Their albums have got better and better since 2005, with saxophonists Pete Wareham and Mark Lockheart entering into ever more engaging dialogues while the rhythm sections flail around inventively. Here Leafcutter John, who usually makes odd noises with a sampler, switches to guitar addng a clunky alt-rock feel to tracks. [Mar 2010, p.93]

Ejimiwe's lyrics are often vague, but the music has echoes of Tricky, Roots Manuva, and the minimal end of dubstep. [Mar 2011, p.91]

It makes for a rambunctious rock'n'roll record. [Nov 2011, p.94]

[It] sees her expanding her horizons with out scrimping on nuance or emotion. [Nov 2011, p.84]

Beneath the jazz-folk toned melancholia there's a new dramatic intensity. [Jun 2012, p.83]

There are a few too many tracks here that don't quite achieve lift-off. [Oct 2012, p.74]

Yirga wears his influences too obviously on the introspective solo pieces, but these are early days. [Aug 2012, p.83]

Their terrific Wilco-esque third album, the emphasis is on storytelling. [Nov 2012, p.73]

Wonderful it is too, King's rich baritone and Dalgleish's emotive voice delivering a baker's dozen of duets that carry the sting of authentic Country Classics. [Jan 2012, p.94]

Almost every one is a pure and lovely miniature. [Aug 2013, p.69]

Their blue period, perhaps. It suits them. [May 2014, p.76]

It's self-improvised and often raw, but bursting with vim and surprise. [Jun 2014, p.80]

Strange Friends marks a measured step towards accessibility for one of Britain's most inventive bands. [Jun 2014, p.82]

While You Were Sleeping is a curious amalgam of '70s soul, '90s R&B and the epic manoeuvrings of stadium rock. [Aug 2014, p.74]

It's all so ancient that it becomes thrillingly modern. [Sep 2014, p.78]

Perhaps they lack the arty flourishes of elder statesman Damon Albarn's solo work, but these bold, brassy tunes serve to remind that it wasn't only about Union Jacks and DMs back then. [Oct 2014, p.69]

For Godard, it bridged punk and his Tony Bennett phase, with the band sporting knock-off Fred Perrys at the height of goth gloom-mongering. [Nov 2014, p.75]

The extra care and attention to production and arrangements has paid off, making Man It Feels Like Space Again as consistently enjoyable as their older albums were unevenly thrilling. [Feb 2015, p.85]

The albums keep coming, with little stylistic variation, nor significant lapse in quality. [Feb 2015, p.87]

There's a gauche Hollyoaks vibe to sentimental moments "Sailing" and "Wild West," but otherwise this is a handsome debut. [Mar 2015, p.72]

More heartmelter than skullsplitter--but just as ruinous. [Mar 2015, p.73]

A Doug Sahm/CCR vibe runs through much of this debut. [Jun 2015, p.71]

The new songs are equally striking, ranging from sensual lullabies to strident protest, delivered with a righteous spiritual and political conviction in a muscular voice full of spit and pungency. [Aug 2015, p.78]

The latest from the three siblings plus mate chews gleefully through genres. [Oct 2015, p.73]

[A] wonderous first solo offering outside of Air. [Oct 2015, p.76]

This Terrific follow-up is even better, the quartet unloading a clamorous set of songs full of pique, provocation and waspish humour. [Aug 2015, p.77]

While the orchestral flourishes on "Beloved Wife" and "River" are nice enough, it's when Merchant pares back the arrangements on "Wonder" and "Carnival" and focuses on her voice (which has become deeper and grainier with age) that these songs really soar. [Dec 2015, p.75]

Futures is just as lovely as his admirers could have hoped. [Jan 2016, p.73]

It isn't easy to pigeonhole, but it could just be one of the albums of the year. [Feb 2016, p.84]

Turin Brakes makes no attempt to fix what isn't broken, honing their melodic, acoustic-based forays into rootsy genres. [Mar 2016, p.81]

Cinematic in scope, ruthlessly ambitious in execution, this is not easy listening. [Mar 2016, p.82]

