Too often, frontman Euan Hinshelwood's strivings for tragedy come off as merely morose. [Dec 2015, p.81]

Silver Bullets sounds, instantly and unmistakably, like a Chills album.... It is also a heartening delight. [Dec 2015, p.63]

Despite the sense of loss that inevitably pervades the music here, Steve Goodman's first solo effort as Kode9 also charts out some exhilarating new directions. [Dec 2015, p.74]

It's when they seemingly reach straight down the devil's throat, as on the ferocious "Deacon Brodie," a strangled punk/blues bottleneck, that this debut really distinguishes itself. [Dec 2015, p.81]

Ryder-Jones excels at finding beauty in forbidding places. [Dec 2015, p.78]

Together, Adams and Lynne have come up with an old-fashioned FM rock album, short on nuance but strong on intent. [Nov 2015, p.71]

Lo-fi and understated, the twin vocals of Dylan Sharp and Carrie Keith are also strong throughout. [Nov 2015, p.76]

The overall effect is a carefully constructed, complex yet breezy, psych-pop collection. [Dec 2015, p.69]

Such self-conscious nostalgia is stifling at times, but the best tracks transcend retro pastiche. [Dec 2015, p.71]

His voice of loss is shrouded in inventive production. [Dec 2015, p.74]

Ethan Johns' stripped country settings on Willie Nelson and The Milk Carton Kids tunes immediately find Sir tom's grit and gravitas. [Nov 2015, p.77]

Much here, like the outstanding "Silhouettes (I, II & III)," sits elegantly in a progressive tradition that draws on Teo Macero's collage work on In A Silent Way, David Axelrod's string arrangements, and Four Tet's own "Thirtysixtwentyfive." [Dec 2015, p.71]

Marr has hit a rich vein of middle-age form. [Dec 2014, p.74]

The musical tone of Panhandle rambler is rich, yet supple. [Dec 2015, p.70]

The songs--period pieces, admirably researched--lack that spark that turns pastiche into profundity. [Dec 2015, p.73]

This is a seasoned master of what he does operating in his comfort zone, and doing it very well indeed. [Dec 2015, p.66]

Toledo offers dense, self-analytical lyrics and a style that take in everything from The Zombies to the Pet Shop Boys, ambitious in scope and clearly much agonised-over. [Dec 2015, p.69]

When the guitarist and singer pairs their familiar hard-boiled, in-the-red licks with Latin rhythms and transcendent B3 organ flights, the combination is revelatory. [Dec 2015, p.71]

There are worth while curiosities here: his "Bad Blood" is utterly tuneless, but "Blank Space" is appealingly tremulous. [Dec 2015, p.67]

Thunderbitch does a far better job of capturing Howard as a performer than either of the Alabama Shakes albums have; here, her inimitable, flamboyant voice is given free rein, ably supported by her fellow Thunderbitches. [Dec 2015, p.68]

Blitzen Trapper's rock-solid eigth boasts a pair of instant grabbers. [Dec 2015, p.69]

The album's languid pace and lack of real bite often renders it a little pedestrian. [Dec 2015, p.69]

It's her first record that could be a classic rather than just name-checking a bunch of them. [Dec 2015, p.70]

It's a muscular and alluringly saturnine record with a vintage sheen, which occasionally tilts at the Bad Seeds but sounds more like a wracked Richard Hawley. [Dec 2015, p.71]

If A Different Ship was the soundtrack to a road trip, the new record is designed for a summer afternoon. [Dec 2015, p.73]

Are You Alone? hints at a Blue Nile-like melancholy beauty; otherwise the album could be prescribed as a treatment for insomnia. [Dec 2015, p.74]

Her elegantly emotive voice locates the dark matter in these songs about the complexities of love, lighten by sweet melodies and a stirring concoction of pop-country and honky-tonk. [Dec 2015, p.75]

The results are alluring warped but this groovy nostalgia is now a well-trodden path. [Dec 2015, p.76]

It's the slowies that suffer--lacking the warm glaze of the previous album, they can sound a little hollow. [Dec 2015, p.76]

Sermon On The Rocks is a wild ride, with producer Trina Shoemaker adding vivid colours to the singer's rolling rock gospel. [Dec 2015, p.78]

Another Country largely continues the same unashamedly nostalgic tone [of 2013's Time] [Dec 2015, p.79]

