Slight and derivative, but stylish when it works. [Dec 2017, p.29]

The likes of "Maliblue Dream Sequence" and "Tonal Bath For Bubbles" positively glow, layering shimmering keyboard washes, ringing chimes and raga-like melodies to create a sense of blissful stasis. [Jan 2018, p.23]

Less, often, is more. The home demos of "sans" is powerfully raw. [Jan 2018, p.39]

Trouble No More presents a very humane portrait of a man on a serious spiritual quest, which makes it as biographically fascinating as it is musically frustrating. [Jan 2018, p.34]

Since the impact of their shtick has diminished from overuse, the shift toward a less hectic pace elsewhere is a wise one. [Jan 2018, p.26]

This is a focused trio who boast a superb drummer and feature lovely, unshowy harmonies, able to balance the melancholy of Nils Edenloff's lyrics with a euphoric, confident delivery that feels like a brilliant form of catharsis. [Jan 2018, p.26]

The likes of "Sauchiehall Withdrawal" and "Diop" add a few crumbs to the collective's heaving table, but there's plenty here to chew on. [Jan 2018, p.22]

A reawakening to be reckoned with. [Jan 2018, p.21]

Some of Bridges Not Walls shares a punkish musical sensibility with its ancestor, and while "The Sleep Of Reason" is an invigorating polemic, Bridges Not Walls is at its best dropping a gear for the country shuffle of "Saffiyah Smiles." [Jan 2018, p.18]

It's slightly pedestrian take on amped-up roots rock falls short of that particular bar {2008's Furr], but the rolling funk-blues of "When I'm Dying" is terrific, while the harrowing "Joanna" is a masterful piece of storytelling. [Jan 2018, p.18]

Akin to labelmate Brian Eno's early ambient work, its nine, often lengthy tracks of ghostly yet graceful desolation are intended to evoke the forgotten histories of enduring locations. [Jan 2018, p.18]

A soul-funk "cousin" to Big Inner, featuring a hefty dose of off-kilter Afro-pop alongside jazz-rock freak-outs and the acid-country of "Blue As My Name," where Blau claims to be "drunk with Wonder again." He sounds it. [Dec 2017, p.22]

The self-lacerating starkness of "Drive" still freezes the blood, while at the other end of the emotional scale, "Nightswimming" finds solace in snapshots of a lost summer. [Dec 2017, p.42]

Savage Young Du stands as some testament to his [Grant Hart's] wild creativity, and the protean energy of the band that first brought his songs to the world. [Dec 2017, p.34]

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

The tracks are so sparse and lo-fi as to fell half-finished, and Svenonius' smouldering delivery fails to catch fire. [Dec 2017, p.27]

A surprising mutation, for anyone familiar with Dwyer at full-tilt, but Memory Of A Cut Off Head proves his magic straddles genres. [Dec 2017, p.30]

Soul Of A Woman proves to be so much more than your average swansong. ... Sly, spirited and sublime, it packs a whole lot of action into its 36 filler-free minutes. [Dec 2017, p.16]

Where Mavis' voice once a rangey, optimistic mezzo-soprano, her register has dropped dramatically to an emotionally rich, brassy contralto. It adds a growling intensity to lyrics that are dignified rather than angry. [Dec 2017, p.24]

On her second LP, Gothenburg's Sumie Nagano recites her depressive, wintry haikus in a soft, pure voice over some rather samey accompaniment. [Dec 2017, p.33]

As is traditional, there will be those bemoaning the fact it's no Dopethrone, and "The Reaper," is over in an uncharacteristically brief three minutes, feels like a waste of a track. Still, Wizard Bloody Wizard offers enormous pleasures. [Dec 2017, p.26]

Permo's strength is the variety of voices provided by rotating singers Rachel Taylor, Sean Armstrong and Jack Mellin, which in turn encourages and emphasises the band's range. [Dec 2017, p.33]

