Effective, if not quite thrilling. [May 2018, p.30]

Predictably overwhelming. [May 2018, p.27]

Emotions played out against a backdrop of upbeat, urbanised alt. folk and groovy pastoral soul. [Apr 2018, p.23]

Uplifting and upbeat; it's the sharp-suit Saturday night to Buena Vista Social Club's Sunday Morning. [May 2018, p.33]

Golden Hour doesn't carry quite the same bite as either 2015 predecessor Pageant Material or 2013's Sam Trailer Different Park, preferring a more loved-up vibe that favours pillowy sophisti-pop over bittersweet country. [May 2018, p.30]

Throughout, the virtuosic performances and subtly evocative lyrics sustain intensity through understatement. [Apr 2018, p.37]

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

There's great charm to these yearning tunes. [May 2018, p.28]

Both are versatile players, and while "Tonight The Bottle Wins Again" is a swaggering blues, Harper leans towards Otis Redding on "When Love Is Not Enough." [May 2018, p.28]

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

It's one of those records that is somewhat sui generis, and yet with an appeal that is universal and accessible at the same time. [Apr 2018, p.33]

A powerful, unusual record. [May 2018, p.24]

Longwave is languorous and amiable. ... The largely unchanging pace prompts yearnings for more frequent shifts from second gear, however. [May 2018, p.26]

It's no drastic reinvention, but the PRS cheques keep on coming. [May 2018, p.37]

Every song on New Material has a one-word title that captures a mood--"Disarray," "Decompose," "Doubt" are typical--while tunes like "Manipulation" and "Solace" have a propulsive relentless but also melodic ease that are something like a funkier War On Drugs. [Apr 2018, p.32]

Her follow-up, produced by Mark Howard, adds country-gospel choirs and fussy arrangements to her palette, steamrolling any nuance she might bring to these characters. [Apr 2018, p.23]

Across 14 varied tracks, Avery's compositions become engulfing, such is the pull of his palpable textures, dense soundscapes and tantalising beats. [May 2018, p.24]

The strongest songs on Dungeness have Trembling Bells playing at a fierce peak. ... Sometimes, though, things don't quite cohere. [May 2018, p.34]

There's no straining to distance themselves from their former band [Stereolab]. [Apr 2018, p.24]

Their elastic moods are endlessly absorbing, typified by the almost weightless "Cernubicua" and the grinding, Malevolent buzz of "Inkstain." [May 2018, p.27]

A sometimes mystifying but often inspired work. [May 2018, p.22]

Burch's sings sound familiar, but her lyrics cut straight through the warmth and sweetness with frank reflection on relationships and, on "Asking 4 A Friend," scoring drugs. [May 2018, p.26]

Accomplished but oddly characterless, and despite the high hook count, forgettable. [May 2018, p.30]

More of a safe record than a spectacular one. [May 2018, p.35]

This seven-track beauty marries the bucolic indie-pop of Woods with Dungen's Scandi Drone. [May 2018, p.37]

Sensual beauty abounds. [Apr 2018, p.24]

Space Gun fizzes with an energy and seamless melody that recalls the band at their mid-'90s peak, and there's an intriguing assortment of songs to be found. [Apr 2018, p.27]

Having coloured in right up to the edges in previous projects, it's a pleasure to hear Ruscha exercising restraint on "Lights Passing By" and "Gravity Waves." [Apr 2018, p.35]

His style remains unequivocally distinctive on these two succinct pieces. [Apr 2018, p.32]

Some good, powerful rock songs aside, this is a strange, honest, but not altogether convincing way to go out. [Mar 2018, p.32]

Temet manages to broaden their sound further, forging links to funk, soul and jazz. Crucially, though, they've retained the traditional rhythms that make them so captivating. [Mar 2018, p.26]

It's a remarkably immersive and generous album, emotionally as well as musically. [Apr 2018, p.18]

It's all uncomplicated and focused on instant gratification, capturing that ethic that made The Strokes so thrilling. [Apr 2018, p.27]

I'm Bad Now feels as much a modest masterpiece as Spring Hill Fair or Tigermilk. [Apr 2018, p.32]

Firepower delivers an agreeably familiar mix of skull-pummelling drums, eyebrow singeing guitar pyrotechnics and multi-tracked operatic vocals. [Apr 2018, p.28]

Despite also cooking up a glam stomp with "We All Die Young," it sometimes feels overly contrived. The epic "Rusalka, Rusalka/The Wild Rushes" is a notable exception. [Apr 2018, p.26]

Even if Mr. Dynamite sometimes feels like a light-hearted sideshow to more established musical careers, these moments of transcendence make the detour well worth while. [Apr 2018, p.32]

Even more commanding on the follow-up [to its debut]. [Apr 2018, p.32]

