Notably louder than Hersh's other solo records, if it evokes anything else in her canon it's throwing Muses' furious, fabulous 1992 album Red Heaven, "Loud Mouth" and "LAX" being especially elemental eruptions. [Nov 2018, p.30]

The record plods along nicely but often drifts into forgetful or nostalgic territory, with the fuzzed-up growl of the guitars recalling the bygone mid-90s indie-rock boom. [Nov 2018, p.37]

Kikagaku Moyo sound more assured than ever on this fourth album. [Nov 2018, p.32]

Animal Companionship is a more sombre affair than it initially sounds as Ashworth uses animal love as a lens through which to dissect heartbreak and loss, broken lives and creeping morality. [Nov 2018, p.23]

Butler performs the same job that Trevor Horn did with Belle & Sebastian--adding a widescreen pop ambition to McIntyre's flinty personal tales. [Nov 2018, p.34]

Remastering these original recordings not only unmoors these songs from that particular era in rock history but also sharpens the band's attack and showcases each player's contribution to Adam's House cat's unruly sound. [Nov 2018, p.45]

The best parts of An American Treasure are the snapshots of a less self-straitened Petty. [Nov 2018, p.48]

["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]

It's an invitation to peer into the hidden spaces of an extraordinary modern songwriter, where calm and quiet moments prompt superlative work. [Nov 2018, p.32]

The set has both strength and a lean, lustrous beauty. [Nov 2018, p.26]

The routine comparisons with Terry Riley/Steve Reich/Michael Nyman all apply, but there's something more mystical and elemental at work, too, with echoes of the Third Ear Band and Comus. [Oct 2018, p.27]

Haunting late-career contemplation. [Nov 2018, p.37]

There's variety like never before: bludgeoning tech-punk, disco beats and Screamadelica-era Primal Scream eruptions. That it exists is exhausting; that it works is extraordinary. [Nov 2018, p.29]

The Norwegian band's seventh album evokes the storms and swells of mid-period Bad Seeds and Crime & The City Solution. [Oct 2018, p.23]

The lyrical content from MCs B-Real and Sen Dog is fairly rote, but a widened sonic palette keep things interesting. [Nov 2018, p.27]

She achieves something close to eerie synthesis of avant-classical art song and Throbbing Gristle-worthy brutalism that three-quarters of TG themselves created on their 2012 tribute to Nico's Desertshore. [Nov 2018, p.29]

Too many songs sport frumpier styles. [Nov 2018, p.34]

Blood Red Roses is as stylistically varied as its predecessors. [Nov 2018, p.37]

Her faintly punch-drunk voice sometimes sounds just a kilojoule of energy (or lack thereof) from uninterested, but just as often she's as winsomely weary as she is vulnerable, and the impeccably stylish decoration seals our seduction. [Nov 2018, p.25]

Its fuggy electronics and lyrical non sequiturs not giving up their secrets easily. Still, a few moments stand out. [Nov 2018, p.32]

It's beautifully eerie. [Oct 2018, p.30]

Konoyo draws inspiration from Tokyo Gaksu, players of gagaku, a Japaneses classical music. You can discern this in the gentle drones and fluting of the opening "This Life," but it's soon all transformed by the producer--as it is on the fizzing "Keyed Out" or the lovely "Mother Earth Phase"--to the subordinate role in Hecker's rather more epic sonic drama. [Nov 2018, p.30]

Pigs x7 are a band that appreciate a bit of theatre. There is plenty of that going on in this second album, along with a whole bunch of heavenly riffs. [Nov 2018, p.34]

It's business as usual, but a welcome return nonetheless. [Nov 2018, p.32]

It's the low-key moments--the astral jazz of "There Was Always Water;" the clunky, piano-led "Back For Me;" the dubby "How Far Is Spaced-Out?"--that hit home emotionally. [Nov 2018, p.30]

Batt's orchestral arrangements as the band revisit classics such as "Quark..." and "Psychic Power" are surprisingly effective, even majestic in places. [Nov 2018, p.30]

Although his take lacks Bob's iconoclasm, there's something deeply reassuring about his laid back schmooze on abiding classics such as "Night And Day" and "Fly Me To The Moon." [Nov 2018, p.34]

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]

Helm seems constrained within the immaculate settings, only intimating the emotional lift-off the material yearns for. She makes a deeper connection with the newly penned "Heaven's Holding Me," delivering the LP's most heartfelt, uplifting performance. [Nov 2018, p.30]

