If you fell for Real Estate and their peers, here's the root. [Mar 2012, p.81]

This is actually a solid and adventurous collection. [Jan 2022, p.25]

That it works at all is thanks to a dense, cartoonish production that sees dusty breaks. found sounds and snippets of conversation tossed together like the contents of an upturned toy box. [Jul 2005, p.96]

Physicalist feels like a heavyweight statement. [Nov 2016, p.26]

Over the long haul, it occasionally falls in the nebulous place twixt atmospheric and song, but "Paper Trails"--the Delta blues seen through an xx-like electronic sheen--is a thing of fine-wrought beauty. [Nov 2013, p.68]

It's safe to say this is the most endlessly playable comedy album of the new millennium. [May 2008, p.95]

This is the kind of exploration of space and motivation that the dance-punk scene is supposed to be about. [Jun 2007, p.98]

Boden is a true original who has crafted an engaging album that's no easy listen, but worth sticking with. [May 2009, p.79]

Rain is a fetching guitar-pop wonder, a melodic feastm blending vintage Marshall Crenshaw-like hooks with elegant, acoustic scenes-in-miniature. [Mar 2010, p.89]

Cowley's songs sound lie pulsating Bond themes, funeral laments and the greatest stadium-filling anthems that Coldplay never wrote. [Feb 2012, p.83]

For such a relaxing piece, though, there's also a melancholy tot he minor keys and descending harmony lines, which elevates this epic above bland mood music. Still, listening in one sitting is a feat. [Oct 2015, p.81]

The results can be stirring. [Jan 2015, p.74]

[The] 4CD set filleting his post-Auteurs solo works. ... Disc four features wreckage from his abandoned musical about demon landlord Nicholas van Hoogstraten. [Nov 2017, p.48]

An album that appears to be all about mood and texture transforms over time into a fully realised collection of beautiful songs from an artist determined to keep moving forward, however stealthily. [Jan 2018, p.19]

Musically it's more grounded, though, if still diverse. [Nov 2020, p.27]

The Power & The Glory never sounds morose. ... Mantione invests the sentiment with immense compassion and concern. [Feb 2023, p.25]

Weird but oddly wonderful. [Oct 2023, p.37]

El Magnifico finds him much the same bruised piano troubadour, surveying red-blooded romantic scars. [March 2024, p.28]

The new ‘Ultimate’ mixes are an excellent reimagining of the original’s tinny sound, giving a clearer route to Lennon’s voice while ensuring each instrument gets due prominence. Songs like “Aisumasen (I’m Sorry)”, “You Are Here” and “Out The Blue” can now take their place among Lennon’s finest. [Aug 2024, p.49]

Embracing his Māori heritage and language when his songwriting faltered in English has, though, taken Williams into more nakedly exposed realms. [May 2025, p.39]

Birch's approach is intimate and dreamy. [Aug 2025, p.28]

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

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 methodically slothful hybrid of Angelo Badalamenti, Bill Evans and Sunn O))) is much prettier and more restful than one might imagine, [Apr 2014, p.69]

The five numbered tracks of Trouble total a monolithic 82 minutes and trace heaving faultlines of their own making. [Sep 2016, p.73]

The fizzy psych-funk of "A Good Luck" and "Sing Along" ramp up the atmosphere in grand style, matched by Simpson's fabulous baritone, through best of all is the monstrous "Fastest Horse In Town." [Nov 2019, p.30]

Its eloquent yet unfussy nature and thoughtful arrangements are clear affirmation. [Aug 2022, p.33]

All the elements of old are there--his voice, those lyrical hankerings to melt away from the limits of life. [Oct 2010, p.85]

These are new songs that sound like the old songs, the kind you might treasure 'til your vinyl is pockmarked and warped. [Feb 2015, p.86]

It is guitarist Drew St Ivany who controls the ebb and flow, his use of scintillating, strobe-like textures and groaning chasms of feedback recalling Skullflower, or Comets On fire at their most intense. [Apr 2011, p.91]

An album that is as eccentric as it is atmospheric. [Feb 2012, p.90]

The results are alluring warped but this groovy nostalgia is now a well-trodden path. [Dec 2015, p.76]

Theirs is a sophisticated, finely nuanced sound, lynchpin Aaron Turner's vocals notwithstanding. [Jun 2009, p.88]

Wenu Wenu is at last the genuine article. That it also captures the chaos of his live show is no small achievement either. [Nov 2013, p.80]

Fun for all the family. [May 2014, p.80]

This... is still very much a Dears record: confused and unfocused, a messy kind of masterpiece. [Sep 2006, p.90]

