Chris Spencer's vocals complete the darkly uncompromising picture, oozing a disgust and despair that's as much personal as socio-political. [Jul 2012, p.85]

The Walkmen are weathering the iPhone age with panache. [Jul 2012, p.85]

The group's commitment and almost minimalistic sense of repetition resulting in a metal longplayer of unrivaled scope. [Jul 2012, p.96]

A bewitching record. [Jul 2012, p.82]

Shapeshifter features mostly stockpiled instrumental pieces characteristically driven by Latin jazz and Afro-Cuban rhythms. [Jul 2012, p.82]

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]

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]

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

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

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

A fair amount of cosmic fannying involved, but this is framed by some cracking songwriting. [Jul 2012, p.79]

The songs themselves are exquisite. [Jul 2012, p.77]

The Don Was-produced album proceeds at an unhurried pace, featuring Jackson Browne-like confessionals and Young-style, harmonica-accented shuffles. [Jul 2012, p.77]

Hit singles are in short supply, but WIXIW has an atmospheric, immersive quality that puts one in mind of Kid A's soporific drift. [Jul 2012, p.77]

At times all this vim can slip into noise. [Jul 2012, p.74]

Flats look to be stranded between hipster grunge and true hardcore. [Jul 2012, p.71]

A terrific package. [Jul 2012, p.71]

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

For much of Majenta he seems content to lie back and think of Prince. [Jul 2012, p.71]

Ruthless schmaltz is, predictably, the order of the day. [Jul 2012, p.69]

It might just be the best record of this year, and the best of Rowland's career. [Jul 2012, p.66]

Jeffreys' serves up a vibrant stew of musical styles while taking the pulse of his beloved New York. [Jun 2012, p.74]

The disguises are so convincingly worn that which one is the "real" Joshua James matters not one whit. [Jun 2012, p.74]

Forever so takes in spectral balladry, rousing stompathons and incursions into jazz and olde English madrigals, to consistently bewitching effect. [Jun 2012, p.74]

Overall it's a slow-burn success. [Jun 2012, p.74]

It may not be of the caliber of Metal Box, but it finds its maker firmly in 2012, not 1979, and with plenty still to grouse about. [Jun 2012, p.67]

Rather than embracing the weight of myth and geography it simply rises above it, majestic yet frustratingly aloof. [Jun 2012, p.77]

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

Loveless holds it own as one of the great rock albums, period. [Jun 2012, p.90]

These cuts are glorious on their own merits. [Jun 2012, p.92]

Funny, and--beneath the psych flourishes--quietly devastating. [Jun 2012, p.93]

The rest of the album never reaches such heights [of The Big E], but there are enough noisy high-points, such as "Never Get Tired" and "Sit Tight," to make Laughing Party a significant step up. [Jul 2012, p.74]

This is a delightful and charming addition to the original body of George's work, which highlights the quality of his songwriting and presents the material in a fresh light.

Ya Know cuts deep, with the best singing and wiliest melodies of his career. [Jun 2012, p.96]

Separated from its era and the defensiveness which spawned it, Ram sounds great. [Jun 2012, p.96]

The two hours and four tracks of Love In Detroit capture the mood and excitement of a Fela show during this second phase of his career. [Jun 2012, p.93]

This is full of melodies that feel effortless and instantly classic. [Jun 2012, p.83]

There's a heightened atmosphere and sense of scale throughout. [Jun 2012, p.84]

The LP draws on old-style American folk but expertly remodels it for a contemporary audience. [Jun 2012, p.70]

While some of these missiles find their target, he is back with less of a bang than he might have hoped. [Jun 2012, p.70]

Mastodon idiocy it may be, but on "Honey From A Knife" and "For The Animals" at least, the fire in their eyes keeps them alive, [Jun 2012, p.71]

It doesn't always work, but when it does, it suggests a great artist finding new and surer ground. [Jun 2012, p.77]

The ingrained instinct for grandiosity can grate, but Gahan has never sounded better, his voice bringing power, purpose and unity to a project that's previously delivered less than thew sum of its parts. [Jun 2012, p.83]

It is the sound of a sweet soul contemplating deliverance; as mellow and fierce and fearful as that.

It could do with some Toe Ze-style danger, and it's a bit coffeetable--but a sun-dappled, rum-stocked coffee table to be fair. [May 2012, p.69]

Love Is The Plan sits just fine alongside his other records. [May 2012, p.67]

These make an effective pairing. [May 2012, p.72]

This is a beautifully executed love letter to the eternal pop rush. [Jun 2012, p.82]

Mostly, it's funky pop, half-deconstructed and relentlessly optimistic. [Jun 2012, p.71

Heroes may be elegiac, but it's as spirited as it is poignant. [Jun 2012, p.70]

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

Like all luxury goods, there is a hint of the predictable. [Jun 2012, p.83]

It's hard to dispute that Ufabulum find him in the form of his life. [Jun 2012, p.84]

SBP always made a virtue of their limitations, but the results of their unshackling from penury are spectacular. [Jun 2012, p.84]

A Joyful Noise strikes a healthy balance between tears-on-the-dancefloor hi-NRG and Gossip's bluesy swagger. [Jun 2012, p.73]

Manson can still whip up an appealingly vengeful turn of phrase, but they retain a tendency to sound stiff. [Jun 2012, p.73]

Musically, it's business as usual as they follow up their 2010 debut with more indie pop infused with the melodrama of The Ronettes and The Shangri-Las. [Jun 2012, p.69]

They have crafted an album that feels very much like the score for an imaginary film--an avant-garde French film, to be precise, an extended nocturne encompassing romance and its aftermath, the inexorable passage of time, and the preciousness of the fleeting moment. [Jun 2012, p.81]

Black Is Beautiful is their strongest yet, so cognitively disorienting it's hard to figure out what they're up to. [Jun 2012, p.69]

The residency produces inspired results. [Apr 2012, p.87]

Everything's fuzzy, fractured and out of focus, which makes it all the more mesmerizing. [Jun 2012, p.74]

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]