Like all of his work, it's thoughtful, humble, introspective, funny and endlessly digressive. [Dec 2015, p.72]

Can feel somewhat alienating, but worth sticking with. [Dec 2015, p.76]

It's not as striking as its predecessor. [Dec 2015, p.75]

Like 2008's Slime & Reason, Bleeds can come on a bit like an episode of "Grumpy Old MCs." But there's always room for salvation in Smith's world. [Dec 2015, p.92]

Lyrically, as ever, Garvey's skill lies in combining romantic poeticism with sandpaper wit. [Dec 2015, p.80]

Many Moons is studied, but graciously so. [Nov 2015, p.73]

Arbouretum have often looked from a distance kike a vehicle for their frontman. Ostensibly Dave Heumann's first solo album, Her In the Deep more or less confirms as much. [Nov 2015, p.77]

Pylon sees Killing Joke maintain the late-career renaissance precipitated by the original lineup reuniting for 2010's Absolute Dissent. [Nov 2015, p.77]

While Fuzz II has some absolute stormers, some of the proto-metal songs are a little too ponderous to really click. [Nov 2015, p.76]

Francesconi provides an elegant framework for Diane, who is in fine voice here. [Nov 2015, p.75]

The fifth album to feature Kentucky's Joan Shelley has an immensely welcoming ease that was absent in 2014 anxious solo breakthrough, Electric Ursa.... A major talent. [Oct 2015, p.83]

Diehard Moggers fans may bemoan the omission of obscure personal faves, but the belters title is well-deserved. [Nov 2015, p.95]

Jarre's own pastel-shaded musical signature sometimes gets lost in the crowd. [Nov 2015, p.77]

Return To The Moon is fully realised and offers plenty of intrigue, but .... rarely do they sound like a unit, and, surprisingly, Berninger is the one that ends up sounding a little lost. [Nov 2015, p.74]

Divers feels like her most comfortable, charming album. [Nov 2015, p.80]

The album presents the sound of masters at work, not thinking about their legacy, just doing the work. [Nov 2015, p.83]

As ever, when Los Lobos content themselves with sounding like Los Lobos, they're marvellous.... The lighter touches make less impression. [Nov 2015, p.79]

The album is reminiscent of Kraftwerk in its combination of chilly electronics and haunting, hooky melodies but has a wonkiness unique to Haines. [Nov 2015, p.76]

They're now coming across as though they're seriously indecisive, unable to take their upbeat dance-punk to its extremes. Tellingly, As If takes off when the group remove their vocals from centrestage. [Nov 2015, p.69]

This debut is an enjoyable, wittily written selection of material that, in its desire for vintage feel, manages to be instantly familiar. [Nov 2015, p.80]

Lead guitarist Sean Thompson displays precocious virtuosity through For Use And Delight, spinning out bent-note filigrees that recall the work of his legendary namesake. [Nov 2015, p.81]

An unambiguously terrific album. [Nov 2015, p.78]

Here are smoky, jazz-pop elegies, era-defining homages and bittersweet, elegantly orchestrated ruminations, underlining Jackson's reputation as a maverick auteur. [Nov 2015, p.77]

Pipes is the weaker collection--no remaster can disguise this. [Nov 2015, p.93]

This crisp new full-album remix merely enhances the brilliance. [Nov 2015, p.93]

Fading Frontier strikes the most satisfying balance between menacing mantric grooves of 2006's Cryptograms and the pop melodicism that emerged on 2010's Halcyon Digest. [Nov 2015, p.82]

Their jangly, soulful, melodic take on punk-pop still has freshness and urgency. [Nov 2015, p.80]

The results are frequently bewitching, if blatantly nostalgic. [Nov 2015, p.76]

Charmingly wistful and twitchily rhythmic pop songs. [Nov 2015, p.71]

Fish finds a gorgeous middle ground between lambent guitar soli, all slow rivers of singing steel string guitar, and richer, more resonant arrangements. [Nov 2015, p.72]

Jimmy Hall's vocals are unremarkable, but it barely matters; it's a guitar album and Beck still sounds as innovative and virtuosic as anyone. [Jul 2015, p.71]

There's nothing not to like, but at 13 tracks in just 37 minutes, it's all rather slight. [Nov 2015, p.76]

Alongside matters existential, there are plenty of personal expressions here. [Nov 2015, p.81]

