Thrillingly perma-bored, sarcastic and suffused with the stench of inadequately ventilated student accommodation. [May 2018, p.28]

Ghostly, atmospheric, intense, Colt is an impressive, if somewhat remote, debut. [Jul 2018, p.37]

Beyond some odd interjections, like the junglist mania that ruptures the middle of "Divide Now," here Willner does his usual, glorious thing. [Nov 2018, p.29]

Every track hits its target. [Jan 2019, p.27]

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]

It's striking to hear just how confident the trio now are, and how interwoven their playing is. [Aug 2019, p.18]

Some of them meet him in his world, while others drag him into theirs. ... A third way to approach these songs: Fiona Apple and Robbie Fulks manage to pretend that their world is Mose's. [Jan 2020, p.24]

Nothing is forced and no sound is extraneous on this desert-dry, whisper-close 12-song set. [Apr 2020, p.30]

This is an impeccably put-together record. [Apr 2020, p.37]

Retains the fullness and amiability of his richest work. [Aug 2020, p.33]

"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]

Album highlight "White Sands" is a soundtrack in miniature, the acoustic and electronic tones combining like a neon-streaked empty road. [Feb 2021, p.37]

Returns to the more familiar detuned space of their debut LP Taste, thundercloud guitar squall and all. [Apr 2021, p.34]

Once again transforms himself from a nerdy Clark Kent to a kickass retro-soul man, shapeshifting through Promenade Blue's 11 period-piece originals. [May 2021, p.35]

Attains orchestral grandeur on intricate set pieces. [Sep 2021, p.28]

The potency of Adams' guitar-playing is familiar enough, but he also emerges for the first time s a fine singer, with a deep nd bluesy growl which bears the influence of his years backing Plant. [Dec 2021, p.23]

A record that is heavy on textures and atmospherics. [Mar 2022, p.36]

A record that acts as both a good-humour history lesson and a rousing party-starter for future generations to discover. [May 2022, p.22]

GBV’s second of 2022 is another LP packed full of charm, imagination and winning tunes. [Aug 2022, p.26]

Some thoroughly arresting moments that fall midway between Justin Vernon and Scott Walker. [Nov 2022, p.26]

Here his [Vieux's] guitar melts audaciously into Khruangbin's spacey atmospherics and futuristic R&B. [Nov 2022, p.38]

If it lacks the politicised urgency of previous 21st-century Hunter albums, or much surprise, his faith in a rock'n'roll cause first signed up to in the '50s has its own majesty. [Jun 2023, p.31]

This is about consistency of themes and mood over time, reimagined by a man reckoning with his past and drawing new light to the deepest of cuts. [Jan 2024, p.38]

The most affecting songs are the drum-less, spacious, guitar-led numbers: the spartan ragtime of "Boots Of A Soldier", or the wonderfully Tom Waits-ish waltz "The Knowing". [Aug 2024, p.32]

The expansive Pomegranate sees Parks explore a swirling, neo-psychedelic landscape, against which she sets husky, whispering vocals that can’t help but recall Mazzy Star. There’s some great, imaginative songwriting here. [Dec 2024, p.37]

Curlicues of psychedelia also lap intermittently at the edges, once again making for a gloriously idiosyncratic listen. [Jan 2025, p.41]

Though the apple doesn't fall far from the electronic/art-rock tree, the writing isn't as fully realised as TVOTR's and the playing lacks their meaty resonance. [May 2025, p.27]

This is a wonderful, creative fusion of pop, electronica and more experimental styles. [Dec 2025, p.37]

Her own material is far less raucous [than The Pogues], but the introspection is laced with dark humour and spurred on by her storytelling instincts. [Jan 2026, p.36]

Altin Gün's more psychedelic tendencies are less overt this time around, though there's still plenty to enjoy. [Mar 2026, p.25]

Like Faye Webster or Wednesday's Karly Hartzman, Cornfield makes every line count. [Apr 2026, p.28]

Whether you choose to hold the eco themes in mind or simply revel in its textures, Requiem is a gripping listen, a powerful late work from a veteran who has weathered more storms than most. [May 2026, p.24]

Pharrell is just one of the 11 producers on a record that shows Kidjo's full range. [Jun 2026, p.28]

Silver Age revisits Sugar's thick-set pop style. [Nov 2012, p.79]

Ackerman's psych-mangling songs covers a riveting emotional and sonic range. [Dec 2008, p.92]