Recorded in Nashville with Ken Coomer producing and former Sturgill Simpson guitarist Laur Joamets adding minimal country flourishes, it goes some way to understanding what to do with Oren's voice, a low, conversational rumble which manages to disguise the clipped poetry of his lyrics as easy conversation. [Dec 2017, p.32]

This is in many ways his weakest since Kill Uncle. [Dec 2017, p.20]

Keith provides Out Of Range with its sense of momentum, moving things forward where Sharp will circle his themes like a vulture. ... Gun Outfit can sing from the heart as well as from the brain. [Dec 2017, p.31]

Raymonde elicits gorgeous performances from guest vocalists. ... Even more welcome are the deviations from the sumptuous dream-pop and ethereal acid-folk modes you'd expect of Ojala. [Dec 2017, p.28]

The Animal spirits is earthy and tactile. [Dec 2017, p.23]

14 beautifully broken-hearted tunes about just what the album title says. [Dec 2017, p.33]

Hebden's skill is to weave such ethnographic curiosities into the fabric of his own luminous electronica without it feeling like a dry curatorial exercise. [Dec 2017, p.27]

A bit of a triumph. [Dec 2017, p.27]

The four collaborations her with Brit-soul Omar are rather dated pieces of junglist-tinted acid jazz, but elsewhere Pine's orthodox, instrumental ballads are exquisite and well-written. [Dec 2017, p.30]

Their battery-acid sharp Dransfields harmonies and uilleann pipe drones ensure their second album is powerfully strange. [Dec 2017, p.28]

He's captured the binary sense of outrage and fear with visceral brilliance on songs such as "twins" and "Stone Age." [Oct 2017, p.36]

"Nights In The Lab" finds scientist Martin pining for a white-coated colleague, one of many tracks that would have fitted just as neatly into his famed '70s stand-up shows as it does a highfalutin hoedown at the Grand Ole Opry. [Nov 2017, p.32]

A succinct, deceptively simple half-hour outing. [Dec 2017, p.25]

An eccentric collection that only adds to his mystique. [Dec 2017, p.26]

Even at its most languid, this album retains a faintly manic, frazzled quality that prevents it from descending too far into retro pastiche. [Dec 2017, 9.28]

This new album is a bit of a mess at times, though its scope is almost as impressively broad as its top-loaded guestlist. [Dec 2017, p.25]

A suite unreliably narrated by a character named Miami. ... The album is a wittily wrought soundtrack of his delusions. [Dec 2017, p.25]

The uninitiated may hear only a wonky Julian Cope at 25rpm, but somewhere on Screen Memories is the point where performance art ends and genuine mania begins. [Nov 2017, p.32]

Saicobab whip up a sonic maelstrom that's every bit as intense as the shock tactics of Boredoms' early noise recordings or the polyrhythmic psychedelia tat followed. [Dec 2017, p.30]

Discovering all this mellow gold now is akin to discovering Laurel Canyon was actually on the other side of the Pacific. [Dec 2017, p.47]

The songs are very much of their time, reflecting shifts in popular taste and featuring numerous covers. [Dec 2017, p.43]

Even if the production pores over old memories, when they fire on all cylinders the combination of their best MCs creates more than a nostalgia trip. [Dec 2017, p.33]

This is a meaty-sounding affair. [Dec 2017, p.30]

Russell was clearly fully committed to the project, with sincere lyrics and a strained, emotional vocal sustained by luscious strings. [Dec 2017, p.30]

Though the arrangements here are thinner and the longer pieces feel overstretches. [Dec 2017, p.30]

Lilies is a succinct affair, albeit one of often similarly unearthly pleasures. [Dec 2017, p.25]

The issue here is the sameness of his songs. [Dec 2017, p.25]

"Escape From New York" and "Halloween" can't top the cold desolation of the originals. ... Pretty much every one of the album's 13 tracks confirm Carpenter's skill for an eerie earworm. [Dec 2017, p.25]

