Plodding covers of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" are gratuitously dull and, somewhat revealingly, the most rewarding tracks are probably Runga's two original compositions, seemingly appended as an after-thought. [Feb 2017, p.27]

Its four sides teem with microbial incident, particularly in the dense thicket of percussion from Tony Buck that undergrids the album. [Mar 2017, p.35]

Reverse captures Pinhas in turbulent and psychedelic mood. [Feb 2017, p.35]

An odd mix, maybe, but a believable one. [Mar 2017, p.31]

Memories Are Now is built on stacked voices, sparse rhythm and twisted folk shapes, but the execution varies pleasingly. [Mar 2017, p.32]

Vermont is a project now--but the outcome is similarly minimal and beatific, with each of its 12 tracks shaded with only the most essential detail. [Mar 2017, p.40]

Northern Passages is just that [promises both new delights and reassuring old comforts], their banked harmonies as warm and familiar as the blissful psych-country of "Riverview Fog" or the Clarence White-era Byrds stylings of "God Bless The Infidels." [Mar 2017, p.39]

The overall mood is bright, hovering somewhere between the lyrical directness of Jonathan Richman and the West Coast energy of Tom Petty. [Mar 2017, p.37]

A rather beautiful debut. [Mar 2017, p.32]

The songs themselves trip by with a deceptively casual air. [Jan 2017, p.27]

It's the haunted croak of the band's main singers, Ibrahim and Abdallah, that are the main draw: the sound of heartbroken gangleader, the world-weary soldier, bravado replaced by tenderness. It's a sound that suits them perfectly. [Mar 2017, p.22]

The alleged political subtext is pretty opaque, while the rich sonic mix strays into tasteful inertia in places, but the prevailing mood is eclectic and energised. [Mar 2017, p.37]

Lovely for a few songs, the narcoleptic, yet semi-cinematic visions risk homogeneity by the album's end. [Mar 2017, p.35]

Sick Scenes is certainly a messy affair, stylistically, and overrun with densely packed lyrics, though it's not entirely without charm. [Mar 2017, p.32]

The more melodic and less maniacal "Melting" and "Sleep Drifter" point toward newer ambitions and influences. Especially welcome is the turn toward Middle Eastern and North African sounds on "Anoxia" and the title track.[Mar 2017, p.32]

Despite his melancholy rep, Lekman's rarely sounded sunnier. [Mar 2017, p.32]

A high-flying triumph. [Mar 2017, p.26]

Delve further into Human, though, and you find sterile R&B and schlocky, overwrought lyrics. [Mar 2017, p.37]

On disc the effect can be bludgeoning--although you can hear that onstage it must make for a wild night out. [Mar 2017, p.26]

The flirtations with more dissonant sounds throughout also point to a welcome eagerness to roughen up the latest results of Surfer Blood's ongoing quest to find the happy medium between the Pixies and The Hollies. [Mar 2017, p.40]

As devil worshiping goes, this is pretty funky stuff, with a tight and bouncy tone throughout. [Mar 2017, p.35]

The music here should captivate anyone who ever imagined what a Burial remix of Arthur Russell's World Of Echo might resemble. [Feb 2017, p.33]

Somewhere, Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny Mercer and Mose Allison are tapping their feet and smiling. [Feb 2017, p.33]

Omar has found a formula that really works. [Feb 2017, p.33]

If only Thomas' smart-ass, sing-song drawl was as appealing as his songs. [Feb 2017, p.38]

On much of This Is Steve, he comes off as a one man jam band. [Feb 2017, p.24]

Despite its heady beauty, a gloomy fatefulness also shapes this set. [Mar 2017, p.30]

A more sombre, focused affair [than 2015's covers album of Taylor Swift's 1989]. [Mar 2017, p.23]

It's all insanely catchy. [Feb 2017, p.33]

The album is only 30 minutes liing, but that's plenty enough exposure to live electricity. [Feb 2017, p.26]

Throughout, the songs are delivered with a powerful undertow that recalls Emmylou Harris' Wrecking Ball. [Feb 2017, p.33]

Their breakneck energy highlights the thrilling strangeness of their structures and textures. [Mar 2017, p.40]

Tourist In This Town fairly fizzes with the excitement of striking out alone, and justified confidence that hers is a voice worth hearing. [Mar 2017, p.26]