While Pilbeam's gorgeous, dreamy melodies remain her main strength, a longer running time give her space to play with different ideas. [Jul 2019, p.29]

Mostly Cracker Island maintains Gorillaz' 23-year-old comic-book conceit. The 2D band make ageless pop that shapeshifts to suit the era, be it the sunny reggaeton of "Tormenta" (featuring Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny) or the dreamy AOR of "Oil" (featuring Stevie Nicks). [Apr 2023, p.28]

As dazzling as it is diverse. [May 2020, p.25]

As familiar as a hug from an old friend. Yet the band's knack for colliding pop melodies with thrashing drums, pummelling bass and screeching guitars is as effective as ever. [May 2021, p.25]

Every one of these songs is a big-hearted meditation on love and sex and faith and especially healing, as though what roots us to our own lands is loss and grief and recovery. [Feb 2023, p.34]

There's a sustained congruence about the rhythms and textures that make The Take Off and Landing of Everything seem like an extended and mediation on certain musical and lyrical themes. [Apr 2014, p.72]

The Staten Island quartet blend the fixtures and fittings of noisy US slacker rock--Sonic Youth drones, Pavement squalls--but add a bubblegum pop sensibility. Their vocalist Joseph D'Agostino, however, remains something of an acquired taste. [Oct 2016, p.26]

A soaring, Ian McLagan-dedicated Small Faces cover, "All Or Nothing," is the spiritual centrepiece of the set, but every song arrives with crisp melodies, burning guitars and impassioned vocals. [Apr 2016, p.81]

An instantly engaging album. [Apr 2026, p.24]

The world is certainly overdue proper acquaintance with The Constantines. [Nov 2005, p.98]

It’s an instantly captivating set – 10 resonant but unfussy songs distinguished by a balance of up-close intimacy and understatedly elegant composition, attuned to the power of repetitive flow.

Self-serious and low on humour, Suede sometimes mistake bigness for greatness, but they still generate enough lusty passion to set pulses racing and hearts aflame. [Feb 2016, p.83]

This ingenious successor to Computer World is enough to almost make one look forward to the coming robot wars. [Mar 2021, p.35]

There's a sense these weren't quite good enough for the main event - alternate versions - but even off-cuts "Memory Leak" and "Math Of You" swirl and swoon with a euphoric giddiness that comes with discovering new zones of pleasure. [Aug 2023, p.25]

This is all very impressive stuff. [Feb 2015, p.80]

While Pang!, totalling just under half an hour, doesn't have the conceptual strengths of Babelsberg or American Interior, it's nevertheless a delight to hear Rhys once again embracing the possibilities of technology and harnessing modern, global sounds to enhance his unique vision. [Oct 2019, p.37]

As disaster mounts for these ill-prepared moderns, the soft '70s New Orleans brass of "Through This Night" is among the musical balms. [Dec 2025, p.33]

He concocts a series of dazzling interior epics with just a fingerpicked acoustic guitar and his echo-drenched voice. [Nov 2006, p.101]

The LP's seven originals are solid, but the five country covers hit with sweaty immediacy. [Feb 2014, p.95]

McMahon has the same eye for poetically absurd detail as her compatriot Courtney Barnett. [Sep 2019, p.29]

Unhurriedly crafted songs full of bona fide thrills, unexpected twists, and an elegant but never gratuitous grandeur. [Mar 2023, p.33]

Folk bends under their queries, but doesn't break. [Jan 2025, p.31]

The album which confirms that the older, wiser Dinosaur Jr--Dinosaur Sr, if you will--compete on quality as well as quantity. [Sep 2016, p.73]

Boys Outside is truly lovely, Mason's finest solo record, but it's safe to say an album of sentimental ballads may not satisfy those who still hanker after the maverick, impulsive spirit of The Beta Band. [May 2010, p.95]

To be filed alongside the Root's recent Phrenology. [Mar 2003, p.95]

Musically more diverse, and lyrically as vulnerable as it is vitriolic. [Jun 2003, p.91]

Over-the-top histrionics are nicely downplayed by the lo-fi indie faction. [Dec 2003, p.124]

His folky, cello-soaked songs will appeal to David Gray devotees. [Oct 2003, p.116]

The tone is generally one of mild encouragement, of jollying-along the reluctant participants in this most fraught of celebrations, as indicated by titles like "Hey Guys! It's Christmas Time!" and "It's Christmas! Let's Be Glad!".

