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]

Syrupy piano ballads remain a blind spot for Morris, who seems to be soundtracking ab imaginary Richard Curtis comedy n the sappy, soppy title track. But "rose Garden" is great, it's whopping Kate Bush-isms spliced with staccato mechanised beats. [Mar 2017, p.31]

The title track veer uncomfortably close to cookie-cutter sloganeering, but there's more focused spikiness to the manic pop charge of "One last Chance," while "Up On the Moors" ticks all the pogo-anthems boxes of the band's glory days. [Feb 2018, p32]

Only on "Hooting And Howling" and "All The Kings' Men" do you catch the sharp, hot stink of their once feral presence. [Mar 2018, p.35]

Twin Fantasy marks another leap in ambition. [Mar 2018, p.22]

A career highlight in low times. [Mar 2018, p.31]

It maintains throughout that signatures guileless fealty to soulful rock'n'roll, laced as usual with the wry melancholy that distinguishes Fallon's lyrics. [Mar 2018, p.

The result is quiet success. [Mar 2018, p.25]

Both their most straightforward album and their most elusive. [Mar 2018, p.34]

Newfound sobriety has sharpened Lilly's focus since her previous release, as does the backing of dad's touring band and the unfussy production by Shovels & Rope's Michael Trent. [Mar 2018, p.26]

On Room Inside The World, we hear them filling out their sound with synths, vibraphone and--on "Desire"--a 70-piece choir, an the songs are growing too, laced with emotional nuance. [Mar 2018, p.31]

Damned Devotion is her fifth album, and feels like a kind of reckoning, a taking stock, and a work of renewed focus. If 2014's The Classic was a high-concept exercise in soul pastiche, here she returns to her core territory, forensically charting the human heart, tracking the course of midlife love, lust and loss. [Mar 2018, p.20]

Both sonically and lyrically, it's an album that is explicitly, thrillingly transgressive and is already an early contender for one of the albums of the year. [Mar 2018, p.33]

It's often breathtaking. [Mar 2018, p.22]

Enriched instrumentation and subtle electronic flourishes make this Ackroyd's most rewarding collection. [Mar 2018, p.21]

An expansive, atmospheric reboot of the muscular melancholy of 1985's Once Upon A Time. [Mar 2018, p.32]

Robbed of Godspeeds's crescendos, a melancholy gloom dominates. [Mar 2018, p.28]

There's a country edge to songs like "Slick Delta Queen," "Exile Rag" and the surprisingly sweet "Bridge City Rose," the latter making a nice break from the self-centred tone of "Fake Magic Angel" and the Lou Reed-bitterness of "Gold Calf Moan." [Mar 2018, p.24]

A wonderful record. [Mar 2018, p.30]

A set of instant, insistent--occasionally irritating--tunes. [Mar 2018, p.35]

Consistently stirring and heartbreakingly lovely. [Feb 2018, p.18]

Enchanting debut Oh My reveals itself slowly with each listen. [Feb 2018, p.30]

It all sounds fabulous. [Feb 2018, p.29]

Open Here is another prog-pop masterclass from a band reflecting our times while remaining stubbornly out of step with them. [Feb 2018, p.23]

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]

His second Daptone album swings like Sam Cooke, sways with rocksteady cool, and is as stylishly '60s as a pair of fur-lined Chelsea boots. [Mar 2018, p.27]

A set of limber, largely instrumental funk shot through with Asian, African and Middle Eastern melodies, each track sounds like it could have come off as jukebox single purchased from some dusty overseas record kiosk. [Feb 2018, p.29]

Ty's most unrestrained albums stands among his best. ... Like sitting by a loaded jukebox that turns out gems all night. [Mar 2018, p.16]

Though slight in parts, and hardly groundbreaking, for those craving a little sunshine in these dark days, Vessel Of Love brings the rays. [Feb 2018, p.25]

Richard Koch's trumpet and Shards' choral vocals on the spooky "Human Range" confirm his quiet urge to defy expectations. [Feb 2018, p.27]

For much of the record the Djangos are the same sweet-toothed bunch. [Feb 2018, p.24]

The way they smudge together sounds can feel more untidy than enjoyable, but when they get it right, as on the riff-heavy "taste" and "Spend The Night," it's exhilarating stuff. [Feb 2018, p.24]

Could It Be Different? is a cathartic celebration of newfound self-assurance. [Feb 2018, p.32]

Rest assured it all goes down as easy as a tequila sunrise, though Earthtones could've used more of the adventurous spirit of "So Free," a gorgeously supple eight-minute vamp. [Feb 2018, p.23]

It shows the band at their most proggy. [Mar 2018, p.26]

[She] breathes new life into past glories. [Mar 2018, p.32]

The lyrics seem to be obsessed with mortality and the effect it has on families. [Feb 2018, p.23]

The band's self-titled debut may inevitably lack the electricity of the live shows, but with the abundance of trashy thrills, "I Love LA" and "Let Her Be" still demonstrate the potency of Sytarcrawler's au courant mash-up of Raw Power-era stooges, Sunset Strip glam-metal and Nirvana at their hookiest. [Feb 2018, p.35]

Between Two Shores might be his most compelling and imaginative amalgam of Big Pink folk-rock and Muscle Shoals R&B. [Feb 2018, p.28]

A song cycle that straddles inescapable anxiety and persistent optimism. [Feb 2018, p.24]