It's ultimately a record that struggles to step outside the shadows of its influences. [Feb 2018, p.27]

A cappella shanty "Poor Old Horse" is a working class hymn with real bite, while muted electronica gives "As I Roved Out" a thoroughly modern sheen. [Feb 2018, p.35]

Three of the 10 R&B covers he's recorded before, while the five original compositions faithfully plough his familiar tropes. [Oct 2017, p.35]

Simultaneously rooted and rootless, we might call the results Otherworld Music. [Feb 2018, p.35]

[His] voice bulldozes everything in its path, flattening melody and obliterating nearly every sentiment on this overzealous album. [Feb 2018, p.24]

It's the dumb, heads-down rockers that show BRMC at their best. [Feb 2018, p.24]

The Surfing Magazines offer a cinematic surf-themed perspective that adds an interesting layer to a skeleton of spindly indie-pop. [Oct 2017, p.40]

For now Ruins keeps First Aid Kit moving forward, empowered rather than overcome by the wrath of love. [Feb 2018, p.25]

As is the case with his band's startling fusions of space rock, doomy metal and motorik grooves on its four albums, there are many surprising developments here too. [Jan 2018, p.23]

Cumulatively, the brassy blare and breakbeats are like Dayglo plasticine, now merging into an paterfamilias brown ball. [Feb 2018, p.27]

It's an entertainingly disruptive blast of a record with a mirrorball lure, refracting everything from Motown to early-'80s disco and funk, boom bap, '90s piano house and contemporary R&B Yet nothing is stripped of its oddness or playfulness. [Feb 2018, p.33]

Noisy but thoughtful, and frenzied but melodic. [Feb 2018, p.32]

Pristine miniatures dominate, but the title track allows a more searching exploration of more ambiguous ambiences. [Feb 2018, p.29]

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]

Dean Rudland and Tony Harlow’s selections here mix up the canonical (Funkadelic’s “Maggot Brain” and “Red Hot Mama”, The Undisputed Truth’s “Like A Rolling Stone”, Sly & The Family Stone’s “Thank You For Talkin’ To Me, Africa”), with a good few cratedigging rarities. If anything, in their enthusiasm they may have set themselves a little too wide a brief. [May 2017, p.46]

Simpson and Ferguson keep the country stylings fresh, and Childers delivers the songs with the melodic urgent of early Steve Earle. [Feb 2018, p.34]

It's a heavyweight set. ... In this music Badu sees a path to self-betterment, a chance to grow. [Feb 2018, p.48]

It's gorgeous, and though its 27 minutes may seem slight at first, that's somehow perfect for the songs' capture of moments in the life, singing melancholy and joy in equal measure. [Jan 2018, p.21]

With members of Master Musicians Of Bukkake and Invisible Hands joining in, it's no surprise everything gets wilder as it goes along. [Jan 2018, p.17]

Initially it's hard to detect much disruption to his usual winning formula of squelchy keyboards, pulsing rhythms and glassy guitar noodles, but the dank electro of "AE" and the hot-stepping snares of "O" introduce a note of disquiet that only pulls you further into his exquisitely crafted universe. [Feb 2018, p.30]

Chief songwriter Craig Johnson is canny enough to avoid being backed into a corner, and adds additional colour such as electro-punk "Execution-Rise" and the intriguing "Torrment." [Jan 2018, p.18]

Things become more perverse with the corroded exotica of "Deer Ron" and "Leyline Ogres," though her weirdness is most becoming. [Jan 2018, p.29]

[The] bucolic narratives on the sextet's fourth album are imbued with plainspoken authenticity. [Jan 2018, p.26]

There are Goat-like moments, but "Serenity" and "Meditasjonen" interrupt the party to introduce a more studied and austere note to proceedings. [Jan 2018, p.21]

The songs themselves are fascinating in their breadth, and if nothing else, The Visitor feels like Young's broadest album in some time. [Feb 2018, p.26]

At its blissed-out best, as on "Saw You Twice" and "Feel So Right," her new direction conjures the kind of streetwise reverie rarely heard since the days of AR Kane and One Dove. [Feb 2018, p.28]

The gorgeous psychedelic soul of "Pineapple Skies," the Prince-like strut of "Told You" and the rubbery Latin funk of "Caramelo Duro" all reaffirm Miguel's status as the most versatile talent in R&B's avant-garde. [Feb 2018, p.30]

He's added half a dozen of his own compositions in a similar style to this generous 16-track selection, which pays tribute to his jazz roots rather more successfully than his uneven homage to his R&B origins in September's Roll With The Punches. [Feb 2018, p.30]

There was much more to Stapleton than the Music Row standards he'd been cranking out for others, and Vol. 2 further confirms this suspicion. Under his own name, and own steam, Stapleton cleaves closer to the outlaw ethos of Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams Jr and Johnny Paycheck. [Feb 2018, p.32]

