It is, for Pole, a breath of fresh air. [Nov 2015, p.80]

Tighter and woodier-sounding than 2003's Mouthfuls. [Oct 2005, p.102]

Though producer David Holmes’ disco rhythm tracks sometimes mask it, Come Ahead now addresses addiction and injustice in expansive stanzas. [Review of the Year 2024, p.35]

Throughout, there's evident delight in lexicographical obscurity that echoes James Joyce or Will Self: no bad thing in itself, though when allied to the sometimes impermeable, abstract constructions, the results can be frustratingly opaque. [Dec 2012, p.61]

Now and then she's too laconic for her own good but the self-deprecating humour of "It's So Weird" and "Staying In" hits the mark. [Feb 2019, p.27]

The Belfast trio revel in producing the sort of catchy, fuzzy pop exemplified by the hooky "Ordinary Daze" and "Down Dog," although they can also work in more expansive territory, like "I Won't Let Go." There's wit too. [Feb 2016, p.79]

You Had Me At Goodbye finds her experimenting with musical form, be it on chamber-folk eulogy "When The Roses Bloom Again," "Windmill Crusader's" skittish electro-pop or the droll "Antiseptic Greeting." There are moments of minimal charm here, too. [Apr 2017, p.26]

Bunker Funk runs along more heavily rhythmic lines, without sacrificing a single joule of energy. [May 2017, p.26]

Even if the landscape is occasionally a little too pleasant, the overall trip is well worth taking. [Jun 2018, p.32]

Pleasantly surprising, then to hear Moonlust take a rather more delicate approach. [Jun 2015, p.76]

These are solidly structured ditties with few surprises. [Jul 2012, p.79]

It drags and trundles in places, opting for plump maximalism over the lean, urgent minimalism of yesteryear.... All the same, Music Complete is easily New Order's best album since Technique, and probably their most musically diverse ever. [Oct 2015, p.74]

Wreckless Abandon is great fun, infused with the characteristic boogie and swagger of Campbell's guitar, and heavily in hock to his obvious formative influences. [Apr 2020, p.27]

Smoothes the edges between Jamaican sound-system bass, calypso rhythm, Middle Eastern melody and vintage soul. [Apr 2006, p.110]

Daniel takes care to keep things minimal. [Jan 2017, p.23]

Full of eerie trembles and trills, Camila De Laborde's voice is similarly ethereal, if sometimes numbed, and she and Daniel Hermann combine to create glistening, immersive soundscapes. [Jan 2019, p.19]

That it far surpasses its cut-up, protracted origins, and might even be the best thing the Floyd have released for over 30 years, is a welcome surprise. [Dec 2014, p.68]

Happily, the overarching bleakness is sugared by Wells' brisk, sometimes cinematic instrumentation. [Jun 2015, p.84]

It lacks the crumbly warmth of Betke's early '00s work, but the likes of "Grauer Sand" and "Stechmück" - pensive, jazzy constructions drawing on the whine of an ailing Minimoog - draw a certain beauty from their tone of smoky introspection. [Dec 2022, p.35]

He drifts boringly into pure pastiche on "Crystal Caverns 1991," but what keeps the rest fresh is the pace. [Jun 2012, p.77]

His voice might not be as powerful as it was – “This Ain’t Rock And Roll” sees him push it to the throaty limit –but it still has range, control and versatility, while his phrasing is consistently imaginative. [May 2024, p.30]

Of course, Black Sabbath can't fully turn the clock back to the beginning--but they can still do a pretty good job of sounding like the beginning of the end. [Jul 2013, p.70]

Their combination of riff and sneering recalling at times the strut of Raw Power Stooges. [Jul 2012, p.79]

Burton's glassy lead lines and Corea's jerky modalism lend an unusual air to classics by Tadd Dameron. [Jul 2012, p.70]

He writes about his rock'n'roll background, but embraces a more straightforward twang that's both poignant and boisterous. [Sep 2018, p.32]

Close It Quietly is billed as a collaborative, full-band release--and while the singer's distinctive vocals prevent too radical a departure, even the minute-long cuts here sound sturdier, more confident. [Oct 2019, p.27]

Occasionally, the sunniness and repetition of the songs can be exhausting, despite the provocative semiotic games Gibb is playing. [Aug 2004, p.100]

If Egypt Station is quite startling enough to shift preconceptions about the most famous musician on the planet, it's sufficiently vibrant to justify its existence, and strong enough to ensure that McCartney can sprinkle three or four tracks into the set on his upcoming world tour without setting off any alarms. [Oct 2018, p.28]

