Dr. Dee is the most compelling record Albarn has made since Blur's 13; his first proper solo record, with all the emotional engagement that implies. [Jun 2012, p.63]

The likes of "Stay Here And Look After The Chickens" and "Never Go Home Again" sound as if they've been shaken out of the band in rickety fashion of early Violent Femmes, Tattersall the penurious narrator whose rambling delivery contains flashes of brilliance. [Jun 2012, p.84]

Fans of Hawley's rueful view of love and relationships, his fine guitar playing, and his magnificent singing voice will find them all present and correct here, if displayed in unexpected ways. [Jun 2012, p.75]

Ignore the arch titles and you'll find some lovely psych pastiches. [Jun 2012, p.69]

They're pop-culture-versed update on the Gravesiggaz, murky collective efforts like "NY (Ned Flanders)" popping with grisly imagination. [Jun 2012, p.80]

Teaming up Oberhofer with veteran producer Steve Lillywhite seems to have drawn out an impressive sophistication. [Jun 2012, p.80]

She sounds more lusty and confident on this sequel. [Jun 2012, p.83]

The remaining quintet have lent their cosmic retro-rock both better tunes and more surprising detours. [Jun 2012, p.83]

Bruised suburban romance sparkles through the twin jangles of Edwards and James Wignall. [Jun 2012, p.84]

These songs, dehydrated after 50 years, sound bright and timeless. [Jun 2012, p.97]

Pushing too hard, then or maybe not hard enough. [Jun 2012, p.79]

Generally Strangeland is all too familiar fare. [Jun 2012, p.77]

Madonna's 12th album has a good title and a nice cover, but that's almost as much as you can say in its favour. [Jun 2012, p.77]

Talbot treads lightly, and a melancholy beauty predominates. [Jun 2012, p.73]

Guitarist Dan Moss writes the songs, but it's Katherine Whitaker's voice that give them life, and the more space she has, the better the result. [Jun 2012, p.71]

This, to paraphrase Burnett, just tore 2012 a new one. [Jun 2012, p.71]

An occasionally excellent but disjointed album. [Jun 2012, p.71]

Dross Glop sounds a long way from Battles themselves. [Jun 2012, p.69]

[Fear Fun is] packed with sardonic, self-effacing songs that recall the finest traditions of harmony-soaked West Coast folk-and-country influenced rock'n'roll. [Jun 2012, p. 68]

The bulk of these puttering analogue scowls can be filed as John Carpenter castoffs alongside half the Not Not Fun label roster. Luckily, splashes of color appear in the widescreen drama of "Dome Horizon" and "Inhale." [Jun 2012, p.67]

Whether she'll increase her fanbase on this second album by cloaking her naked ambition in the character of a self-obsessed bunny boiler called Electra Heart remains to be seen, but she's certainly given it everything. [May 2012, p.78]

Nootropics is a slow burn that lingers long. [May 2012, p.78]

Skulk is impeccably sung and flawlessly executed by the handpicked musician on show. [May 2012, p.79]

Cowley's songs sound lie pulsating Bond themes, funeral laments and the greatest stadium-filling anthems that Coldplay never wrote. [Feb 2012, p.83]

City Awakenings mostly retains the meatier arrangements of MacIntyre's solo work. [Feb 2012, p. 92]

Stark and poetic, with an echo of danger. [Feb 2012, p.105]

Tosta Mista fades like a film score and then hit you with a bang on "Clap." [Feb 2012, p.89]

It's packed with diverse performances. [Mar 2012, p.104]

The nostalgic tug of the earlier, dancier singles remains strong, but as a bonus disc of rarities demonstrates, their experimental side is equally compelling. [Mar 2012, p.101]

Here, we find the mufti-instrumentalist in his natural habitat, leading a band in seven pieces that blend Eastern-tinged melody, courtly medieval music and modern composition. [Mar 2012, p.90]

Political metaphors abound on this eclectically ramshackle collection. [Mar 2012, p.98]

