As powerfully new wavey as 2009's Backspacer at the start but also a testament to the band's more oddball meandering elsewhere, the commitment of Eddie Vedder's delivery brings a veracity even to some of the more ponderous ballads that can be the band's mature years default position. [Nov 2013, p.76]

The Bees have a nose for sniffing out fine pop melodies. [Apr 2007, p.93]

Overall, it's rather slight and inevitably rough around the edges.... But there's still considerable entertainment to be had from Segall's urgent renditions of "Cat Black: and "Buick Mackane" while his take on "The Slider" and "20 Century Boy" are magnificent reboots. [Feb 2016, p.94]

If Better Oblivion Community Center has a recurring flaw, it's a reluctance to hit these higher gears more often, the best of BOCC, however, both earns its place in Oberst's already formidable canon, and further confirms Bridgers as an artist likely to assemble one. [Apr 2019, p.37]

There's no straining to distance themselves from their former band [Stereolab]. [Apr 2018, p.24]

Sweet at its core, but pleasantly dark around the edges. [Feb 2014, p.76]

The most striking thing about Citizen Zombie is how young and naive and happy it all sounds. [Mar 2015, p.74]

The resulting appearances from the likes of Calexico, Mark Knopfler, Carrie Rodriguez and David Lindley are subtle and empathetic, blending easily into Brown's spare, atmospheric Americana. [Jun 2017, p.24]

It's a familiar mode - "instant vaguely leftfield record collection"- but it's beautifully played, and a reminder that Dwyer can occasionally do restraint. [Sep 2020, p.25]

The charisma, charm, galvanising dynamism and radical positivity of frontman Bobbie, aka Pascal Robinson-Foster, works better on stage than in the studio; even so, his hilarious takedowns of Marx-quoting armchair revolutionaries and Brexitvoting Top Gear fans reveal a sharp, self-aware wit behind the headbanging polemic. [Apr 2024, p.31]

The whirl of ideas is intoxicating. .... But there's space for moments of straightforward beauty too. [Sep 2025, p.29]

It's nuanced "noise" that packs a hefty emotional punch. [Aug 2018, p.24]

He's a little too old to be playing the lecherous pick-up merchant on tracks like "Tight Tones;" but the lovesick swing of "The Old Man And The Beer" rather suits him. [Jul 2015, p.83]

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

The occasional sense of a well-won formula being diligently followed is counter-balanced by the committed performances and a sufficiency of hooks. [Jul 2012, p.77]

Delights and distresses, packed with musical flourishes and finely drawn lyrics. [Nov 2020, p.33]

[The album] churns and lumbers with ominous, swampy certainty. [Oct 2012, p.83]

This might have worked better as a single LP, but to ensure the collection doesn’t run out of steam, there are two new tracks: the bouncy “Curious” and retro rocker “Billy Goodbye”. [Apr 2022, p.44]

In truth, only an uncharitable curmudgeon could fail to appreciate Tim Rice-Oxley's vastly improved pop songwriting. [Jul 2006, p.102]

[Working with four young producers] isn't necessarily an ideal recipe for coherence, but [Giles] Martin--the producer of the music for Love, Circue du Soleil's Beatles show, and for the Rock Band video game--keeps it under control.... with each song treated as an individual entity and allocated its own musical resources. [Nov 2013, p.64]

Press Play works rather well. [Dec 2006, p.106]

What may be The Wombats' most plain fun album to date. [Mar 2025, p.41]

A meaty, confident comeback. [Apr 2019, p.34]

All up, a subtle repositioning that deserves attention. [Feb 2013, p.79]

If we can now safely conclude that the Pixies are unlikely to hit the heights of early days, then let’s face it, it’s the rare mortal who can; but it’s also the only slightly less rare mortal who can make albums as solidly good as this one. [Oct 2022, p.30]

Though not everything here works, Spiral remains consistently intriguing throughout. [Sep 2021, p.27]

Unfidelity is too turbulent to be purely scenic in the Boards Of Canada sense, its plaintive melodies hemmed in by the gurgles and clanks of some sinister, unmanned waste disposal plant. [Apr 2014, p.73]

[A] set of intense and committed songs. [Jul 2017, p.25]

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 accent firmly on the spiritual. The stately "Family Bible" touches base with Willie's early career. ... There's a jubilant hoedown vibe to Hank Williams' "I Saw The Light," bettered only by offspring Lukas's plaintive lead vocal on George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass." [Jan 2022, p.27]

