A funny, peculiar, epic piece of pop minimalism that could be no-one else but Hannon. [Jul 2019, p.27]

In melding ethereal production with clarion narratives, Korkejian has created a beautifully dynamic work. [Jun 2019, p.24]

The two CDs from SIR Rehearsals in New York find Dylan in what might be described as his element. Which is to say, at the centre of a certain amount of chaos. His Approach to rehearsal is at best relaxed, if not entirely whimsical. [Jul 2019, p.44]

Lyrically, Rodgers can be stilted and adolescent at times, but she hits the sweet-spot on the compellingly stern electro-goth chant "Disgrace" and the terrific title track. [Jul 2019, p.33]

Robust, sparkly. [Jul 2019, p.24]

It's surprisingly polite, at times. [Jun 2019, p.34]

Richard Hawley hasn't strayed too far from a successful formula. What he does introduce is a deliberate sens e of brevity, keeping songs tight and focused. [Jul 2019, p.29]

Though Depayse's lyrics are often weighty, the music is energetic and raw, a contrast that speaks to the immigrant experience writ large. [Jul 2019, p.34]

Transience might just be his late-career peak--a deliciously sour, sarky and occasionally moving study of modern life and his place in it. [Jun 2019, p.37]

Perry's cartoonish persona can grate, so it's refreshing to hear him speak from the heart on Rainford. [Jun 2019, p.32]

Hushed and humble, it's dominated by her Stina Nordenstam vocal style. [Jul 2019, p.30]

The title track's mod R&B struts with the confidence of a band whose last album hit the Top 10. [Jun 2019, p.37]

It's the change of pace and mood on the reflective "How Far" that marks Run Around The Sun as a real advance. [Jul 2019, p.34]

Opening cut "I Got You" promises faith and solidarity "even if they start to build that wall," and both the strident funk of "Above The Law" and the testifying "Pressure" lament the rise of inner-city crime. [May 2019, p.30]

Placid moments abound. ... But "Spoot Ebb's" syncopated, Penguin Cafe rhythms indicate choppier waters, and "Flattie," introduce by poet Will Burns, hints at dark, incoming clouds. [Jun 2019, p.27]

Barlow's spiky, spindly diary entries remain an abject lesson for indie losers everywhere. [Jun 2019, p.34]

He dips toes in the blues, country, R&B and rockabilly without ever really grabbing your attention. [Jun 2019, p.27]

Diviner retains much of what Wild Beasts did best. [Jul 2019, p.37]

Stina Tweeddale is very good at this punky Caledonian take on US bubblegum pop. [Jul 2019, p.29]

Drummer and percussionist Adrienne Davies again lays down a solid foundation for Carlson's slow motion riffage on instrumentals that eschew the more ornate sensibility of recent efforts in favour of a leaner, meaner kind of swagger. [Jun 2019, p.27]

Their debut burns through 11 tracks in 27 minutes like acetylene torch burns through butter, as spin-on-a-dime tight as it is exhilaration unsubtle. But there's more to Amyl than visceral wallop--namely Amy Taylor. [Jun 2019, p.23]

The journey takes a variety of fascinating detours along the way, not least the digressive folk-prog of "Pretty Little Lazies" and "Boogie Lover's" spacey approximation of classic Hawkwind. [Jun 2019, p.24]

A flawed masterpiece that infuriates as often as it dazzles. [Jul 2019, p.28]

Problems are timelessly ordinary, loneliness lightly worn, and Webster's music is enriched by her unique cultural blend. [Jun 2019, p.37]

Cate Le bon's terrific run of form continues with what must be her best album. ... She enchants at every turn. [Jun 2019, p.30]

California Son may not entirely succeed in repositioning Morrissey as a righteous protest singer, boldly crooning truth to power, but in fleeting moments like this [like on "Some Say I Got Devil"], it confirms him as a peerless modern practitioner of deep song, the pop artist who can divine, even in the work of the singer of "Brand New Key," lorca's dark, abysmal spirit of duende. [Jun 2019, p.28]

A set that ranges from funky to subdued. It's a sparser affair than the Tweedy-produced trio. adding only backing voices to a bass/drum/guitar lineup in which Harper's searching playing provides the principal, sometimes sole counterpoint to Mavis's earthy, heartfelt vocals, their power remarkably intact in her advancing years. [Jun 2019, p.22]

A surprisingly introspective album. [Jul 2019, p.37]

While some moments fee contrived to win headlines [...] it's the stories of grind under dour circumstance, such as "Grow Up" featuring Birmingham MC Jaykae, that shine the brightest. [Jul 2019, p.34]