The good news is [single "You Don't Know How Lucky You Are"] is not even the best song on his debut album. [Mar 2012, p.89]

Venture further into Our Version of Events and it's clear Sande has in fact modeled herself on Leona Lewis with a series of sappy ballads bulging with lyrical truisms. [Mar 2012, p.89]

Too much of the rest is forgettable. [Mar 2012, p.87]

BPM works its vibrational magic with quietude and organic peace, and comes across more like a n ancient Zen ritual. [Apr 2012, p.71]

They cite Wagner as an influence, sharing his bombast but none of the drama. [Apr 2012, p.69]

[A] feisty, psych-tinged hook up with Tim "White Fence" Presley. [May 2012, p.80]

Rufus reins in his extravagant tendencies for a subtly shaded, seductive album that radiates warmth and contentment. [May 2012, p.84]

It has its Mr. Fox-y moments but this feels like a minor clanger. [May 2012, p.83]

This is a bold and engaging revolution. [May 2012, p.75]

Benson's fifth solo album rarely deviates from his established modus operandi. [May 2012, p.67]

It's a more anthemic, traditional and radio-friendly Feeder that greets is on their eight album. [Apr 2012, p.77]

She builds on that promise [from her last album, Lights Out Zoltar!] with a skittish yet evocative album that draws on surf-rock. [May 2012, p.72]

A definite return to form. [May 2012, p.77]

The less mannered material shines brightest. [Apr 2012, p.75]

Dark, funny and teetering on the verge of Phil Ochs delusional, Macaroni is a assault on hipster apathy. [May 2012, p.69]

No museum piece, Urstan energizes the past. [May 2012, p.80]

The rest is a warm and hilarious mediation of mortality. [May 2012, p.83]

If you worship Wavves, or the epic SoCal proto-hardcore of the first Redd Kross and Adolescents record, kneel and marvel. [May 2012, p.67]

The album is drenched in Hawaiian guitar and wah-wah, making the title perfectly apt. [May 2012, p.67]

It's a surly, spiky piece of work, on which the few shafts of sweetness are soon soured with guilt, recrimination and reproach. [May 2012, p.66]

Music without charm or purpose, with all the nutritional value of a Twinkie. [Apr 2012, p.71]

The songwriter is in fine form--but it's sometimes hard to suppress doubts over the need for solo Pollard now GBV are back. [Apr 2012, p.83]

An epic hour of music. [May 2012, p.69]

At low levels, this record will work nicely as aural wallpaper for cocktail parties, but turn it on and slap on a pair of headphones and the effect is transporting. [May 2012, p.69]

The Sadies are one of the finest backing bands around, and team up adroitly with John Doe to produce a cracking set of country classics. [May 2012, p.71]

The Wilderness is more like a Junkies album as we'd previously appreciated them. [May 2012, p.71]

Too often, though, these chant-a-long anthems are too damn chirpy for their own good. [May 2012, p.71]

Alabama Shakes are scarcely the first ornery yet soulful rock sound to have emerged from northern Alabama, but they're abundantly worthy bearers of the standard. [May 2012, p.73]

Sometimes beautiful, although an ADD-ish attention span means it occasionally comes off somewhat lacking in character. [May 2012, p.75]

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

There's much beauty aid the flux of recorders, messy analogue synths and wayward sax. [May 2012, p.77]

Bliss, bliss, bliss--get Loved up and float away. [May 2012, p.77]

This debut album sounds as charmingly casual as its inception. [May 2012, p.80]

They run a tight ship, cramming 41 short, tough tracks onto Quakers with verses from indie-rap stalwarts Guilty Simpson, MED and Prince Po. [May 2012, p.80]

Emotional Traffic contains a few soppy homilies to domesticity, a transparent bid for a Super Bowl halftime booking, and a great many reasons to listen to the equally polished, but vastly wittier, Brad Paisley. [May 2012, p.78]

