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

The songs are all traditional but are given a cool Scandinavian edge. [Mar 2013, p.75]

From Scotland With Love successfully and movingly unites past and present, old and new, sight and sound. Another diamond. [Aug 2014, p.77]

The showpiece is "Blue Remembered Hills," a 20-minute closing epic about 1970s Britian that is part musical theatre, part bittersweet lament.[Jan 2017, p.32]

These smooth edges still cut deep. [Aug 2017, p.38]

Waffles, Triangles & Jesus marks the welcome return of White the singer-songwriter, unpacking reassuringly odd, skewed narratives that offer a surrealist's view of southern life. [Dec 2018, p.26]

The second [disc], using poems and letters from World War I, is almost unbearably poignant at times. [Apr 2019, p.39]

Buoyed by intimate guitar and keyboard riffs that also recall prime Kinks, ballads of hope arise. [May 2020, p.32]

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]

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

The Bats still trade in sparse, self-effacing indie rock, and retain a talent for wringing the most sumptuous melodies from the most utilitarian of ingredients. [Dec 2020, p.27]

For intimacy and authenticity, less musical architecture often proves better. [Apr 2021, p.35]

Familiar, but still freaky. [Jul 2021, p.34]

Their second studio album of 2021 has its own idiosyncratic mood board: mariachi horns on “The Bell Gets Out Of The Way”, a string section on “High In The Rain”, unsettling séance speak on “Razor Bug”. Triumphant closer “My (Limited) Engagement”, meanwhile, sounds like (yet another) outsider art tour de force for the primary school-turned-lo-fi visionary. Never indifferent, never quite the same. [Dec 2021, p.27]

It's an interesting academic exercise that has resulted in a gently beautiful and coherent recording. [Dec 2021, p.25]

Springtime isn’t some hopeful calling card made inside the industry machine. More infernal than vernal, it’s a document – of the coming together of three old hands and kindred spirits at a time when everything around them (and us) was coming apart. [Jan 2022, p.18]

The effect is kaleidoscopic, as the music constantly moves and morphs to reveal new shapes, colours and meanings. [Jul 2022, p.31]

There’s a seam of pop here that his parent band largely lacked, which fills moments like “You Remind Me” with a warm flush of romance. [Oct 2022, p.29]

The result is quietly dizzying. [Oct 2022, p.25]

The songs about his children risk tipping over into twee, but it's hard to disparage such a warm, consoling record. [Mar 2023, p.25]

Deep and heartbreaking. [May 2023, p.35]

Deeply hermetic then, but catchy as hell, too. [Jul 2023, p.34]

His songs' unruffled, hushed intimacy is an effective tonic. [Aug 2023, p.26]

Large, slow-drifting and majestic masses splinter into smaller sonic units, analogous to the glacial movements that signify environmental change. [Review Of The Year 2023, p.24]

Co-producer Alex Goose injects some hip-hop chink and spaghetti-western vistas into the arrangements, goosing the languid rhythms, and the hooky “Time Will Tell” momentarily quells the heartache. But the hopeful notes recede on the closing barroom ballad “The Fool”, as Frazer runs out of words, leaving melancholy piano notes to signal the encroaching dusk. [Jul 2024, p.32]

With synths foregrounded for their texture and percussion a feature, they’ve shifted orientation without losing their identity. [Nov 2024, p.34]

Agreeably gruff-voiced, world-weary, Yello-ish electro-ballads dominate, but too many lyrics strain for portentous poetic melodrama, accidentally invoking Father Ted’s “My Lovely Horse” instead. [Nov 2024, p.34]

There is an innocent, infectious charm and an impressively meticulous attention to detail on stand-out hypnagogic inner-space journeys like “Emotion Engine”, “Forever Chemicals” and “Post-Truth”. [Review of the Year 2024, p.37]

In returning to their foundational style, Tunng sound as full of surprise and mystery as ever. [Jan 2025, p.41]

This is a much more expansive and impressive affair [than his 2022 debut]. [Feb 2025, p.39]

Smith sees the fragments left behind by an old songwriting mentor - paintings, cups of coffee, the gift of her first guitar - as things to be celebrated, and the same is true of these 10 fragments of herself. [Jul 2025, p.37]

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

The musicians' off-the-cuff interaction animates cartoonish songs like the boisterous "Burgundy Suit" and the woozy "Sharktooth", but Mccaughey's flights of fancy occasionally tumble into relatable coherence. [Jun 2025, p.35]