"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]

It's a long and winding road that has brought him to the thrilling eclectic destination that is Absolute Zero. [Jul 2019, p.29]

As ever with Pollard, the energy, conviction and imagination are unnerving. [Jul 2019, p.29]

They are clearly enjoying the ride, and flexing their potential to be Brazil's most exciting musical export since Tropicalia. [Jun 2019, p.36]

His ability to combine ethereal tunes and immersive atmospherics with a hint of MBV remains strong on the likes of "Wildfire" and "howl Around"--but the emotional dynamic has been transformed by the added heft. [Jun 2019, p.30]

In less successful moments, the album idles in a mid-tempo gaze. [Jun 2019, p.30]

What's particularly impressive is the way their distinctive approaches combine. [Jul 2019, p.33]

On Holy Spring he expands the minimalist palette of his debut Distant Early Warning. [Jun 2019, p.34]

A muted affair whose punctiliousness is sweetly offset by its warm heart. [Jun 2019, p.26]

At its most interesting when their minimal electronica is almost unplugged and drumless. [Jun 2019, p.30]

Queasy nostalgia suits Clinic. ... Wheeltappers offers more of the same--but you knew that. [Jun 2019, p.26]

Serves as both a potent primer on the traumas and triumphs of life in a not-so-racial America and an enthralling demonstration of her playful musical sensibility. [Jun 2019, p.37]

Despite occasional hints of tastefully anodyne sonic wallpaper, most of these painstaking musical haikus have a quietly potent and gently mesmerising beauty. [Jun 2019, p.29]

The relentless mid-tempos at times make this epic 16-track album drag, but on the devastating "Not In Kansas" and the frantic "Where Is Her Head" Berninger once again proves himself rock's most astute and humane chronicler of everyday crises of faith. [Jun 2019, p.32]

Enderness is more of a brooding country-soul set, with the emphasis on soul. It's also more abstract. [Jun 2019, p.24]

While "Godmother" confounds with its sci-fi babble, the likes of "Alienation" and "External" suggest that a tune is a tune in any language. [Jun 2019, p.29]

The results is an album that's braver, weirder and richer than most of his more sensible and brand-conscious peers could ever manage. [Jun 2019, p.18]

She's at her most persuasive, however, on the delicate waltz of the piano-led "Too Much Of Not Enough," a shimmering showcase for one of the most alluring and arresting female voices at work today. [May 2019, p.27]

Williams, subtly shadowed by Anthony da Costa's harmonies, delivers elegantly inflective performances on these bittersweet. deeply affecting contemplations of love lost and regained. [Jun 2019, p.37]

Offering a combination of improv and discipline supplemented by anxious guitars and a vocal that often sounded like the recitation of a manifesto. [Jun 2019, p.27]

Nodding back to the Stones and The Band, these familiar sounds serve an open-souled gospel vision, rooted in upstate Nee York reality and dreams. [Jun 2019, p.27]

Lofgren's voice is crackly, but plays perfectly. [May 2019, p.30]

This is acoustic roots music at its most glorious, and Giddens is fast becoming the genre's brightest star in the firmament. [Jun 2019, p.33]

It's an upbeat trip down the boardwalk. [Jun 2019, p.30]

A stunning journey through self-discovery and rebirth, which showcases lyrical storytelling that's vivid in its precision and touching in its emotional resonance. [Jun 2019, p.37]

There's a mystical bind to UFOF that grips the listener and never lets go. [Jun 2019, p.24]

The results are exemplary. [Jun 2019, p.26]

The sound here is plastic, pliant, gentle--tonal driftwood punctuated by sun-dappled synths and ruminative piano, like Eno's Music For Airports gone miniature. [May 2019, p.37]

Cold but somehow comforting. [Jun 2019, p.27]

Fishing For Fishies encapsulates many of their musical charms, foregrounds their deeper lyrical concerns and also shows they don't need to rely on gimmicks to get their point across. [Jun 2019, p.25]

[Mettavolution] may not be quite so astral-minded or ambitious, the apr continue to impress with their ability to shift through a variety of Latin, folk and rock styles without ever taking the easy routes. [Jun 2019, p.34]

If the three-CD anthology is intended to make a case for the allure of the band's post-Tattoo You recordings, which comprise 18 of the 36 studio selections, it succeeds for the most part. ... The chief selling point, though, is the third disc, which contains 10 performances from recent tours, four of them featuring guest stars, and here, the results are decidedly mixed. [Jun 2019, p.49]

This set offers up a dozen nuggets from the heyday of Nigeria Afropop, all previously unreleased outside West Africa. [Jun 2019, p.49]

