The Connecticut pair's third album taps into the best qualities of alternative music, circa 1988. [Oct 2007, p.99]

Songs Cycled is opaque and entirely accessible. [Jun 2013, p.80]

Stasis Taylor enriches with resonant atmosphere. [Oct 2021, p.33]

Probably the most potent album she's made since Broken English. [Nov 2004, p.102]

This solo debut sees him working within a very limited sonic palette--doomy, minor-key constructions featuring distorted rhythm guitar riffs played over a grid of '80s synths and drum machines. These can be effective when paired with grim lyrics of small-town realism. [Oct 2019, p.33]

The bleak but beautiful moments here represent a suave, dignified coda for an artist whose work never quite got the hugs it deserved. [Mar 2022, p.31]

A baggy sprawl in places, but generally rewarding. [Dec 2023, p.36]

Another dazzling yet soulless smorgasbord of bold, modern pop composition that mixes the latest AI with more old-school contributions from Lee Renaldo and Jim O'Rourke. [Nov 2023, p.31]

A fashionably unruly racket. [Mar 2005, p.100]

Beauty & Ruin falls short as a masterpiece but it quietly lets the handbrake off on Mould's creativity. [Jul 2014, p.79]

Maximum Balloon isn't intended to carry the emotional and cultural weight of a TV On The Radio release, but it's a charming diversion that bodes well for Dear Science's follow-up, not to mention whichever artist is smart enough to hire Sitek as their producer next. [Sep 2010, p.98]

Provides a gentle but subtle introduction to the sometimes onerous world of avant-techno. [Apr 2003, p.122]

By the time we reach "Surripere" we could be listening to a toughened-up Aphex Twin, poignant harmonies battling against oblique but splintering beats. [May 2003, p.92]

It's mind-expanding, punk psychedelia. [Sep 2001, p.96]

Despite the lacerating electro-glam of "Total All Out Water" and "Sheez Minie," it's melodic as hell. [Nov 2002, p.121]

It's a less daring enterprise overall. [May 2004, p.106]

A successful fusion of tradition and modernism.

It's a dynamic soundbed for her arresting singing. [May 2015, p.77]

For the most part, this is a short, sharp and generally satisfying voyage into Ash's heady past. [Jul 2015, p.71]

A complex, powerful crossover record that still manages to feel awesomely authentic. ... The English-and French-lanugae cuts are less successful. [Apr 2017, p.25]

The results may comprise the most finely distilled example of Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson's deconstruction of heavy riffage, with each of these tracks demonstrating the infinite varieties of fuzz and rumble that exist within a single mighty note. [Nov 2019, p.33]

The enigmatic ensemble head out on taut, Teutonic disco manoeuvres on "Dancing In Transit" before making like a feral 808 State as they imagine Raoul Duke and Don Quixote in conversation on "Raoul". [Apr 2025, p.35]

They've yet to match the live genius of the [Arcade] Fire, but their album's got much more life than their static stage shows. [Aug 2006, p.95]

For the first half of The Republic he extracts effervescent hisses and trills from his gear, fashioning a fragrant if unremarkable video score, while in the final section he lets loose, relatively speaking. [Mar 2015, p.80]

Surprises may be fewer this time around but, with their warmth and grace, "Wanted Never Asked" and "Filigree" are two of several songs here that rank with Cabic's finest. [Dec 2019, p.35]

It's Religious Knives' proto-PiL, art-punk minimalism and addiction to the motorik groove that mark them out as different. [Nov 2008, p.117]

Wilco (the album) picks up more or less where 2007’s mellow and soulful "Sky Blue Sky" left off, but subtly expands that record’s parameters.

Thankfully, they rewire this timeless aesthetic with more open-minded affection than stifling reverence. [Apr 2016, p.73]

Inspired, frustrating, wayward, indulgent, funny, heartfelt and eclectic, taken in one sitting it's far too much, like gorging on the most excessive turkey dinner with all the trimmings. [Jan 2013, p.97]

The softer edges and new accessibility only makes the fury and dread eerily heavier. [Jan 2026, p.35]

Amazingly, it somehow avoids the drivel of The Darkness by sheer gleeful abandon. [Jun 2006, p.98]

Full of sound and furry. [Sep 2013, p.89]

This set combines recordings from a number of indie EPs, and while the ensemble always combines a bemused, tongue-in-cheek quality with a rock'n'roll fanatic's mindset, Dungeon Golds spinning out smart, graceful pop hooks and hard, Dukes-Of-Stratosphear-type psych--gazes hard at mortality. [Apr 2015, p.80]

