Lekman makes the kind of Nick Hornby-ish "perfect pop" that no one actually listens to. Which is a pity, because his lyrics are Cole Porter witty, and his major-key songcraft delicious. [Nov 2007, p.110]

It brims with psychedelic electro-pop of the most inventively buoyant and sweetly retro-futuristic kind. [May 2008, p.106]

This linear, orderly chronicle i s a faithful overview of the studio career nevertheless. [Sep 2011, p.100]

Marianne's back on her feet theses days, fully recovered, and while reminding us that love is pain, doesn't entirely neglect the funny bone. [Oct 2014, p.70]

Throughout the record there's a thoughtful restraint tot he compositions, swerving back and forth between quiet euphoria and shell-shocked dystopia. [Aug 2018, p.30]

Warts, ugly cousins, blazes of greatness and all, however, A Treasure makes a perfect snapshot of this ornery, shapeshifting moment. [Jul 2011, p.98]

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]

These are great songs, but Believers is all about the whole: a beautifully paced and structural album, with a powerfully singular mood. [Dec 2011, p.91]

An epic, if somewhat ruminative tone dominates. [Oct 2015, p.77]

Smith's heartfelt songs take on a more melancholic hue. [Jul 2012, p.70]

Terrific stuff. [Aug 2002, p.122]

With its innocently poignant synth melodies and fragile guitar arpeggios, You Win Again Gravity is redolent of the flashes of true beauty that the style's original practitioners sought back in the glory days. [Dec 2002, p.151]

The fact this collection of originals is inferior to 2001's Ultraglide In Black (a covers album) reveals [Mick Collins'] songwriting has never matched his energy. [Nov 2003, p.118]

Poppily uplifting, Us is an album with drowning depths. [Apr 2003, p.114]

Addresses the stained beauty of all things LA via psychedelic washes of keys, honking sax and country stomp. [May 2004, p.100]

A collection of cobwebbed country and chamber-pop spiked with dark wit, it peaks with "Flirted With You All My Life", a dialogue with the reaper that Chesnutt handles with impressive dignity. [Nov 2009, p. 83]

Her aching voice is more lived in than her years suggest. [Jul 2011, p.92]

Both fierce and mellow, this is smooth-jazz with an alluringly punky heart. [Sep 2011, p.96]

Fletcher's three-chord trick comes up trumps once more, every sha-la-la-la, every woah-woah. [Nov 2012, p.85]

Life & Times is a winning showcase of their uptempo moods. [Jan 2013, p.77]

Occasionally things get somewhat overcooked into Del Ray-ish melodrama. The More understated moments--"Fool" and "All Of Me"--are beautiful, slow-burning torch songs. [May 2013, p.68]

Hardy's voice is considerably less breathy than in her '60s and '70s heyday, though it now has a pleasing steeliness to it. [May 2013, p.72]

At times it recalls the hyper-vivid, motorik jazz of Stereolab circa Cobra And Phases; elsewhere, it's closer to Tropicalia given a 21st-Century re-boot. But the very best songs here incorporate everything, unexpectedly changing shade. [Nov 2013, p.75]

The joy is in how much of it there is to listen to, with constant change in tempo, instrument and texture that manage to maintain an overall coherence while keeping everybody from getting bored. [May 2014, p.79]

It's all gracefully wrought. [Jul 2014, p.73]

As ever, there's great appeal in his stage patter, where he tests the tension between catharsis and awkwardness.... But he never skimps on emotion. [Sep 2014, p.74]

The addition of bassist Bi;ll Herzog lends Earth a gnarliness absent in recent folk-inflected outings. [Oct 2014, p.71]

Ben Glover makes his fifth album a bringing-it-all-back-home beauty. [Oct 2014, p.73]

Chubbed Up+ feels like a bit of a stopgap between this year's Divide And Exit and a new album scheduled for early next year, but it nonetheless has much to recommend it. [Jan 2015, p.92]

Magazine 13 flits between Art OF Noise preset chintz, serene Vangelis miniatures and serrated Knife-like techno primitivism with such aplomb that it's tempting to view this as either a very good inside joke or striking outsider art. [Jan 2015, p.67]

Some of these pieces are more like performance art works than songs. [Feb 2015, p.83]

It may be their best yet. [May 2015, p.71]

Tightly wound--easygoing but uptight; the work of a man still striving for a modest kind of perfection. And--not for the first time--with Still he has almost achieved it. [Jul 2015, p.65]

Throughout All tense Now Lax the trio engage in a deep sensory confusion, with pieces appearing and then disappearing as though you're fleetingly tuning in on their wavelength, divining a moment from endless, shrouded recording sessions. [Sep 2015, p.76]

He's an engaging singer-songwriter whose instinctive, winning wryness takes the edge off some occasionally ruggedly confessional material. [Apr 2016, p.69]

The retro musical mood on Happy Rabbit fits the lyrical tone. [Jan 2017, p.24]