It's less dynamic, but the prog-folk flavours remain intact, with penny whistles and acoustic guitars central to its two sentimental, sometimes meandering halves. [Feb 2017, p.33]

Pleasingly, Segall's root wildness is enhanced by their [Ben Boye, Mikal Cronin, Emmett Kelly, and Charles Moothart's] jamming virtuosity. [Feb 2017, p.37]

While its faintly folkish, alt.pop songs fail to reveal any feral side to the bassist of Bombay Bicycle Club, they prove his compositional chops while radiating a pleasantly frosted glow. [Mar 2017, p.40]

Little Fictions is the sound of a band doing what it's always done, and doing it with style. [Mar 2017, p.28]

Such a stylistic spread can leave it slightly centreless, but a strong emphasis on groove runs throughout. [Mar 2017, p.25]

Their largely improvised debut explores a gorgeous cosmic jazz with shades of Michael Rother and Cluster, Benn helming modular synth, Duffin adding tasteful gusts of sax. [Mar 2017, p.40]

RTJ3 is the pair's most focused and mature work to date. [Mar 2017, p.34]

With pleasing inevitability, A Shadow In Time does not disappoint. [Mar 2017, p.25]

Sampson has broadened her horizons on this largely self-produced album, mastering a richer range of sounds and styles clipped synthfunk to sleek R&B to sumptuous gospel-pop. [Feb 2017, p.37]

Deconstructing socio-cultural norms rarely sounds like so much fun. [Feb 2017, p.24]

A different, more elegant affair. [than 2014's Mosaic]. [Feb 2017, p.38]

The band aren't afraid to diversity. [Feb 2017, p.30]

There are shades of The Smiths and The Sundays in the likes of "Strange Warnings" and "Take Yourself With You," while opener "Colour Of Water" is a near-perfect piece of electro-pop, at once wistful and joyful. [Feb 2017, p.24]

Within its narrow punk framework, the music is reasonably effective. [Feb 2017, p.24]

An album that finds wildness in unexpected places. [Feb 2017, p.16]

Somewhere on the feral fringes of indie civilisation, Half Japanese remain kings of their own tiny jungle. [Feb 2017, p.28]

Lush and lively. [Feb 2017, p.29]

A fine album. [Feb 2017, p.35]

A characteristically indefinable collection guaranteed to please their larger continental fanbase. [Feb 2017, p.35]

While the duo's tempo remains measured and its atmosphere is typically grand, thanks to a 40-piece orchestra, Iris puts more emphasis on modular synths. [Feb 2017, p.38]

They nevertheless sound irresistibly fresh and zesty. [Feb 2017, p.23]

Morrissey's rather affectless delivery drains any celebratory urge from "Grease." But "Sunday Morning" is a triumph. [Feb 2017, p.33]

Migration, road-tested in SJ sets, finds Green cruising into that emotional landscapes occupied by the likes of Jon Hopkins and Mark Pritchard. [Feb 2017, p.23]

The best and the worst thing about these, as with the rest of the album, is that it's impossible to think of a better descriptive adjective than "Cohenesque." [Oct 2016, p.40]

Johnston suits the form, finding a hitherto largely latent frailty and vulnerability in his voice. [Jan 2017, p.24]

The portraits of Hey Mr Ferryman, shaped into gorgeous studies of sympathy by Bernard Butler's production, are compelling in their starkness, their raw, unchecked humour, and their kindness toward people who, as Eitzel says, are looking for "something that will lead them to light and safety." [Feb 2017, p.20]

Overall, a triumph of assurance and tenderness. [Feb 2017, p.28]

Voyager is awash with cascading Jean-Michel Jarre-ish Eurosynths and pulsing Moroder-esque Rhythms. But Arbez-Nicolas eventually diluted his plan by adding contemporary beats, noises and guest vocalists. [Feb 2017, p.38]

Retro-kosmische pastiche is now firmly established as a lazy good-taste signifier, but it does not excuse mundane plodders such as "Turncoat" or "Motorbath." Thankfully, Soft Error move beyond retro-hipster orthodoxy on their best tracks. [Feb 2017, p.38]

With his band's thrilling fourth album, Baldi successfully develops his own take on the merger of powerpop and hardcore brawn. [Feb 2017, p.24]

Self-aware and possibly self-satisfied, this is wildly overloaded pastiche taken to ludicrous but highly entertaining extremes. [Feb 2017, p.28]

