It's perhaps the best introduction yet to the sometimes-confusing world of Sun Ra. [Feb 2016, p.94]

An expansive, soulful set that embraces modern West Coast fusion, Hancock-style funk, , psychedelic soul-jazz and more. [Nov 2023, p.26]

Listeners anticipating some sort of shoegaze supergroup will be neither entirely wrong nor remotely disappointed. "A Different Girl" and "8th Deadly Sin" especially demonstrate that Berenyi retains her knack for wrapping languid melodies around waspish lyrics. [May 2025, p.28]

It takes some skill to make these sentimental songs sound this effortless. [Apr 2015, p.77]

Not only a radio-friendly unit-shifter, but also a bona fide guilty pleasure. [Mar 2009, p.85]

Together, they've crafted a cerebral yet effortless vast and cinematic ode to love and new beginnings, one that splits the difference between shoegaze and synthpop. [Aug 2019, p.36]

He couches this misery in beautiful arrangements, writing on the piano, orchestrating with strings, and pitching his ambition somewhere between Serge Gainsbourg and Todd Rundgren. [Feb 2010, p.90]

They may be shamelessly role-playing their Joan Jett schtick, but The Donnas still out-rock earnest retro-bores like Jet and Kings Of Leon. [Dec 2004, p.157]

A gorgeous collection of songs steeped in Americana roots and full of breezy canyon vibes. [May 2023, p.28]

With The Warning, they've willed themselves beyond bathos by sincerely embracing their English art-pop sensibilities. [Jun 2006, p.103]

The third outstanding album of his career. [Mar 2007, p.103]

10 taut, white-knuckle songs. [Feb 2016, p.72]

In the wrong hands this mish-mash could be a colossal disaster, but delivered through the inimitable vocals and presence of Eno Williams, it melds gracefully. [Apr 2019, p.31]

Nelson's paeans to familial bonds form a loose song cycle that frequently surprises and is capable of effortlessly lifting the listener's spirits. [Sep 2021, p.29]

A collection of cobwebbed country and chamber-pop spiked with dark wit, it peaks with "Flirted With You All My Life", a dialogue with the reaper that Chesnutt handles with impressive dignity. [Nov 2009, p. 83]

There's a Jekyll and Hyde quality to Wolf Alice's debut that gently reels you in with its gossamer folk pop and lilting indie-pop before it going for the jugular with savage bursts of psycho-grunge guitars. [Jul 2015, p.84]

One of their more purely enjoyable albums. [Mar 2023, p.25]

Rich and immersive debut. [Review of the Year 2025, p.28]

While poppier and more accessible than his albums fronting Fantomas, it's worth the wait. [Jul 2006, p.104]

Like Arthur Russell, he marries such influences [of Steve Reich and Terry Riley] with an off-kilter pop sensibility. [Oct 2010, p.87]

Evangelicals sing of skeletons, snowflakes and things that go bump in the night with witty samples and imaginative arrangements. [Mar 2008, p.87]

This luminously lovely collection is well-judged and intensely personal. [Feb 2013, p.74]

It’s an album that’s constantly shifting, almost restless at times, yet it also remains poised and coherent. [Jul 2021, p.27]

For all the collaboration, and the interweaving of roots and modern, Ayisoba's relentless kologo, and sheer force of character, gifts the album its irresistible drive and fierceness. [May 2017, p.32]

We find all sorts of intriguing experiments. [Aug 2020, p.30]

Doyle has made a record that is as intricate as it is infectious, creating a deft yet complex pop collage that turns a troubled and chaotic world into a beautiful spectacle. [Feb 2024, p.28]

By the time we reach "Surripere" we could be listening to a toughened-up Aphex Twin, poignant harmonies battling against oblique but splintering beats. [May 2003, p.92]

Their CSNY-meets-MGMT harmonies are as sun-dappled and warming as ever. But this is also their most skillfully diverse record yet. [Aug 2019, p.35]

The problem here is Beans himself, whose verbosity too often resembles a limerick writer who tries to cram, as many syllables into the last line as he possibly can. [Mar 2011, p.83]