Lage switches to electric on Modern Lore, playing in a style that's acrobatic but never ostentatious as he mixes rangy jazz with early rock'n'roll. [Mar 2018, p.28]

Producer Robert Glasper adds a jazz sensibility lacking from Fele's original albums, while Carlos Santana shreds on Black Times, but it's the Egypt 80 big band who are the stars. [Apr 2018, p.29]

Youngs' take on British folk and art traditions remains rich and enthralling. [Apr 2018, p.37]

It offers astutely resonant personal ruminations at the dame time as honouring Baez's enduring search for material which speaks to the social condition of the age. [Apr 2018, p.25]

The lack of variety and formulaic production give this a wholly generic flavour. [Apr 2018, p.27]

Left to his own devices, Byrne comes home to a screwball hymnal mode that, for all the lyrical left turns, can feel a little too predictable. [Apr 2018, p.29]

Salvation lies in juxtaposing their dystopian vision against surging Beach Boys harmonies, gentle Simon & Garfunkel loveliness and the bucolic reverie of "Futures." [Mar 2018, p.25]

Drift captures frontman Mark perro in an unusually subdued mood. ... Drift risks seeming incoherent; no-one can say The Men ever fail to surprise, though. [Apr 2018, p.30]

Felt's abundance of different textures and its carefully composed atmosphere of unease ensure this is more than another recombination of Krautrock and Warp Record Reference points. [Apr 2018, p.35]

Historian fulfills all the promises of 2015's No Burden. [Apr 2018, p.26]

They demonstrate a unique approach, building unsteady sonic sculptures from bizarre beatboxing and sped-up samples and bringing them to life with rapturous soul testifying. [Apr 2018, p.37]

Andrew WK's most lucid slab of party politics since his 2001 debut I Get Wet ditches the improv piano to embrace the 39-year-ld's steroid-enhanced take on cutie-pop. [Apr 2018, p.37]

Slightly pleased with itself, but record is definitely worth a spin. [Apr 2018, p.35]

As vital as any of their previous four LPs. ... All Nerve's highlights are myriad and frequent. [Apr 2018, p.24]

"Dog" is a reverb-heavy highlight, but the whole set is as instantly likeable as it is smart. [Apr 2018, p.35]

It's a cinematic experience that reaches a peak on the immense finale of "Ugly And Vengeful." [Apr 2018, p.37]

It would be satisfying to hail A Productive Cough as Titus Andronicus' equivalent of Who's Next--but sadly it's more "What the hell?" [Apr 2018, p.37]

The songs are autobiographical, but not always straightforwardly so. [Apr 2018, p.22]

Songs move at a satisfying clip, with modal harmonies and woody violin scrapes creating a misty, pensive atmosphere in which their analytical tales of fleeting urban encounters feel like ancient fables. [Mar 2018, p.31]

Although the Poseidon, Lizard and Islands discs all contain bonus tracks and outtakes, the boxset’s primary focus is on live material. Over a dozen concerts from 1971–2 are included, four of which are previously unreleased. ... The sound of the ’71 gigs is gritty and realistic, and often mixed in stereo. But there’s a noticeable drop in quality when the ’72 gigs start (on disc 10) in Wilmington, Delaware. These are cassette recordings, very rough and bootleggy.

The No. 1 slot will continue to elude him, but a strange, dank pop corner remains his and his alone. [Mar 2018, p.26]

Icily brilliant. [Mar 2018, p.32]

An album you can get lost in. [Mar 2018, p.24]

Dedekind Cut is playful and emotionally varied, allowing for moments of rapture and joyful release amid the brooding, quasi-industrial hum. This tips over into sentimentality on the rippling strings and splashing water FX of Tahoe's tittle track, but the album remains an intriguing hybrid of Arca's fleshy rumble and the KLF's Chill Out. [Mar 2018, p.25]

Over 11 tracks the formula admittedly feels a little one-note and limited in scope, but the pair's gift for melody shines nonetheless. [Mar 2018, p.25]

An immersive, fluid and emotionally fragile listening experience. [Apr 2018, p.30]

Depth Of Field, Blasko's sixth studio album, substantially persists with the gloomy synthesiser motif of its superb predecessor, 2015's Eternal Return, but locates an even more poised balance between the chilly melancholy of glam-electronica backdrops and the capacious warmth of Blasko's vocals. [Apr 2018, p.24]

Stand-out numbers include the sumptuous orchestral lament "Hi A Skoellyas Liv A Dhagrow" and the gorgeous "Herdhya", a breathy spooktronica ballad with an anti-Brexit theme. [Apr 2018, p.27]

Not thrilling, maybe, but pleasingly solid. [Apr 2018, p.24]

