Their debut takes SBB's percussive "Congotronics" sound and twists it into dramatic new shapes. [Jun 2015, p.78]

Shriek is a sustained act of seduction, a deftly conjoined conjuring of song, rhythm and mood. [May 2014, p.83]

With this devastatingly personal song cycle, Price completes her transformation from retro-country preservationist to anything-goes auteur. [Feb 2023, p.35]

There's much to admire in the fretwork of [Darren] Rademaker and Ben Knight, too, joining the dots between Johnny Marr, Roger McGuinn and Felt's Maurice Deebank to underpin the hooks with sun-blonde crispness. [Jul 2003, p.116]

Nakedly intimate narrative of self-discovery. [May 2023, p.35]

In Wedding Present terms, Torino is Cinerama's Seamonsters. [Aug 2002, p.99]

These songs offer a smart inversion of the usual gender roles in mainstream music, all set to a propulsive, bass-heavy backdrop. [Oct 2015, p.81]

"Lately" is a wonderfully uplifting finale to a finely conceived record, an eloquent testament to an unlikely partnership that's only now delivering its full potential. [Sep 2010, p.97]

Dream Attic has the brio that matches any of Thompson's past few studio albums. [Sep 2010, p.84]

Lament is a startling, eclectic listen. [Jan 2014, p.72]

It's all charmingly rendered and, as in the wigout 'Pigeonhold,' teeming with joyous abandon a la the Arcade Fire. [Sep 2008, p.98]

A batch of songs that snap and snarl in all the right places. [May 2018, p.27]

The album's highpoints, particularly "Show Me Everything" and "This Fire Of Autumn" showcase a band who seem to have rediscovered new ways of putting together their already impressive constituent parts. [Mar 2012, p.101]

You can choose to interact with this theme [an alien visiting Earth] or let it drift to the background, instead sinking into ¡Ay!'s gently shifting moods of innocence, curiosity and delight. [Nov 2022, p.28]

He signs off with a collection of mostly familiar songs, including three others by Webb, Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice It's All Right," Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin'" and a sublime version of the Dickey Lee heartbreaker "She Thinks I Still Care." [Aug 2017, p.15]

It's fastidiously realised, taking in gorgeously orchestrated jazz, hi-octane funk and a pristine slow jam featuring Lauren Faith. [Aug 2020, p.39]

Open-hearted vulnerability is what sets them apart--the desire to be cool dissipates with age, leaving them to restore funk, the album's major underpinning, to its maximalist glory following years of sublimation from bedroom musicians. [Jun 2015, p.76]

This set of sentimental cappuccino funk is as intimate and provocative as anything Murphy's put her name to, the eight songs a fussy fusion of Balearic soul and bohemian synthpop. [Jun 2015, p.80]

Ultimately, Phrazes For The Young testifies that the qualities that made Julian Casablancas so noteworthy in 2001 remain in place, just a little more difficult to predict.

Their brutal beats are married to fabulous pop songs. [May 2003, p.106]

Tough, funky and proud, she sounds like she could have been the new Aretha. [Feb 2004, p.87]

Sparer yet wholly captivating displays of psych-pop iridescence. [Oct 2017, p.37]

It remains a somewhat foreboding listen, but one compelling in the intensity of its vision. [Aug 2011, p.97]

The nine-piece evoke America's open spaces in a beautiful bluster of feedback and reverb. [Nov 2017, p.28]

Makes good on the promise of 2022's Big Love Blanket by finetuning their melodic instincts without sacrificing the anything-goes chaos that makes them such a thrilling proposition. [Sep 2024, p.37]

Trent is as solid as an anvil in his straightman's role, while Hearst is a real firecracker. [Sep 2012, p.85]

A reawakening to be reckoned with. [Jan 2018, p.21]

A downbeat, solipsistic but utterly beautiful amalgam of mood-altering substances and 1980s alt.rock. [Mar 2006, p.100]

Simultaneously her most formally experimental and melodically palatable yet. [Jan 2019, p.25]

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

The songs are uniformly strong, for one thing; the delivery is smart, a kind of airy, gently gothic arch-pop, completed by Jean's conversational vocals. It's a wonderfully dynamic set of songs. [Apr 2020, p.28]

Best of all might be the ecstatic, heavily orchestrated astral-jazz freak-out of "thank You God". [Oct 2023, p.23]