His eighth sticks largely to the template. [Mar 2016, p.69]

On his 24th solo album, the Guided By Voices man shows he still knows how to cobble together a sturdy, well-constructed song. [Apr 2016, p.78]

Not a decline, but a deliberate descent. [Apr 2016, p.92]

The best moments are often the most self-excoriating. [Aug 2016, p.75]

Evolving from fairly skronky beginnings, and passing through a great set of ostensibly Greek folk-psych, Redshift at once honours and transcends those influences, chucking in some Dead-style ambulation. [Aug 2016, p.81]

Of late, Cherry Red have rediscovered a role which had eluded them for years, as curators of scenes and scenes in-between. The material here doesn't do that reputation much harm, revealing a thin but potent seam of transitional, very hairy hard rock. [Sep 2016, p.95]

Tracks such as "Dragon Bones" and "Joan Of Arc" have bigger, stickier hooks than anything he's written since "Sheila." [Oct 2016, p.39]

The trio [is] on reassuringly unpredictable form. [Oct 2016, p.40]

The songs on Ruins are sharply focused and blessedly heavy. [Dec 2016, p.36]

Everything is done with the casual-sounding confidence that comes with hard experience. [Dec 2016, p.38]

The famous guests broaden the appeal--but ultimately it's the Syrians who are the true stars. [Jan 2017, p.32]

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

Highway Queen feels like the kind of record that should bump Lane to another level. [Mar 2017, p.28]

It's business as usual for The Godfathers. [Mar 2017, p.30]

Not every track is killer, but even the filler fascinates.

The set never feels like adapted poetry. [Jun 2017, p.28]

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]

While groups like Thee Silver Mt Zion and Godspeed You! Black Emperor overegg everything, Moss works a far more thoughtful, nuanced seam. [Jul 2017, p.34]

Pere Ubu's punchiest effort since 1998's Pennsylvania. [Nov 2016, p.35]

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

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]

A career highlight in low times. [Mar 2018, p.31]

An extraordinary instrumental album full of hypnotic rhythms and minimalist melodies that are both stunningly beautiful and at times oddly unsettling. [Jun 2018, p.28]

A set pf ripe and mature songs that reflect poetically upon insecurity, sacrifice, pride and hubris. [May 2018, p.27]

This is the kind of roughed-up disco-not-disco that would have sold a ton when electroclash was all the rage. It might still. [Sep 2108, p.36]

Haiku Salut deepen and widen their electro-pastoral sound on this mostly sublime third album. [Nov 2018, p.30]

An extraordinarily, beautiful, haunting piece of music. [Dec 2018, p.25]

Sinking Into A Miracle is absolutely beautiful--otherworldly, often, and quietly ecstatic, in its own, strangely pop way. [Jan 2019, p.17]

A stripped-down set of acoustic songs sung in a voice that is sometimes overly winsome but at its best is hauntingly ethereal. [Feb 2019, p.24]

A set of one-take, fragile musings, predominantly for acoustic guitar and voice. [Mar 2019, p.23]

This daring approach at times exposes the quality of their material, but mostly this is sparkling stuff. [May 2019, p.34]

Nodding back to the Stones and The Band, these familiar sounds serve an open-souled gospel vision, rooted in upstate Nee York reality and dreams. [Jun 2019, p.27]

On Holy Spring he expands the minimalist palette of his debut Distant Early Warning. [Jun 2019, p.34]

Inspired by Alfred Stieglitz's photographs of clouds, it's inevitably founded upon lengthy drones but there's subtle drama here, too. [Oct 2019, p.29]

Beyond The Door might at times nod to good-time escapism, but it also represents unsullied rock'n'roll in music's most splintered age. [Sep 2019, p.33]

Much of [Kasabian's] personality comes from guitarist/songwriter/producer Serge Pizzorno, and on this solo project, similar quirks stands out. [Oct 2019, p.36]

The resulting album is a thing of gossamer beauty. [Dec 2019, p.25]

