Beautifully moving. [Aug 2017, p.32]

What sets his debut apart from other similar singer-songwriters are the cinematic, electronic textures that he weaves around his work, but also the off-kilter material. [Aug 2017, p.32]

Commendable ambitions, uneven results. [Sep 2017, p.26]

It's an album of songs beautiful on the surface, but with darkness nibbling on all sides. [Sep 2017, p.18]

Like a cross between X-Ray Spex and rage Against The Machine as reinterpreted via US hardcore, there's plentiful anger, but also a hopefulness. [Sep 2017, p.26]

The results is some of the richest, most compelling and least lonely-sounding music of Granduciel's career. [Sep 2017, p.24]

Throughout the album, melodies stop and start like film scores: they change key, tempo, time signatures and even musical genres to suit the flow of the story. [Sep 2017, p.22]

Stein mostly carries an air of pleasant politeness, which rather fails to convey the darkness beneath tales of gambling addicts and bottles of bourbon in the fridge. [Aug 2017, p.38]

A wealth of new material for diehard fans. [Aug 2017, p.46]

Kinder Versions offers up a stormy swell of sound that's intermittently compelling even if Mammut's wilder instincts can seem tethered down by plodding rhythms. [Sep 2017, p.32]

Often, she comes across as heir to songwriters such as Todd Rundgren and Randy Newman--raising a jaded, critical eye to the world. [Sep 2017, p.38]

This is an album dominated by the two remaining Isley Brothers. Ronald Isley's distinctive tenor groan sounds particularly good on slowies such as "Mercy Mercy Me" and Leon Thomas' "Let The Rain Fall On Me." [Sep 2017, p.30]

There's a clutch of self-penned gems, "In The Middle Of It All's" momentous heartache, and some superlative country-soul interpretations, the pinnacle being Dan Penn and Donnie Fritts' "Rainbow Road." [Sep 2017, p.45]

He's louder and stranger than ever, growling his way through 11 songs that mix stomping glam rackets with lumbering. [Sep 2017, p.26]

These smooth edges still cut deep. [Aug 2017, p.38]

Hip Mobility favours digital modernism over analogue nostalgia, yet admits the wonder and romance inevitably in play. [Aug 2017, p.35]

No-one writes with such wince-inducing accuracy about their target audience as their former Beautiful South pairing. [Sep 2017, p.30]

An inspired collection of sonically inventive, discreetly theatrical pop. [May 2017, p.30]

Images abound of betrayal, compromise, opportunities selfishly squandered. But a kind of redemptive enlightenment emerges. [Aug 2017, p.34]

The second half of this compilation, thoughtfully assembled by Gotye's Wally De Backer, features Perrey demonstrating the range of the Ondioline's sonority with 10-second clips of him mimicking a banjo, castanets, oboe and so on, restored from the original acetate. The first half collects 11 of Perrey's more conventional Ondioline compositions from the '50s and '60s. [Aug 2017, p.48]

Purple Rain sounds incrementally more alive. [Sep 2017, p.51]

The warm interaction between Brian and his bandmates on these recordings really does cast a much misunderstood period of The Beach Boys' career in a new light. [Sep 2017, p.44]

As ever, you wish they'd stretch out and jam a bit more in the studio, but this might just be the most satisfying CRB set since 2012's Big Moon Ritual. [Sep 2017, p.37]

He pulls a few originals out of the bag. But it is the sideways eviscerations of "Ol' Man River" and "Over The Rainbow" that resonate the longest. [Sep 2017, p.35]

The music glistens and gleams. ... An intoxicating ride. [Sep 2017, p.34]

It's not the kink in the tail of FTP's impeccably groomed pop that makes them so intriguing, but rather their unembarrassed, first-level readability, which is such that you begin to suspect fiendish subversion. [Sep 2017, p.28]

Fans of Ariel Pink, Sinkane and mild hallucinogens would do well to seek out this eye-opening, vibes-heavy debut by shamanic newcomer Feynman. [Sep 2017, p.26]

Snaith's take on minimal dance music is brighter and more immediate [than his Fabric mix in 2007]. [Sep 2017, p.24]

There's little of the playful invention of 1997's astonishing Fantasma, but imaginative details abound, even at these slower tempos. [Sep 2017, p.24]

Achieves a drifting, beautiful desolation that many of their peers lack. [Sep 2017, p.24]

The result is a disjointed, jarring mix of washy atmospherics, bleary electronics and half-baked songs. [Sep 2017, p.23]

Universal High usually depends more on mood than focus. A little more of the latter and it would be almost perfect. [Aug 2017, p.26]

Take Me Home in particular sounds like a bonus disc to a full album reissue. But they reveal new angles to the Big Star story. [Aug 2017, p.52]