Superorganism benefits from a surprising amount of focus and discipline that belies the woozy feel of the group's fun and savvy synthesis of the bricolage hip-hop of vintage Gorillaz and Avalanches, and the Day-Glo psych-pop of Animal Collective. [Apr 2018, p.35]

The excellent "Misheard" and "Useless" swirl with a cathartic sense of rage and helplessness, but while it's effective, the entirety is a lot to take. [Apr 2018, p.30]

The vibe is smart, slightly soiled. [Apr 2018, p.28]

With Mercury Rev/Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann poking psychedelic liquorice in the fluffy sherbet of their sound, Ross and drummer David Blackwell are more like an ice-cream van sinking in marshmallow, Motorhead on the dodgems or PJ Harvey fronting the Glitterband. [Mar 2018, p.28]

Surprisingly experimental. [Mar 2018, p.28]

It's a poignant, occasionally awkward addition to their catalogues, pitting Stills' earthy burr against Collins' soaring soprano. [Apr 2018, p.35]

Influenced by visual artist John Baldessari, Pure Beauty explores strange sonic vistas. [Apr 2018, p.35]

Here, on their fourth LP, the duo--teaming up again with Dave Fridmann--appear to have entered some weird, parallel 1983. [Apr 2018, p.30]

His most classically minded, complementing the film's setting with its own opulent old=world beauty. [Apr 2018, p.27]

There is a candid, personal quality to "Discreet" and "Have Fun Tonight," a sincere hymn to queer polyamory. Meanwhile, Chairlift's Caroline Polachek joins for the elegantly torrid "Togetherness." [Apr 2018, p.26]

The album's best tracks are those where Carlile strides beyond the confines of orthodox pop-country. [Apr 2018, p.24]

As a trio they've made a record of richer, more satisfying hues. [Mar 2018, p.26]

"Relay Runner" and "Jornada" boast more muscular sensibilities, with pulsing rhythms that bust through the layers of eerie drones and noises that make Loma as unsettling as it is compelling. [Mar 2018, p.28]

Landfall is an electro-acoustic patchwork of mostly short, mournful, quietly lovely mood pieces. [Mar 2018, p.22]

The set follows the progression of Mersey music from Yachts and Big In Japan through to The La's, who re-engaged with the Cavern sound and signalled where Britpop would soon be heading. [Mar 2018, p.47]

It won't cure humanity's ills, but it does a fine job of rejuvenating a band entering its third decade. [Mar 2018, p.22]

"To Shave The Leaves. In Red. In Black" is a frankly terrifying piece of spartan, gothic metal, where Gustafsson sounds like he's mutilating a hymn on the tenor sax. Best of all is the fidgety, one-chord funk of "Washing Your Heart In Filth," where Andreas Werliin sounds like three drummers playing at once. [Mar 2018, p.25]

Thankfully, Williams' effort to emulate that bygone sound is too sophisticated and idiosyncratic to be mere pastiche. [Mar 2018, p.35]

A fairly ravishing listen that brings to life to Remy's Cindy Sherman-style identity politics. [Mar 2018, p.35]

Sometimes the honesty gets close to discomfiting, but it's always compelling. [Mar 2018, p.47]

A thing of gentle and radiant wonder. [Mar 2018, p.24]

Insanely beautiful, with the strength and delicacy of spider silk. [Mar 2018, p.25]

She has, it seems, reached an accommodation with herself, with her doubts and her strengths. The two worlds co-exist beautifully here, the soft Power and the raw.

Some of her most formal and prettiest pieces. [Jan 2018, p.23]

One For The Ghost is at its best when he works up a head of steam and leaves James Hoare's guitar space to sparkle. [Mar 2018, p.22]

Luminous versions of American folk songs and old English ballads, alongside works by Lour Reed and Joy Division. [Mar 2018, p.35]

It's their angriest, jitteriest and most aggressive album since their early-90s heyday, and on "Reagan Youth" and "All For You" Superchunk sound like a hardcore band half their age. [Mar 2018, p.32]

Waffles, Triangles & Jesus marks the welcome return of White the singer-songwriter, unpacking reassuringly odd, skewed narratives that offer a surrealist's view of southern life. [Dec 2018, p.26]

"Young" offers brief flashes of a youthful Cure, but the fuzzy "Choke," about cocaine abuse, is underpinned by a malignant industrial beat, and the dominant mood remains that of an emaciated, homicidal Gary Numan. [Mar 2018, p.32]

Occasionally, his nostalgia curdles into bombast, but there's a fondness to his reminiscences that contrasts nicely with his famously gruff vocals. [Feb 2018, p.32]

The harmonies are exquisite, lending a sense of timelessness to gently understated melodies. Listen harder, and the subtleties of Howe Gelb's production blow in. [Feb 2018, p.29]