Moore's delicately stylish piano lines and Liz Fraser-style vocal hiccups combine seductively. [Mar 2020, p.37]

The record is awash with sparkling, instantly memorable melodies. [Apr 2020, p.28]

A blues feast. [Apr 2020, p.25]

The songwriter digs into the sound of his intense inner voice here. [Jun 2020, p.33]

Clear-eyed, warm and stylish. [Jul 2020, p.20]

Among his best. [Aug 2020, p.29]

If the duo seem unfocused, their adventurous variety is beguiling. [Dec 2020, p.29]

Nothing like previous portentous epics. This reissue comes with a bunch of interesting outtakes. [Dec 2020, p.47]

Giraffe applies a drowsy charm to a wide variety of characters on songs that tap into the traditions of Harry Nilsson and Van Dyke Parks. [Feb 2021, p.30]

In many ways, Distractions is an enigma. In years to come, we may look back on this record as transitional, or a product of its times. But to hear a band of this vintage still listening – and responding – to their instincts is a joy in itself.

Tracks such as "Chester" ad "Moody" deliver more than mere retro pastiche, adding dreampop haze and lightly glitched effects to the nostalgic signifiers, bathing featherlight sunset reveries in a more contemporary vaporware glow. [Apr 2021, p.25]

Shake The Foundations is an accurate representation of its field, taking in both its achievements and its many foibles – a smart but patchy collection. [Jun 2021, p.47]

It's a warm and slightly rickety set, with folk-ish elements and faint echoes of Sentridoh. [Jul 2021, p.23]

Woodland concepts aside, the band are most arresting when knocking out groove-locked rhythms with bursts of spluttering electronics. [Oct 2021, p.33]

His vocals--as exuberant in his seventies as half a century ago. [Sep 2021, p.35]

The real revelation here is 25-year old James Francies, who plays Jimmy Smith-style Hammond on "Timeline," heavy rock organ on the Hendrix-inspired "Lodger" and mischievous Monk-style piano on a version of Ornette Coleman's "Turnaround." [Oct 2021, p.29]

The result is a delightful mix of new-wave-influenced pop and synth-laden Eno-style instrumentals. [Nov 2021, p.30]

It stands apart, a kaleidoscopic yet subtle take on eclectic ’60s sounds. With a little help from Younge, La Luz may have made their first great record. [Nov 2021, p.24]

From the yearning opener “Hold On” through to the life-affirming ruckus of “Queens” and “Better Love” and to the final epiphanies in “Alpine Drive”, Observatory is a triumphant expression of resilience in the face of all the hard knocks and harder lessons that fill a life.

Acoustic English folk is central here, dipped in a thin electronic glaze and layered with gentle washes of psychedelia and shoegazey pop. [Jan 2022, p.31]

Mayall enthusiastically opens the door to funk and soul elements. [Feb 2022, p.32]

The whole work glides in one long, soft landing. [Apr 2022, p.35]

Taken on their own merits, Royce Hall and Dorothy Chandler are prime examples of Young in early ’71 … but maybe we can move on to other territory now? [Jun 2022, p.43]

The 76-year-old virtuoso is at his most poignantly expressive on the album's inward-turned, stripped-back blues ballads. [Jul 2022, p.34]

The album is more of a celebration than a wake, thanks to the Promise Of The Real’s youthful exuberance and Young’s own ageless spirit. [Sep 2022, p.32]

Bittersweet melancholy is rarely more refined. [Nov 2022, p.38]

The quality of the 30-year-old recordings is surprisingly good, with the slight grain actually managing to emphasise and celebrate the rough edges of a group for whom shabby lo-fi and sprightly power pop are treated with equal reverence. [Dec 2022, p.44]

It feels like a meeting of worlds. [Feb 2023, p.25]

Why only eight songs are included isn't clear, but it's academic when the trio sound this energised. [Mar 2023, p.35]

As a whole, the record is a persuasive parcel of slick Americana with just enough redneck grit in the oyster. [Mar 2023, p.26]