It's breadth is pleasing, aiming for something more hooky than Factory Floor's typical brief. [Sep 2018, p.30]

Mordechai is a great record, made by deep listeners who believe that discerning taste does not equate to snobbishness, Through it, we're reminded that good music is for everyone. [Aug 2020, p.20]

The Ship successfully combines--surprisingly for the first time--his ambient and song-based work. [Jun 2016, p.73]

Lenses Alien harnesses the singular vision of singer and guitarist Joseph D'Agostino to finely nuanced, feedback-soused art-rock. [Nov 2011, p.83]

On God’s Problem Child, he sounds a bit like a weathered harmonica: he might have lost some of his higher notes, but he can soar through all the ones that count. The arrangements, which skew more toward classic country and slower tempos than Band Of Brothers, also help highlight Willie’s strengths.

Throughout the mammoth album, barely a minute is wasted as Endless Boogie superimpose wild guitars on even wilder ones. [Mar 2013, p.78]

Ultimately it's a record that happily exists in something of a fog - wilfully embracing hazy, almost groggy textures. [Jul 2023, p.30]

Combine[s] utterly maddening complexity with candyfloss pop hooks. [Jun 2007, p.108]

Intense, relentless and spellbinding. [Oct 2013, p.65]

An album that finds wildness in unexpected places. [Feb 2017, p.16]

There's an exotic, silk-road feel to her [singer Barbora Patkova's] spectral ululations, often delivered in her native language, that work brilliantly on the seven-minute title track, but can feel samey across a full album. [Jul 2017, p.30]

Shlon is in some senses a return to his roots, combining the lush Arabic romance poetry of collaborator Moussa al Mardoud with Hasan Alo's techno arrangements. [Jan 2020, p.28]

These songs fizz as freshly as if the group have only just discovered that combination of the post-punk pugnacity of prime Attractions with the acerbic disquisitions of a spoken-word Springsteen. [May 2023, p.28]

This crisp new full-album remix merely enhances the brilliance. [Nov 2015, p.93]

As ever, the single 44-minute track sis immersive; those coming to The Necks for a transcendent mindfulness session, however, may find it distinctly unnerving in places. [Dec 2015, p.75]

A band that couldn't ddcide if they preferred the caustic post-grunge of The Jesus Lizard or the absurdist, singalong witticisms of Half Man Half Biscuit, so choose to do both. Happily, the band have the muscular riffs and eloquence to pull off both. [Jul 2009, p.88]

It's still deeply strange. ... Crucial to its success is its keen rhythmic sense. [Oct 2021, p.25]

Reggae Film Star is a luminous beauty. [Aug 2022, p.29]

Despite the odd moment when you're not sure quite what she's on about, she still stabs like a stiletto. [Jul 2015, p.77]

In Spades is a thrillingly impassioned addition to their catalogue. [Jun 2017, p.21]

There’s a sense throughout that Bird’s head is engaged in a battle with his heart, as if aware that there’s a pop masterpiece squatting on the far horizons of his intuition.

Son's patchwork of fluttering loops and vocal delays align Molina with kindred spirits Animal Collective, though her listless delivery can dull proceedings. [Jun 2006, p.106]

This is pretty gloomy going, not rendered much easier by the lugubrious baritone in which Beck delivers his emotional autopsies, or the vague, amorphous melodies. [Nov 2002, p.116]

Mood-wise it's their bleakest yet. [Mar 2003, p.112]

Mike Mattison's gritty lead vocals are fully functional, but it's Trucks' consistently mesmerising guitar and dobro that draw the ear. [Feb 2009, p.99]

The result is a twilight world where Robert Wyatt and John Coltrane rub shoulders with Why? and Vernon Elliott. Mad, but quite magical. [Dec 2008, p.81]

A confident advance on 2012's Rhythm And Repose. [Oct 2015, p.77]

The Lemonheads' sixth album is looser and shaggier than its predecessor; his purpose beginning to waver, though essentially Dando is continually saved nu his songwriting gifts. [Jun 2023, p.47]

The rest is a warm and hilarious mediation of mortality. [May 2012, p.83]

The album is most fun when it plays up to the contours of Karen O's idiosyncratic voice. [Apr 2019, p.32]

It all hangs together, propelled by a sense of fun that, 22 years on, still pervades every note. Trot on. [Jul 2016, p.73]

It's a dynamically compelling set that taps Black Sabbath, Chic, Killing Joke, Elmer Bernstein and Paolo Conte, Mike Patton's extraordinary (six octaves) voice its focus. [Jun 2015, p.76]

The noise they make is thrilling. [Jun 2011, p.78]