A stepping stone to more original work to come? Could well be. [Apr 2026, p.29]

Blends bluegrass, backwoods folk and hammered blues with a motorik groove. [Apr 2006, p.106]

Russell was always more super-sessioneer and songwriter than vocalist, and the rasp of advancing years does little for over-familiar pieces like "Fever" and "Georgia On My Mind." Better are more personal favorites like Billy Joel's "New York State Of Mind" and Mose Allison's "Fool's Paradise." [Jul 2014, p.80]

Bright, luscious and languid. [Apr 2005, p.102]

She is in her Hot Gossip element on the camp, gasping electro of "Sauna", while the Morricone-referencing "Ride" channels Sheila B Devotion by way of early-'90s Madonna and the title track is sheer seduction in silk pyjamas. [Jun 2026, p.35]

[A] sumptuous, immensely pleasurable throwback album. [May 2017, p.25]

Neither beholden to tradition nor self-consciously moderne, she crafts skeletal songs of great warmth and grace. [Oct 2006, p.117]

Commune is less immediately striking than World Music. [Oct 2014, p.81]

There's rich melodies buried in many of these tracks. [Aug 2015, p.73]

Behind their heavily stylised surface, these are fairly standard heartbreak ballads, but Li's voluptuous gothic gloom is still intoxicating. [Aug 2022, p.29]

His playing is smart but no flash, though he does show off his six-string chops with some acid blues bending on "rock And Roll". [Oct 2025, p.24]

Despite several terrific individual tracks, this record ultimately derives its considerable strength from a renewed appreciation of the power of collective identity. [Jul 2011, p.90]

Eventually Brad Hargett's depressive baritone voice will get you down, but not before it has demanded your attention. [Apr 2009, p.87]

Dulli remains a restless and unpredictable frontman, constantly distorting his voice from a soaring falsetto into a bellowing bass, as though he's just getting started. [Mar 2020, p.27]

Olive doesn't have the strongest voice, but songs like "Traveling" and the choolin' "Strange Attractor" have a pure pop heart that blends beautifully with Auerbach's retro-rock aesthetic. [Sep 2011, p.93]

Last original member standing David Thomas remains inscrutable, defining Lady from Shanghai as an album of dance music. [Feb 2013, p.78]

Their seventh studio album removes some of the widescreen electronica and replaces it with a more, stripped back, acoustic vibe that rather suits them. [Aug 2013, p.67]

Acoustic Classics is a useful update on 1984's live Small Town Romance, with Thompson this time attacking his back catalogue in the studio. [Sep 2014, p.78]

It shuns the cliches of oceanic atmospherics. [Aug 2015, p.73]

Their debut is squeaky-door dub that offers unexpectedly plentiful tunes. [Sep 2016, p.73]

It makes for another assured chapter in a celebrated life, a celebrated achievement. [Jun 2022, p.24]

Though their drive to fill all available space causes some songs to grow diff use, their vision coheres on “Taken By The Hand”, a suitably audacious fusion of ferocious post-hardcore and anthemic Southern rock. [Aug 2022, p.23]

Songs like "Let's Make A Mistake Tonight" and the restless "Forbidden Doors" vividly capture intimate moments in a shared existence. [Apr 2023, p.36]

When they learn to perfect a climax without gaining flab, this band could be a truly transcendental prospect. [May 2006, p.129]

With guests including trumpeter Terry Edwards and The Clientele's Alasdair MacLean, theses pure, poetic songs advance their euphoric yet melancholy quest for improbable romance. [Jun 2011, p.79]

Orton remains a luminous presence among often monotone peers. [Dec 2012, p.75]

He's made one of his most uncompromisingly lovely albums, a tender notebook of pointillist electronics, deep waves of drone and ever ascending, yet melancholy, melody. [Dec 2018, p.23]

Against hard-edged rhythms – Danielle Haim’s clattering drumming enlivens “These Kids We Knew” – and Solomon’s wordless reveries, Rostam sings in a creamy tenor tailormade for sharing the intimate feelings of his lyrics. [Jul 2021, p.33]

While Downhill From Everywhere climaxes with the ham-fisted “Until Justice Is Real”, the 72-year-old singer-songwriter has otherwise managed to thread the needle by embedding his compassion in consummate craftsmanship. [Aug 2021, p.24]