The retro musical mood on Happy Rabbit fits the lyrical tone. [Jan 2017, p.24]

The delicate touches and melodic strengths shine. [Jan 2017, p.23]

[The] now East Memphis-based artist comes off as an eloquent country/folk songsmith. [Feb 2017, p.26]

It seems relocating from Vienna to L.A., getting married and becoming a father has nudged the British-born producer-performer closer t conventional R&B electro-pop on his second album, with mostly positive results. [Feb 2017, p.38]

Powerful and intriguing stuff, but the emotional spark never quite catches. [Feb 2017, p.21]

The xx have expanded their horizons without sacrificing any of the emotional intimacy that makes them one of the most compelling acts around. [Feb 2017, p.22]

Oczy Mlody continues the Lips' longstanding mission to explore the joy and sadness of simple human consciousness, so that even when the album loses its footing--which it does, often--it never loses its way. [Feb 2017, p.34]

The production has opened up enormously. [Feb 2017, p.32]

In this case, sustained synth notes and chimes entwine to create a meditative environment that, while no longer as revolutionary as Discreet Music once seemed, is just as serene. [Feb 2017, p.26]

Major Stars risk the ridiculous to try and access the sublime, somehow reaching the latter every time. [Jan 2017, p.25]

All round, it's more than the sum of its parts, if not quite the event that is clearly hope for. [Feb 2017, p.40]

Johannsson's use of vocal manipulation on "Kanguru" and "Ultimatum" add splashes of colour to his full-bodies minimalism, each lingering note loaded with ominous intent. [Jan 2017, p.24]

Tribe carry their burdens as lightly as they did on rap landmarks such as People's Instinctive Travels and The Low-End Theory. [Feb 2017, p.38]

It is a remarkably assured piece of work, gracefully furnished and artfully wrought. [Feb 2017, p.36]

Most of the time, however, Epoch sounds like the album Ulrich Schnauss has been promising for a decade. [Feb 2017, p.38]

Patterns Of Light grasps the surreal potential of the situation and responds with an OTT concept album. [Feb 2017, p.28]

This fourth album is his most satisfying yet. [Feb 2017, p.28]

The album finds Escovedo veering between anxiety and celebration. [Feb 2017, p.26]

The gambit [space-age sheen and quantised grooves] works on the trippy title track and the confrontational "If You Want It," but elsewhere it robs the band's hyper-rhythmic attack of its viscerally human feel. [Jan 2017, p.28]

The third installment of Jarre's eco-themed trilogy follows the same pattern as its predecessors. [Jan 2017, p.24]

Electa is at its best when the folk rears its head. [Jan 2017, p.32]

The playing is empathetic throughout. [Oct 2016, p.39]

It was a landmark in prog rock. [Dec 2016, p.47]

It hardly needs saying that this mammoth box is not intended for the casual Dylan listener. Even committed fans might think twice. Essentially, what you get is the same songs played in the same order over 23 nights. But, by God, how they are played.

Low on cheer, but richly rewarding. [Dec 2016, p.38]

"1832" is a departure, with emotional unease preserved in glowing folky amber, but it's an inspired curveball on a largely routine course. [Jan 2017, p.32]

Sounding emphatically Icelandic on every note, sister act Ásthildur and Jófrídur Ákadöttir coo gorgeously flinty, frosty, intertwined harmonies over stark, piano-led chamber-folk arrangements. [Sep 2016, p.78]

Bell's music is refreshingly uncomplicated. [Dec 2016, p.28]

Tolchin's best work comes when he unburdens his soul. [Jan 2017, p.31]

The showpiece is "Blue Remembered Hills," a 20-minute closing epic about 1970s Britian that is part musical theatre, part bittersweet lament.[Jan 2017, p.32]

The result is a work that blends crackling blues, jaunty country and mesmerising folk balladry that sends shards through the heart. [Jan 2017, p.22]

Sprawled across 40 years of high and lows, A Very British Synthesizer Group is inevitably bumpy in quality, but still rich in pleasant surprises, and shot through with the bloody-minded punk genius that defines so much music from the People's Republic Of South Yorkshire. [Jan 2017, p.38]

Daniel takes care to keep things minimal. [Jan 2017, p.23]

The result: gorgeous, unpretentious post-folk melancholy. [Jan 2017, p.32]