They may have opened out their map a little more for Medicine At Midnight, but the Foos' territory remains reassuringly familiar. [Mar 2021, p.38]

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

El Guincho is a kind of Iberian Kanye, and this is a twisted fantasy of wine-bar techno: busy, brash and migrainey, at its adventurous best on "Comix" and "Mis Hist." [Apr 2016, p.71]

Frequently utterly mesmerising. [Nov 2003, p.124]

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

He remains a precise craftsman with a bottomless trove of '60s pop hooks and dreamy melodies, but he upends them with acute-angle riffs and scribbled punctuations. [Feb 2021, p.37]

The famous guests broaden the appeal--but ultimately it's the Syrians who are the true stars. [Jan 2017, p.32]

They range from isolated fragments to several absorbing takes of a song - "Went To See The Gypsy" - on its way to near-greatness. [Apr 2021, p.42]

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

Though this set is necessarily reflective, nostalgia and self-pity don't get a look in. [Apr 2025, p.33]

On Hardware and elsewhere in his solo career, there remains little doubt about what he does best. [Jul 2021, p.32]

Some of the vocal numbers feel like cluttered indie-dance throwbacks, but they are outshone by pure electronic creations. [Apr 2015, p.80]

Oddly absorbing and surprisingly cohesive. [Apr 2003, p.120]

Nelson being Nelson, this lackadaisy tends toward the affable and charming more often than not. [Jun 2013, p.76]

A set pf ripe and mature songs that reflect poetically upon insecurity, sacrifice, pride and hubris. [May 2018, p.27]

There are reasons to cheer aside from survival--cultish single "Open Fire," "Mighty Wings" and the Rush-like title track. [Jul 2015, p.73]

After reaching for Bowie-esque grandeur on the opening "Song For Agnes," they lock into an INXS-style chromium-funk groove on "America's Cup" and reimagine The Clash as a synth-punk band on the speed-burner "Human Touch." [Nov 2021, p.32]

Metz's latest combines the Jesus Lizard's Goat-era aggression with PiL's Album-era rigour. [May 2024, p.38]

Their mission sounds increasingly convincing. [May 2007, p.87]

It's Macve's self-assurance and rounded expression that impress- that and her voice, a Lustrous and powerful instrument with a yodelling swoop that she wisely never overworks. [Apr 2017, p.32]

Peachy-keen harmonies, pop smarts and salacious detail make a simple but effective combination. [Apr 2016, p.78]

As imaginative as his guitar playing can be, Auerbach's vocals can be limited. ... And yet, Auerbach's obvious affections for these touchstones, and for these performers, more than make up for such shortcomings. [Jul 2017, p.34]

They keep everything buoyant, even when the songs aren't so strong. .... A more psychedelic take on "Found A Job" is the pick of the alternative versions, while an August 1978 live set from new ork's Emtermedia Theater is reliably invigorating, if not quite as vital as the CBGB stand unearthed for the Talking Heads: 77 box. [Sep 2025, p.50]

Often, the more oblique voices speak loudest from Manchester Mekons' pop-prog punk collectivism, through Durutti Column's moist-eyed melancholy, World Of Twist's epic pop oddness, to classic British hip-hop from Ruthless Rap Assassins. [Sep 2017, p.53]

There's less emphasis on programmed beats and samples and a greater dependence on live instrumentation. [Apr 2005, p.114]

Schnauss' trademark keyboard washes are a significant feature, at times helping stimulate euphoria beneath often gauzy melancholia, elsewhere adding a soothing Pink Floyd-ish balm. [Sep 2014, p.73]

It secures Midlake's future with small yet significant shifts that haven't erased their identity. Not deeper waters, necessarily - but running clearer and on a newly energised course. [Apr 2022, p.22]

It comprise four lengthy tracks, from the wood-wind-assisted Led Zep-sized rocker "This One's For The Human" to the one chord motorik Krautrock of "The Visitations." Best of all is "The Moon IS Not Your Friend," in which a McCartney-styled guilty pleasure is bookended by terrifying space-age FX. [Jan 2018, p.17]

It's four-square Manics Big Music, with James Dean Bradfield's guitar especially eloquent, echoing Keith Levene's sour whine on the title track and beautifully relaxed on "Being Baptised"'s Smith-like elegy. [Feb 2025, p.37]

The departure of bassist Alanna McArdle to front Welsh noiseniks Joanna Gruesome doesn't seem to have dented the band's bruised vitality and pleasing lyrical spikiness. [Apr 2015, p.75]