None of these fall too far from the ZZ Top tree, defined by crashing riffs and a raunchy sense of humour. [Nov 2018, p.29]

Haiku Salut deepen and widen their electro-pastoral sound on this mostly sublime third album. [Nov 2018, p.30]

A follow-up that is more knowing and nuanced, although the expansive dance grooves remain uninhibited. [Nov 2018, p.32]

Their best for a while. ... An extended, uncharacteristically rocking release. [Nov 2018, p.34]

It's all done with a wry, matter-of-fact wit rather than self-pitying sadness, and the spirit and sound of Pulp hang over much of the album. [Nov 2018, p.37]

Overall it's a box-ticking collection unlikely to broaden her mainstream fanbase. [Nov 2018, p.37]

The joyously unhinged waltz "Better In My Day" is an amusing piss-take of nostalgic bigotry; while Bernholz's whispered vocals on tracks like "Hobby Horse" come with an undercurrent of menace. [Nov 2018, p.29]

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]

Her interest in medieval and early music offers her compositions both a somnolent beauty and a melancholy grasp of simple, slow melody that's refined and tender. ... They're stunning. [Nov 2018, p.27]

It's hard, though, to be sure of such depth aid the often imprecise lyrics, gently sweet vocals resembling a semi-skimmed Jonathan Donahue, and muffled, ambient brass and sax swells. [Oct 2018, p.30]

On >>>, you get carried along by BEAK>'s sheer enthusiasm--cut adrift from their past, sealed off from expectation, existing entirely in the moment. [Oct 2018, p.25]

These 10 songs are intimate, graceful and surprisingly hooky. [Oct 2018, p.24]

The austere brand of retro-rustic Americana sometimes sounds overly tasteful, but there are spine-tingling beauties here too. [Oct 2018, p.30]

A set of 12 original compositions steeped in his ongoing addiction to muscular '60s blues-rock. [Oct 2018, p.24]

It's a lean, thrillingly muscular set from a genuinely distinctive talent. [Oct 2018, p.26]

All up, it's a quiet knockout. [Oct 2018, p.37]

A series of disconnected ideas rather than one concentrated work. [Oct 2018, p.24]

Its expansive ambition abetted by fellow travellers including Wayne Kramer and Peter Perrett. [Oct 2018, p.27]

Their garage-rock stylings have flourished. [Oct 2018, p.29]

He has produced his most sonically consistent album in years. [Oct 2018, p.35]

An engaging exercise in psychedelic computer music that sees him exploring a more satisfying style of production after the itchiness of 2016's Unstepping. [Oct 2018, p.26]

That these 15 vignettes sound effortless does nothing to detract from their elegance. [Oct 2018, p.29]

Lyrically, he hasn't lost the Archer's edge--the sonic tenderness through which such sentiments are conveyed, however, is reflective of a wisdom that comes with hindsight and forgiveness. [Oct 2018, p.24]

In The Blue Light might thus be a rather tardy, and expensive, way of going with his initial instincts. [Oct 2018, p.22]

The textures are deliberately synthesised, but the songs themselves couldn't be realer. [Oct 2018, p.34]

Another Szunny delight. [Oct 2018, p.34]

It sounds both timeless and brand new. [Oct 2018, p.43]

13 Rivers is a sparse, raging and noisy record. [Oct 2018, p.37]

The cumulative effect is upbeat jubilation. [Oct 2018, p.30]

A communicable joy in weird noise. [Sep 2018, p.35]

The result is a record that's technically adept, but full of heart, too. [Oct 2018, p.29]

Outstanding. ... Aside from the supple elegance of Landes' warm voice, the most arresting element is her sharp songwriting, which succeeds on a number of levels. [Oct 2018, p.26]

It finds Suede wrapping up a triptych of records since their 2013 reunion and in doing so they feel positioned with one foot in the familiar camp of old while striding forward with the other into fresh, unknown territory. [Oct 2018, p.34]

Musically fascinating and hauntingly empathetic. [Oct 2018, p.29]

Tasjan has a pop at contemporary politics on the crooning "The Truth Is So Hard To Believe," but is stronger when he tackles domestic concerns. [Oct 2018, p.34]

If there are a few stylistic surprises, there's spirit to spare on the invigorating "Easy Street" and the lusty, bluesy "Fast Lane." [Oct 2018, p.34]

