[Queens Of The Breakers] is busy without ever feeling overcrowded, its liquid acoustics following the soft contours of Brad's vocals to telling effect. [Nov 2017, p.24]

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]

Her striking debut--recorded in 10 days and originally self-released on her own label--brims with as much honest emotion as it does uncalculated cool. [Jan 2017, p.23]

Here, on their fourth LP, the duo--teaming up again with Dave Fridmann--appear to have entered some weird, parallel 1983. [Apr 2018, p.30]

Firepower delivers an agreeably familiar mix of skull-pummelling drums, eyebrow singeing guitar pyrotechnics and multi-tracked operatic vocals. [Apr 2018, p.28]

Automator's cinematic drama provides a stirring backdrop for the Doctor's prolix self-celebration, the ribald "Polka Dots," sinister "Power Of The World" and woozy "Flying Waterbed." [Jul 2018, p.27]

A strange, rich and global journey in sound--lasting just 37 minutes, Bon Voyage begs to be put on again, each listen revealing more of the myriad ideas that make up its weird majesty. [Jul 2018, p.22]

Their CSNY-meets-MGMT harmonies are as sun-dappled and warming as ever. But this is also their most skillfully diverse record yet. [Aug 2019, p.35]

Handsome melodies are dispatched with nonchalant flair, while the lyrics are consistently wry, whether concerning romantic or political entanglements. [Sep 2019, p.33]

Played and sun with unassuming grace, it's an album of rare generosity. [Nov 2019, p.30]

Sounds great, but a little superfluous. [Jan 2020, p.28]

It's a mix that captures the zeitgeist appetite for the melding of jazz, R&B and electronic sounds while also celebrating the path that led there. [Jan 2020, p.31]

A real joy, though it bears an inevitable sadness. [Feb 2020, p.25]

An enticing hint at other directions that Landreth could go in. [Mar 2020, p.30]

Mixes magic and sci-fi, beauty and horror. [Mar 2020, p.35]

10 duets of intricate stringed alchemy. [May 2020, p.27]

The 2020 material is curiouser sill, a body of elegant guitar pop as abstruse as it is seductive. They've still got it. [Aug 2020, p.39]

A wide-ranging, guest-heavy collection that keeps one foot rooted in grimy, shuddering, low-end sonics while exploring multiple alternative avenues. [Aug 2020, p.34]

An involving double album. [Aug 2020, p.28]

Breach is an often quiet, hushed album, but its message - one of discovering happiness in solitude - comes over loud and clear. [Nov 2020, p.31]

Healy's songs have always been suffused with nostalgia; now, far removed from those innocent days, the poignant pull is overwhelming. [Nov 2020, p.37]

They're breaking no new personal ground, then but. ... Their enthusiasm and wayward energy carry them. [Jan 2021, p.27]

Metal-tinged stadium rockers like "The Machine," "Stand And Fight" and the Sabbathy "The Alchemist" still offer their strongest moments. [Dec 2020, p.27]

The band's pleasure in playing and connecting with fans shines throughout. [Feb 2021, p.25]

Fellow Pretender James Walbourne provides deft guitar and keyboard accompaniment, but it’s the personality and allure of a distinctive voice that keeps you in the parlour. [Jul 2021, p.27]

Nothing wildly new here, yet Cutler's full-time escapist fantasy is pretty persuasive. [Jan 2022, p.30]

The earthbound "This Love", shuffling along on metallic, moody guitar, and the twining, spaghetti-western eeriness of "Sucker Punch" are more engaging, but Here Is Everything could use more of the punch that lists the standout "Trouble". [Nov 2022, p.25]

A fourth album that feels fervently human for all the machine-tooled precision it otherwise demonstrates. [Jan 2023, p.21]

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

His originals here include the rippling, Arabic-accented, Dizzy Gillespie-inspired" Caravanseral" and the tricksy waltz ballad "Ruth". [Apr 2023, p.25]

An intimate, ballad-dominated song cycle that melds their vintage and experimental sides. [Jun 2023, p.36]

She threads Lou Reed's vocal rhythm over the band's brisk skank on "Hangin' Round", while "Song To The Siren" and "The Man Who Sold The World" slip with similar ease into reggae mode. [Jul 2023, p.24]

A fine album that suggests more pleasure to come. [Jul 2023, p.23]

Though the band's affection for Blonie, Pixies and Osees is plain, it's not intrusive and music's x-factor is an ominous undertow, notably provided by the keyboard on breakneck instrumental "(Post Apocalypstick)". [Jan 2024, p.28]

If it can feel a little hermetic, he’s at his best on the Eno-ish lullaby “First Responder”, where strings and lap steel drift in like a summer breeze. [Jun 2024, p.39]