A collection of great intimacy and tenderness, inspired in part by the loss of her father. This is rich, melodic folk. [Jul 2021, p.27]

There's a lot to like, and though "Pilot Was A Dancer" runs close to standard, indie folk-pop fare, the title track, with its Fairport-ish twangling and braided harmonies, and the wintery, Croz-styed "Give" compensate. [Jul 2023, p.36]

The result is digital psychedelia with eyedrop clarity. [Apr 2013, p.71]

It's a beautiful record. [Oct 2006, p.112]

Sasami's aim is clear: she forces you to pay attention. [Mar 2022, p.35]

Donovan's songs are still queerly wired, taking unexpected detours, blasting out into destructo-guitar solos, stomping T. Rex blues, and drenching acoustic guitar in slapback echo and ghostly vox. [Aug 2015, p.77]

Brothers shines brightest when Nelson spins out pithy philosophising, or hits a certain inimitable, rambling, jazzy sweet spot with his longtime band. [Aug 2014, p.70]

Tight but loose, Are Possible sits nicely alongside other hypnotic, folksy acts like 75 Dollar Bill and Natural Information Society. [Sep 2024, p.29]

You may not be whistling these songs or dancing to them, but Biophilia's unsettling visions are compelling art. Oct 2011, p.92]

There's antique gusto, politics, wintry picking from a master, some gothic touches from Britfolk's finest fiddler, and grand notes. [Jul 2014, p.71]

Their head conceptualist is now guitarist Helios Creed, who's kept the vision tight, true to the corroded metal, viscous electronics and Burroughsian collages of their signal albums, 1977's Alien Soundtracks and 1979's Half Machine Lip Moves. [Sep 2014, p.71]

Blessed by an amiably husky voice, Jurvanen unfurls elegant melodies and intelligent economical arrangements. [Sep 2014, p.67]

The impressive Alternative Light Source sees Barnes picking up, with a snarl, where the pair left off. [Jul 2015, p.78]

L'Aurore finds Cedric Benyoucef and Charlie Boyer pursuing a rawer, more improvisatory approach than on albums prior. ... Actual songcraft can take a back seat, though. [Apr 2016, p.82]

It's addictive, delirious and madcap, Martha turning anxiety into exuberance. [Aug 2016, p.78]

There's still a preponderance of fuzzy guitars--notably on "Ching," where they almost overwhelm Lorena Quintanilla's vocals--but elsewhere, as on "It Must Be The Only Way," her dreamy vocals provide a welcome contrast to droning guitars. [Oct 2016, p.32]

Following much beauty and polymorphous perversity, the climactic take on Histoire De Melody Nelson's "Cargo Cult" is a fittingly epic finale. [Dec 2016, p.30]

This fourth album is his most satisfying yet. [Feb 2017, p.28]

Bowlcut romantics will swoon for twinkly samba "Saveoursmiles" and "Love Me 'Til My Heart Stops" on his 10th LP, but as wistfulness gives way to despondency on "Rust" and an anguished take on West Side Story's "Somewhere," Stewart's idiosyncratic path feels like an increasingly lonely one. [Jul 2017, p.25]

There are occasional moments of poppy levity, like the energetic "Feel Like I Wanna Stay," but otherwise this has an impressive heft. [Sep 2017, p.26]

The conventional sound palette leads to a number of fragrant compositions, which will do Actress' cold, hard image no good at all. [Jul 2018, p.23]

Succeeds in painting atmospheric images, with elliptical poetry set against dreamy FX-laden guitars, twinkly pianos and jagged beats. [Mar 2020, p.30]

This is unabashed bar room vibes with a healthy side order of redneck grit. [Mar 2020, p.25]

The band's most orchestral album yet. [Jan 2021, p.25]

fter the snarling insensitivity that once defined The Stranglers, it’s reflective and poignant. Even if you strip away the late touches acknowledging Greenfield’s loss, the mood is suddenly grave and inevitably valedictory. [Oct 2021, p.20]

The faithful arrangements deprive the collection of any real edge – "Elle Et Moi" should be sexier – but this is not the place for surprises. [Dec 2021, p.25]

He sings the gospel with everything pared back to its essence: a flinty guitar tone, that surprisingly recalls the chipped, clanking tones of Pip Proud or Mayo Thompson; a throaty, gorgeous voice; beautiful, soul-informed backing, only when it’s needed. [May 2022, p.24]

Though some tracks really need the context of performance or visuals, on the astral fourth-world funk of “Eye In The Wall”, Hadreas sets sail on his own Arthur Russell-style “African Night Flight”. [Jul 2022, p.31]

It's the more emotional moments which prove The Damned's undimmed commitment. [May 2023, p.28]