There are traces of Rio's fantastic lipglossed silliness, but overall the arty party pop of All You Need IS now feels like an attempt to rescue a venerable British band long damaged by poor decisions. [Mar 2011, p.88]

Seductively decaddent, but a feeling that The Raveonettes are living on borrowed time persists. [Nov 2009, p.99]

More polished than 2012's ragged debut, Acousmatic Sorcery. [Oct 2013, p.63]

Timelessly scented, you can almost smell the joss sticks. [Mar 2015, p.76]

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

Ultimately, the delight is in the details, notably the pairing of Hawthorne's fluent basslines and the trashcan thump of ancient drum machines. [Jun 2016, p.74]

On Reflection can't make any grand claims to originality, but charms with its clarity and light. [Jan 2019, p.25]

This wonderful record already feels like a cult classic. [Feb 2007, p.88]

Vocalist Tim Kinsella strikes an intriguing balance between raw emotion and lyrical enigma. [Jun 2014, p.82]

Even by his own standard, the conceptual breadth and sonic dexterity of Jhelli Beam dazzle. [Sep 2009, p.79]

The album's highlight comes when "I See You" wiggles free of its '90s indie-disco mooring and shoots at the moon; Luminous could have done with a few more of those moments. [Jun 2014, p.78]

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

There are lots of martial bust-ups and squalls of fretboard fury that show that Buddy may be old but he's still wild. [Jan 2011, p.88]

The Donkeys' debut album was impressive enough, but there;s even more to admire in this fine follow-up. [Jul 2011, p.80]

He's touted as a songwriter's songwriter in Music City, of all places, and the twangy highlights of this album ring true to that accolade. [Sep 2018, p.32]

There are epic power ballads, which just manage to avoid faling into Keane/Coldplay territory; there are terriffic, drone-laden stomp-rockers....The use of saxophone, however, is ill-advised, and Lightburn's voice can get a little ponderous. [Dec 2008, p.88]

Bewitching. [May 2017, p.30]

Emmy's startling pure voice is a vehicle for some smart, candid and subversive lyrics. [Mar 2009, p.87]

It's a most welcome trip back to what he does best. [Feb 2014, p.81]

The trio's captivating blend of archive voiceovers, yearning harmonies and melodic lushness proves as compelling as Hannah Peel's vocal daring. [Apr 2016, p.76]

Ten-minute jazz romp "Night Terrors" aside, Berry's sweet tooth brightens what is otherwise his straightest set yet. [Oct 2016, p.25]

A sumptuous set of gloriously gloomy ballads that emphasise Moss's expressiveness as a vocalist. [Dec 2018, p.28]

Margo's curled-lip rock sneer and urgent folk purity stay sides of the same coolly distanced conviction. [Apr 2022, p.26]

Moving On Skiffle is richer and more sophisticated [than 1998's The Skiffle Sessions] but has a lightness of touch that recalls Bruce Springsteen's delightful 2006 album of Pete Seeger reinterpretations, We Shall Overcome. [Apr 2023, p.27]

herring's poetic analysis of a recent break-up makes it all a compelling listen. [Nov 2020, p.29]

Hippo Lite feels like Le Bon and Presley's own little musical microclimate. You don't have to know exactly what they're on about to recognise that it's something special. [May 2018, p.25]

It's both Gothic and arch, meaningless and amusing. [Nov 2006, p.110]

They run out of steam completely towards the end.... But there's still plenty here to justify giving up your heart to that simple chord all over again. [Sep 2003, p.110]

A return trip worth taking. [Sep 2019, p.29]

It's dumber, filthier, sturdier and packed with more euphemisms than Viz's Profanisaurus. [Aug 2006, p.104]

It will, rightly, go a long way to repairing Pete Doherty's reputation as a singer and songwriter of note. But half of it is a bit boring.