"In My Kitchen" turns on an impressively dexterous, high-speed bar, while "Gwara Gwara" (A Durban dance gone global) is at once euphoric and anxious. [Feb 2025, p.37]

The performances are entirely unmediated, taped in the open air like an old-style field recording with the cicadas and birds chirping gloriously in the background. [May 2025, p.31]

Singing in a voice rich with the patina of experience, there's a universal wisdom to songs such as "New Religion" and "Home Is A Song", on which she's joined by Anais Micthell. [Jul 2025, p.26]

Nadler's richly layered vocals are especially enthralling whenever she applies her featherlight delivery to ideas and images that subvert her music's surface appearance of serentiy. [Sep 2025, p.33]

A beautifully structured 11-song suite of jazz-inflected folk, check-shirted country-pop, confessional indie and more; the sound of a slight hangover clearing on a sunny morning. [Sep 2025, p.37]

Melancholy, noir-ish electro textures dominate on the deceptively lovely "Imi" and the deliciously mangled techno-tribal ballad "Black Boots", but Tagaq's punk-metal side is never far away. [Apr 2026, p.37]

Bright Spirit is a wide-ranging set flooded with singer-guitarist Kavus Torabi's metaphysical imagery. [Apr 2026, p.33]

These esoteric pieces sometimes splash around in puddles of flimsy whimsy, but with enough moments of luminous beauty to reward an immersive dip. [May 2026, p.26]

Cast in pale sunlight with a touch of frost and Darby's fragile, close-mic'ed voice their focus, these 13 unflinching songs call to mind "Some Velvet Morning" and "fade Into You". [May 2026, p.29]

It's U2 reconnecting with first principles, all big choruses and defiant optimism, and is confidently glorious. [Jun 2026, p.35]

There isn't another band who make creativity sound so intensely joyous. [Dec 2014, p.75]

At times the backdrop is so subtle that the end result is almost like an aria. Elsewhere the tunes deliver more pf a punch. [Jun 2013, p.75]

Like its predecessor, FIBS is a stubbornly uncategorisable hybrid of styles, tempos and angles on the traditional "song." [Dec 2019, p.30]

In Gareth Liddiard, the quartet have a singer-songwriter and guitarist of dark intensity, and his vivid narratives draw on the landscape and character of his homeland in a delicately melancholic way. [May 2009, p.85]

A cult classic in waiting. [Jul 2014, p.69]

"Drips" hovers between Hot Chip and late-period XTC, while the meticulous detail of "Babymaking" and "Don't Sit Back (Frankie Said)" recall lost studio gems like Rosie Vela's Walter Beck-helmed Zazu. [Mar 2015, p.75]

Though nothing here quite matches the melodic and emotional force of their first-album anthem "The Mother We Share," the quality threshold is high throughout. [Oct 2015, p.73]

Pond Scum is an archive project, albeit one delivered with all the caginess we expect from this most capricious of singer-songwriters. [Apr 2016, p.90]

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]

Jones displays a fluid keyboard touch and nuanced vocals, not unlike Diana Krall's recordings. [Nov 2016, p.31]

His 2007's "Spiderman Of The Rings" was filled with good ideas but prone to novelty. Bromst goes a long way to reversing this trend. [Apr 2009, p.84]

This LP leans towards narrative, rather than racking out kits, but its ambition is very welcome. [Oct 2016, p.25]

The constant frenzied back and forth between power-pop hooks and furious noise, while fun, begins to feel a little repetitive. [Apr 2021, p.27]

It's undeniably awe-inspiring and effective stuff, nut for fans, there's a sense of well-worn tropes entering half-life. [May 2016, p.76]

White is undoubtedly talented, but neither she nor her record company seem to know what to do with her. [July 2008, p.100]

On Un Dia with her insistent, looped and latered frooves to the fore, her seductively dreamy voice is used as both rhythmic counter and complement. [Nov 2008, p.109]

Stripped back to voice and piano, it's difficult not to recall early Kate Bush, but Amos' lyrics maintain a multi-layered depth that is uniquely hers. [Jun 2014, p.71]

It's indeed a thrilling blast. [Aug 2015, p.72]

A grandiose power metal pomposity that marshals such gusts of keyboard and flowery, Yngwie Malmsteen guitar duelling it basically feels like a climax strung out over 60 minutes; epic in short bursts, slightly tiring in the long haul. [Nov 2008, p.92]

The pulse of the blues still beats deep in his soul but the emphasis here is on Taylor's poetic sensibility on an emotionally charged set of songs loosely dealing with the darker side of the human heart. [Sep 2009, p.96]

It mines familiar-enough influences. ... There's a sonic freshness, though, abetted by wizardy analogue production tricks of Daptone head engineer Wayne Gordon. [Jul 2018, p.34]

