A groovy, engaging listen. [Mar 2016, p.83]

Plaza, finds them bedding down with a more cautious and concise approach. [Mar 2016, p.78]

Another reliably excellent offering. [Mar 2016, p.82]

Love Yes is a dazzling electronic set that throbs with energy and emits a sensual glow befitting its focus on love, desire and sexuality. [Mar 2016, p.81]

Brave, challenging and arrestingly original. [Mar 2016, p.79]

The cod-mystical lyrics to tracks such as "Infinite Sun" and "Mountain Lifter" suggest that embers of the hippy-dippy sitar rockers survive, but a short, Hare Krishna-style sitar and acoustic guitar chant called "Hari Bol (The Sweetest Sweet)" suggests that dear old Crispian has an awareness of his own ridiculousness. [Mar 2016, p.75]

A seriously strong debut. [Mar 2016, p.80]

A blurring of fictionalised murder ballads and heartfelt break-up songs, Feed The Fire clothes breathy, emotive vocals in weeping strings, tremolo guitar twangs and ethereal electronica. [Mar 2016, p.78]

Tasteful stuff, for sure, but The Gamble could take a few more risks. [Mar 2016, p.77]

Haunting songs rooted in old-time country, Southern Gothic and humming electric ambience. [Mar 2016, p.72]

There's no shortage of melancholy here, but it's of an understated and universal kind. [Mar 2016, p.74]

It's an absolute belter if you like your R'n'B raw, red-blooded and defiantly vintage. [Mar 2016, p.75]

His solo debut respects the US traditions that nourish him while reflecting his own history. [Mar 2016, p.82]

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

Their second album is a little too comfortable. [Mar 2016, p.73]

With Suicide's spooked primitivism and Depeche Mode's throbbing anguish as blueprints, Sartain's synthesised shock treatment is a compelling segue from his spartan rockin' past. [Mar 2016, p.78]

Among the handful of minor gems, the title track is particularly ravishing. [Mar 2016, p.71]

This is the work of a star-crossed original in full flow. [Mar 2016, p.73]

The M Ward-produced Livin' On A High Note is a wonderfully chiselled Stax forgery. [Mar 2016, p.80]

Most of the artists here, among them Moby, Miike Snow and Cibo Matto, find rich source material at the melodic end of her catalogue. [Mar 2016, p.77]

The results are suitably polishes, but their pleasures are ephemeral. [Mar 2016, p.71]

The result is typically elegant and--perhaps surprisingly, given the circumstances--uplifting work about the affairs of the heart. [Mar 2016, p.80]

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]

For all Keely's best intents though, Original Machines falls short of genuine enlightenment; simultaneously too much and not enough. [Mar 2016, p.75]

If this is a window to his world, we can barely see a thing. [Mar 2016, p.76]

On occasion, the chintziness of the production undermines Maine's sentiment, but at least now he's learning to be himself. [Mar 2016, p.77]

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

Due to Joe Dilworth's propulsive drumming and Holger Zaf's synth work, these 12 tracks never stray into stuffiness. [Mar 2016, p.71]

Along with kitchen-sink detail, there's real poignancy in the Canadians' second set. [Mar 2016, p.77]

The musical richness and genre-blending confidence adds up to a quietly great album. [Mar 2016, p.82]

The sisterly joie de vivre marks out Songs Of Separation as a very special record indeed. [Mar 2016, p.82]

Though occasionally betraying signs of metal fatigue, mostly Hidden City is vibrant fun. [Mar 2016, p.72]

The instrumentations are the highlights. [Mar 2016, p.82]

Often, however, it's the catchy, heads-down belters that win you over. [Mar 2016, p.81]

Raitt isn't breaking new ground--she's emphatically marking out the turf she's owned for 45 years. [Mar 2016, p.78]

Often these widescreen productions are more effective at the most minimal. [Mar 2016, p.76]

In a field of her own. [Feb 2016, p.79]

For much of the album, there's a poppy ebullience reminiscent of the MTV-friendly '80s Elton. [Mar 2016, p.70]