Little Fictions is the sound of a band doing what it's always done, and doing it with style. [Mar 2017, p.28]

Luther and Cody Dickinson strip it back on Prayer For Prayer, recording in a half-dozen American cities and viscerally capturing the widespread unease. [Jul 2017, p.35]

The four collaborations her with Brit-soul Omar are rather dated pieces of junglist-tinted acid jazz, but elsewhere Pine's orthodox, instrumental ballads are exquisite and well-written. [Dec 2017, p.30]

"To Shave The Leaves. In Red. In Black" is a frankly terrifying piece of spartan, gothic metal, where Gustafsson sounds like he's mutilating a hymn on the tenor sax. Best of all is the fidgety, one-chord funk of "Washing Your Heart In Filth," where Andreas Werliin sounds like three drummers playing at once. [Mar 2018, p.25]

Things get chewier with "Tax To Your Head," as the trip gets a little heavier--musically as well as lyrically--eventually leading to gorgeous love song "Waitin'" and the pensive "Sitting On The First Rock From The Sun." [Aug 2018, p.24]

Lovely, languid melodies disguise bleak sentiments on Erin Rae's solo debut. [Jul 2018, p.34]

The five instrumental tracks are luminescent master classes in intuitive ensemble playing, too, Lloyd's sax as lyrical as Williams' poetry and matched by the inventiveness of the Marvels. [Aug 2018, p.30]

The spacious, Neil Young-ian rumbling of the title track and the bulked-up power-pop of "Spiked Flower" both see co-founders Adam Franklin and Jimmy Hartridge venture beyond the template of Raise and Mezcal Head without making the faithful worry they've ditched their distortion pedals. [Feb 2019, p.34]

There's an equally brutal, pulverising mix of guitars and electronics elsewhere, but they surprise more often than not. [Jun 2019, p.34]

White has found his sweet spot in the downhome elegance of Nashville's golden age, collaborating with venerable songwriters Whisperin' Bill Anderson and Booby Braddock, while Muscle Shoals bass legend David Hood anchors his studio band. [May 2019, p.37]

This is vintage Roberts, rich poetry couched in spare, beautiful, quietly adventurous arrangements. [Oct 2019, p.36]

It's his terrific wordplay--sharp, funny, poignant and much more--that really dazzles. [Dec 2019, p.29]

Mind Hive follows a more varied set of strategies that yield both the dreamy haze of "Unrepentant" and the punishing grind of the eight-minute "Hung." [Feb 2020, p.35]

Fu Chronicles is further proof that Antibalas is the best Afrobeat group in the West. [Mar 2020, p.23]

Though not as daring as the Pole's free-jazz output, this gilded modular synthesis is a safe and satisfying listen that pushes him into another realm. [Mar 2020, p.37]

It's romantic, it's exhilarating. [Jul 2020, p.26]

Delicately powerful stuff. [Aug 2020, p.27]

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

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]

Picks up where 2015's Justin Vernon-helmed If I Was Left Off, as their three-part blood harmonies form the shimmering centre of an elaborate, album-long soundscape. [Mar 2021, p.37]

A welcome return. [Apr 2021, p.27]

Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows is soaked in a peculiar English melancholy. ... Best of all is the closer “Particles”, one of Albarn’s finest melodies, a woozy, drumless ballad based around a pretty Wurlitzer electric piano riff and a creepy electronic drone that gives the song a hymn-like quality. [Dec 2021, p.22]

So well-crafted is his music, so fleshed out are his concepts, that you can perhaps see why he’s chosen not to hitch his sounds to another’s vision. An album like Entangled Routes doesn’t need to be tied to moving images to reach its potential. Press play and it works its magic, imprinting its strange and fantastic visions direct onto your mind’s eye.

Good vibes are much in abundance. [Dec 2021, p.31]

The follow-up, recorded in isolation during lockdown, has a mellower, be-thankful-for-what-we've-got vibe. [Apr 2022, p.35]

Embellished with hints of country and Southern soul, it belongs to the same school of forlorn pop classicism favoured by Dennis Wilson or Emit Rhodes. [Apr 2022, p.29]

It’s an affirmation of their relationship and personal and creative identities in an(other) electronic-soul set with muted beats and a meditative, rather than impassioned bent, though no less righteous for that. [Jun 2022, p.29]

Mixing classic covers (Big Joe Williams’ “Crawling King Snake”, Charlie Patton’s “Pea Vine Blues”) with his ‘new’ compositions, lyrical advances into commonplace blues melodies like “When The Frisco Left the Shed”, there’s timelessness in every note here, every expression. [Jul 2022, p.29]

“De-Hibernate”’s depths are murky but its surfaces sparkle, “Does It Go Dark?”s sludgy drones answer in the affirmative (before changing their mind), and “Haze Loops” drifts past in a beautiful blur swaddled in echoing, blissed-out guitars. [Sep 2022, p.30]

The Arkestra's rich, gestalt thinking makes these pieces simmer and spark, building ritualistic power. [Nov 2022, p.36]