Though lacking killer songs, Wainwright is always a compelling vocalist, variously evoking Patti Smith, Debbie Harry and Piaf. [Dec 2016, p.38]

An unexpectedly impressive comeback. [Apr 2019, p.32]

Not all essential but a generally rich and respectable package. [Jul 2021, p.43]

The more spacious likes of "Comanche Moon" and "Life Song" suggest an ambition to nail a headline spot at the UFO Club, which may not boast much novelty a half-century after the fact, but can still elicit a contact high. [Jun 2017, p.23]

No overhaul then, but the BB alure still holds. [Nov 2022, p.26]

There's a level of quality control on this project, overseen by [Mute Records founder Daniel] Miller, that still allows Stewart to probe and provoke, but this time the medium of his message is more palatable. [Aug 2025, p.31]

The result is a fun mix of over-the-top hard rock, self-reflection and self-aggrandisation. [Aug 2025, p.29]

A tangy taster for their album proper in 2004. [Dec 2003, p.126]

A lack of polish--notably on the title track, which features Curl collective member Coby Sey--is part of the appeal, and if "Gladly" plays it very straight, then it's hard to carp at its loved-up optimism. [Sep 2018, p.39]

If there are a few stylistic surprises, there's spirit to spare on the invigorating "Easy Street" and the lusty, bluesy "Fast Lane." [Oct 2018, p.34]

Lanegan's lyrics are as daft as ever. But that growling baritone voice and the soundscapes are never less than compelling. [Nov 2019, p.27]

TMSR are a bit more focused and less shaggily psychedelic than [Broken Social Scene], but certainly never short on ideas. [Mar 2006, p.91]

[The Gossip] have evolved a blend of rough and impassioned garage-soul that owes as much to Tina Turner, Peggy Lee and The Ronettes as it does to Sonic Youth and The White Stripes. [Mar 2006, p.96]

There is a candid, personal quality to "Discreet" and "Have Fun Tonight," a sincere hymn to queer polyamory. Meanwhile, Chairlift's Caroline Polachek joins for the elegantly torrid "Togetherness." [Apr 2018, p.26]

Hammer Down may just be their best yet, the quintet's intense mix of mandolin, banjo and fiddle given added zest by a recent shake-up in personnel. [Feb 2013, p.79]

"White Horse" and the chest-thumping "South Dakota" recall the redneck drama of a Skynyrd show closer, and standout "Think I'm In Love With You" is a simmering mirrorball-country slow jam. [Review of the Year 2023, p.32]

"Fight The Good fight" and "A Humming Void An Emptied Place" feel like sorrowful hymns, Manuck's plaintive voice swaddled in electronics, but the album's highlight is "Do The Police Embrace?." poetic polemic that recalls Springsteen in its blend of melancholy and uplift. [Jul 2019, p.33]

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]

This is inventive and witty stuff. [June 2002, p.126]

It's the smart pop and clever arrangements of "Glance" and "Songbird (Forever)" that suggest Whitelands are in danger of evolving into a heavyweight proposition. [Feb 2026, p.39]

Their pop songs always leave traces in the memory, but the real gems occur when they take it slow and low. [Nov 2024, p.43]

The set offers power-pop gems like "Darlin'", a prospective Strokes classic in "818", and the closing surprise "Alright Tomorrow" a disco burner sung by actress/vocalist Rainsford. [Jul 2023, p.27]

More structured than its predecessors. [Apr 2007, p.102]

Held together by a unifying drone, End Of The Day is a welcome if unusual addition to Barnett's catalogue. [Oct 2023, p.25]

They sacrifice a bit of their identity in the trade-off [to be more pop.][Feb 2013, p.80]

It all seems to emerge from some vast, long-abandoned cistern, though the astonishing degree of detail contained in "Awakening" and "Vigil" rewards listeners willing to be fully immersed. [Review of the Year 2023, p.32]

Opener “Globe” is a bubblegum headrush: giddy, kinetic, punctuated by smile-inducing cries of “you got this”; “Champagne”, with its shared bassline, a bittersweet mirror image. The skittish “TV Flicker”, inspired by a sudden family bereavement, breaks the mould somewhat, adding range to the mix. [Oct 2022, p.33]

These dead-earnest takes are suffused with existential melancholy, as the group's feathery vocals bring uplift to the heavy emotional burden of the songs. [Mar 2014, p.71]

The net result is unexpectedly charming. [Aug 2020, p.30]