This is folk music given the widescreen treatment and a crisp, modern sheen. [Oct 2011, p.91]

While her voice remains breezy, follow-up If You're Dreaming is a different beast: slower in pace and softer in tone, the weariness of touring life sneaking into the party-girl lyrics. [May 2020, p.25]

Truly terrific. [Jul 2011, p.96]

They're at their best when they dial down the melodrama. [Sep 2015, p.77]

Happily, the music Stewart's art rock collective make on their seventh studio LP tells a more playful and diverse story, incorporating vivid punktronica, delicate ambient moodscapes and icy chamber-pop. [Mar 2010, p.107]

When Trampin' doesn't work, though, it plods, though never as badly as the worst bits of Gung Ho. [May 2004, p.94]

A free and forward-thinking kind of record, but also one that taps into forgotten, mythic resonances of American music without ever sounding ersatz, hokey or remotely contrived. [Mar 2004, p.92]

Rustic, rowdy, bags of fun, Life On Other Planets is another Supergrass masterpiece. [Nov 2002, p.118]

One of the year's most uplifting records so far. [May 2007, p.99]

The Living Sisters have put their respective groups aside to concoct a delicious LP straddling the genres. [May 2010, p.97]

It's likable enough, but pretty much interchangeable with the seven studio albums that preceded it. [Nov 2010, p.94]

You don't need a working knowledge of baseball to appreciate this second installment of true-life sporting tales from Steve Wynn, Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey and Linda Pitmon. [Jun 2011, p.92]

Their no-frills shtick excites in small doses. [Apr 2011, p.89]

The faux-naif schtick still grates somewhat, but there's also real substance, wit and heart here. [Nov 2011, p.91]

No real lost treasure, then, but some interesting baubles. [Apr 2013, p.89]

The beautiful, feathery songwriting featured on Boson-based Casy Dienel's previous album as White Hinterland has had a steroidal pumping. [May 2014, p.83]

More straightforward.... Lovely. [Oct 2015, p.76]

Bailey Rae's third LP transcends earthbound elements to create its own weightless astral soul. [Jun 2016, p.69]

A record that provides few surprises but at least captures the feral energy of their live shows. [Sep 2016, p.78]

Despite its old-school roots, Lady Parts sounds sharp and invigorating. [Oct 2016, p.31]

The default setting for Venn's debut album is a kind of punky Krautrock, all finger-bleeding ostinato basslines and hypnotic beats wreathed in doomy electronics. [Apr 2017, p.40]

Her faintly punch-drunk voice sometimes sounds just a kilojoule of energy (or lack thereof) from uninterested, but just as often she's as winsomely weary as she is vulnerable, and the impeccably stylish decoration seals our seduction. [Nov 2018, p.25]

Lars Andersson and Phillip Dornauer commit themselves wholeheartedly to epic objectives. [Aug 2019, p.32]

Layered guitars make s luscious soundtrack to get lost in, but relatable lyrics will guide you home. [Mar 2020, p.25]

There’s a strong Big Thief vibe to tracks like "Lot's Wife" and "Silsbee" - named after the small town where the album was recorded - but Why Bonnie have a more traditional concept of melody, best expressed on the excellent "Sharp Town". [Oct 2022, p.36]

A set full of dynamic nuance with a filmic scope. [Mar 2023, p.23]

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]

Newman's a decent songwriter whose songs never quite ignite--their seemingly light touch feels rather hard-won. [Dec 2012, p.75]

Grey Britain builds upon its predecessor without diluting any of its rabid energy and grinding, oppressive negativity. [Jun 2009, p.86]

The approach is scattershot, but the pace of his productivity means that you're never far from a great song. [Nov 2008, p.124]

There's a haunted, frequently unhinged quality to its songs and performances. [Nov 2014, p.83]

While tunes like "Honeymoon" and "Trick Mirror" have a graceful Fleetwood Mac-style charm, they lack the lyrical bite that was one of her early USPs, and the vocal rasp heard on live performances seems smoothed off. [Sep 2021, p.25]

While the debut was full of witty, Sparksy songs, Yes, Virginia is awash with mawkishly earnest ballads that suggest Tori Amos after a spell at drama school. [May 2006, p.104]

Nikolaj Manuel Vonslid's choirboy vibrato lends a ghostly quality to these 10 pretty synth tunes, all of which fuse north European wistfulness and vaguely Oriental motifs in soothing manner. [Jul 2011, p.103]

Avant-folk with a thin glaze of psychedelia and gurgles of electronica on songs that draw their charm from the contrast between Dyble's crisp enunciation and vaguely experimental settings. [Sep 2017, p.26]

Depending on which Paul McCartney you like the most, you may or may not like what he’s done. But the best thing about Electric Arguments is that it sounds like the work of someone who doesn’t give a stuff what people are going to think. About time, too.