Monsters Of Folk ends as captiatingly as it starts. [Oct 2009, p.99]

The edges may be sharper, the outlook less austere and self-contained, but Villagers are still defined by songs which deliver hook upon hook. [Feb 2013, p.82]

Deja Bu, but a thrill worth experiencing again. [Oct 2014, p.77]

Although the album was written and recorded at a time of severe international strife, Taylor maintains an aura of studied and reassuring calm on “It Will If We Let It”, “Glory Strums” and outstanding closer “Sanctuary”. [Jul 2021, p.27]

["Around The Horn"] inflates over a final few minutes into something uniquely epic. ... Lyrically, it's pretty baffling where "These Rocks," one of the albums' standout tracks, is the most openly confessional song Houck has written, set to a churchy musical swell, congregational and healing, the sound of a lifetime burden lifted by love. [Nov 2018, p.28]

His willingness to scribble over the pretty surfaces of his songs brings a bristling edge to his Beatlesque pop. [Feb 2008, p.79]

There's a winning mix of mist and muscle on this debut. [Jul 2016, p.69]

[A] sonically rich, mostly great album. [Jan 2017, p.28]

The formula remains potent. [Aug 2015, p.71]

Their inimitable fury and drive is intact. [Sep 2019, p.18]

Their ability to turn despair to joy even stretches as far as being able to turn a song called "Everybody Dies" into a thrilling, fuzzed-out blast. [Sep 2025, p.39]

An explicitly confessional record attempting to make sense of, and give vent to, a degree of personal turbulence. [Jan 2026, p.25]

The Walkmen are weathering the iPhone age with panache. [Jul 2012, p.85]

Album lurches bizarrely from the heart-rending to the goofy to the simply spaced-out, but what it lacks in polish it makes up for with buckets of charm.

A couple thin tracks aside, Exile is a richly layered sonic feast slathered in alluringly discordant noises. [Sep 2017, p.26]

The King of Limbs passes like a breeze, and has you skipping back to the start as soon as the final track fades out. [May 2011, p.90]

The Julie Ruin are best when playing it a little goofy. [Nov 2013, p.74]

Their sixth sees Mark Ronson step in as producer on all but two tracks, and although he;s resisted the temptation to slather on Stax horns and apply his slick finish, he's given this tough, roughly energetic band focus and finesse. [Aug 2011, p.79]

Despite a perennial weakness for soppy whimpering, Blake always delivers spine-tingling jewel-box beauty. [Nov 2023, p.25]

What's surprising is how structured it is, even if little will have been recognisable to devotees. The pleasures lie not only in lengthy stretches where they lock together instinctively. ... It's also in the tension leading to these moments. [Jan 2022, p.38]

A wonderful pop album that reads as both a studied tribute and a welcome update. [Apr 2023, p.35]

It's like John Bonham playing with Can, or Floyd-meet-Spiritualized with a barely repressed pop consciousness. [Jul 2004, p.95]

The finest moments... prove to be the same stripped-down verbally deft hip-hop that made their name. [Oct 2005, p.100]

Snaith's take on minimal dance music is brighter and more immediate [than his Fabric mix in 2007]. [Sep 2017, p.24]

An unqualified triumph. [Jun 2006, p.122]

His keen-eared blending of Beatles-style melodies and psych jangle with the snarling attitude of Mudhoney and Melvins' malevolent heaviness is oddly invigorating. [Nov 2012, p.81]

A downbeat and occasionally poetic work with some unexpected reference points. [Oct 2013, p.71]

On Apricity, Syd Arthur brings a blessedly light touch to their breezy psych. [Dec 2016, p.38]

K Bay probes the Richmond, VA-based artist's teeming psyche while advancing his anything-does record-making style. [Oct 2021, p.34]

"When The End Is Over" offers a glimpse of his sweetly ruminative side, but the amped-up riffs and recorded-in-a-garage fidelity keep things firmly in the red. [May 2023, p.32]

The many versions of that song [Ballad Of A Thin Man] sprinkled throughout the discs illustrate the fluctuations of interpretation, form and commitment that were a feature of Dylan’s first tour in eight years, unremarked at the time but now on full view. [Nov 2024, p.48]

It's notable for uncensored emotional gloom and an evergreen college sound. [Feb 2024, p.37]

A soulful, adventurous, state-of-the-nation classic. [Apr 2013, p.73]

While themes of race and gender are woven into this richly sensual second, notably the defiant spoken-word piece “Changes”, they do not define her kaleidoscopic work overall. [Dec 2021, p.29]