Aching pop-soul bathed in nostalgic warmth of another era. ... Yet Atkins is also possessed of a singular, torchy voice that floods these songs with genuine fervour. [Aug 2017, p.25]

These unfailingly lovely late-night reflections stalk the same territory as the third VU album, Richard Hawley, The Lilac Time, and ballad mode JAMC, moving from the stark intimacy of "Over You" to the narcotic drag of "Waking Up" and Bond theme grandeur of "If The World Is All We Have." [Aug 2017, p.30]

Zauner adds peppier number like "Machinist" and "Road Head" without ever sounding like she's spread too thin. [Aug 2017, p.32]

There are shades of Chvrches in the title track, with its soaring choruses and shimmering soundscapes, while "Bigger Than Love" is The xx with a massive soul injection. [Jul 2017, p.35]

A largely enjoyable ramble through '90s and early '00s-era soul-jazz and brassy funk. [Aug 2017, p.32]

They raise a lively ruckus, but never venture far from the sounds pioneered by groups like Steeleye Span and The Albion Band. [Aug 2017, p.35]

There is surprising range here. [Aug 2017, p.52]

A sweltering sun-baked quality. Lyrically, meanwhile, the concept--of discomfort with technology--comes a little more into focus here. [Aug 2017, p.31]

It is difficult, however, to detect any Latin influence upon what is another collection of lilting, lulling Joni Mitchell Pastiches pitched largely between winsome and the twee. [Aug 2017, p.37]

"Whiskey, Wine And Ham" is the only track that really pops, enlivened by a rare burst of classic Ryderese. Otherwise it's slim pickings from men a long way past their prime. [Aug 2017, p.25]

It's a thrilling start but, after the breathless thrills of the first six songs, things tail off sharply. Still, it's hard to begrudge them. [Aug 2017, p.37]

Kin Sonic is a far more expansively international affair. [Aug 2017, p.32]

The sinewy electric guitar lines and occasionally stodgy songs at times stray into the realm of windy stadium-folk, as blandly generic as Smith's name. When it does cut to the heart of the matter, however, Headlong impresses. [Aug 2017, p.37]

Gangster Star is a light, trippy confection, reinventing R&B with rippling electronics and slippery, Prince-like funk. [Aug 2017, p.31]

Moonshine Freeze is an impressive conduit for their upward trajectory. [Aug 2017, p.36]

Songs are steeped in creeping '90s guitar with ear-catching lyrics, plus a sense of vibrancy that comes from the fact Crutchfield really does have something to say. [Aug 2017, p.38

Throughout, Lawrie's voice is buried so deep in the mix as to be virtually inaudible, like a Mary Chain 7" slowed down to 33rpm. [Aug 2017, p.38]

Every Valley feels far more substantial [than 2015's The Race For Space], as PSB's amorphous brand of prog, motorik and post rock integrates fully with BFI clips and first hand interviews. ... Pathos and fortitude are plentiful. [Aug 2017, p.35]

Too many tracks wrap mildly neurotic musings in self-consciously quirky, deadeningly tasteful, grown-up indie-pop crooning. [Aug 2017, p.25]

[Moses Archuleta's] hazy, lo-fi house jams as Moon Diagrams shoot for dreamy but are mostly just soporific. When he occasionally stirs from his torpor to write a actual song, the results are much more fulfilling. [Aug 2017, p.32]

The new versions of songs are all better than the originals. [Aug 2017, p.45]

The result is sparkling, if substance-free, historical re-enactment. [Aug 2017, p.30]

There is less self-indulgence and more inspired engagement with the album concept on shorter pieces. [Aug 2017, p.30]

Luther and Cody Dickinson strip it back on Prayer For Prayer, recording in a half-dozen American cities and viscerally capturing the widespread unease. [Jul 2017, p.35]

The ex-pat Brit displays an affecting, fluid picking style that at times sounds comfortingly English. [Aug 2017, p.28]

Canadian Colter Wall is just 21, but in delivering his rich imagery of railroads, frauleins and codeine dreams, he sounds closer to 71. [Jul 2017, p.40]

The visual-album version is the trippiest means of experiencing Ernest Greene's third full-length under his Washed Out moniker. Yet the music is sufficiently enthralling on its own. [Aug 2017, p.38]

Some of the most exuberant and immediately engaging music they've ever recorded. [Aug 2017, p.22]

With Pop Makossa, the music's backbone is exposed--the complexity of the genre, bringing together multiple national musics alongside Congolese rumba, highlife, and later, funk and disco, leads to singularly compelling long-form grooves. [Aug 2017, p.51]

Perrett is back, in decent shape, and fully engaged with the world. [Aug 2017, p.18]