Talk of losing his "soul and conscience" and floundering in an ocean with no land in sight suggests deep trauma, hinted at disturbingly in songs such as "Pun" "Dark Lights" Yet there's also evidence of at least a partial re-emergence into the light on "Humbug," which sounds like the Be Gees if produced by Brian Eno. [Nov 2017, p.32]

Beautifully done, with great attention to textural detail. [Sep 2012, p.83]

One of its overarching joys is its relative directness, very much a conscious deciaion on the group's part. This is Deerhoof we're talking about, though - they still play it like they're hurtling towards collapse at breakneck speed, before pulling everything together with a fantastic flourish. [May 2023, p.28]

On their fifth album, it's back go icy, slightly Gothic basics. [Oct 2014, p.73]

EXPO grooves, booms and unspools in ways all its own. [Mar 2026, p.37]

Tribute To 2 is a richer and more complex collection [than his previous cover releases]. [Jan 2018, p.20]

If their songs occasionally resemble the power ballads that grunge supposedly outmoded, that's the price of being a truly potent classic rock band. [Jun 2006, p.109]

While there are a few too many round-the-campfire gloom-fests on I Forget Where Were, there are also displays of real musical background. [Dec 2014, p.77]

As boisterously sentimental as The Cavern at closing time. [Jul 2007, p.106]

"Dog" is a reverb-heavy highlight, but the whole set is as instantly likeable as it is smart. [Apr 2018, p.35]

While there's nothing here to equal his career-changing hit "P's And Q's," opener "Hail" comes close with its down-and-dirty signature riff. [Apr 2016, p.75]

Neither the songs nor their delivery are perfect, but that's perhaps the point. [May 2018, p.30]

Persson shows she is still a dab hand at melodic indie-pop, as she tackles floundering relationships, failing memories and new horizons. [Mar 2014, p.82]

The idea is to immerse yourself in the natural flow of the music; admirable, though who these days has time to experience it all in one go? [Oct 2022, p.29]

This is another uplifting, honest set. [Apr 2014, p.71]

Musically this is arguably his most touching work since the early 2000s. [Oct 2019, p.27]

There's still a lingering sense of promise not quite fulfilled about Anna Clavi, such that Hunter feels like a make or break album. [Oct 2018, p.24]

The result is a playful and moving return to themes like the battle of the sexes, and love lost in a blur of alcohol. [Oct 2016, p.37]

A power-shower of dour. [Oct 2013, p.68]

It's the vocals that will seal this deal for you--or break it. [Feb 2006, p.79]

It's Cypress Hill's own B-Real who steals the show, though, his nasally raps still as distinctive as a whiff of the green stuff. [Apr 2022, p.26]

The album successfully tackles the spectrum of human emotions experienced after trauma. [Apr 2021, p.23]

Lost On The River is an album of good, sometimes excellent songs with a unique creation story which, in the end, adds little substance to the narrative of perhaps the most mythologised recordings in musical history. As footnotes go, however, it's an entertaining, energised and often fascinating one. [Dec 2014, p.64]

Khouri acknowledges 1980s dreampop as a seminal influence, and perfumed traces of Galaxie 500, Mazzy Star and Cocteau Twins sweeten The Salted Air in almost every breath. [Feb 2017, p.30]

As a trio they've made a record of richer, more satisfying hues. [Mar 2018, p.26]

With a touch of the sinister, James' voice swerves through a spectrum of wild emotions; folk, blues and a dreamy, eerie style of pop wind their way through everything here. [Apr 2020, p.27]

The longer cuts like "Les Echos", "Ann" and "crooked Teeth" are most compelling, with loops projecting through the air and clashing like streamlined silver darts. [Dec 2022, p.32]

The synthetic drama of Maps' "The Other Side" retains the tension of Apollo 8's inaugural moon mission; Vessels anchor "EVA" with a tidy bassline; Field Music remodel "Korolev" into a taut, angular beauty. [Aug 2016, p.80]

Despite the odd longueurs, Boys Don't Cry is a heartfelt, beguiling match of singer and song. [Jul 2012, p.80]

Beneath The Skin is further proof that the Icelandic music movement is a near-unstoppable force. [Aug-Sep 2015, p.79]

The mood is upbeat throughout; a joyous, non-stop chug through several shades of American popular song. [Nov 2019, p.28]

Overall, this is a lavish, well-produced affair that still finds room for the kinks and chaos of the Arkestra. [Nov 2020, p.34]

It's business as usual, but a welcome return nonetheless. [Nov 2018, p.32]