Even more impressive [than 2022's Versions Of Modern Performance]. [Feb 2025, p.35]

With his delivery having reached comfortable cruising altitude, this is an effective reminder of what success is about--leaving the hustle behind. [Jan 2008, p.91]

Showcase[s] the melancholic beauty of Zauner's songwriting, her storytelling skills honed across mediums. [Apr 2025, p.31]

An album of songs encompassing beguiling naivety, terse wisdom and twinkling regret. [May 2025, p.30]

Suffice to say that Blurry Blue Mountain is a lovely, oddly charming record. And in the unlikely event that it doesn't move you, there's a whole heap of past glories just waiting to be discovered.

It’s hard to recall a set of songs on which Rhys’s low-key radicalism and unquenchable sense of wonder have coexisted with such ease. [Jan 2024, p.24]

Bash & Pop's strong second album. [Aug 2017, p.25]

SBP always made a virtue of their limitations, but the results of their unshackling from penury are spectacular. [Jun 2012, p.84]

With each track the listener sinks deeper into their world, and though the punchier rap numbers like "B£E" cut through, these scruffily celestial miniatures add up to present a compelling picture. [Dec 2021, p.33]

The results are an intense juxtaposition of the intimate and the universal framed in beguiling chamber-folk arrangements. [Feb 2023, p.26]

Nile's river of song runs as deep as it's wide. [Jul 2013, p.80]

As satisfying as it is stylish. [Jul 2004, p.95]

The melodies and brittle guitars burrow into your cerebrum. [Jul 2005, p.106]

There are more weather-beaten back-porch vibes to the pedal steels of “Not The Only One”, and the sublime Jenny Lewis duet “Everybody” sounds like a dream date between Glen Campbell and Dusty Springfield. [Apr 2022, p.25]

Combines Richard’s quietly soulful voice with sparse soundscapes in even more affecting style. [Nov 2024, p.41]

[This is] probably their best--a fine LP of crisp, clever chamber pop. [Oct 2012, p.79]

There's a nervy, frayed soulfulness to these songs. [Feb 2007, p.76]

He decided to record the constant cacophony of construction in his Prenzlauer Berg district, reassembling the treated drilling and grinding into haunting ambient pieces. [Dec 2012, p.76]

An album that feels delicately versatile, as well as a truly singular bit of leftfield art pop. [Jun 2025, p.33]

Just when you think you've got the measure of Pierce's winsome tropicalia, he pitches another delightful curveball: a curiously faithful cover of The Lemonheads' "Mallo Cup." [Dec 2010, p.98]

Belatedly, it turns out to be great: seven prescise, insurrectionist ramalams that somehow fit somewhere between the MC5's high Time and Dead Boys' 'Sonic Reducer.' [Mar 2009, p.82]

Bassist William Cashion and keyboardist Gerrit Welmers match him for breathless passion, whipping up a stirring synth-pop writ in bold emotional colours. [Apr 2014, p.74]

Even more affecting are those tracks where he keeps things simple. [Apr 2012, p.83]

The residency produces inspired results. [Apr 2012, p.87]

Touched by sadness but tinged with hope, this is a masterful album on which the sound of tradition is rendered vital and visceral in a very present sense. [Oct 2020, p.33]

Beautifully moving. [Aug 2017, p.32]

The minimalist grooves grow ever tighter. [Feb 2004, p.71]

The tunes are stunning, her voice has never sounded better and she makes serious points few others would dare in a pop context. [Oct 2003, p.114]

[Guy Berryman's] radio-friendly approach adds depth without sacrificing detail. [Jun 2011, p.93]

The 23-year-old deals in the kind of one-take, reverb-drenched, sugary psych-pop that mostly sounds effortless and might occasionally be genius. [Aug 2011, p.98]

Southern Blood is a timeless regional soul album. [Nov 2017, p.31]

THe good stuff is terrific. [Mar 2005, p.104]

This is a focused trio who boast a superb drummer and feature lovely, unshowy harmonies, able to balance the melancholy of Nils Edenloff's lyrics with a euphoric, confident delivery that feels like a brilliant form of catharsis. [Jan 2018, p.26]

Marc Collin's French collective remain a one-trick pony, but it's still a great trick. [Jan 2017, p.28]

