They have not deviated from their core virtues: drolly mordant lyrics, instinctive tunefulness and the lo-fi new-wave sensibility that carries it all. [Sep 2021, p.27]

The sound overall mostly evokes the primordial, punky, pre-grunge Lemonheads, leavened now as then by Dando's insuppressible pop sense. [Dec 2025, p.33]

Despite the defiant attitude and serious subject matter, their excitably chaotic squalls, leaves a trail of sonic pile-ups too often both predictable and over-familiar. [Nov 2013, p.72]

Her reinterpretations restore some of the post-punk edge to a band long overshadowed by its frontman's solo hubris. [Dec 2019, p.29]

What An Enormous Room takes her eclecticism to fresh heights, each of these songs exploring different emotional moods while influences range from The Breeders to Goldfrapp. [Jan 2024, p.36]

The lack of outside input and studio polish only intensifies the trip. [Feb 2014, p.73]

Mosey is clearly not just the work of an absurdly gifted musician, it's the product of an exceptionally vibrant mind. [Jun 2016, p.70]

Beck appears on half the tracks –his deadpan gospel is especially discernible on “Beautiful People (Stay High)” – Noel Gallagher on three songs, and an invigorating hip-hop influence is contributed by Juicy J, Lil Noid and Dan The Automator. The sum of these disparate parts is an album with that infectious quality of sounding like it was a total blast to make. [Apr 2024, p.29]

It would be fanciful, not to mention disrespectful, to say that Morrison has waited his whole career to make this album. But he makes it sound like he has. [Apr 2006, p.96]

Out Of My Window shimmers like a heat haze. [Nov 2008, p.105]

[van Wissem's] solemn, minor-key lute lines become ensnared in Jarmusch's riptide of guitar feedback and fading chords. [Jan 2013, p.74]

Palme finds Arnalds staking a strong claim to territory as uniquely precious as Dory Previn's. [Oct 2014, p.67]

On their fifth full-length, they've got looser and groovier, and it suits them. [Mar 2015, p.75]

Permo's strength is the variety of voices provided by rotating singers Rachel Taylor, Sean Armstrong and Jack Mellin, which in turn encourages and emphasises the band's range. [Dec 2017, p.33]

The results are exemplary. [Jun 2019, p.26]

Subtle electronics and the creation of desolate, 3-D spaces is the icing on a seductively ruined cake. [Aug 2013, p.76]

This is actually their most enjoyable record in ages, largely because it draws together recurring Laibach themes. [May 2014, p.77]

The cumulative effect is melancholy, generally compelling and often beautiful, a haunted dancehall of memory and loss. [Apr 2021, p.25]

A cracking selection of scuzzy, fuzzy, psych-rock songs that recall Royal Trux and Sonic Youth. [Apr 2013]

Addressing subjects from addiction and gun crime to censorship and obscene over-consumption, the anger is righteous but leavened with the hope of change. [Sep 2018, p.29]

Gallipoli is the most acoustically rich Beirut album to date, with studio buzz and random dissonance deployed as musical texture more than ever before. [Mar 2019, p.35]

The result is a dynamic and punchy record that finds the band sounding comfortable yet unpredictable as they immerse themselves more in electronic sounds. [Dec 2021, p.29]

In danger of becoming a Loose Tubes for the ATp generation, this once fleetfooted group have blundered into a vat of fudge. [Feb 2010, p.89]

Guitarist Dave W and company gather up Krautrock, Loop, Acid Mothers Temple, Cul De Sac and a host of other materials with radioactive long life to create a fusion intended as toxic blowback in the faces of right-wing America. It's a face-melting combination. [Aug 2011, p.104]

This audacious album succeeds not by altering Cage's distinctive identity but by exponentially amplifying it. [June 2019, p.26]

Allo Darlin' aren't the latest in post-Kate Nash mockney complaint pop, but instead makers of music that's unapologetically twee. [July 2010, p.101]

The addition of Ethiopian singer Cabra Casay evens up things on "Ane Nahatka," otherwise this prove a collaboration too far. [Nov 2012, p.85]

Analogue synths and electronic drums combine with distorted tribal chants to darkly compelling effect. [Apr 2014, P.77]

The third suffers from a bit of improv cliche in its fox-sex vocals, but the central melodic theme is robust enough to return for a warm-hearted final track. [Sep 2014, p.73]

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]

Despite the odd dreamy detour into girl-group psych-pop, this slender 10-tracker is bulked out with a little too much autopilot retro-kitsch filler. [May 2016, p.79]

Marten now has an appealingly gentle voice and an intuitive feel for melody. [Nov 2016, p.32]