Musically, it is business as usual--out-on-the-floor, stack-heeled indie stompers all the way--but if 2010's stark Losing Sleep was a little on the abrupt side, this is more concise still. [Apr 2013, p.75]

Glasvegas still strike the heart-strings, even without noisy guitars. [Jan 2008, p.94]

Even in cliched moments the airy swooning music lends her breathy confessionals a vulnerable, charming intimacy. [Jul 2009, p.99]

He chucks deep vocal house and astral UK bass, with the title track crucially offsetting a tendency to overly tasteful restraint. [Feb 2015, p.73]

While there's a little less shouting than usual going on, a more laconic American influence serves the well when Charlie Steen's drawl lends the title track's electro-pop textures a Dandy Warhols feel, and "Lampiao" channels an LCD-style tale of gangster mythology. [Nov 2025, p.36]

As much as Volumes: One demonstrates the power of the collective, Vernon's own extraordinary voice remains the star of the show, whether delivered straight or stunningly refracted through his custom Messina effects unit. [Jun 2026, p.42]

Reflective of our era of political polarisation, the likes of “Contempt For You” can make for bruising listening experiences. Yet there’s still plenty of solace to be found in performances by Iceland’s Elin Ey and the ever-remarkable Anohni. [Jul 2022, p.26]

The added zip only serves to spotlight her stark, moody delivery. [Mar 2007, p.98]

Shabason again blurs genre boundaries with impeccable judgement and such understatedly emotional approach that the tag "ambient jazz" sounds like a slight. [Jan 2019, p.25]

If there's a criticism, it's that this rarely expands on the ideas of their debut: shouty kiddy-rapping, Motown samples, crashing drum loops. But when a band boasts such a unique sonic palette, "more of the same" surely ranks as a compliment.

The songs are simple but seductive; the melodies blissed-out, hypnotic. [Jul 2014, p.78]

As Polica, they go some way to forging their own--snare rim snaps and menacing funk bass constantly chasing with Casselle's Auto-Tuned--but endearingly vulnerable. [May 2012, p.79]

Inspired concept, superlative execution. [Apr 2014, p.76]

Dreamy found-sound interludes weave the whole thing together, demanding headphones and space. [Jan 2021, p.23]

Warm Heart Of Africa works best when Radioclit subtly build on the rhythms of Mwamwaya's native kwassa kwassa. [Oct 2009, p.119]

Busta stampedes through a survey of current rap styles with boundless wit, energy and quality rhymes. [Mar 2002, p.96]

From the edge of the sea, back to the fringes of sleep, Summer Sun is uncommonly lovely. [May 2003, p.104]

Arguably, not since early Costello has a British solo artist combined such bare-arsed soulfulness with such corrosively perceptive humour. Quite something. [Album of the Month, Nov 2002, p.112]

While Chain Gang Of Love only lasts 33 minutes, it still outstays its welcome. [Sep 2003, p.100]

An understated, often truly lovely debut. [Apr 2006, p.106]

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]

Half of this curious but at times compelling collaboration set lyrics from old songs to new tracks--though not always to their benefit. [Oct 2013, p.62]

The naked, more soul-leaning titke track works nicely, as do the almost cosmic jazz explorations of "Didn't Come To argue" featuring Monica Martin), but for all the heavy sentiment and weight here, the results sometimes feel hollow. [May 2026, p.26]

Harvey's intimate understanding of Serge's rich catalogue allows him to smother markedly different compositions such as "Ce Mortel Enniu" (1958) and perverted mid-70s gear "SS Si Bon" and "L'Homme a Tete De Chou" with a menacing Bad Seeds swagger that unifies Delirium Tremens. [Aug 2016, p.76]

Dying is at once a queasy and exhilarating listen, made more unnerving still by the lyrical fragments about addiction, insomnia and depression that emerge from their clamour. [Mar 2015, p.

While they lack a reedy falsetto, guest vocalists such as Blaine Harrison, Euros Child and Holly Miranda bring discrete personalities to bear on songs which trippily track the lightly fantastic. [Aug 2016, p.72]

Savage Times inevitably captures the tenor of its times as the Left Coast watched America turn rightward. [Mar 2017, p.26]

Slightly pleased with itself, but record is definitely worth a spin. [Apr 2018, p.35]

A trove of intimate, impeccably judged delights. [Apr 2019, p.29]

[King] brings innate soulfulness to his performances on El Dorado. Each song has a distinct stylistic antecedent. [Feb 2020, p.29]

The songs here are mostly sparse and reflective. [May 2020, p.27]

Public Service Broadcasting devote a concept album to the tragic aviatrix’s final voyage, this time overlaying their soundscapes not with samples but with her writings brought to life by actors. These retain our interest more than some of the music they punctuate. [Nov 2024, p.41]