Liz Harris's 10th album continues her slow ascent out of the appealingly murky haze of her early releases towards structured, if still frail, songwriting. [Jun 2018, p.28]

Restraint is the key, the luminous harmonies of Rachel and Becky Unthank, backed by Adrian McNally's minimal piano and the discreet textures of violinist Niopha Keegan, spotlighting the wistful poignancy at the heart of these delicate compositions. [Jul 2017, p.40]

Big Thief are at their best when the instruments step back and create a mellower platform from which Lenker can dominate. [Jul 2016, p.69]

Marking youthful reminiscence and the passage of time, WWW rocks with gleeful, guitar-driven, singsong abandon. [May 2016, p.78]

Evil Heat doesn't exactly break new ground and often amounts to, strictly speaking, little more than pastiche. [Aug 2002, p.104]

A take on "White Cat" from 2017's Plum is strung out to 20-odd minutes. ... Elsewhere they approach their back catalogue with a sense of blissed-out spaciousness. [Nov 2022, p.38]

Will prove a delight to punters pursuing a Best Madchester Compilation Ever! as long as they forget The Stone Roses ever existed, and assume Morrissey came from another planet. [May 2002, p.116]

All their songs unfurl slowly, gracefully... and some might say a little laboriously. Luckily, singer Jamie Lee has a voice that can just about carry his lofty lyrical themes. [Sep 2013, p.92]

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]

There's no flash and no trash, just reflective, ripe, minor-key ruminations, plenty of melodically burnished guitar playing and Knopfler's voice, which has crusted nicely with age to take on a warm, rich burr. Classy. [Dec 2018, p.27]

Landfall is an electro-acoustic patchwork of mostly short, mournful, quietly lovely mood pieces. [Mar 2018, p.22]

To their credit the quartet's swaggering garage rock, stuffed with grit and glam, has a certain edge, largely due to frontman mark Saunders' Welsh-accented sneer. [Apr 2016, p.81]

It's strong but uneven. [Apr 2015, p.71]

Album number nine sees them dipping into some slightly experimental territory. ... But they're at their best in slightly melancholic territory. [Apr 2020, p.33]

The quality of the 30-year-old recordings is surprisingly good, with the slight grain actually managing to emphasise and celebrate the rough edges of a group for whom shabby lo-fi and sprightly power pop are treated with equal reverence. [Dec 2022, p.44]

The Church are, against the odds, still a dreamily appealing proposition. [Mar 2004, p.100]

The result is a hushed, spectral delight. [Jul 2018, p.37]

Very much a Van Morrison album, and a pretty decent Van Morrison album at that, tapping into that apparently inextinguishable reservoir of muscular yet crotchety blues. [Dec 2019, p.30]

Thankfully, there's more than just wannabe Fall stuff here, offering up a variety of teeth-rattling noises. [Jan 2021, p.32]

A small-hours gem. [Jun 2006, p.100]

Barbara Barbara... makes explicit the band's influence, as well as their core strengths. [Apr 2016, p.81]

Both are versatile players, and while "Tonight The Bottle Wins Again" is a swaggering blues, Harper leans towards Otis Redding on "When Love Is Not Enough." [May 2018, p.28]

It's beautifully played, and Earle's songs are respectful of their heritage while (mostly) sufficiently confident and idiosyncratic to transcend pastiche. It's just difficult to believe this is the best imaginable use of Earle's time and talent. [Mar 2015, p.72]

These nine tracks find the foursome reworking a suite of folk and roots songs with their trademark chilly decorum, joined by a brace of Nonesuch labelmates. [Jul 2017, p.32]

Cigars all around for these sludge-metal/grunge veterans, then, with a set that values hand-on-heart appreciation over novelty. [May 2013, p.74]

Musically more diverse, and lyrically as vulnerable as it is vitriolic. [Jun 2003, p.91]

The result is a richly produced album of breezy, melodic and infectious indie-rock with hooks galore. [May 2024, p.31]

At times you're left craving some of the eerie minimalism of El-P's classical Cannibal Ox Productions. [Jul 2012, p.71]

Solid song structure replaces ambient abstraction... ranges across Latino jazz, stadium rock, soul and pastoral glitch. [Jun 2004, p.86]

Nothing about their sixth album sounds like business as usual. Refreshed by time spent independently exploring their own musical interests (Ansell electronica and production work; Carter an Americana-inspired solo album) and inspired by true crime documentaries and podcasts, the duo sought to explore the darker side of the human psyche, leaning into haunted house synth lines and gothic horror bass. [Feb 2022, p.25]