A crop of startling, striped-down songs. [Feb 2016, p.78]

Like their debut, Not To Disappear evokes bot the gauzy fragility of Cocteau Twins and the offbeat ingenuity of Kristin Hersh, though this time it cranks up the amps. [Mar 2016, p.72]

The idiosyncratic chamber-pop o these 14 songs evokes The Kinks, XTC and the more melancholy side of Hot Chip; like much of their past work, it's musically intricate, too. [Mar 2016, p.73]

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

The seething mood is familiar but the cursory electro beats offer little of the grimy richness of primetime Tricky. [Mar 2016, p.81]

Their music rarely sounds like the blues: "Let Me Get By" is a fiery funk waltz, "In Every Heart" a 6/8 Stax-styled ballad with woozy horns, while the blue-eyed soul of "Crying Over You" segues into a flute-led raga. [Mar 2016, p.81]

More intriguing are the songs that tap into Throwing Muses' vein of chiming offbeat indie-pop, familiar tales of teenage yearning elevated into something more glowing and magical. [Mar 2016, p.80]

Where her other albums are more varied, this all-guns-blazing pop portfolio is a touch wearying. [Mar 2016, p.80]

Seattle three-piece Night Beats swoop into Who Sold My Generation oozing confidence. [Mar 2016, p.77]

A reliance on rabbity non-sequiters, plus a tendency to change genres every 11 seconds, makes the point of it all rather hard to grasp. [Mar 2016, p.77]

The Brooklyn five-piece's second record resembles an ordinary collection of pebbles--unlike their early sea-washed gems. [Mar 2016, p.73]

Weird--but in a generally good way. [Feb 2016, p.75]

A set of abstractions that are essentially pop in nature, rather than avant-garde. The seduce from the start. [Feb 2016, p.84]

A strikingly confident record. [Feb 2016, p.74]

Night Fiction emerges as an engaging sampler of his range as well as his virtuosity. [Feb 2016, p.78]

The spirit of the band's old leader Ronnie Lane comes shining through. [Feb 2016, p.80]

A darkly impassioned mix of hip hop, art rock and electronics that connects to indigenous street music as well as to Gil Scott-Heron, The Ruts and TV On The Radio. [Feb 2016, p.84]

Unreconstructed but entertaining when they get the balance right. [Feb 2016, p.76]

A moving tribute to an unsung talent. [Jan 2016, p.75]

Kelly Zutrau's pure voice is full of tiny, yodelling curlicues that sound oddly Appalachian, and the songs have the sturdy melodies and heart-wrenching lyrics we associate with Nashville. [Feb 2016, p.84]

Even if Howes favours an almost cosy retro futurism, the results are unpretentious and often lovely. [Feb 2016, p.77]

Menzies fuses his recent interest in classical work with glitchy dystopian techno, painting a nine-more-black picture that lurches between bruised James Blake and after-hours heroin party with no little elegance before ultimately losing its way in all the fog. [Feb 2016, p.80]

The Ghosts Of Highway 20 is vast, thoughtful and profound. [Feb 2016, p.81]

Moth's incessantly hiccuping polysyllabic pop lacks soul and sticking power. [Feb 2016, p.73]

The vibe is darkly grandiose. [Feb 2016, p.83]

A lovely understated album. [Feb 2016, p.75]

As a musical representation of physical and mental decline, it is morbidly compelling. But in the wrong mood, it's a bit of a trudge. [Feb 2016, p.75]

The Belfast trio revel in producing the sort of catchy, fuzzy pop exemplified by the hooky "Ordinary Daze" and "Down Dog," although they can also work in more expansive territory, like "I Won't Let Go." There's wit too. [Feb 2016, p.79]

Basar is marred by a couple of misguided forays into coffee-table trip-hop, but when Africaine 808 aim for the dancefloor, they usually hit the spot. [Feb 2016, p.71]

Not only a welcome "return to form" but sounds like a career pinnacle. [Feb 2015, p.82]