Lights may be bleak, but that only makes the moments of catharsis all the more illuminating. [Dec 2017, p.22]

Fohr's extraordinarily expressive baritone--echoing Nina Simone, Nico and Scot Walker--is the centre of her songs which range far and wide compositionally. [Nov 2017, p.24]

The pair's dialogue on SpiderBeetleBee move fluidly between unison harmonics and point-counterpoint. [Nov 2017, p.32]

True, this may have benefited from the inclusion of, say, 2013's "Lucinda Byre," but the man's unerring ability to quietly lift the heart with melody as he foes in "Rumer" and "Josephine" is ultimately the more valuable sensation to hang on to. [Nov 2017, p.30]

For Mnestic Pressure, his first for Hyperdub, Gamble again draws on themes of memory and perception to inform his shapeshifting arrangements, which curdle and collapse with familiar irregularity but don't necessarily build on past achievements. [Oct 2017, p.28]

Not as generous with its outtakes as a leaked CD-R suggested Rhino's 20th-anniversary edition in 2006 would have been, the inevitable round-up of B-sides does at least--and this is a big plus--reuinite "Rubber Ring" and "Asleep" in an unbroken segue. ... The Mansfield gig is a worthwhile addition to the official catalogue, though collectors will notice six of the 19 songs played that night are not included. [Nov 2017, p.40]

An album of grungy, earnest rock that pivots from deluges of Hole-inspired chaos to more restrained, melodic fare. [Nov 2017, p.24]

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

All American Made marks both a hardening and a deepening of Price's sound. [Nov 2017, p.25]

John Lee Hooker was the most adaptable bluesmen. ... King Of The Boogie is a career-bridging overview that highlights these abundant qualities across five discs. [Nov 2017, p.50]

[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]

Bowie’s Berlin is more about a state of mind, a population and its thinking than an actual place. Brian Eno and his intellectual playfulness; Robert Fripp’s alien guitar; Tony Visconti’s embrace of meaningful technology. Between them they gave Bowie the materials to build a city larger and more magnificent than anywhere you could hope to find on a map. [Nov 2017, p.44]

While there are plenty of new lyrical Bejarisms to enjoy, the packaging feels a little stale. [Nov 2017, p.26]

The tasty guitar work is undercut by Wilson's heavy-handed lead vocals and the partners' cliche-ridden lyrics. [Nov 2017, p.26]

Much of this is rather pedestrian ska with blandly topical lyrics referencing populism, social media and hashtags. However, "Remember Me" winds and grinds appealingly. [Nov 2017, p.36]

There are enough familiar motifs to keep long-time fans happy. Lyrically, it's an endlessly pleasing melting pot. [Nov 2017, p.36]

The rootsy exuberance of Lullaby giving way to a mixture of romantic longing and social commentary. [Nov 2017, p.22]

Songs such as "Heels Over Head" and "Van Gogh's Ear"--like Ben Watt backed by John Martyn's fingerpicking guitar--are digitally mutilated with glitchy effects and field recordings, while Emma Smith provides elegant flourishes on Violin and clarinet. There are also a few witty lines. [Nov 2017, p.26]

[Queens Of The Breakers] is busy without ever feeling overcrowded, its liquid acoustics following the soft contours of Brad's vocals to telling effect. [Nov 2017, p.24]

Rich and strange. [Nov 2017, p.30]

In 2017 it sounds like a revelation, not just a reminder of their glorious volatility, but also a raggedly beautiful effort that stands alongside The Replacements' best records. [Nov 2017, p.46]

An album that splendidly makes the most of a unique creative kinship, as well as a shared desire to cast light in dark places. [Nov 2017, p.18]

Much of Arise draws from the duo's [Moses Boyd and Binker Golding] spartan energy. Boyd serves a one-man Art Blakey, Sly Dunbar, Carlton Barrett and Tony Allen, swinging in a Caribbean vernacular. ... McFarlane has a pop sensibility that's unusual in the jazz world, and her songs are based around strong melodies. [Oct 2017, p.31]