Watford's Stavely-Taylor sisters and New York's chamber music sextet effortlessly bridge the divide between their chosen genres. [Feb 2018, p.35]

The selections on this earworm-packed compilation prove that the limitations of 8-and 16-bit technology and the era's primitive sound chips were no obstacle to the most determined composers. [Jan 2018, p.43]

Thanks For Listening has the same gentle humour and musical imagination he brings to the airwaves [as host of Prairie Home Companion], although "I Made This For You" and the title track are a bit precious in their meta trappings. [Jan 2018, p.26]

The set is essential for three glorious and long-unavailable performances of classic Guthrie compositions by Dylan & The Band recorded at Carnegie Hall in January 1968. [Oct 2017, p.53] [Album: 9/10 Extras: 7/10]

Despite a few notable omissions--no "Big New Prinz"?--it feels like the most coherent overview of the band's 40-odd years to date. [Jan 2018, p.38] [Album: 9/10 Extras: 6/10]

A friskier beast than usual. [Jan 2018, p.29]

Fans get their money's worth with this particular Broderick. [Jan 2018, p.35]

An unctuous solo album mixing flaccid new songs with slick retreads of classics. [Jan 2018, p.24]

It fizzes with pent-up power and singalong choruses. [Jan 2018, p.18]

They're feeling the chill of middle age, when a night on the sofa with an M&S ready-meal holds more appeal than feeling like an auntie at the church-hall disco ("I Only Smoke When I Drink," "No Longer Young Enough"), and the wisecracks are harder to pull off. [Jan 2018, p.23]

No two tracks are stylistically the same--and yet there is a clear sense of cohesion. [Jan 2018, p.28]

Something gets lost in translation in these inter-cultural patchworks, sure, but more often than not something weird and wonderful is born. [Jan 2018, p.38]

Thirty years later, the heaviness of these songs has intensified rather than abated. [Dec 2017, p.40][Album: 9/10, Extras: 7/10]

The result is an impressionistic and intriguing set of instrumentals that draw on an eclectic set of influences from the obvious (Satie and Glass) to the surprising (gamelan and Robert Miles). [Jan 2018, p.24]

Tribute To 2 is a richer and more complex collection [than his previous cover releases]. [Jan 2018, p.20]

Its 10 tracks show that age still hasn't tamed Hammill's mighty, stentorian voice or the existential rage still burning at the centre of his songs. [Dec 2017, p.27]

It comprise four lengthy tracks, from the wood-wind-assisted Led Zep-sized rocker "This One's For The Human" to the one chord motorik Krautrock of "The Visitations." Best of all is "The Moon IS Not Your Friend," in which a McCartney-styled guilty pleasure is bookended by terrifying space-age FX. [Jan 2018, p.17]

Krgovich reflects wryly on his own situation, the perennial underdog whose day might be just around the corner. [Jan 2018, p.23]

The seven unnamed tracks here are often surprisingly straightforward in form given the two musicians' penchant for demolishing conventions. [Jan 2018, p.22]

It moves like a Best Of, stacking the hits up top. [Jan 2018, p.40]

A finely crafted mood piece rewarding deep immersion. [Dec 2017,p.25]

There are plenty of albums by singer-songwriters documenting damaged relationships, but few have mapped out the emotional catography with such candour and insight as Van Etten. ... The ethereal "You Didn't Really Do That" floats on layers of seductive harmony, while church-like organ lends the bittersweet "I'm Giving Up On You" a sepulchral feel. [Jan 2018, p.43 - Album score: 8/Extras score: 6]

Wilson, now 60, reveals a flair for conjuring up moods on songs that suggest the languorous drift from winding down to sleeping in. [Jan 2018, p.29]

Wildly ambitious debut. [Jan 2018, p.26]

Five years in the making seems like a long time for an hour's worth of music, but Jonti clearly had plenty of fun along the way. [Jan 2018, p.22]

There are hints of Cocteau Twins and Joanna Newsom, but the air of doomed beauty is Bruland's own. [Dec 2017, p.26]

It contains fleeting proof of a band still capable of making sparks fly. [Jan 2018, p.29]

The arrangements are light and percussive, and Polwart's singing is bell-like. [Jan 2018, p.24]

Skittishly improvisational without undermining the overall serenity. A good time for your chakras guaranteed. [Dec 2018, p.18]

Utopia really delivers on the transcendent promise of its title with the closing "Future Forever." [Jan 2018, p.12]

This album will not fry your brain though that's not to say that a substantial change has not been attempted. [Jan 2018, p.27]

The resulting confluence of country, soul, gospel and R&B is a delight, Langford's originals imbued with a keen sense of time and place. [Dec 2017, p.23]

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]