What's more surprising is just how good it all is, the tunes great, the mood fun, the album infectious. [Mar 2009, p.92]

Songs such as the languid “Deeper” and the joyous “Stoned Love” are full of spiritual healing, as self-doubt is replaced by a hard-won inner radiance. [Oct 2022, p.32]

The film and its astutely assembled soundtrack didn't just ride grunge's momentum, it pumped up the volume by capturing the scene in context. [Jun 2017, p.51]

Elliott is better at world-weariness than he is at sass, but has enough guile to mould the songs in his own image.

Like Felt Before them, The Clientele have completed a commercially neglected yet conceptually immaculate decade, mapping, across four albums and a couple of compilations, a twilit suburb of English pop, as though a young TS Eliot had fronted The Zombies. [Jan 2010, p. 105]

An unmissable craftman. [Jun 2013, p.69]

A rich, nuanced, fantastically enjoyable album that understands great music is often the product of a historical continuum rather than radical innovation, and which saves its best trick 'til last. [Aug 2015, p.82]

The greatest interest lies in the lyrics--intriguing, charming, highly insightful and sometimes violently confessional, often on a par with the very best of Elliott Smith. [Dec 2003, p.118]

Raven is her triumphant move forward, 15 tracks of sensual R&B with a subtle strength at their core, wrapped in vaporous synths and variously edged with UK garage, '80s R&B and techno. [Mar 2023, p.29]

Six albums on and Luna have never sounded better. [Jul 2002, p.112]

Snider's self-effacing charm radiant through the murk of "Stoner Yodel #2", the Chris Robinson co0write "While We Still Have A Chance" and the closing "The Temptation To Exist". [Dec 2025, p.36]

This is full-bodied, tuneful and surprisingly friendly, with vocalist Kuperus toning down the swivel-eyed hysteria for some Siouxsie-styled elegance. [Aug 2013, p.65]

Luminously beautiful music. [Apr 2005, p.106]

An album which has nothing to do with 2005 and everything to do with 1988. [Mar 2005, p.109]

An irresistible set. [Sep 2013, p.97]

The universal motifs of loss, redemption and freedom from bondage are brought home in moving, understated style. [Oct 2017, p.28]

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

Feels freshly ironic and original. [Apr 2006, p.98]

Rather than a departure from the zig-zag folktronica of The Beta Band, [it is] more an incremental shift in oddness. [Jun 2006, p.105]

Georgia's also able to fuse a few different eras of electro-pop to create songs whose high sheen doesn't impede their intimacy or immediacy. [Sep 2023, p.27]

It is noticeably better – cleaner, heavier, less muddy and filled with audacious surprises on headphones. Yet there’s no disguising the curiously wayward nature of these compositions. .... The full, six-disc boxset is an impressive package, drawing together vocal-less backing tracks, scrappy but revealing early demos and some superb 1973 BBC sessions. [Dec 2024, p.53]

Reassessing the past and reengaging with the present, Revival lives up to its name.

Sixty Summers sees the kitten-voiced Julia take even bolder steps into uncharted territory. [Mar 2021, p.37]

The songs on You Were Right are orthodox but unusually clever, evocative of fellow wry strummers such as Nick Lowe and Old 97's' Rhett Miller. [Jan 2014, p.71]

Sea Sew is a subtle and intricately woven set of songs that seeps further into you with every listening. [Sep 2009, p.84]

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]

Essential and sublime. [Mar 2014, p.76]

A Ways Away is a beautifully low-key set that frames her mellifluous voice and folky asongs with guitar drones and a slow-motion, dream-like feel. [Aug 2009, p.98]

A more exuberant sophomore effort that synthesises the techno-pop of Yellow Magic Orchestra and the electro-R&B of '80s hitmakers like Midnight Star. [Jul 2016, p.75]

A wicked, weathered stream of sinewy, shadowy songs. [Mar 2002, p.102]

Folk songs given a rarefied air by his elegant wordplay and multi-tracked chamber strings. [Mar 2005, p.108]

Hawley resurrects ghosts of music past and breathes new, poignant life into their forms. [Oct 2005, p.110]

More inward-looking than her conceptual debut, its emotive lyrics lending themselves to a more tightly focused musical palette. [Apr 2022, p.36]

Imaginative, poignant and fundamentally, achingly human. [Feb 2026, p.30]

While the album is packed with inventive moments, there's no more lacerating skronk, for a very good reason: the emotions the band is mirroring don't call for it. [Oct 2011, p.82]

For now, Lady, Give Me Your Key shows us some of the steps Buckley took, during a feverishly creative year, to pursue the totality of music.

