies and Cross's otherworldly vocals blend to absorbing effect on the lush, wild "Ocotillo," while on "Breaking Waves Like A Stone," the vocals lift the melody out of frantic, piano-driven chaos. [Nov 2020, p.33]

Eight relatively streamlined stoner-rock cuts. ... But Fuzz are best when they embrace ridiculousness. [Nov 2020, p.29]

Delights and distresses, packed with musical flourishes and finely drawn lyrics. [Nov 2020, p.33]

This albums marries Tweedy's mature emotional outlook to the workaday manners of Uncle Tupelo or the Woody Guthrue project, Mermaid Avenue. [Dec 2020, p.34]

The 10 tracks eventually sliced from Wildflowers don’t seem to have been culled for any coherent rhyme or reason: the virtues of the original album are abundant among the omitted tracks. ... Of the three further discs available for big spenders, the home demos and alternate versions are – as is usually the way of these things – mostly likely to be listened to once, out of curiosity. But there are charming moments among the demos.

Their most multi-layered yet subtle work so far. ... The result is unshowily spectacular. [Nov 2020, p.34]

Her lyrics and voice remain major draws. ... Soothing balms following the drama of Songs. [Nov 2020, p.26]

Some of the most effortlessly insightful songs in the modern country-folk canon. [Nov 2020, p.37]

At times it hits harder and heavier than anything they've attempted before. [Nov 2020, p.32]

The new album is singular in its conception and an impressive leap forward in terms of execution. [Nov 2020, p.20]

If the duo seem unfocused, their adventurous variety is beguiling. [Dec 2020, p.29]

What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down? is no return to the glory days, it is a credible reprise of their old-school rolling and one-two punch, spiked with heavy psychedelic guitar. [Dec 2020, p.36]

It's lo-fi ambience sometimes sound submerged, suiting a report from deep in life's wreckage. [Dec 2020, p.35]

Throughout, she pulls no punches, her razor-sharp lyrics demonstrating a singular wit and vulnerability. [Dec 2020, p.35]

Electric guitars crackle at the edge of the mix like Caribbean lightning, Jay Gonzalez's "Oliver's Army" piano glittering in the gathering storm. "Tough To Go" is from the Memphis sessions. Doom-laden drumbeats, gloomy organ and blasts of wracked guitars punctuate a song about disenchantment, lost opportunities, stacked odds. [Dec 2020, p.32]

Fear Of Death plays mortality for dark laughs, while The Lemon Twigs and Foxygen's Jonathan Rado help Heidecker to whip up a note-perfect Randy Newman sound. [Dec 2020, p.30]

All in all, it’s a beautiful record – and one that bears repeated plays. I’ve been playing it for around 10 days now, mostly on headphones, and it’s still revealing new details with each listen.

It's at times crushingly heavy, but there's a cerebral knottiness to the arrangements, and Chino Moreno's vocal boasts a windswept melancholy harking back to the new romantics. [Dec 2020, p.29]

Songs about divorce, disillusionment and middle-aged spread combine vintage singer-songwriter styles with languidly funky scribbles of guitar. [Dec 2020, p.27]

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

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]