Defiantly lo-fi production rather hampers the attempts at big-budget symphonic soul, but the clubby bangers such as "It's In The Love" and "She Ran Away" work magnificently. [Jul 2017, p.26]

The album keeps faith with The Jayhawks' trademark expansive Americana. [Oct 2018, p.29]

These warm engaging gnarly songs are vigorously banged out by a mix of the original and current lineups. [Sep 2018, p.30]

There's a sense of spacious freedom to these dozen songs. ... Gorgeous. [Mar 2019, p.34]

Approached with an open mind, it becomes a compelling blend of ambience, minimalism, poetry and devotion. [Dec 2019, p.32]

There's a sublimely soulful central vocal melody underpinning songs such as "Papa," "VanP" and "Differently," as patchworks of vocal loops create bewitching organic grooves. The showtune jazz and circus-y, Tom Waits-ish vibes elsewhere are also highly intriguing. [Feb 2020, p.23]

For the most part it's Snarky Puppy at their jazziest, but there's still space for plenty of sweaty funk and prog-rock wigging out. [Nov 2022, p.36]

Some of the group's most personal work. [Jul 2023, p.24]

They've reverted to broader strokes on their self-titled follow-up. If few musical envelopes are pushed, the pounding melodic rock of "Like I Had Before" is irresistible, and will sound huge live. [Dec 2025, p.31]

Unquestionably, it is beautifully done. [Jun 2011, p.80]

Froot is another big, unabashed pop album astutely balanced with sufficient melancholy and restraint to stop it from all getting too Katy Perry. [May 2015, p.77]

The strident approach... doesn't quite work. [Jul 2005, p.100]

His technical prowess is thrilling in its time signature hopping. [Mar 2013, p.65]

This is Calexico on downers, Lee Hazlewood on jolly pills. [Dec 2002, p.131]

If--as you should be--you're in love with Luna... you'll come over all swoonalicious to this subtly sparkling spin-off. [Dec 2003, p.130]

Retains the tweak and squidge of his experimental, post-techno wanderings, but it's meant for feet rather than head. [Sep 2004, p.98]

This is a thrilling album, one that contains an extremity of sound and emotion that's unlikely to be matched by anyone else this year. [Album of the Month, Aug 2004, p.90]

Nothing too shocking, then, but their old magic surges through: you won't be disappointed. [Sep 2003, p.112]

On paper it may sound like brittle Grand Royal retro-cool, but on record it simply belts along with a primal melodic simplicity and sexy nu-wave freshness. [January 2002, p.146]

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

Familiar, sure, but a highly potent blend of the ancient and modern nevertheless. [Sep 2003, p.98]

There are some nice details though daft lyrics such as "I kiss your knees and I try to be bold" threaten to undermine the flashes of brilliance elsewhere. [May 2014, p.73]

Burch's sings sound familiar, but her lyrics cut straight through the warmth and sweetness with frank reflection on relationships and, on "Asking 4 A Friend," scoring drugs. [May 2018, p.26]

The DNA strands tying bop, Afrobeat, jungle and funk mean Allen’s steady, minimal jitter philosophically and rhythmically fi ts with a dozen resistant voices, 40 years asfter Fela, flickering beneath Sampa The Great’s taunting slur and, on rubbery highlight “Cosmosis”, Ben Okri, Damon Albarn and Skepta, Allen engaged and inherent in the present ’til the last beat. [Jun 2021, p.21]

10 idiosyncratic pop songs marked by her cool, tremulous timbre, unusual cadence and almost bluntly conversational lyrics. [Mar 2023, p.35]

The music is varied, best expressed by "Peace Or Quiet", which stretches their loud-quiet dynamic as far as it can go. [Oct 2023, p.28]

Some of the arrangements are busier than they need to be. [Mar 2012, p.89]

We Are Nots is an impressive, if punishing, introduction. [Jan 2016, p.78]

Lyrically, it's the darkness that maintains its grip, sometimes alarmingly so. [Jul 2016, p.74]

Her songs don't so much drift as press steadfastly onwards into the unknown--all of them stick in your head despite little trace of a tune. [Oct 2013, p.63]

With III, they shift their intense focus on '70s motorik rock, psychedelia and heavy drone to admit furious post-punk, industrio-dub grooves and the odd open space, [Jun 2014, p.72]

More often Big Music reanimates the band's founding spirit of adventure. [Dec 2014, p.80]

It'll be nice on a Netflix drama, but removes much of the tension between ambition and accomplishment in which melancholy indie rock traditionally thrives. [Jul 2020, p.30]

Nothing Special draws back from Okkervil River's giddy pop whirls in favour of beautiful, ruminative, Lambchop-ish ballads which, while lengthy, never outstay their welcome. [Nov 2022, p.36]

