This is chamber music taken into a different dimension. [Jan 2022, p.30]

Jeremy Earl's endearing falsetto and excellent songwriting holds it all together. Aug 2011, p.107]

It is, in fact, a portrait of life’s triumphs and travails, its joys and sorrows rendered in wholly compelling detail.

Heavy and heady, free jazz shot through with the urgency of spoken word and pleasure of experimentation. [Jun 2023, p.32]

A gorgeous neo-Krautrock thump of a record. [Oct 2016, p.31]

Whereas The Thrills' second album fizzled commercially because of an increasingly arch knowingness which many found alienating, Hal--perfectionists, eschewing irony--keep the envelope taut, the air fresh. [May 2005, p.106]

Witty, tragi-comic lyrics layered over busy beats, strings and electronic flourishes which never sacrifice intimacy. [Nov 2005, p.114]

There's a lot to take in, but the standard is remarkably consistent and occasionally dazzling. [Nov 2016, p.31]

Reveals a side to Broadcast rarely heard: that of a band who are relaxed, at play and in places almost carefree. [Sep 2006, p.76]

A near-perfect balance of industrial threat, hardcore power and black comedy. [Oct 2006, p.134]

It might just grow into an even better record than The Courage Of Others, as one get used to the way it replaces Smith's precision and popcraft with the new Midlake's love of digression and sonic adventure. [Dec 2013, p.62]

It starts with rousing rebel anthem “The Real”, and further highlights include the shoegaze drawl of “What’s In A Name?”, the jittery “Silenced” and the sinister growling surf of “You Think I’m Joking”. [Jul 2022, p.25]

On record at least, Wu-Tang have made the comeback of the decade.

The result is a milestone in modern psychedelic soul.

It's real allows the band to stretch their legs a bit, to jam ferociously without looking at the time, to slow things down, to try out a few new tricks. [Apr 2019, p.27]

A set that ranges from funky to subdued. It's a sparser affair than the Tweedy-produced trio. adding only backing voices to a bass/drum/guitar lineup in which Harper's searching playing provides the principal, sometimes sole counterpoint to Mavis's earthy, heartfelt vocals, their power remarkably intact in her advancing years. [Jun 2019, p.22]

Her quirky homespun arrangements have been toughened and broadened, adding a knowingly retro girl-group stomp and echo-drenched Spector-ish grandeur to windswept heartbreak anthems. [Apr 2011, p.85]

The Sadies are one of the finest backing bands around, and team up adroitly with John Doe to produce a cracking set of country classics. [May 2012, p.71]

There's an addictive, hypnagogic quality to this ghostly combination of ambient noise, treated vocals and bursts if static. [Aug 2016, p.73]

It's a lovely record: McCartney is typically chipper, the song selection outstanding and the sound fabulous. [Jul 2024, p.52]

Africa's new axe hero marches on. [Aug 2011, p.104]

A pulsating collection of disco bangers. [Nov 2017, p.23]

It's touches like these--the suggestiveness of the pauses, the silences, the miniature worlds between the painterly notes Cooper and Hoare play--that makes Dusk, for all its influences and its rear-view mirror vision of classicist pop, such a seductive album. [Oct 2016, p.30]

Imaginative album. [Jan 2026, p.32]

Sadness is necessarily these songs' anchor, but there's hope and resolve, too. [Oct 2016, p.35]

It's a high-concept work that also stands on its own, radiating beauty, calm, comfort and energy. [May 2022, p.30]

What's especially daring about Not Too Late is the degree to which Jones and [producer Lee] Alexander trust their songs and her languorous voice to hold the listener's interest. [Feb 2007, p.75]

C Duncan's fifth album, like Ricard Hawley's catalogue, is imbued with an old-fashioned, Technicolor warmth. [Feb 2025, p.34]

Halvorson's string arrangements admit complexity without overwhelming, and the Mivos String Quartet play gracefully and authoritatively. [Aug 2022, p.26]

Cosmopolitan, anglophile, afrobeat--Vampire Weekend are in an Ivy League of their own.

