{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]

A hugely entertaining album. [Jun 2016, p.71]

It might work as visual theatre, but as an album, it's horribly relentless. [Jun 2016, p.71]

It's a record that finds The Jayhawks in pristine fettle, it's country-rock stylings evoking the blithe warmth of 1995's Tomorrow The Green Grass while punching a little harder with age. [May 2016, p.70]

A fuzz-tinted spaghetti-western vibe holds it all together. [May 2016, p.75]

It's an agreeably raw listen. [Mar 2016, p.80]

[Bardi Jóhannsson's] presence is overshadowed by that of Jean-Benoît Dunckel. [May 2016, p.79]

A series of typically charming, if not overly adventurous, indie-pop songs. [May 2016, p.78]

Two fetching female voices bring a soft-focus glow to the linchpin songs on this incandescent album. [Apr 2016, p.79]

Superb third album. ... The album is beautifully structured like this, with narrative threads and recurring thoughts picked up and passed from song to song. It's also self-referential but, crucially, never arch. [May 2016, p.68]

The fruits of his change of mind are bittersweet and eloquent alt.pop songs that recall Bon Iver. [May 2016, p.82]

Hookworms twist "The Sky Of all Places" into a Mary Chain approximation of Metal Machine Music and Factory Floor make desiccated disco mincemeat of "sink," while Loop guru Robert Hampson, Death In Vegas's Richard Fearless, Ride's Andy Bell and Mogwai's Stuart Braithwaite demonstrate the oldies' appetite for deconstruction.[Apr 2016, p.79]

Sherwood's two live mixes almost capture the intensity of their stage show. [May 2016, p.78]

Suffused in both the dread mortality inspires and the peace that comes with accepting its inevitability, it simultaneously addresses the effects that the passing of years has on one's relationships and the compromises these demand. [May 2016, p.66]

A deceptive simple, calm record, Love Letter... sounds both intuitive and direct, and any wrangling along the collaborative way is undetectable. [May 2016, p.80]

The lyrics cover some heavy subjects--feminism, Catholicism, corrupt Irish institutions-- so it's a pity that the hopelessly muddy production means that they might as well be singing in Icelandic. [May 2016, p.79]

A modern new-age gem. [May 2016, p.79]

It's a telling indication of the degree of daring and sophistication at hand that artistic gestures which might have seemed contrived or ill-conceived in other contexts--like say, transforming Nirvana's "In Bloom" into a majestic country-souul ballad worthy of Charley Pride-yield some of the most startling results. [May 2016, p.63]

A certain crispness is now prevalent, along with expanded horizons. [May 2016, p.82]

It's a structurally savvy set stuffed with impeccably wrought pop hooks. [May 2016, p.81]

There aren't too many surprises here, just a well-honed primer in what Harper does best, fusing blues, rock, folk, country, R'n'B, gospel and reggae with politically conscious lyrics into a dynamic stew. [May 2016, p.74]

Their profoundly boring ninth album resembles sketches toward another unnecessary Stone Roses comeback. [May 2016, p.71]

The likes of the title track and "Sleep On The Floor" are pleasingly Ryan Adams/Gaslight Anthem-ish; elsewhere, as on "Gun Song" and "Angela" it all gets a bit Mumford & Sons. [May 2016, p.76]

Even by Deftones standards, their eighth album is hardly immediate. [May 2016, p.71]

Some of the music here illustrates the limitations of the formula, sometimes lapsing into lumpy blues-rock or new-age noodling. [May 2016, p.70]

He's an engaging singer-songwriter whose instinctive, winning wryness takes the edge off some occasionally ruggedly confessional material. [Apr 2016, p.69]

They could do with adding a bit of mystery to their armoury--there's a clarity and earnestness to some of Wolves Of Want that can underwhelm--but the group come with a clutch of great songs that would sit nicely on a long-awaited third volume of Modern Method's compilation series A Wicked Good Time! [Apr 2016, p.69]

There are clearly mad skills at work, but silent Earthling is rarely anything other than a simple pleasure. [May 2016, p.81]

Despite the odd dreamy detour into girl-group psych-pop, this slender 10-tracker is bulked out with a little too much autopilot retro-kitsch filler. [May 2016, p.79]

Despite its many-handedness, Rainbow Ends is an intensely personal vision. Indeed, it feels more like a companion piece to his great ’70s work than it does a postscript.

The writing, revealing literary influences and the deep, weird old America depicted by, say, Merle Kilgore, is astute, while stripped-down, archaic Appalachian arrangements play tricks with time. [May 2016, p.73]

She addresses transformation, loss, connection and apartness in literate, finely turned pop songs centred on her sweet, pellucid voice and filled out with dreamy loops and strings. [May 2016, p.73]

Their benefactor this time is Brian Burton, aka Danger Mouse, who evidently hears something in their moody atmosphere-building. By and large, Pussy's Dead reveals them as a muso sort of band. [May 2016, p.69]

The Follower delicately shifts the emphasis from trance to techno, continuing the slow descent into darkness begun with 2013's Cupid's Head. [May 2016, p.73]

A set that feels avant and outre and yet deliriously danceable at the same time. [May 2016, p.75]

For all its diverting technical backstory, for all our attempts to manoeuvre Tim Hecker into various neat genre boxes, ancient and modern, his music is ultimately ravishing in a way that transcends method and contest, [May 2016, p.83]

They're still a little too in thrall to the obvious precursors to take flight, but there are some great, clanging pop songs here, too. [May 2016, p.78]

Produced by The National's Aaron Dessner, their fifth album inflates Selkirk's hand-knitted Coldplay to vast proportions. [May 2016, p.73]

III's weaker tracks are more diffuse, lacking the verve that Underworld once brought to this kind of porg-influenced, epic-scaled electronica. [May 2016, p.76]

Since rising to attention with 2009's Me Oh My, Cate Le Bon has turned out four albums of arch, otherworldly guitar pop, of which Crab Day is surely the best yet. [May 2016, p.75]