There's some interesting things going on here.... Sadly, Bernard Butler's production often feels thin and tinny, which isn't just sad, but avoidable, too. [Aug 2008, p.92]

Their debut reveals a band bristling with ideas who've taken the time to streamline their influences into a syrupy white funk. [Nov 2008, p.98]

Overblown and occasionally excruciating, I Love It...'s fearless perversity nonetheless puts most "alternative" bands to shame. [Apr 2016, p.67]

The opening title track casually drifts into existence, and the rest follow suit, melancholic blend of twinkling steel guitar, rambling acoustic guitars and wearied vocals. [Sep 2016, p.76]

A collection of songs that are superficially alluring but, bar standout "Morning Comes," rarely captivating. [Apr 2019, p.36]

The album, reminiscent of Jon Spencer at times, exudes a deep love of rock 'n' roll on each track. [Nov 2012, p.77]

Conjures worlds of chilly, pulsing synths and waspish guitar. [Mar 2021, p.27]

Much of Broken Boy Soldiers is fired by the same liberated, intuitive spirit that drives the Stripes. [Jun 2006, p.86]

Together [Dylan and Rick Rubin] have made an austere acoustic album that could've been titled "American Recordings VI." [June 2008, p.87]

Beneath their limpid surfaces, Mark "E" Everett's songs are volatile dollops of emotional explosive. [Mar 2006, p.98]

As the album proceeds, these simpatico players alternate between swaddling Showalter's introspective songs in downy ambience and dialling up the grandeur, before the Clash-like stomper "Moon Landing," with Jason Isbell blazing on electric guitar, relives the accrued existential torment. [Apr 2019, p.36]

Brave and bonkers. [Mar 2012, p.94]

The Other sees the slacker goofball King Tuff reborn as a spiritual thinker, albeit one with an excellent groove. [Jun 2018, p.30]

Drummer Bryan Devendorf’s rippling, muscular runs provide a racing human pulse over the programmed drums on “Tropic Morning News” and “New Order T-Shirt”, enliven the laidback “I Need My Girl” and supercharge “Lit Up” and the conjoined “Humiliation”/“Murder Me Rachael” during a torrid late-set run. He’s The National’s secret weapon, and Rome is his showcase. [Review of the Year 2024, p.34]

Melodic beauty at times gives way to oversweet twinkling, but "Modigliani" and "Most Wanted Man" are winners. [May 2025, p.29]

For their second album proper, the band have beefed up their sound at the expense of their spindly charm. [Mar 2010, p.89]

Overall, Go To School is a blast, a joyous, ridiculous journey that treads a perfect line between silly, funny and heart-breaking. [Oct 2018, p.33]

Challenging, sure--but when it comes together, as on Kenny Loggins-sampling "Your Choice," exhilarating also. [Sep 2015, p.80]

Dave Huismans brings an aesthetic informed by the metallic echo of Berlin and machine melodies of Detroit to the music's syncopated UK rave logic. [Jan 2010, p. 103]

It's nuanced "noise" that packs a hefty emotional punch. [Aug 2018, p.24]

A touch of monotony creeps in, although they keep it at bay through sheer volume on the closing, eight-minute "Harpooned." [Jun 2015, p.84]

Their voices blend beautifully, especially on Dylan's title track and Jason Isbell's "The Color Of A Cloudy Day," but they caterwaul awkwardly on an unintentionally silly version of Nirvana's "Lithium." [Sep 2017, p.32]

A bit of editing might not have gone astray, but it's hard to begrudge McCombs space to roam when his horizon is so impressively broad. [Nov 2013, p.75]

Go past the tone of his voice, inhale the poetry, and you'll taste a sweeter, less mordant Leonard Cohen. [May 2012, p.68]

It includes great music, but it still has that hairy, unpredictable, somewhat demented aspect that gives the Blues Explosion its unique spark. [Oct 2012, p.72]

Arguable Little Feat's best since Lowell George checked out. [Sep 2012, p.80]

The sixth LP covers a familiar spectrum from table-thumping anthems to torrid speed-polkas and booze-punk shanties. But it also features agreeably surreal humour and occasional tender interludes. [Aug 2013, p.71]

Her real metier is the conjuring of moods via soft layers of twangy guitar, piano and understated strings, her voice bringing an impressionistic air to stand-outs like "Have You Seen" and the balletic "Wouldn't Go Back." [Sep 2013, p.92]

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

This is arguably The Coal Porter' finest yet--a deft, thoughtful and beautifully arranged set with an airy sense of melancholy. [Nov 2016, p.25]

Good-natured album. [Apr 2020, p.35]

This follow-up is mightily impressive too, the band ramping up their sound into something approaching classic rock. [Feb 2021, p.30]