Watson is a master of both dynamics and arrangements, his songs ebbing and flowing with a restrained grace and striking sensitivity. [Jul 2012, p.85]

As stylishly coherent as it is surprising. [Mar 2022, p.26]

Taken as a whole, On All Fours is an impressive balancing act, creating something fresh from the group's diverse influences. [Feb 2021, p.28]

This is arguably The Coal Porter' finest yet--a deft, thoughtful and beautifully arranged set with an airy sense of melancholy. [Nov 2016, p.25]

While Django Django have spent much of the last decade assembling art-pop collages from eclectic grab-bags of styles, this fourth studio set seems to pull off the trick more seamlessly than ever. [Mar 2021, p.29]

Kelis' versatility... may mean she'll never hit like Beyonce, but she's still many producers' most stylish leading lady. [Nov 2006, p.117]

An album of lonely beauty and piercing sorrow, White Chalk is P.J. Harvey back at the peak of her considerable powers.

There's not a weak moment here, though the aforementioned "I Don't Like My Mind" and "The Deal", with its sudden percussive tumult, shine brightest. [Nov 2023, p.31]

Captured live in the studio at LA's Sunset Sound, they've never sounded better in their 20-year career, their Southern roots more proudly on parade than ever. [Oct 22010, p.87]

Last Day Of Summer is as good as anything White Denim have ever done. [Jan 2011, p.80]

A dense and abrasive record of astonishing precocity, which, if it has a fault, is only that it occasionally offers brute intensity in excess of the impact Pemberton's razor-sharp verses. [Oct 2008, p.87]

From clanging rock songs to eerie ambient pieces to sensual acoustic reveries, it's all highly detailed and perfectly weighted. [Aug 2008, p.98]

It's every bit as good as their debut. [Nov 2008, p.109]

Their primitive dance beats and carefree, nostalgic melodies recall Saint Etienne, and their endearingly earnest efforts to summer upon tracks such as 'No Excuses' and 'June Evenings' are a joy to behold. [Jan 2009, p.85]

Even by his own standard, the conceptual breadth and sonic dexterity of Jhelli Beam dazzle. [Sep 2009, p.79]

It's evolution not revolution, putting its author's sound deeper into her own context. [Aug 2020, p.32]

He's one of the few guitarists around who can make a guitar solo an article of faith. [Mar 2024, p.25]

13 avant-pop gems evocative of Pere Ubu and Talking Heads. [Jun 2003, p.96]

His fine fourth album sees him thicken his sound a little, layering jazzy brass and full-blooded surf-rock twangs over austere acoustic foundations. [Jul 2011, p.96]

[Trust] hit upon a nifty formula that veers between mid-80s Depeche Mode and fruity Eurodisco. [Jul 2012, p.84]

His sax-heavy third solo album blows its own horn. [Aug 2015, p.75]

Sexsmith's soulful voice, mixed with simple guitar strums and sweet harmonies, especially in the delicate yet incredibly intense closer, "Ever Wonder", pushes style, composition and existence into a timeless adventure. [Mar 2023, p.35]

This Zen archer lets fly with his second straight bulls-eye. [Sep 2015, p.79]

Ghost Forests is a sensual record where the spaces in between the sounds assume a corporeality all their own. [Dec 2018, p.26]

Excels in its moments of mournful rumination. [May 2020, p.35]

A 75-minute intuitively guided rhythmic meditation, all five musicians playing from deep inside the music. [May 2021, p.30]

This intensely personal touch humanises his alien sound design, casting him as a kind of sensual mutant whose comradeship with Bjork makes perfect sense. [Jun 2017, p.23]

It has the desperate, desolate sound of one that needed to be written. [Aug 2020, p.27]

An intriguing collection that reveals more of itself with every listen. [Jun 2025, p.31]

Mitch Ryder here astutely merges heartbreaking social realism with accomplished, funky Motown/James Brown grooves. [Mar 2012, p.97]

Yak's galloping songs are slathered with thick, fuzzed-out guitar and occasional squealing sax, pushing every available needle into the red. [Jun 2016, p.82]

Toussaint masterfully irons oout the kinks and the dissonances from the city's music. [Jul 2016, p.77]