Sparke emphasises the intimacy and immediacy of her performances on this debut, which sounds like you've walked into her rehearsal space. [Feb 2021, p.35]

Though garlanded in elegant strings, it's as furiously seething a record as she's made in 20 years. [Mar 2007, p.82]

A mature album that's abrasive but not "freaky" or "weird", that enjoys its moments of harmony when it finds them, and is as serious-minded as the times demand. [Apr 2012, p.76]

Lyrically on "Men" they come for the jugular of the patriarchy. ... It's not all tension and frantic energy, however. [Feb 2021, p.33]

The industrial-inflected sound Numan has explored since Sacrifice remains a bedrock, but "Bed Of Thorns" and "Pray For The Pain You Serve" realise the concept neatly, blending crunchy synth riffs and brooding choruses with fragments of Arabic melody. [Nov 2017, p.35]

These articulate odes to pop's past strike the right balance between carefully studied craft and melodic inspiration. [Mar 2007, p.83]

It's a record that goes a long way toward breathing new life into the busted flush of English indie with a romantic Britpop sound that stands comparisons with The Smiths, The La's and New Order. But in order to complete that leap--and make a record that equals the impact of their first--the lead guitarist needs to give the songwriter a good, hard kick up the arse. [Jul 2011, p.78]

His avuncular, keep-it-moving approach prevents things from getting too deep. [Apr 2017, p.39]

It's impressive the way the trio can seamlessly slip back into the Dead-like country-psych sound that defined the best of their '80s/'90s output. [Apr 2019, p.32]

Why Me? Why Not. ticks a number of boxes for his fanbase. [Nov 2019, p.25]

Pete & The Pirates have a handful of great pop songs to balance out the weight of their obvious influences. [Mar 2008, p.97]

The pinnacle is the tidal rhythms of 'Sickness, Bury,' but there's plenty more here to admire and absorb. [Nov 2008, p.98]

Pressure & Time is short enough to fit on two sides of vinyl and, quaintly, leaves you wanting much more. [Aug 2011, p.89]

Pastoral and hallucinatory is how Sioux plays it here. [Jun 2012, p.83]

Theirs is a likably punked-up take on the noise blizzard thing. [Feb 2013, p.74]

Los Lobos play their myriad (and rather dazzlingly) legacies straight, swerving masterfully from irrepressible dance-floor faves to Spanish styles to tearjerker folk-rock ballads. [Nov 2013, p.74]

The result is alternatively maddening and satisfying. [Apr 2014, p.74]

A bravura production job, assisted by The Haxan Cloak, gives What's Between arcane depths. [Jul 2014, p.83]

While at times her guitar rages filthily. She branched out lyrically too. [Oct 2014, p.79]

It's a sprawling affair. [Oct 2016, p.26]

Not quite essential, but a neat genre exercise. [Dec 2016, p.30]

Syrupy piano ballads remain a blind spot for Morris, who seems to be soundtracking ab imaginary Richard Curtis comedy n the sappy, soppy title track. But "rose Garden" is great, it's whopping Kate Bush-isms spliced with staccato mechanised beats. [Mar 2017, p.31]

In Keeping it simple, Frawley speaks volumes to the gloriously messy stew of the human psyche. [Mar 2019, p.27]

Not so much an electronic supergroup, more a retro-futurist sonic museum. It uses Benge's collection of antique analogue synthesisers to create some pulsating dance music. [Apr 2020, p.37]

With her voice sounding more like a cross between Nico and Patti Smith than ever, she laments division and bigotry on songs such as "Queasy" and "Overblown," while musically she spans pedal-steel-laden country rock, punk menace and string-driven Velvets drones. [Oct 2021, p.35]

Her 10th album steps back from the literary conceits and high concepts of her last couple of albums and finds humility and grace amid the "permanent emergency" of the present. [Jun 2025, p.41]

The complete One To One concerts and Live Jam 2 are welcome additions to the brief Lennon live canon, but while Studio Jam is fun, there’s only so much that can be gained from listening to the band running through rock’n’roll classics, however good they are. Of more interest is Home Jam: scraps of home recordings, phone calls and hyperactive Lennon chat. [Nov 2025, p.48]

A sometimes mystifying but often inspired work. [May 2018, p.22]

A giddy psychedelic opera performed with Wayne Coyne-levels of beaming optimism. [Mar 2020, p.27]

For the most part, Milosh goes for mood over hooks, but the sultry "Helpless" seductively sports both. [Feb 2021, p.32]

Bang Zoom Crazy... Hello could very well be the band's most consistently thrilling long-player since the Carter administration. [May 2016, p.70]