At a time when a generation of US roots guitarists are reaching creative maturity, Modern Country reasserts Tyler's place at their forefront. [Jul 2016, p.81]

On this inspired album, jittery characters sketches alternate with introspective ballads bearing echoes of Simon & Garfunkel, astride variations on the exotic rhythms that have propelled his music since Graceland. [Jul 2016, p.79]

There's some fine original songwriting, particularly from Stills. [Jul 2016, p. 79]

An agreeable anachronism that feels '60s but sounds '80s. [Jun 2016, p.79]

The results are sometimes almost listenable, which is why the most compelling songs on her third LP allay these avant-garde instincts to a belting tune. [Jul 2016, p.69]

These are nuclear-grade pop hits that don't sacrifice on adult emotional complexity: a rare power. [Jul 2016, p.81]

Lyrically, it's the darkness that maintains its grip, sometimes alarmingly so. [Jul 2016, p.74]

Marking youthful reminiscence and the passage of time, WWW rocks with gleeful, guitar-driven, singsong abandon. [May 2016, p.78]

Other elements are more familiar, but this beguiling debut is never less than the sum of its parts. [Jul 2016, p.76]

Like 2010's The Shine and 2013's Hoodoo, Rain Crow is thick with nervous trepidation, ominous trips into the rural mindset. [Jul 2016, p.82]

There's a winning mix of mist and muscle on this debut. [Jul 2016, p.69]

An unapologetic confection of lush overstatement. [Jul 2016, p.67]

Their music is accruing more bewitching, dramatic layers. [Jul 2016, p.71]

It manages to top those two finely crafted albums [2013's Time Off and 2014's Way Out Weather]. It's more streamlined in its playing, more confident in its writing, more determined in its mission. [Jul 2016, p.72]

With Ash & Ice, they're back on compelling track, cranking their songs' rhythmic drive while focusing as much on structure as mardy atmospherics. [Jul 2016, p.75]

Simultaneously dry, jaunty and eerie, As If Apart takes time to get lost in, but it's worth the effort. [Jul 2016, p.71]

Although mercifully less in line with the Kooks/Courteeners hegemony than their first album, The Ride is stodgily dedicated to the Real Rock cause, even while it's shooting for Alex Turner's autobiographical cool. [Jul 2016, p.71]

A seductive mix of pastoral folk, motorik beats, psychedelic ragas and gnarly '70s rock, transposed to the Japanese landscape. [Jun 2016, p.74]

Though lacking a defining identity, at its best it's like listening to a long-lost compilation playing all the AM radio hits that never were. [Jun 2016, p.78]

Mosey is clearly not just the work of an absurdly gifted musician, it's the product of an exceptionally vibrant mind. [Jun 2016, p.70]

Big Thief are at their best when the instruments step back and create a mellower platform from which Lenker can dominate. [Jul 2016, p.69]

The attitudinal posturing wears thin on "Killer" but stuttering funk, the Depeche Mode in the moshpit vibe of "Little Mamma" and a timely nod to Prince on closer "Something" all hit the spot. [Jul 2016, p.69]

This is a satisfying mix of revised and completed '60s recordings by original Monkees songsmiths like Boyce & Hart and Neil Diamond, with new songs by the likes of Andy Partridge, Rivers Cuomo and Adam Schlesinger. [Jul 2016, p.78]

Her full-length debut confidently and even defiantly collides raw garage rockabilly with distorted blues and ornery old-time folk. [Jul 2016, p.81]

There's no denying the pair know their way around a perky tune, but their songs are unmemorable because their sound is so heavily recycled. [Jul 2016, p.82]

Shame about the occasional guest vocals, which veer a touch drab compared to their glittering backdrops. [Jul 2016, p.78]

It takes a while to get over that initial disjuncture, and the title track is a headache-inducing mes that sounds like a Bo Diddley rhythm played on electronic toys. Other tracks slip down quite appealingly. [Jul 2016, p.76]

The trio plough an increasingly creepy furrow over the course of this debut album. [Jul 2016, p.76]

A more exuberant sophomore effort that synthesises the techno-pop of Yellow Magic Orchestra and the electro-R&B of '80s hitmakers like Midnight Star. [Jul 2016, p.75]

While "Neon Dad" proves their aptitude for the same sort of psych-pop that Black Moth Super Rainbow use to free minds, "House of Glass" and "Crapture" suggest Holy Fuck are happier putting their rubbery grooves and vintage gear under serious duress. [Jul 2016, p.74]

It's a head-turning mix, a sort of pop-art take on Southern gothic, and highly infectious. [Jul 2016, p.73]

His latest fizzes with energy and smarts, and sees him letting his imagination off the leash to irresistible effect. [Jul 2016, p.70]

Never short on vocal confidence, here, she trades divadom for arresting, unconventional shapes. [Jul 2016, p.69]

With Fallen Angels, Bob Dylan, like Linda Ronstadt and Rod Stewart before him, has seen fit to continue his exploration of the Great American Songbook begun with such unexpected poise and humility on last year’s Shadows In The Night.