The thick broth of Kyle Falconer's Scots vowels remain the signature sound--but don't let it distract you from some genuinely adventurous and witty indie guitar rock. [Mar 2009, p.107]

Nice work all round. [Apr 2011, p.86]

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

Under Cold Blue Stars is a towering achievement. [Apr 2002, p.108]

Guitarist Dave W and company gather up Krautrock, Loop, Acid Mothers Temple, Cul De Sac and a host of other materials with radioactive long life to create a fusion intended as toxic blowback in the faces of right-wing America. It's a face-melting combination. [Aug 2011, p.104]

Ganglians take care to lace everything with bright, primary colour melodies, suggesting they might yet follow the likes of MGMT and Yeasayer into the mainstream. [Sep 2011, p.87]

These are dark and heavy songs for dark and heavy times. [Jan 2026, p.31]

Self-imposed limitations allow Lawrie to create unusual textures and sounds and force him to be more resourceful in how he deploys them. [Mar 2023, p.36]

A soul-funk "cousin" to Big Inner, featuring a hefty dose of off-kilter Afro-pop alongside jazz-rock freak-outs and the acid-country of "Blue As My Name," where Blau claims to be "drunk with Wonder again." He sounds it. [Dec 2017, p.22]

Uncompromising, adventurous score. [Dec 2018, p.27]

That a curdled, unifying groove undulates throughout this perverse collection is testament to Dear's abundant skills. [Sep 2010, p.91]

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

Commissioned by Nike as an exercise mix for iPods, this euphoric, largely electronic set finds Murphy adapting DJ dynamics for the running machine.

A haunting cover of the Pixies' 'Where Is My Mind' rounds off a quite remarkable debut. [May 2008]

Their first album without guitarist Bruce Gilbert draws on their strength as writers of nuanced pop, producing, in the mellow rumble of 'One Of Us,' 'Mekon Headman' and Perspex Icon,' a few more for the next Best Of.

Forth certainly makes it seem like they’ve never been away, the stench of those woeful Ashcroft solo albums extinguished.

Roberts continues to mine the traditional songbook, the sound is dominated by McGuinness' keyboards. Composer Amble Skuse adds squirts of electronica, bringing understated ambience to these brutal old songs. [Apr 2018, p.32]

Like all the best heavy rock albums, it suspends your disbelief, demands your attention and connects directly with your inner adolescent.

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]

A dozen vivid and deeply personal songs.... Gray has made a record that anybody who cares about great songwriting should hear. [Dec 2002, p.130]

A glorious ruckus. [Aug 2012, p.69]

[A] charming debut. [Oct 2015, p.71]

A few moments recall the Venusian blues of Loren Connors, but that comparison only gets you part of the way - these cryptic explorations are Dorji's alone. [Feb 2026, p.33]

Bleed is more about wayward drift than some of The Necks’s most-loved albums, like 1999’s Hanging Gardens, but there’s tenderness in its seeming austerity, and beauty in its chill. [Nov 2024, p.40]

Two decades on, the luxuriantly layered soft-rock production still sounds roomy and glossy, albeit a little ponderous in places. ... Expanded and enhanced. [Feb 2019, p.46]

Songs In A&E swells with tender, cautious optimism.

Kidal sounds like a high tide. [May 2017, p.40]

Brewis constructs songs with architectural scale and precision--in its own prim, nostalgic, English way, it’s pretty dazzling stuff.

It's quite beautiful, even if it feels a little pacific and lav-lamp-like in the long haul. [Feb 2012, p.84]

The journey takes a variety of fascinating detours along the way, not least the digressive folk-prog of "Pretty Little Lazies" and "Boogie Lover's" spacey approximation of classic Hawkwind. [Jun 2019, p.24]

An epic hour of music. [May 2012, p.69]

This Montreal master proves himself, yet again, a consummate songwriter and master of atmospherics. [Jun 2015, p.84]

A Joyful Noise strikes a healthy balance between tears-on-the-dancefloor hi-NRG and Gossip's bluesy swagger. [Jun 2012, p.73]

Frequently thrilling, and its pilfering from America's classic rock catalogue - including The Allman Brothers, The Doobie Brothers, Creedence clearwater Revival, The Band and Crazy Horse - is affectionate and celebratory. [Nov 2021, p.33]