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

Despite the glistening production and seamless craft of it all, his wired intensity is often missed. [Jun 2019, p.32]

Hansard's whispery growl is something of an acquired taste, and the first half of this LP sees him aiming towards Nick Cave-style slow burning epics. ... More successful is the second half of the album. [Jun 2019, p.29]

Taken together, the songs constitute a potent set of surging alt.rock euphoria and more sombre ambience. [Jun 2019, p.24]

Never quite persuades you if it's sincerely bitter or a knowing facsimile of an early '80s break-up album. [May 2019, p.29]

Parts of the album are perfectly serviceable but largely the songs become indistinguishable. [May 2019, p.26]

Harding lays bare the pain and discomfort felt in her previous work, though the road to it is far more dynamic and winding. [May 2019, p.33]

Finn remains an astute and supremely compassionate songwriter, but musically, New War is often mellow to the point of lethargic. It's best when it showcases his deep eccentricities. [May 2019, p.27]

Producer Stephen Street deftly updates the brio of their early hits and the songs are impressive, too. [May 2019, p.27]

As with Singing Saw and City Music, a lot of time an thought has gone into ensuring Oh My God holds together. Lyrical themes are repeated, explored and teased out. [May 2019, p.22]

It's every bit as immediate and listenable as it is confident, and more buoyant overall than the sombre Modern Vampires.... It's also flighty and so wide-ranging, at times it reads like a future compilation rather than the next step from a band now into their imperial phase. [June 2019, p.35]

More mellifluous than menacing despite its formidable display of power, Life Metal may be the richest work in the band's 21-year-mission to reconfigure Tony Iommi-worthy riffage into a soundtrack for mindful meditation. [May 2019, p.34]

This daring approach at times exposes the quality of their material, but mostly this is sparkling stuff. [May 2019, p.34]

Mix[es] up The Bends and OK Computer with a pinch of late Fugazi and Talk Talk. [May 2019, p.37]

Another compellingly intimate listen. [May 2019, p.24]

This is another unhurried set of expertly played FM gold. [May 2019, p.27]

While Forsyth is mindful to retain his more spontaneous impulses, this wonderfully intense set is dominated by "Techno Top", a pounding 20-minute groove that recalls both Talking Heads and Television. [May 2019, p.29]

This audacious album succeeds not by altering Cage's distinctive identity but by exponentially amplifying it. [June 2019, p.26]

Having helped define '90s alt.rock with Pavement, Kannberg here turns felicitous rock classicist. [May 2019, p.34]

Andy Gill's guitar work is still distinctive and angular on tracks like "Toreador" and "Don't Ask Me," but the band seem intent on lending the old with the new. [May 2019, p.23]

These 10 tightly wound, mystical mini-epics are underpinned by Jared Tankel's precision horns, and Brian Profilio, whose John Bonham drums bring the black country rock. [May 2019, p.24]

Merciless perfection. [May 2019, p.30]

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]

Trent and Hearst have always been keen storytellers, digging deep into characters at loose ends, laying them out in the lyrics and then finding new depths and new sympathies in the performances. [May 2019, p.28]

A welcome fusion of past glory with 21st century arena-rocking attitude. [May 2019, p.26]

Even if the lyrical references to Greek mythology are a little nebulous, she's already created a world we believe in. [May 2019, p.29]

At first you're impressed by more robust moments such as "From Inside, Looking Out"--think Philip Glass on steroids. But further plays are to the benefit of the record's more restrained moments. [May 2019, p.37]

It's a sequence of long, ambitious, noirish, trip-hoppy soundscapes narrated by Burnett on what sounds like a phone line from hell. [May 2019, p.24]

Musically, it's not exactly mould-shattering, a blend of surf and chirpy indie rock. They're at their most effective when they deliberately fray the edges. [May 2019, p.29]

Sonically and creatively, these demos reflect their domestic environment, the realm of the historically valuable rather than the mind-blowing. [May 2019, p.38]

The sound remains satisfyingly Stax/Volt-centric yet also full of left-field touches. [May 2019, p.35]

On this debut album they already sound fully formed, despite only having come together in 2016. [May 2019, p.37]

It's a gorgeous and gutting return to Jurado's Rehearsals For Departure-era roots, wandering and bare, wielding only guitar and voice and recorded in one afternoon. [May 2019, p.30]

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]

When You're Ready is a sharply confident debut, as Tuttle proves an expressive vocalist and an idiosyncratic songwriter. [May 2019, p.37]

Idlewild throw together plenty of ideas--without much cohesion. [May 2019, p.29]