There's a lot going on but Georgopoulos makes it all feel unhurried and effortless. [Aug 2018, p.24]

It's a rich, invigorating and mischievous affair and, for older fans, possibly their best since 2004's The Dirty South. [Mar 2011, p.87]

It's as stylistically free as any GAM record - and as exquisite. [Oct 2020, p.32]

A refinement of the country/folk/reggae/rock amalgam The Mekons have pursued for years. [Oct 2002, p.108]

The spirit moves zeroes in on [the lines separating faith and hope, optimism and cynicism, and emotioanl carnage] in bare, existential terms... with the ferocity of a soul singer pushed to the edge. [Aug 2015, p.80]

The resulting album is a homage that feels and sounds fresh. [Nov 2016, p.26]

It's a punishing and rewarding experience. [Nov 2016, p.28]

The snarky will hear a reheated Mike Flowers Pops; the wise, a labour of genuine love. Turn on, tune in. [Nov 2018, p.24]

Classic Objects is, on its face, Jenny Hval's most straightforward work: her songs flirt with conventional verse-chorus structure, her lyrics are clear nd direct, drawn from life. Closer listening, though, reveals Hval interrogating those experiences. [Apr 2022, p.29]

In Ze's hands Tropicalia is still a potent, living artistic force. [Jul 2006, p.118]

Isakov's most panoramic album. [Oct 2023, p.29]

This set traces a downward trajectory toward disco, but every album has its highlights. [Mar 2020, p.47]

More organic than their 2004 debut, Parades is just as richly rewarding. [Nov 2007,p.98]

It's the sense of a nuanced beat group finding their own path beyond Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine that's most compelling. [Feb 2015, p.99]

Not tunes for kids: simply some of Karen O's sweetest songs yet. [Nov 2009, p.100]

Angels is spacier than previous outings, nowhere more so than the semi-improvised 20-minute title track. [Mar 2011, p.88]

32 years on from Swans' formation, Michael Gira is not only still moving forward, but making some of the albums of his career. [Jun 2014, p.81]

Truly terrific. [Jul 2011, p.96]

Pastoral and hallucinatory is how Sioux plays it here. [Jun 2012, p.83]

Breach is an often quiet, hushed album, but its message - one of discovering happiness in solitude - comes over loud and clear. [Nov 2020, p.31]

The sound overall mostly evokes the primordial, punky, pre-grunge Lemonheads, leavened now as then by Dando's insuppressible pop sense. [Dec 2025, p.33]

Singer Joe Casey tacks flattened vocals to songs that move with a bristling crawl and occasionally explode into repressed fury. [Nov 2016, p.35]

Despite the sombre circumstances, J.T. is a celebratory affair, the elder man bringing a hymnal ruggedness "Far Away In Another Town" and a hearty hoedown spirit to "I Don't Care." [Feb 2021, p.27]

Inarticulate, perhaps, but indubitably exciting. [Oct 2013, p.72]

While "Incense At Abu Ghraib" has a horror auteur's knack for intimidation, a shrill whistle barely masking the sound of feet on metal stairs. It's masterful, though it'll leave you feeling like a speck of gravel in self-destructing world. [Nov 2013, p.72]

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

Watershed feels like a declaration of independence. [Feb 2008, p.87]

True, every song here is virtually identical, but at least it's a great song. [Apr 2008, p.94]

The new LP gradually casts a powerful spell. [Aug 2008, p.106]

Crackles with a wisecracking energy. [Aug 2020, p.36]

It’s E’s lyrics that are the true, bitter joy of this record, sacrificing nothing of their wit in pursuit of heartbreaking, heartbroken directness.

The results are impressive: the requisite 1960s garage cover sits happily alongside the band's traditional urgency, and their newfound classicism. [Nov 2009, p.99]

The very wonderful Eyeland finds them poised between the familiar and the less so. [Jul 2016, p.75]

Johanna Warren’s sixth solo record is as masterful as it is enchanting. [Oct 2022, p.36]

The results are dark, dangerous and utterly compelling. [Mar 2011, p.94]

Nervy and noisy, Sixth House ranks alongside their best albums. [Aug 2018, p.33]