A comeback of unexpected maturity and power. [Jun 2006, p.110]

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

This is one of those brakes-off country records you wish more people would have the guts to make. [Oct 2011, p.94]

Gone is the Suede-lite of The Tears. Instead we get acoustic guitars, lush string arrangements and the previously cagey Anderson pouring his heart out. [Apr 2007, p.92]

Unsettling stuff--but weirdly life-affirming, too. [May 2007, p.103]

Production-wise it tips a brim to the jazzy psych of the Brainfeeder crew, with some very gnarly riffs chopping through the boom-bap. [Feb 2015, p.77]

Mostly the album's best songs are simple, contemplative and poignant. [Apr 2018, p.36]

The hipster-redneck rhetoric could grate, but O'Death are too good to be dismised as a novelty act. [Dec 2008, p.105]

While I’m not sure Veckatimest is the huge improvement on Yellow House that some blogs claim it to be, it’s unquestionably a lovely record and it deserves to be heard on land, sea, indoors and out.

The result is a glorious, dizzy riot with no precursor. [Dec 2022, p.18]

protector maintains its creator's woozy MO. ... Dream on. [Dec 2022, p.26]

While there's nothing wildly original on In Technicolor, the energy and attitude that relative youngsters Georg Conrad and Marius Bubat stir into their psychedelic synthpop and off-kilter electro suggests that they know the rules well enough to be able to gently subvert techno cliches. [May 2013, p.69]

Though their frothy, soulless hits have rarely displayed originality or purpose, Groove Armada's sixth is a revelation. [Mar 2010, p.86]

Light Verse rejoices in its playful details. [May 2024, p.35]

The sinister slow-burn of "Application Apparatus" and Tom Tom Club-worthy quirk of "Trullo" are further indications of their rude state of health. [Dec 2021, p.31]

It's an unalloyed treat. [Sep 2017, p.38]

It's uncomplicated but it achieves a lot, and that's With Animals in a nutshell. [Sep 2018, p.34]

Overall, the palette is dusky, the tone understated. [Oct 2016, p.25]

Funky, funny, stately, strange, soulful and sensual, Floreat is a unique and unequivocal triumph. [Oct 2011, p.83]

There's a haunted, frequently unhinged quality to its songs and performances. [Nov 2014, p.83]

His joyous fourth album proper leaves behind the folksy stylings of his earlier solo work and instead builds on 2018's glitter-strewn Karma For Cheap. [Mar 2021, p.39]

Her striking debut--recorded in 10 days and originally self-released on her own label--brims with as much honest emotion as it does uncalculated cool. [Jan 2017, p.23]

In returning to their foundational style, Tunng sound as full of surprise and mystery as ever. [Jan 2025, p.41]

Articulate, emotional and primed for the dancefloor. [Jan 2014, p.71]

These 33 minutes are some of Malkmus' finest work; one avenue, then, has now been explored and staked out, but remains pleasingly wild. [Apr 2019, p.35]

There's very little quite like it, and it's much wilder than it first seems. [Mar 2014, p.77]

The dozen tunes here are sumptuous slices of bliss-pop with an art-punk edge. [Mar 2009, p.78]

This tasteful mix of analogue keys and distorted drum machines is precisely what we've come to expect from Pritchard. It's when he wanders off-piste with Bibio, Thom Yorke and Linda Perhacs that the record comes alive, and these instrumental tracks then play a vital supporting role. [Jun 2016, p.80]

In both rhythm and spirit, Yowzers is slippery and free. Yet where the record coalesces into songs, it tends to speak the raw, direct language of soul music and the blues. [Aug 2025, p.36]

On Robert Burns' "Song Composed In August," the voices lend beautifully in a seasonal (temporary?) celebration of love. [Sep 2021, p.33]

Generally excellent, sporadically sublime. [Aug 2019, p.39]