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

Their witty pop vignettes are about as much fun as you can have alone with a stereo. [Oct 2006, p.109]

Decidedly heady stuff. [Jul 2007, p.100]

On "The Thing Itself" the pair are at their most graceful, rising airborne and serene above the disorder. [Apr 2021, p.27]

Painting With is striking because it manages to distill the essence of Animal Collective into 12 slices of bite-sized psych-pop that have the punchy immediacy of a Ramones album. [Mar 2016, p.65]

The lo-fi "If Only I Could Fly" captures the record's rustic spirit, but there's a cowboy feel to "Nobody's Darling." [Jun 2017, p.24]

Given a few spins, their hilarious, loopy, layered approach sinks in deep. [Dec 2008, p.124]

They make a welcome return to the looser, roots sound of earlier albums. [Feb 2024, p.28]

Good fun. [July 2009, p.84]

Stetson and Arcade Fire violinist Sarah Neufeld dart and dovetail elegantly, h er playing the piercing counterpoint to his imposing low end. [Jun 2015, p.81]

Lars Andersson and Phillip Dornauer commit themselves wholeheartedly to epic objectives. [Aug 2019, p.32]

It's part folk-rock fantasy, part avant-pop mind trip, and all gorgeous. [Aug 2019, p.32]

[A] chilled collection both soothing and intoxicating. [Jul 2018, p.30]

The music more than matches The Besnard Lakes' cinematic ambition. [Apr 2010, p.81]

This is a wilful and lovably eccentric second album from a band who've had a sniff of being pop stars and decided they'd much rather be weird and esoteric, thanks all the same.

Dengue Fever come on like an art-trash cross between Talking Heads and X, with a crucial side order of B-52's. Their irreverent pop clinches the deal on "Cement Slippers." [Jun 2011, p.80]

La La Land picks up where that album [Tremblers And Goggles By Rank] - their second of 2022 - left off. [Feb 2023, p.24]

Illuminate is a rich, alluring debut which nods to Orbital or The Chemical Brothers with its hooky melodies, pulsing analogue synths and supple breakbeat rhythms. [Jul 2014, p.69]

This third album is their richest and strongest to date. [Jun 2024, p.33]

Shards of pure folk goodness poke through the ambitious, abstract arrangements on tracks like "Life's Work" and "Surviving You". [Nov 2025, p.33]

The 10 tracks eventually sliced from Wildflowers don’t seem to have been culled for any coherent rhyme or reason: the virtues of the original album are abundant among the omitted tracks. ... Of the three further discs available for big spenders, the home demos and alternate versions are – as is usually the way of these things – mostly likely to be listened to once, out of curiosity. But there are charming moments among the demos.

This album essentially serves as a showcase for rising Brit soul singers Sampha and Jessie Ware, who add just the right quantities of sugar and grit. [Aug 2011, p.98]

Whatever it is that keeps him singing still packs a potent emotional punch. [Oct 2016, p.35]

His pieces for banjo, like the revenant lyricism of the title track, are charming, moist eyed miniatures. [Jun 2013, p.74]

The way Eric evokes the "shabby shires" brings to mind Ray Davies, while "Land Of The Faint At Heart" swings with the bruised energy of Springsteen (if the Boss had been raised on suburban terror and garden gnomes). [Jan 2026, p.36]

In some ways, ...Absence is his most diverse record yet, but it's at its brilliant best when spare and uncompromising. [May 2005, p.104]

Poet Joshua Idehen adds desperate, apocalyptic testimony to the opening of "All That Matters Is The Moments," while "The Lifeforce Part I" and "II" gradually dial up the intensity, Hutchings blowing with dervish energy as drums and synth lock into a spiraling groove. [Jan 2020, p.25]

This follow-up is cleaner, from the grand arrangements to the lyrics about true love rather than tits and ass, but is never bland. [Nov 2012, p.71]

The title of her new album describes its woozy pull. [Mar 2021, p.39]

A finely crafted exercise in country-folk classicism: strong songs, given room to breathe, delivered with intense economy. [Feb 2015, p.78]

Some of the guest vocalists on this LP approach this level of militancy but, in places Black To The future is also poppier and dancefloor friendly than anything Hutchinson has ever released. [Jun 2021, p.30]

Calexico are back, but this time they’re travelling all over the map. Carried to Dust is a quietly persuasive record.