The finest moment is the moving wartime ballad, "No Man's Land." [Mar 2022, p.35]

Every one of these 11 songs is a work of wayward genius. [Apr 2007, p.106]

It's a svelte, consummately accomplished change, although Burnett's reliably polished, sometimes even laidback, settings allow plenty of room for grit and sweat. [Apr 2017, p.32]

This daring approach at times exposes the quality of their material, but mostly this is sparkling stuff. [May 2019, p.34]

Gibbard's freighted eloquence gives Asphalt Meadows its unsettling immediacy. [Oct 2022, p.26]

Eskmo's sweet, pop-toned vocals add an unexpected element to his expression of the sublime, although he lets his club-floor impulse rip on "The Sun IS A Drum." [Mar 2015, p.76]

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]

The Bees' oddball genre-hopping is still evident. [Sep 2018, p.24]

Feldwick is clearly a livewire talent adept at mashing up everything from vintage Sega sample to the arthouse end of dubstep. [Jul 2012, p.83]

The Killer is a rich and immersive experience. [Sep 2012, p.85]

A fine album. [Feb 2017, p.35]

Surprises are reassuringly thin on the ground here, but the quality of Ubovich's psych-tinged ramalams, mostly delivered at Ramones speed, is high. [Dec 2014, p.77]

Little on Painkillers would sound misplaced on any given Gaslight Anthem album. Which, if one is predisposed to the band's hearty but thoughtful brand of rock'n'roll, is no bad thing. [Apr 2016, p.73]

Low-key but engrossing, Tranquility Base is a slow-burner, self-doubting but pushing ever onwards. It's a brave new step, even if it can be a little one-paced, and a little withholding. [Jun 2018, p.25]

Cohesive and pleasingly understated, drawing on post-punk, Afro-pop and Talking Heads-style funk-pop, and glued together by Fraiture's gauzy vocals. [May 2017, p.39]

Runddans is 39 minutes of continuous music, most closely related tot he percolating grooves of Lindstrom's Where You Go I Go Too. [Jun 205, p.81]

Her latest is more remarkable for its beguiling softness as well as a sometimes woozy feel that befits the contents' absinthe-soaked origins. [Oct 2020, p.36]

Nau's real forte flies in gentle melodies that meander beguilingly, sung in a rich and warm baritone that is more Kurt Wagner than Springsteen. [Sep 2018, p.35]

The new songs tend to be a little too blues-rock generic, but there's fun to be had on the self-penned "If You Wanna Rock'n'Roll". [Dec 2025, p.30]

A fascinating document of exactly how far he's travelled. [May 2005, p.117]

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]

The arrangements are pleasingly stripped back--perhaps too much so for those powerful. [Nov 2015, p.73]

[She] breathes new life into past glories. [Mar 2018, p.32]

Feels like a decisive clean break. [Mar 2020, p.30]

There's another clutch of great Real Estate songs on this gentle delight, and some clues as to where the group could go next, if they chose to really stretch out and see what else their songs could do. [Apr 2020, p.34]

More pastoralism wouldn't go astray, but Centralia is very charming. [Feb 2013, p.77]

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

10 Futures propulsive blend of soul-pop and electronica sees him indulging a more experimental side, making it a satisfying proposition all round. [Feb 2015, p.73]

Stanley's "Rosewood Bitters," a slice of swampy country rock with Todd Rundgren on keyboards, is a highlight, along with Dewey Terry's "Sweet As Spring." a gnarly love song with frenetic orchestration. [Jun 2017, p.51]

There's plenty here for fans of both gutbucket blues and the rampaging over genres and moods that long characterised The Residents. [Sep 2020, p.35]

It's all deftly constructed and beautifully realised. ... Some songs tend to play it safer, lessening their impact in the process. [Jul 2019, p.26]

Frequently intoxicating. [Jan 2004, p.103]

You get less of a sense of young maidens skipping round the maypole than two battle-scarred musicians adapting to life on the road. [Jul 2012, p.83]

As background listening, this sounds like high-class Enya, but listen harder and dense textures and nuances lie beneath the surface. [Feb 2004, p.78]

Swedish singer-songwriter Kristian Matsson has upped his skill factors on this. [Jul 3012, p.84]

The loss of drummer Jimmy Chamberlain smarts, but "Quasar" and the :The Celestials" recall the Pumpkins' '90s heyday with out coming over as retread. [Sep 2012, p.86]

At under 34 minutes, it necessarily swerves dense improv passages, instead highlighting the nimble, airy interplay of multiple guitars. [Feb 2022, p.29]