The rest of the album struggles to maintain that high standard [of the second track, 'I Know'], but 'Take It Home' is a magnificent dirge. [Sep 2009, p.86]

Kozelek's latest aims for a similar kind of dolorous charm, plus Spanish guitar, and often succeeds. [Feb 2015, p.80]

While there's plenty of laidback sheen, the collection is void of original hooks. [Sep 2019, p.24]

While the aural palette's novelty value fades by the halfway mark, the final spin cycle provides a thrilling conclusion to this ingenious exercise. [Mar 2016, p.76]

A dynamic young talent improving with every release. [Apr 2019, p.39]

Smith habitually flows everything together, creating glowing and serene canvases of sound with her own gentle and expressive voice hymning at the centre. [Jul 2020, p.34]

Cohen displays a light touch throughout, whether spiking “Dog’s Face”’s reverberant honky-tonk piano with detuned guitars and brass, constructing “Sunever” around swinging mandolin or conjuring ’80s DIY indie on “Wishing Well”. [Aug 2024, p.31]

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

These 33 minutes are some of Malkmus' finest work; one avenue, then, has now been explored and staked out, but remains pleasingly wild. [Apr 2019, p.35]

They rather more resemble the wilfully over-wrought pastiches of Flight Of The Conchords, but without the jokes. [Sep 2009, p.82]

Professor Beam has made his first art movie, and it's a stunner. [May 2013, p.70]

Come Down With Me seems slightly out of step in 2010, harking back to a time at the turn of the millennium where Tortoise and Tarwater were still the names to drop, but you can nonetheless appreciate its glistening geometry. [Mar 2010, p.84]

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

The perfect needle, pitched into the red every time. [Sep 2015, p.81]

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

A slice of life in all its messy, complicated and ultimately doomed glory. [May 2021, p.25]

Sweeping arrangements, thoughtful ambient passages and judicious archival samples drive the story, which is cleverly weighted from a thematic viewpoint. [Oct 2023, p.33]

It's hard, though, to be sure of such depth aid the often imprecise lyrics, gently sweet vocals resembling a semi-skimmed Jonathan Donahue, and muffled, ambient brass and sax swells. [Oct 2018, p.30]

The band strike a neat balance between chunky Pavement guitar scrawl and sombre orchestrals. [Dec 2011, p.89]

The Runners Four displays intuitive melody and a childlike disregard for convention that's captivating enough to overcome any saccharine tendencies. [Dec 2005, p.116]

Balancing staccato rhythms and itchy guitars with a neat line in woozy, trance-like synthesisers, they have an oblique lyrical bent that's all their own. [Feb 2008, p.80]

Sometimes, it's hard to remember who's influencing who. [Aug 2012, p.70]

All she lacks is a really killer song. [Apr 2015, p.72]

This still-teenage quartet writes heady songs that luxuriate in bubbling electronics, lagoon-diving reverb and layered harmonies. [Jun 2011, p.79]

Touches of ska... and ethereal dream-rock... betray a penchant for late-'70s guitar experimentation, alchemised here by a brilliant pop sheen. [Jul 2004, p.101]

This live site from New Year's Eve 2011 reminds why these songs are firmly embedded in NZ music folklore. [Dec 2013, p.81]

Over 10 minutes or more, he wisely avoids manipulative builds and drops, leaving a compelling opacity. [Mar 2014, p.76]

On occasion, the production on Who IS The Sender? threatens to swamp the plain-speaking poetics of Fay's lyrics with soupy sentimentality.... But just as often, producer Joshua Henry correctly gauges the tenor of these songs. [May 2015, p.74]

Plum feels very much like a landmark in his still-fresh career. [Oct 2017, p.38]

The songs may work better in short, sudden bursts; over 11 tracks, you can feel bludgeoned by the band's blunt force. [Apr 2005, p.112]

The best of Faith In The Future is among the best of Finn. [Oct 2015, p.75]

The solos are majestic and Barlow even contributes a couple of thumpers. Nobody does this better.

The band push their mathematical lines into some great perverse shapes that occasionally remind of Fugazi, and even Yes. [May 2009, p.85]

These are beautiful songs with a murderous heart. [Feb 2012, p.90]

It's all unceasingly beautiful. [Mar 2012, p.81]

"Ye Ye's" Chicago house snares and claps crop up throughout the record, turning the pretty "Lights" into a sweaty jack-fest and giving deranged effects of "Springs" a rigid framework. [Dec 2012, p.69]