Devotees of Crover and his stalwart partner Buzz Osborne--joined here by bassist Steve McDonald-get ample does of both the band's stock-in-trade of gnarly, fuzzy bruisers and demonstrations of its more experimental side on the film soundtrack that comprises the second half. [Aug 2017, p.32]

After three albums, they've learned to speak the same language. [Jul 2017, p.40]

Here is Can, warts and all. [Jul 2017, p.49]

Warmth and easy elegance dominate, yet Korkejian's songs aren't without mood upsets. [Aug 2017, p.25]

The standout tracks reject slick studio polish. [Aug 2017, p.38]

“I Promise,” “Man Of War,” and “Lift” are the most exciting, crucial elements of this deluxe edition. ... [The B-sides are] a perfect counterpart to the three new tracks, and point towards Radiohead's convention-defying next chapter of Kid A and Amnesiac. [Aug 2017, p.44]

"Jelly's" languid R&B and the Latin shuffle of "Moonwalk" will seduce newcomers, while the rest--like Juana Molina's recent Halo--is subtle and endlessly engrossing. [Aug 2017, p.30]

The dynamic, White-produce LP is dominated by wistful yet hooky ballads. [Jul 2017, p.32]

Adams has come up with a captivating set of "sound Paintings" that eschew rock dynamics in favour of slowly shifting abstract patterns in which his guitar is filtered through a polychromatic prism of Tinariwen grooves, Steve Reich pulses, gnawa trance rhythms and droning raga loops. [Aug 2017, p.23]

House and Land is first and foremost a vocal album, full of rough-hewn and exquisitely discordant mountain harmonies---like The Carter Family for the 21st century. [Jul 2017, p.32]

Nice, but not quite essential. [Jul 2017, p.40]

Trevor Sensor's very good debut hits its mark. [Aug 2017, p.37]

This is nightmarish stuff--oscillating waves and synth drones hum menacingly,while snatches of piano appear, like daylight at the end of some ancient, subterranean tunnel. [Aug 2017, p.35]

There are some moments her that are mearly shoegaze revisited. But more often than not, Cantu-Ledesma's background in more avant-garde practices helps shake things up. [Aug 2017, p.26]

The band remains essentially the same. ... Back then it was exhilarating. Now it's also a little exhausting. [Aug 2017, p.26]

A concept piece about man's downfall and a planet in ruins, versed in three chapters and dominated by the kind of skull-splitting metal that marked 2014's I'm In Your Mind Fuzz. [Jul 2017, p.32]

An abrasive but soulful post-punk. [Jul 22017, p.23]

Her sophisto-pop range expands with each album, although the winning warmth of her live performances is largely absent here. [Jul 2017, p.35]

Bash & Pop's strong second album. [Aug 2017, p.25]

He signs off with a collection of mostly familiar songs, including three others by Webb, Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice It's All Right," Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin'" and a sublime version of the Dickey Lee heartbreaker "She Thinks I Still Care." [Aug 2017, p.15]

I'm Not Your Man is a much rowdier navigation of female relationships and sexuality that moves between dark dreampop and post-Belly/Breeders rock, armed with flashing hooks. [Aug 2017, p.30]

There are stormy rockers and stately, fevered ballads. "Music For Love," meanwhile, condenses Sweet's philosophies into one joyous singalong. [Aug 2017, p.38]

It's moodily compelling, rather than electrifying. [Jul 2017, p.39]

Although there are no gaffes here, neither is there much to mark it out from their first. [Jul 2017, p.36]

[His] best collection in more than a decade. ... These songs present an entirely unromaticised, often harrowing portrait of the outlaw genre. [Jul 2017, p.28]

The Nashville Sound sees Isbell swaggering confidently along the rockier edge of his range--as usual--he's at his best on the reflective ballads. [Jul 2017, p.32]

This follow-up is even better [than 2015's Music In Exile], their skittery rhythms making fuller use of R&B grooves, brass and funky licks. [Jul 2017, p.39]

Henriksen's flute-like playing has a uniquely spittled, raspy quality that lends it a rare vulnerability. [Jul 2017, p.30]

These nine tracks find the foursome reworking a suite of folk and roots songs with their trademark chilly decorum, joined by a brace of Nonesuch labelmates. [Jul 2017, p.32]

Everything is buried under a blanket of surface noise, as if these are decaying tapes that have been salvaged form an old building and the highlights math this narrative. [Jun 2017, p.26]

Producer Kwesi Sey has upped the dramatic ante throughout. [Jul 2017, p.25]

A stylistic leap forward. [Jul 2017, p.35]

Goldie strikes a neat balance between exploratory drum programming ad sleek soul. [Jul 2017, p.30]

This off-piste project has turned into a far more substantial, fully realised undertaking. [Jul 2017, p.24]

We'll be lucky if the year yields another headphone album as sumptuous as this one. [Jul 2017, p.30]