You won't find it hard to reciprocate Open Your Heart's approach. [May 2012, p.79]

It all adds up to an album that is as satisfying as it is unexpected. [May 2012, p.79]

As Polica, they go some way to forging their own--snare rim snaps and menacing funk bass constantly chasing with Casselle's Auto-Tuned--but endearingly vulnerable. [May 2012, p.79]

On "Wear Suits," the trio reveals it can pull off the measured uptown elegance of The Blue Nile, but otherwise, singer/guitarist Alex Schaff delights in scribbling over his songs, as his boyish vocals vacillate between preciousness and brattiness. [May 2012, p.84]

Wexler delivers an alluring lugubrious set that views Fairport Convention, the Canterbury scene and Simon & Garfunkel through a glass darkly. [May 2012, p.84]

King Con is essentially a pop record full of catchy melodies and a shrieking singing style that will either set your heart aflutter or prompt you to punch a wall. [May 2012, p.84]

Much here mediates around one unnerving groove. [May 2012, p.83]

The pair became friends and, on this memorable acoustic show, a great double act. [May 2012, p.83]

Their second album pulls their punched-up, modernist synth pop into tighter focus while softening some of its sharper corners. [May 2012, p.83]

The songs are suited by the rough and tumble, though, wearing the bruises with poise and pride. [May 2012, p.83]

Slipstream relies on Bonnie;'s voice and slide playing--and, above all, her felicitous ability to pick the right song. [May 2012, p.80]

His solo debut is simple and earthy, leaning on little more than organ, warm acoustic guitar and his wondrous singing, carrying the betraying quaver of a man who feels a little too much. [May 2012, p.78]

"Another Shot" adds tension and atmosphere but a tendency toward the derivative come to the for on synth-centreed gloomfest "Can't Get Enough." [May 2012, p.77]

On the whole this is a sanguine and at times even sentimental record, [May 2012, p.76]

It's not always successful...But older songs fare better. [May 2012, p.72]

Nothings Gonna Change shimmers in spare arrangements, ghostly keyboards, textured horns, and, occasionally, a talking-style vocal style borrowed from Springsteen's Nebraska. [May 2012, p.72]

Some of the beats do feel a little dated, and sometimes veer toward the rigidity of trip hop. [May 2012, p.69]

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

Singer John Philpot's boyish sighs and teen-romance lyrics feel a little lightweight and non-committal, but the promised groove element plays dividends during the album's second half. [May 2012, p.67]

Maximalists and circus ringmasters might enjoy it, but many will be scrabbling for the stop button. [May 2012, p67]

Folila is an unhappy attempt to amalgamate two records, one that mostly swamps their playful sound with noisy overlays. [May 2012, p.65]

Loud and lively, fast and fuzzy, this scattering of creative energy is the most persuasive solo record Coxon has released. [May 2012, p.64]

The album feels disciplined and enormously funky. [May 2012, p.61]

Utter desolation never sounded so lovely. [Apr 2012, p.84]

It's the more spartan, folksier tracks, like "Greeny Blue," that hint at better things to come. [Apr 2012, p.81]

Knapp's sweet voice is closer to Olivia Newton-John than [Stevie] Nicks, but nevertheless tracks like "Glasses High" and "The Right Place: have abundant charm, some superb, glowing arrangements. [Apr 2012, p.81]

It's among his best. [Apr. 2012, p.79]

The album's centerpiece is the autobiographical 10-minute "Colfax/Step In Time," a richly detailed remembrance of a run-in between his high school marching band and the KKK. [Mar 2012, p.84]

Even more affecting are those tracks where he keeps things simple. [Apr 2012, p.83]

At two hours, it's a lot to stomach, but worth staying for the closing "Streets Of Fire," a love song that trickles tears over the end credits. [Apr 2012, p.87]

Great, if a little pointless. [Apr 2012, p.77]

Hardly revelatory, but compelling in its sustained vision. [Apr 2012, p.73]