Lilies is a succinct affair, albeit one of often similarly unearthly pleasures. [Dec 2017, p.25]

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

For much of the album, there's a poppy ebullience reminiscent of the MTV-friendly '80s Elton. [Mar 2016, p.70]

Wallflower is quintessential adult pop, with solid if predictable selections. [Nov 2014, p.76]

Even by Deftones standards, their eighth album is hardly immediate. [May 2016, p.71]

A sweetly sprawling album. [Sep 2020, p.32]

A quietly eloquent, simply persuasive record that chimes well with the current taste for bucolic abstraction, and moves Rhodes forward. [Aug 2016, p.79]

He's honest about uncertainties both personal and political. [Nov 2021, p.25]

If the meandering electronic maelstroms of “Letter To My Daughter” and “Waking Up” don’t have the melodic hooks to gain the same traction, there’s a bewitching feel to it all that endures nonetheless. [Jun 2024, p.29]

It's hypnotic and mind-altering, like a fruitful collision between Boredoms, Neu! and the Grateful Dead. [Jul 2013, p.78]

While a little lacking in variation, it’s a most welcome return for a band who have come out of retirement but still know how to land a punch. [Sep 2024, p.36]

A quality love letter to the music he committed to early on. At times, it's hard not to wish he'd been bolder and a little less faithful. [Feb 2021, p.36]

Features eight lengthy original instrumentals, om which his guitar playing is as vibrant and virtuosic as ever. [Mar 2026, p.34]

Happy Hollow serves up more emo with prog on the side, then adds dirty blues, cabaret and art-rock garnish. [Sep 2006, p.79]

No boundaries are broached, but everything works just fine. [Dec 2012, p.69]

In Dreams picks up the thread they’ve been weaving since their 2018 comeback, not too different from their ’90s form: shimmering, chipped guitars; resigned, mumbling vocals; a vague sense of astral longing. [Dec 2024, p.35]

Surprisingly invigorated. [May 2007, p.89]

If their third album doesn't exactly do anything new in the field, it is undoubtedly well observed. [Apr 2016, p.82]

This is raucous, relentless fun; in Parton’s own words, a musical “life raft” for shitty times. [Aug 2021, p.28]

It's much less obstreperous than most of their earlier works. [Jul 2016, p.76]

As ever, he's at his most engaging playing slide and singing in a gentle baritone on acoustic compositions such as "Go Down Ol' Hannah" and the title track. [Jan 2026, p.27]

While there's a shining beauty that recalls Stereolab and The Sugarcubes, the mood is overwhelmingly melancholic and extremely infectuious. [Dec 2016, p.35]

Yet for all its attributes, this fine debut stirs as much for its sense of what The Lumineers may yet become as for what they currently are. [Dec 2012, p.70]

Conor O'Brien's luminous, emotionally resonant songs suit the warmth and intimacy of a live setting. [Feb 2016, p.84]

Breezy and agreeable though it all is, it mostly reminds how nice it would be to hear something new of The Lemonheads' own. [Mar 2019, p.30]

Often these widescreen productions are more effective at the most minimal. [Mar 2016, p.76]

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]

Rich and evocative, The Race For Space is the sound of two young men gazing heavenwards and dreaming. [Mar 2015, p.80]

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]

This is an all-American band, but there are nods to the rhythmic sophistication coming out of London's jazz scene. [Sep 2020, p.34]

The Word pick up where they left off on their 2001 self-titled debut. [Jun 2015, p.84]

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

The result is a bold but difficult record, dogged but a little hard to love. [Sep 2018, p.25]

This is a meaty-sounding affair. [Dec 2017, p.30]

Low on cheer, but richly rewarding. [Dec 2016, p.38]

Whispering Trees presents rain-sodden English romanticism of the Nick drake/Bill Fay school occasionally ramped up to cosmic proportions with the help of the Radar Brothers' effects units. [Feb 2013, p.78]

Every song on New Material has a one-word title that captures a mood--"Disarray," "Decompose," "Doubt" are typical--while tunes like "Manipulation" and "Solace" have a propulsive relentless but also melodic ease that are something like a funkier War On Drugs. [Apr 2018, p.32]

You need a surfeit of great songs to justify a double album in these attention deficit times, but Malin seems to have them by the bucketful. [Jan 2022, p.27]