They sound not beaten but energised by the spectre of society's destruction, off the chain and high on a cocktail of primal garage punk, astral jazz, pitch-black blues and psych ragas both damned and divine. [Nov 2015, p.77]

His 2012 debut Silent Congas was somewhat piecemeal, but I Need New Eyes feels more developed, less contrived. [Nov 2015, p.76]

[A] rich and understated debut brimming with wisdom and heart. [Nov 2015, p.79]

Julia Shapiro and Bree McKenna's vocals are brash and bratty, and there's no doubt that they'd be great fun live, but over 13 songs and half an hour, the jokes get pretty laboured. [Nov 2015, p.72]

Hard, and not necessarily rewarding, work. [Nov 2015, p.75]

His finest album yet. [Nov 2015, p.70]

Though feelings of disaffection inevitably colour Foam Island, a tentative optimistic note emerges in songs like the title track and "Stoke The Fire." [Nov 2015, p.73]

New Bermuda offers a tumultuous post metal that on passages of "Baby Blue" and "Brought To The Water," remind one more of the ethereal wandering of shoegaze. [Nov 2015, p.73]

Tracks like "Reticence," "Chrome Rose," and "I Was You" don't quite live up to their off-kilter introductions, but "Exploit Me" is a magnificent mix of Krautrock drones, sluggish tom-toms and a drunken vocal pitched somewhere between Mark E Smith, Nick Cave and Shane MacGowan. [Nov 2015, p.76]

These 12 tracks confirm Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook's melodic talents, but leaden exposition lyrics... make the grisly bits last a lifetime. [Oct 2015, p.83]

Plurality is the key to Clark Jr's appeal here. It also has to be said that this is a pretty safe, porous realm in which soul, hip-hop, Princely funk and ringing electric blues feed into one another. [Nov 2015, p.73]

Compton is a solid reminder of both Dre's skills and the depth of his contacts book. [Nov 2015, p.75]

Equal parts entertaining and self-indulgent. [Nov 2015, p.77]

Too often La Vie Est Belle, produced by Boxed In's Oli Bayston, has all the flair of an Editors potboiler, so a potentially uplifiting record becomes quite draining. [Nov 2015, p.80]

This is still a very heavy rock record, but it slithers with a degree of grace that had been missing in the past. [Nov 2015, p.65]

One of the missed opportunities of Cass Country is that it isn't especially revelatory about Henley, as a man in late-middle-age taking stock of his life. As a country album, it is perhaps a little too neat, a little too polished. [Nov 2015, p.68]

If anything, this is more consistent and satisfying record, one that emphatically places her at the forefront of modern roots music. [Nov 2015, p.72]

The arrangements are pleasingly stripped back--perhaps too much so for those powerful. [Nov 2015, p.73]

Caracal has the market in mind, but not at the expense of quality. [Nov 2015, p.75]

Allas Sak marks another gentle shift in direction for Gustav Ejstes, and though Dungen are not saying anything new, they're at least articulating timeless emotion in a classy fashion. [Nov 2015, p.75]

This certainly feels like a rebirth. [Nov 2015, p.79]

All A Man Should Do is a thing of considerable depth and sensitivity. [Nov 2015, p.79]

It is, for Pole, a breath of fresh air. [Nov 2015, p.80]

What could be tokenistic gels well. [Nov 2015, p.81]

An adept stylistic reboot. [Nov 2015, p.83]

These songs are pretty, but something intense seethes just beneath the surface. [Nov 2015, p.83]

The band pursue numerous fractured trends through a breakneck 34 minutes and manages to corral them into an acid-drenched but cohesive whole. [Nov 2015, p.83]

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]

While the programmed beats are generic, his fleet-fingered guitar work shimmers with the high-end wit that powers a batch of hooky, sharply drawn tunes. [Oct 2015, p.75]

It's an immersive and emphatically pulsing ride along Detroit techno lines. [Oct 2015, p.77]

Sometimes, beats and basslines are distinct; other times, as on "Mysteries" and "Lighthouse," you just get a sense of them, as structure dissolving into mist. [Oct 2015, p.78]

Strikingly immediate, yet also rewarding repeated immersion, the 10 tracks here are, just as Forster intended, amusing, infectious and relaxed. [Oct 2015, p.65]

Lush, lightly electronic chamber-pop arrangements dominate. [Oct 2015, p.84]

As the LP continues, you are progressively engrossed. [Oct 2015, p.84]