Their take on good old-fashioned rock'n'roll can be a bit shaggy, but it's surprisingly arty. [Jun 2016, p.74]

Day Of The Dead is an exemplary way of proving to a sceptic that at the heart of the Dead's digressions are great songs. [Jun 2016, p.66]

The Party is definitely worth celebrating. [Jun 2016, p.79]

It's hard to tell whether These People is an intentional, semi-Springsteenian work of self-reference, or whether Ashcroft just hasn't had any other ideas. [Jun 2016, p.69]

[The songs are] stoked by a slow-burning intensity that peaks in controlled explosions, Marcus Gordon's voice their focus. [Jun 2016, p.79]

{I Still Do] offers a typical Clapton mix of covers and original material. The former are rather more impressive than the latter. [Jun 2016, p.72]

Vance's earnest balladeering often sounds overly safe. [Jun 2016, p.82]

The band haven't sounded quite so spirited for some time. [Jun 2016, p.74]

A series of folds, jump cuts and swarms, it's disorienting yet utterly gorgeous. [Jun 2016, p.79]

It is intimate, sometimes almost conversational, and words are sighed, whispered, confided. Oddly, the more she pulls back, the more epic it sounds. [Jun 2016, p.68]

Bailey Rae's third LP transcends earthbound elements to create its own weightless astral soul. [Jun 2016, p.69]

It's not pretty but it's pretty effective, with tracks like "Radiant Mountain Road," "Volume Peaks" and the frantic "Babel" quickly finding a groove and then flogging it to an entertaining death. [Jun 2016, p.69]

The songs are rendered sincerely, with elegant, understated phrasing. [Jun 2016, p.69]

Simple but true. [Jun 2016, p.78]

Broder at times takes the overly tasteful route, sounding like an experimental Billy Joel, but also boldly strays into latterday Scott Walker terrain. [Jun 2016, p.73]

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]

The tunes, by now, are richly coloured--there are tasteful flurries of cello, violin and brass--but the centrepiece remains Michaelson's lazy baritone, which makes up in emotional richness what it lacks in energy. Happily, Dan hasn't cheered up. [Jun 2016, p.76]

The mourning is palpable, but only on a few tracks is it tuned into art. [Jun 2016, p.71]

If it's a little in thrall to its influences, it's not an altogether bad way. [Jun 2016, p.73]

This tasteful mix of analogue keys and distorted drum machines is precisely what we've come to expect from Pritchard. It's when he wanders off-piste with Bibio, Thom Yorke and Linda Perhacs that the record comes alive, and these instrumental tracks then play a vital supporting role. [Jun 2016, p.80]

With Nashville stalwart Tony Brown co-producing, she flexes both empathy and interpretive might. [Jun 2016, p.75]

Swirling and malevolent, "I&I" and "Beneath The Concrete" are compelling enough, but wading through so much posturing becomes a slog. [Jun 2016, p.76]

This double album is both poignant and richly inventive. [May 2016, p.69]

There are some pretty-ish tunes here, especially "Butterfly" and You Don't," but an awful lot of workaday garage rattling. [Jun 2016, p.81]

The trio's captivating blend of archive voiceovers, yearning harmonies and melodic lushness proves as compelling as Hannah Peel's vocal daring. [Apr 2016, p.76]

Generous of spirit and cutting-edge sound, Hopelessness is a statement for our times, and one that will not be easy to dismiss. [Jun 2016, p.63]

Will is an irresistibly immersive set-piece. [Jun 2016, p.69]

It's the hushed, soul-searching moments--especially the lovelorn "Alone In Arizona" and the gorgeous, universal ballad "A Little Help"--that resonate most. [Jun 2016, p.71]

Though disparate, it's some legacy. [May 2016, p.90]