"Ready To RUn" and "Nobody Knows" are particular highlights, and "Wild Horses II" joins their own immortal "Emmylou" in the top tier of country songs about country music. [Dec 2022, p.26]

Perhaps closest to his spiritual essence. [Dec 2022, p.29]

The whole world's in crisis and Oozing Wound see no reason to ese off their righteous assault now, though their fifth flashes dark humour in titles. [Feb 2023, p.32]

Her debut full-length retains the intimacy of those bedroom recordings [on Soundcloud] while making good on their promise, with cleaner melodies and production texture pulled from the pop, hip-hop and indie music. [Jun 2023, p.31]

As autobiographies go, it's fairly oblique but no less intriguing for it. [Jul 2023, p.36]

Suitably laid back and gently psychedelic, unhurried guitars wringing through the breeze, harmonies washed in from The Notorious Bryd Brothers. [Sep 2023, p.32]

It's a warm, modestly confident record with elegant touches, and one that spits out occasional sparks, too. [Sep 2023, p.27]

The biggest spiritual influence is The Kinks, another band adept at exploring London’s darker undercurrents. On Theatre Of The Absurd…, Madness gleefully peer through the net curtains of life, revealing the moth-eaten carpets and peeling wallpaper obscured by the elaborate facades we all hide behind. [Dec 2023, p.24]

Skillfully blending soft and harsh sonic moments: heartbreak, anxiety, lust. [Jan 2024, p.30]

Yummy can be lyrically awkward as Tim Booth addresses conspiracy theories and digital addition. Often, though, influences brewed via innocent '80s indie and lusty Emo ambience spark arresting hybrids. [Apr 2024, p.35]

Jain often subverts the placid mood with playful details, like the fractalised vocals that fill "Our Touching Tongues" or the synth arpeggios that add a sprightly energy throughout. [Apr 2024, p.35]

Their largely extemporised debut traverses free jazz, drone, spiritual music and experimental rock, establishing moods from contemplative to panicky and eruptive. [Jun 2024, p.29]

There’s a sometimes bipolar feel to the 10 original tracks, particularly the first half, before the four singles crash in to save the day. .... Sleevenotes, memorabilia, alternate takes, B-sides and demos galore, although vibrant live cuts such as a 1979 tear through “Message In A Bottle” offer the most value beyond curiosity.

For all Metheny’s experiments with electronics, or the orchestral sweep of albums such as 2020’s Dream Box, these solo pieces on baritone string guitar contain his essence of mellow melodicism and romance. [Aug 2024, p.38]

It’s their most reflective and measured set yet, a record of personal experiences with broad-spectrum resonance for our peculiar times, still charged with the thrill of creativity. [Aug 2024, p.33]

Running the gamut from freakbeat to post-Sabbath blues rock to dark prog invention. [Sep 2024, p.50]

This Is BASIC plays as galvanising and gleeful, not only to audience effect but clearly for its makers, too. In all of that, it’s anything but. [Oct 2024, p.32]

A sense of tin-pot invention run through You're Only Young Once. [Review of the Year 2024, p.35]

As with most ambient works, English's LP plays best as a set piece, through gauzy, soft-gushing epic "V" is a particular beauty. [Jan 2025, p.34]

Though this set is necessarily reflective, nostalgia and self-pity don't get a look in. [Apr 2025, p.33]

"Where Are You?" confirms they mean business, if in peak Simple Minds manner. [Oct 2025, p.24]

A curious hybrid. Side One is a series of haunting instrumentals. .... Side Two sees his chamber jazz outfit provide delicate accompaniment for assorted vocalists. [Nov 2025, p.36]

These deceptively simple, acoustic songs of nature, family and love, so spritely they sometimes only narrowly escape mawkishness, could be centuries old, but sound as if they're being sung for the first time. [Review of the Year 2025, p.21]

An album of gently textured art pop, the lightness of her voice and almost ethereal sounds in direct contrast to the diaristic darkness of lyrics that explore raw, familial emotions. [Mar 2026, p.29]

Julie takes lead on a few numbers, but otherwise this is raw, classic Childish. [May 2026, p.29]

This incarnation features plenty of impressive fusion pyrotechnics from guitarist John Etheridge and saxophonist Theo Travis, but the highlights dig deep into Soft Machine's legacy. [Mar 2026, p.36]

If you can forgive Condon’s mannered delivery and overabundance of drunken waltz rhythms, this is an audacious experiment in cultural appropriation, an enchanting musical holiday in someone else’s misery.

For all its easy charms, Triplicate labours its point to the brink of overkill. After five albums' worth of croon toons, this feels like a fat full stop on a fascinating chapter. [May 2017, p.22]

This follow-up is cleaner, from the grand arrangements to the lyrics about true love rather than tits and ass, but is never bland. [Nov 2012, p.71]

The voice is all Gainsbourg. [Dec 2017, p.27]