What the Jets might have lost in terms of their early quirkiness, they make up for in melody and emotional heft. [Feb 2016, p.78]

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

The result: Meiburg's finest album to date. [Feb 2016, p.80]

They have at times found themselves mired in over-fussy arrangements, but here recapture something of the crisp economy of their breakout 2007 LP ...Are The Dark Horse. [Feb 2016, p.73]

It's a filthy, fun blend of stripped-back rock'n'roll, punctuated by zombie seventh chords, rasped blues vocals and an Old World punkish intensity. [Feb 2016, p.75]

Despite the familiarity, Infinite Summer has a heart, and could probably melt permafrost with a single playing. [Nov 2016, p.79]

He's been in this territory before, covering the Bunnyman's Crocodiles (2001), but never with such verve. [Dec 2015, p.79]

Tan remains aloof and introspective, still murmuring about lonely walks and cigarettes, but now there's a swagger and verve to his production. [Jan 2016, p.75]

It's perhaps the best introduction yet to the sometimes-confusing world of Sun Ra. [Feb 2016, p.94]

Overall, it's rather slight and inevitably rough around the edges.... But there's still considerable entertainment to be had from Segall's urgent renditions of "Cat Black: and "Buick Mackane" while his take on "The Slider" and "20 Century Boy" are magnificent reboots. [Feb 2016, p.94]

Not as violent as Hexadic but no less unsettling, this is a strange and fascinating album from an artist who continues to evolve. [Feb 2016, p.80]

Alternating between acoustic ballads and full-on roots rockers could have created a disjointed feel, but it works splendidly with the salty, blue-collar honesty of his dustbowl voice providing an emotional cohesion on vivid, affecting songs such as "Heart's Too Heavy" and the warmly nostalgic "American Flags In Black & White." [Feb 2016, p.78]

The record as a whole is an energetic, infectious romp through trap, Auto-Tune, West Coast soul and warm balladry. [Feb 2016, p.78]

His voice remains an effortless marvel, largely wasted on this slick but trite material. [Feb 2016, p.75]

This 3CD/5LP set ably performs the mixed blessing of making you feel that you are there, and annoyed that you weren't. [Feb 2016, p.74]

On his third LP he sounds closer to Smog's Bill Callahan, his forlorn baritone suffused with a world-weariness that suggests a singer twice his age and experience. [Feb 2016, p.77]

This one finds him plugging in and creating a doleful jangle that often feels like a bedsit Velvet Underground fronted by Lawrence or Ray Davies. [Feb 2016, p.73]

A set of songs that inscribe their intensities and their romantic visions directly on the listener's heart. [Feb 2016, p.76]

For every textured, tasteful track that evokes Tortoise's mid-'90s peak as a prime exemplar of US indie's brainiest strain, two deviate wildly. [Feb 2016, p.83]

Intense. [Feb 2016, p.78]

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

Emotional Mugger is as funky as it is twisted--a heavy rock record that truly groves in a way that heavy rock rarely does any more. [Feb 2016, p.85]

Santigold never flags in her campaign to capture the dwindling attention spans of modern pop fans. [Feb 2016, p.79]

Self-serious and low on humour, Suede sometimes mistake bigness for greatness, but they still generate enough lusty passion to set pulses racing and hearts aflame. [Feb 2016, p.83]

It's comforting and surprising, full of trad sounds electrified by the off-kilter vision of an artist whose recognition as one of Americana's finest voices is long overdue. [Feb 2016, p.67]

Their debut has a raucous charm that makes it easy to overlook their songs' emotional punch. [Feb 2016, p.77]

Hymns sounds refreshed. [Feb 2016, p.73]

It all takes a bit of getting use to.... [M:FANS} is yet another fascinating maverick move. [Feb 2016, p.70]

10 taut, white-knuckle songs. [Feb 2016, p.72]

Davis tends toward the archly self-conscious, and at times her music sounds oddly dated, but there is promise here. [Feb 2016, p.73]