It's a bravura fusion of dense-art metal/pop and strutting baroque disco. [Nov 2017, p.36]

Colors may be less anarchic than his most famous albums from the 1990s, but he emerges as a studio tinkerer who has grown more disciplined but no less eccentric. [Nov 2017, p.24]

Enjoyable solo debut. [Nov 2017, p.30]

It's All Right... functions almost like a best of. [Nov 2017, p.32]

[French Touch] feels like a soft option. Yet there's no denying the chic sophistication with she delivers stripped-down versions of hits associated with Patsy Cline, The Rolling Stones, Tammy Wynette, Lou Reed, Depeche Mode, the Clash and Abba. [Nov 2017, p.24]

The mood is pensive, walking the line between downbeat and quietly uplifting, but this is among the best set of songs Finn has written. [Nov 2017, p.26]

The Kid is a hugely satisfying example of Smith';s wholesome and harmonious vision, one that manages to enmesh the wonders of music, memory and nature via analogue synthesis with out explicit reference to the healing properties of crystals. [Nov 2017, p.38]

He injects these economic songs with a modish sense of sophistication. [Nov 2017, p.35]

1992 – 2001 does a fine job of collating their best moments from a career that spawned four albums and two EPs, as well as offering nine unreleased tracks from the hours of music they recorded in an empty bedroom that served as a regular rehearsal space.

Mondanile doesn't always have the songs to pull off the silver jacket. "Wearing A Mask" hints at band beefs past, much as "In The Hallway" does to the Real Estate mode, but these and the intricate guitar licks of "Mannequin" are the only moments where Ducktails make their fusion spark. [Nov 2017, p.26]

Significantly more wonderful than it is frightening. [Oct 2017, p.24]

Best of all, perhaps, the skill and imagination she displays in her arrangements suggest that there's a lot of scope for adventure in the future of a musician who found her groove but seems unlikely to get stuck in it. [Nov 2017, p.34]

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]

Solidly crafted but with few surprises. [Nov 2017, p.28]

Tunes like Burt Bacharach's "blue On Blue" and The Young Rascals' "How Can I Be Sure" are perfect for Almond's pirouetting croon. [Oct 2017, p.23]

Bidin’ My Time draws from every corner of Hillman’s long career, mixing folk rock and country rock and bluegrass into an amiable sound, somehow both modest and ambitious.

He's wisely opted to sound as different from his father as he possibly can, swathing his alt.rock songs in haunting layers of deep electronica, although there are giveaway traces of the family DNA in the voice and in the swirling Indian motifs. [Nov 2017, p.28]

It comes across, surprisingly, as a wildstyle update of the bricolage fusions Weatherall started out exploring in the early '90s. [Nov 2017, p.39]

Big tunes. Not much heart. [Nov 2017, p.30]

Cry Cry Cry is 21st-century rock at its most delectably omnivorous. [Nov 2017, p.39]

At times the production is overly slick, but Sky Trails is a strong, sinuous piece of work. [Nov 2017, p.37]

Gathering is another collection of Dylanesque strummings, rescued as always from generic blandness by Ritter's alacrity as a lyricist and husky grin of a voice. [Nov 2017, p.36]

Que Aura sees the West Coast-based singer-songwriter embrace an '80s-infused psychedelia that occasionally mutates into a disco strut. [Nov 2017, p.36]

Talk of losing his "soul and conscience" and floundering in an ocean with no land in sight suggests deep trauma, hinted at disturbingly in songs such as "Pun" "Dark Lights" Yet there's also evidence of at least a partial re-emergence into the light on "Humbug," which sounds like the Be Gees if produced by Brian Eno. [Nov 2017, p.32]

The dissonant guitars and whirring synths land on the more accessible side of avant-garde rock, veering into sia-esque pop on tracks like "Greener Stretch," though revelling in never quite resolving its melodies. [Nov 2017, p.36]