The recordings capture the band at a satisfyingly burly midpoint between Lemmy's punchiest moments on Hawkwind's Warrior on The Edge Of Time and Motörhead's eponymous debut the following year. [Sep 2025, p.46]

They keep everything buoyant, even when the songs aren't so strong. .... A more psychedelic take on "Found A Job" is the pick of the alternative versions, while an August 1978 live set from new ork's Emtermedia Theater is reliably invigorating, if not quite as vital as the CBGB stand unearthed for the Talking Heads: 77 box. [Sep 2025, p.50]

The New Eve Is Rising is a confident, adventurous debut, intuitive yet purposeful and full of reinvention’s promise. [Aug 2025, p.34]

While "Choir In The Wires" showcases Watson's forte for lustrous, wide-scope chamber pop, more characteristic is the gentle hush of "House On Fire". [Nov 2025, p.39]

There's no sign they're running out of steam. [Dec 2025, p.31]

It would make a perfect soundtrack to traversing chilly landscapes, but an emotional current runs through Fables that elevates it beyond mere background music. [Mar 2026, p.36]

These songs, still beautifully disruptive decades later show why the music outlasted the club itself. [Feb 2026, p.50]

Break It Yourself by contrast [to Noble Beast] feels like an attempt to communicate more directly and is his most affecting album yet. [Apr 2012, p.82]

Replica feels less dreamy, more disquieting. [Dec 2011, p.92]

There's something bleak about this music, but it is spacious, often epic, too. [May 2016, p.73]

Where Mavis' voice once a rangey, optimistic mezzo-soprano, her register has dropped dramatically to an emotionally rich, brassy contralto. It adds a growling intensity to lyrics that are dignified rather than angry. [Dec 2017, p.24]

Rose channels longing and romantic despair via expansive songs that owe much to the feel of classic country from the '60s and '70s. [Apr 2021, p.26]

[A] feisty, psych-tinged hook up with Tim "White Fence" Presley. [May 2012, p.80]

She takes on the Trump administration in "ByeBye25!", one landmark among many in her forward-thinking solo career. [Apr 2026, p.33]

It's a structurally savvy set stuffed with impeccably wrought pop hooks. [May 2016, p.81]

Too often the music from both sessions provides little more than gauzy atmosphere, lacking the drive and purpose of previous albums. But Cash is a deft singer and evocative songwriter. [Nov 2018, p.25]

Though still meditative, they're now more dynamic. [Jan 2020, p.24]

The band showcase their wide range on this imaginative and timely covers album. [Aug 2021, p.29]

A real beauty. [Nov 2022, p.38]

There are further pointers to the record serving as a noisy epilogue, its energy and venom a reminder of when they, and their devoted following, were much younger souls. [Sep 2024, p.39]

If Offend Maggie doesn't have quite have that idiot's glee it's nevertheless quite a riot. [Nov 2008, p.94]

Disparate but cohesive. [May 2015, p.69]

Here, his luxurious voice, weathered and warm, sits atop intuitive improvations from the likes of Christian Fennesz and Evan Parker. [Nov 2009, p.106]

Worth the wait. [Jun 2016, p.76]

Rest assured it all goes down as easy as a tequila sunrise, though Earthtones could've used more of the adventurous spirit of "So Free," a gorgeously supple eight-minute vamp. [Feb 2018, p.23]

It's transfixing and entirely dangerous. [May 2019, p.27]

Feels like a peculiar reprise of [2007's Tromatic Reflexxions]. [Mar 2020, p.35]

Four vignettes offer reminders of Brian Eno's early ambient outings. ... But the slower evolution of three longer pieces, which nonetheless maintain this aesthetic, make them more potent. [Mar 2021, p.37]

They immediately settle back into a familiar dynamic on the aptly titled opener “Let’s Do It Again”, with the band providing a lively and sympathetic soundtrack to Cartwright’s tale of loneliness and longing. They’ve learned more than a few new tricks over the years, as evidenced on the lovely psychedelic chamber-pop saga “Just Say When”, a duet with Coco Hames. [Jun 2021, p.31]

It sometimes feels here like Perry's slight contributions are being stretched a little thinly. [Dec 2021, p.31]

While not quite hitting the heights of the recent Donuts LP, it again proves his brilliant nose for hip hop's pleasure points. [Oct 2006, p.123]

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

Like Disney on methadone scored by Jack Nitzsche with a gun against his own head, trying to remember this soundtrack he once wanted to make, which teamed Judy Garland and Neil Young. [Album Of The Month] [Sept 2001, p.86]