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

These are recorded almost as demos, in a more intimate and lo-fi way than usual, bringing him even closer in sound as well as spirit to the likes of Townes Van Zandt and Ron Sexsmith. [Dec 2021, p.33]

The greatest pleasure of its four eloquent tracks comes from the way the duo hint at narrative, delicately suturing disparate sounds to build a complex electro-acoustic suite. [Oct 2025, p.29]

The album has its fair share of filler.... But, at its best, World Peace feels like a perfect penultimate episode in the last season of a beloved TV series. [Aug 2014, p.66]

Wilful, perhaps, but also a hugely inventive joy. [Aug 2012, p.77]

It’s all impossibly good, from the walloping riff that drives opener “Reason To Hide” through hardcore thrasher “La Plage”, the grunge-pop of “Here It Comes” and the jazz-dub title track, right up to the steadily building whirlwind of ominous closer “Gunboats”. [Aug 2024, p.39]

There are moments of redemption as songs such as "On Deronda Road" and Weightless" celebrate life's capacity for renewal. But make no mistake: this is a dark record for dark times. [Nov 2019, p.25]

These songs covey a visceral dread through crashing guitars and her unsettling matter-of-fact twang evokes the no-escape confinement of a volatile relationship. [Nov 2017, p.32]

A return to form, if not a career-redefining masterpiece. [Jul 2005, p.107]

Phantom Radio feels like a real upping of the game. [Nov 2014, p.70]

Love's Holiday still kicks against the pricks, particularly on raging single "Icy White & Crystalline", but the primary themes here seem to be love and loss. [Sep 2023, p.34]

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

He sounds more like a loner--intense, precise, impervious to fashion--than ever. [Jul 2007, p.102]

Blur have released three compilation albums, but none of them point up the band's engagingly contrary creativity and elastic pop nous quite like these two discs.

The repressive weight of the production creates a micro-climate that's compelling to move through. [Feb 2015, p.83]

Walla creates intricate, fugue-like patterns featuring guitars, analog synths and harmonies, enabling his spiralling melodies to unfold progressively while also providing a cushion for his diminultive but genuine vocals--making for a record that's taut and affecting. [Feb 2008, p.95]

The Blue Elephant is a sonic odyssey. [Jun 2021, p.23]

A worthy addition to a glorious canon. [Jun 2021, p.24]

This is second-tier Sabbath, arriving at the waning of their imperial phase. But that’s still a formidable prospect. ... Also included is a mostly unheard North American show from 1975 that proves the band were still bringing the goods live, especially on a surging “Children Of The Grave”. [Jul 2021, p.41]

Essentially the second half of their epic third album, the trio are in blistering form on III's seven tracks. [May 2016, p.75]

Together, Harvey and Parish sound confidently experimental, like two soldiers daring each other to ever more stupendous feats of history.

Wild Beasts summon up the ghosts of that decade’s [1980s] brainier, more flamboyant indie bands.

The best of Ride Me Back Home feels as much a companion to [2018 My Way] as to its predecessors in Nelson's trilogy of reckoning--there's a certain Sinatra-esque conspiratorial intimacy. [Aug 2019, p.37]

Eight Gates presents him as a living being, troubled and troublesome, which might seem like a minor accomplishment but is actually closer to profound given what we know of his life after these sessions. Most of all, it reinforces Molina as an artist rather than as someone overtaken by demons, as a flawed man rather than the myth he often made himself out to be. [Sep 2020, p.38]

Another treasure. [Mar 2003, p.95]

It's this pretence of overbearing world dominance which is realised on Thing. [May 2010, p.108]

While no less intense, Ashore--a collection of 13 songs each connected to the sea--is both warm and alluring. [Feb 2011, p.99]

The 23-track set--material oft-mired in legal entanglements--which range from hit for others, to darkly melodic deep catalogue gems. Diamond himself provides highly entertaining liner notes. [Jul 2011, p.82]

Beyond The Door might at times nod to good-time escapism, but it also represents unsullied rock'n'roll in music's most splintered age. [Sep 2019, p.33]

You Get It All shows no dip in quality. [Nov 2021, p.26]

While this second album adds a layer or two of extra accompaniment, the emotional core remains a formidably magnetic force. [Mar 2022, p.26]