Songs Of Resistance throbs with urgency. [Oct 2018, p.32]

Double Negative is their biggest step forward to date, an album that scrambles their sound completely; it sounds nothing like Low and everything like Low. ... Low have made what might be their most relevant album, one that holds a mirror up tot he world. [Oct 2018, p.18]

Bursting with symphonic goodness, musical adventure and dizzying levels of intensity. [Oct 2018, p.32]

If Egypt Station is quite startling enough to shift preconceptions about the most famous musician on the planet, it's sufficiently vibrant to justify its existence, and strong enough to ensure that McCartney can sprinkle three or four tracks into the set on his upcoming world tour without setting off any alarms. [Oct 2018, p.28]

An inspired and fruitful fusion. [Sep 2018, p.35]

Glossy and glamorous, maybe, but it feels like a beautiful-designed dead end. [Oct 2018, p.37]

There's still a lingering sense of promise not quite fulfilled about Anna Clavi, such that Hunter feels like a make or break album. [Oct 2018, p.24]

They add to their ongoing commitment to openness here. [Oct 2018, p.29]

As a whole it feel overfamiliar, with little of the cohesiveness that made, say, Les Revenants so powerful. [Oct 2018, p.30]

For every blissful "Mannie's Smile" there's some Bontempi bossanova or a fretless bass ballad like "Breathing Easy" that swims in kitsch. [Sep 2018, p.30]

A joyful noise. [Sep 2018, p.39]

A lush song suite reflective of the grandeur of their native New Zealand's landscapes. [Sep 2018, p.29]

Negro Swan sees Hynes thoughtfully explore themes of racial and sexual identities and anxieties within songs that can be a s gorgeously vaporous as "Take Your Time," as ecstatically funky as "Charcoal Baby," or any state inbetween. [Oct 2018, p.24]

These warm engaging gnarly songs are vigorously banged out by a mix of the original and current lineups. [Sep 2018, p.30]

Performance is expertly weighted between great hooks and loose, Southern-styled jams that dare you to shake a leg. [Sep 2018, p.39]

It's characterised by a delicate, hypnotic power with subtle light/shadow shifts. [Oct 2018, p.37]

Pete Bernahrd's songs speak of humanity facing insanity in many forms. [Oct 2018, p.27]

This is the kind of roughed-up disco-not-disco that would have sold a ton when electroclash was all the rage. It might still. [Sep 2108, p.36]

Much darker successor to How To Die In The North. Utterly compelling it is too. [Sep 2018, p.26]

"Overrated" tosses in traces of Disintegration-era Cure, with Matilda Bogren's dreamy vocals buried deep in a richly murky, shoegaze-friendly mix, while "Apart" leans towards the gothic and "Hard Ending" adds a little New order. [Jul 2018, p.27]

Overall, Go To School is a blast, a joyous, ridiculous journey that treads a perfect line between silly, funny and heart-breaking. [Oct 2018, p.33]

Whatever its emotional well-spring, her expression is clear, purposeful and strong in its directness. [Sep 2018, p.38]

Deep-pocket blues covers alternate with scintillating originals. [Oct 2018, p.32]

There's a little bit of everything on this largely instrumental solo album by Wobble. [Oct 2018, p.37]

The best thing about Back Being Blue is that it sounds like Willis only stepped out for a few minutes. [Oct 2018, p.37]

Despite a newfound sound-design sophistication, they haven't lost their love of twisted, Stylophone-assisted pop or tape-recording collage methods, and their arthouse-cinema leaning is still evident. [Oct 2018, p.32]

This is snappy, high-energy stuff that might be more fun if the slick production didn't telegraph the fact that Kane wants it a bit too much. [Oct 2018, p.30]

The album keeps faith with The Jayhawks' trademark expansive Americana. [Oct 2018, p.29]

Exhausting but rewarding. [Oct 2018, p.26]

Thanks You For Today marks a further shift towards an ultra-plush, synth-laden soft-rock sound. [Oct 2018, p.27]

Whoever is singing, the beats are choppy and the mood intense. A revelation. [Oct 2018, p.24]

The result is substantially more upbeat and cohesive--a West Coast take on Britpop. [Sep 2018, p.36]

Few artists combine concepts of arcane and contemporary quite as atmospherically as New York's Odetta Hartman, who uses the banjo to provide melody and age but then embeds songs with dance beats and sound effects, before adding timeless jazz-folk vocals. [Sep 2018, p.30]