On Paradise, cleaner recording--proudly made with Pro Tools--largely sharpens instead of defangs, while bringing out guitarist Kenneth Williams' surprisingly deep cabinet of textures. [Jun 2016, p.82]

He's hired JIm James, whose spiritual beliefs he seems to hare, along with a taste for cosmic rock and psychedelic blues, all of which figure on the compellingly heavy "Hey, No Pressure." [Apr 2016, p.75]

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]

While Teardo's shines, balancing a tendency toward simple melodic cells with sweeping trawls of tonality, Bargeld's dry humour still comes through. [Jun 2016, p.81]

Although the title track holds a sliver of adventure with its fizzing electronic flourishes, the absence of evolution elsewhere reveals a band hanging too tightly on to the past. [Jun 2016, p.81]

Lisa Jen's ethereal voice still swoops beguilingly over Martin Hoyland's expansive arrangements, fusing harps, dulcimers and guitars with dub beats, loops and pounding bass. [Jun 2016, p.67]

For all the received wisdoms that encircle the desert blues of these groups, what's most seductive about songs like Imarhan's "Alwak" and "Addounia Azdjazzaqat" is the intimacy of the performance, a hushed wonder that breathes its poetry on the neck of the listener. [May 2016, p.74]

Though occasionally wearying in its frenzy, this is the best kind of world music, loud, liberating and explosively experimental. [Jun 2016, p.76]

The best songs are the ballads. [Jun 2016, p.79]

What sounds showy on paper is, in reality, a respectful, atmospheric tribute to the Bard. [Jun 2016, p.82]

The music here remains identifiably and intrinsically Wire. [Jun 2016, p.82]

Little Windows has an easy charm, but doing this stuff well is harder than it looks. [Jun 2016, p.81]

It's a little hard to digest in one sitting, recalling the more outre moments from Linda Perhacs, the Cocteau Twins, or Kate Bush's Aerial. But individual moments are quietly compelling. [Jun 2016, p.81]

Suuns have never been slouches in the mutant kosmische department, but the John Congleton-produced Hold/Still blasts them into a new dimension. [Jun 2016, p.81]

A remarkable accomplishment. [Jun 2016, p.79]

Unashamed nostalgia at its very best. [Jun 2016, p.78]

King Gizzard's most cohesive record to date--a hyper-detailed punk opera that few of their peers have matched for intensity, ambition or sheer derangement. [Jun 2016, p.77]

A series of convoluted psych-pop romps, some drizzled with synth-sax, that perplex and please in equal measure. [Jun 2016, p.76]

This is a fairly functional set of no-nonsense instrumental cyber-boogie that lives up to its title by bucking and slithering across the dancefloor in an elegant if anonymous fashion. [Jun 2016, p.75]

It's typical of Lamr's artistry that even a comp of offcuts comes formatted and conceptualised. [Jun 2016, p.75]

Ultimately, the delight is in the details, notably the pairing of Hawthorne's fluent basslines and the trashcan thump of ancient drum machines. [Jun 2016, p.74]

While there's a hefty serving of funk on "The Clone," Sherwood keeps his distance, bringing space to psycho-ballads such as "Abracadabra" and "Monocle Man" as the pair reassembled their skeletal, wheezing pop in intriguing new forms. [Jun 2016, p.74]

There are some strong cuts but even Pollard, who appeared more energised on his recent solo LP Of Course You Are, sounds a little tired by the enterprise. [Jun 2016, p.74]

Uber-angsty but hugely exciting. [Jun 2016, p.74]

Honey's intentions are noble but the results are mixed. [Jun 2016, p.69]

A muted set of spare acoustic songs. [Jun 2016, p.70]

The trio's "shaman beat" can be intoxicating even if it's sometimes more meandering than mantric. [Jun 2016, p.71]

Weird but good. [Jun 2016, p.73]

The Ship successfully combines--surprisingly for the first time--his ambient and song-based work. [Jun 2016, p.73]

It's not easy to ooze insouciant cool while pounding out febrile garage-punk, but LA quartet Feels manage to pull that off throughout this spiky debut. [Jun 2016, p.73]

Aladdin is Green's most satisfying album in awhile. [Jun 2016, p.73]

[A] low-key, often gorgeous new project. [Jun 2016, p.79]

Worth the wait. [Jun 2016, p.76]

Their fourth full-length is eclectic and confident. [Jun 2016, p.78]

A much-devalued word--and probably one of the creator despises--still seems apposite for this lovely album: ethereal. [Jun 2016, p.75]