Ritual Union makes it three alums without a remotely duff--or dull--moment. [Aug 2011, p.93]

Supremely confident as it is poetically singular, it's evidence that BC's vision will see him through the long haul. [Nov 2017, p.24]

That Jarak Qaribak manages to combine that respect - for the songs, the singers and their various cultures - with a free-flowing, light sense of exploration that feels joyfully current, is its triumph. [Jul 2023, p.31]

Every track hits its target. [Jan 2019, p.27]

Snapping snare, pump-organ and wiry guitar frame Jenkins' mood of stoned baroque beautifully. [Jun 2006, p.122]

The mournful pedal steel, keening harmonies and thumping analogue rhythms that ornament the deeply introspective songs of Marigold transform what would be a slog of emo self-absorption in less nimble hands into a vibrantly empathetic experience. [Feb 2020, p.30]

There's a sublimely soulful central vocal melody underpinning songs such as "Papa," "VanP" and "Differently," as patchworks of vocal loops create bewitching organic grooves. The showtune jazz and circus-y, Tom Waits-ish vibes elsewhere are also highly intriguing. [Feb 2020, p.23]

Dorothy Chandler is the one to get; the 8+-minute “Sugar Mountain”, with numerous spoken-word digressions, is Neil at his most hilariously droll. [Jun 2022, p.43]

It's Isbell's best album yet, and suggests that he'll do better still. [Dec 2013, p.64]

[The album] adds a newfound sang-froid to their quiet/loud approach. [May 2007, p.100]

Mesmerising stuff. [Jun 2007, p.99]

The Purple Bird is a consummate listen-through that makes highlights hard to pick but "Boise, Idaho", a yearning beauty with a fine arrangement and hints of Glen Campbell, is one. [Feb 2025, p.30]

An album as strange as it is compelling. [Mar 2015, p.77]

She brings Gorecki's great classical prayer to life beautifully, an expression of empathy that feels deep and profound. [May 2019, p.25]

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]

It's hard to dispute that Ufabulum find him in the form of his life. [Jun 2012, p.84]

Carvings is a more considered affair [than 2020's All Ears], stepping back from first-person confessional into a wider canvas of community, place and time. [Mar 2023, p.26]

There are moments of genius throughout. [Sep 2015, p.91]

It's excellent stuff. [Oct 2015, p.75]

This is one mighty party album. [May 2006, p.105]

Italian jobs come no finer. [Dec 2015, p.73]

No single track grandstands, but the Black Midi-ish epic roll of "Senegal" is a laser-tooled highlight. [Mar 2026, p.36]

Wonderfully dark fourth album. [Jan 2019, p.22]

There are strings aplenty, arranged as baroque lullabies or strange waltzes, Hinson shuffling his sorrows against a backdrop of multitracked choirs and fractured noise. Incredibly addictive. [Jul 2010, p.116]

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]

All the writers who share Lund's love of droll wordplay, and all their works are illuminated by Lund's signature laconic twinkle, and the Hurtin' Alberans' deadpan virtuosity. [Aug 2022, p.29]

This is a rich listen, strengthened by Galanin's burning focus on critical issues. [Jun 2021, p.33]

This is the sound of a band surprising itself. [July 2008, p.92]

As the album proceeds, these simpatico players alternate between swaddling Showalter's introspective songs in downy ambience and dialling up the grandeur, before the Clash-like stomper "Moon Landing," with Jason Isbell blazing on electric guitar, relives the accrued existential torment. [Apr 2019, p.36]

This is regal, majestic pop music played with a roundheaded bluntness. Off with their heads indeed.

The parade of fretboard styles Cooder brings to the album is masterly. [Jun 2018, p.22]

Throughout, tracks like "Love Matters" and "Salt Cleans" keep the oddness in check with some irritatingly catchy pop hooks. [Jul 2017, p.30]

Diawara's voice is a supple and enchanting instruments, and her accomplices (in particular kora player Sidiki Diabate) sublime. [Jul 2018, p.27]

Everything sounds deliciously grubby and unpolished.