Electric guitars squall in the climax of "Gonna Be Good," setting up the cinematic strings of "Someone New." Thereafter, however, the muted acoustic arrangements convey little of the poignancy contained in Kelly's lyrics. [Feb 2013, p.74]

Anderson's voice keeps songs like "Smoulder" feeling raw and human. [May 2014, p.73]

The rest of Mount The Air is tentative by comparison [to "Magpie"]; stylish, and extremely skillful, but a bit too much arr and not enough trad. [Mar 2015, p.68]

[A] neoclassical treat. [May 2015, p.78]

Brimming with visceral rock'n'soul that channels the spirit of The Replacements, The E Street Band and Alabama Shakes, and mixes them into an irresistibly tasty gumbo. [Jan 2016, p.77]

If you've ever swooned for the fading-light pastorals of Billie Ray Martin's 4 Ambient Tales, or the elliptical whispers of Stina Nordenstam, this album will feel very comfortable indeed. [Jan 2025, p.40]

A compellingly weird experience. [Jul 2007, p.92]

River is deeply embedded in a historical continuum. [Jun 2015, p.71]

Intimacy is still her trump card. [Dec 2021, p.26]

The Crying Light shows Antony boldly, indefatigably following his own eccentric star.

Those who like a little light and humour in their rock--or, indeed, an acknowledgement of the last 25 years of popular music--may find themselves unmoved. [Jan 2015, p.78]

Sahel Folk pushes no boundaries, but it's a charming, lo-fi set from northern Mali, delivered by a man who has been a quiet force for some years. [Feb 2011, p.103]

[A] remarkably wise and timely album. [Mar 2017, p.18]

The wry, heartfelt "Cash Up" and truly touching "Amberjack" are highlights; that he exits on the breezy, sardonic bonus track "Juliefuckingette" is a reminder, though, that yes, it's still Malkmus. [Apr 2020, p.30]

Rickety in construction, it holds up as a work of single-minded, lunatic conviction. [Aug 2013, p.61]

It's a credible step back into the ring after years on the ropes. [Apr 2013, p.66]

Murdering Oscar is all about connecting with the past, as Hood cuts loose with old and new bandmates, crafting tender paeans to his new wife and daughter, dusting down childhood memories against a backdrop of roughhouse blues, swamp-country and slow Southern soul.

He's a great country singer, armed with the sardonic humour of Todd Snider and the loping grace of Waylon Jennings. [Sep 2014, p.70]

Mostly the album's best songs are simple, contemplative and poignant. [Apr 2018, p.36]

The covers aren't impersonations. [Apr 2019, p.28]

Clear, uncluttered, minimally adorned, it works in different measures to the usual. [Oct 2023, p.31]

While "Symmetry" and "Say Hello" seem destined for pole positions on motivational playlists, such displays of ebullience are well balanced with evidence of Wye Oak's more melancholy side. [May 2018, p.37]

His style remains unequivocally distinctive on these two succinct pieces. [Apr 2018, p.32]

A serrated synthesis of goth, industrial and synth-pop conducted at a histrionic intensity, 13” Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto… sometimes feels deliberately difficult. But it is also inspired enough to be worth the effort. [Dec 2024, p.39]

Intriguing, endearing and, given time, surprisingly addictive. [Jun 2005, p.104]

Irresistible examples of Bejar's blend of soft rock, dream-pop and more idiosyncratic elements. [Mar 2020, p.27]

They're back on form, with tow long, lovely drone-outs, buzzing and huffing around an eternal monochord, and "Atropos," a gorgeous, deep, cosmic country comedown. [Nov 2018, p.30]

"Fight The Good fight" and "A Humming Void An Emptied Place" feel like sorrowful hymns, Manuck's plaintive voice swaddled in electronics, but the album's highlight is "Do The Police Embrace?." poetic polemic that recalls Springsteen in its blend of melancholy and uplift. [Jul 2019, p.33]

Laessig and Wolfe show their range on the soaring country soul of "Orange Blossoms" and demonstrate the difference between overwrought emoting and dynamic melodrama on "Final Days". [May 2025, p.33]

Wagner has achieved a fusion of the outgoing, string-driven country-soul heard on 2000's Nixon... and the reluctant intimacy of 2002's low-key Is A Woman. [combined review of both discs; Feb 2004, p. 68]

This one needed longer in the incubator. [Jun 2015, p.81]

Real Life... is a triumphant return to the dancefloor. [Feb 2010, p.90]