The sound of two talented men messing around and letting off steam in a studio. Much livelier than Tunng. [Jul 2016, p.81]

The extrovert quintet hold their nerve and deliver another wild pop ride. [Dec 2025, p.31]

Lattimore's harp is beautifully clean, and Barwick's vocals less affected than usual. [Jan 2026, p.27]

Nothing here matches the astonishing brutalist bubblegum of her 2018 debut, but on tracks like the soaring “Love Me Off Earth” you can still feel the unearthly radiance of this vanished star. [Dec 2024, p.39]

It pitches up somewhere between devotional music, modern classical and shoegaze and plays as a set piece, though the powerful ebb and flow of "Skel" stands out. [Nov 2023, p.32]

The strongest songs on Dungeness have Trembling Bells playing at a fierce peak. ... Sometimes, though, things don't quite cohere. [May 2018, p.34]

Against hard-edged rhythms – Danielle Haim’s clattering drumming enlivens “These Kids We Knew” – and Solomon’s wordless reveries, Rostam sings in a creamy tenor tailormade for sharing the intimate feelings of his lyrics. [Jul 2021, p.33]

The follow-up, recorded in a fully equipped studio with backing band, retains an acoustic ethic, but is more richly textured. [Jul 2012, p.84]

His playing can be free and fiery but it's also deeply soulful and sometimes almost aggressively melodic. [Mar 2023, p.29]

It's gorgeously detailed stuff, though often most compelling when those details end up fogged-out and hazy. [Aug 2017, p.28]

Immersive and claustrophobic, Ruby Red seems designed for solitary listening under headphones. [Aug 2013, p.72]

This new emphasis on alt.rock songcraft can leave frontwoman Arrow de Wilde sounding little constrained, which may be why she sounds so thrilled to unleash her inner Iggy on "Toy teenager" and "Rich Taste." [Nov 2019, p.33]

Dour, yes, but possessed of a regal sort of beauty. [Nov 2016, p.26]

The good news is that their sound has not dated, nor has the vision dimmed. [Feb 2026, p.35]

A serrated synthesis of goth, industrial and synth-pop conducted at a histrionic intensity, 13” Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto… sometimes feels deliberately difficult. But it is also inspired enough to be worth the effort. [Dec 2024, p.39]

The result is akin to Super Furry Animals making progressive post-punk. The sense of charm and idiosyncrasy is plentiful across the rest of the album too. [Mar 2020, p.29]

Succeeds in painting atmospheric images, with elliptical poetry set against dreamy FX-laden guitars, twinkly pianos and jagged beats. [Mar 2020, p.30]

The fourth album from Speedy Ortiz crackles with typically furious energy - but there's a deftness which makes the band's polemics as fun to listen to as they are powerful. [Nov 2023, p.33]

It may just be a hobby or distraction, but on this showing they've got serious legs. [Jan 2013, p.80]

Left to his own devices, Byrne comes home to a screwball hymnal mode that, for all the lyrical left turns, can feel a little too predictable. [Apr 2018, p.29]

Musically, it is business as usual--out-on-the-floor, stack-heeled indie stompers all the way--but if 2010's stark Losing Sleep was a little on the abrupt side, this is more concise still. [Apr 2013, p.75]

Once you’ve heard Fleetwood Mac or Rumours, Buckingham Nicks feels a little threadbare, like sketches for the main event – and that’s fine, because before fate or destiny intervened in the form of Mick Fleetwood in November 1974, this captured the duo at their best. Taken on its own, Buckingham Nicks is a nifty collection of floral folk cuts and quicksilver instrumentals, with one foot in Laurel Canyon, the other in Nashville, that show Buckingham and Nicks’ songwriting promise. [Oct 2025, p.44]

Zips from perky jazz runs to fragrant folk odes without breaking a sweat in the elusive search for the genre she can't own. [Nov 2025, p.36]

While Pigs x7 couldn't get much heavier, they sound noticeably angrier on this follow-up to 2020's Viscerals, adding lyrical themes of self-loathing and misanthropy into the mix. [Mar 2023, p.32]

Wonky charmer of a third album. [Apr 2022, p.31]

Utterly self-contained, 10cc's collision of Brill Building Craft, Beatles hooks and proggish daring still sounds, for the most part at least, curiously modern. [Jan 2013, p.89]

This rock'n'roll album falls far short of Little Ricard's atomic excitement in a genre here showing its age, but 78-year-old Van sounds youthly eager, even sensual in between the hushed female harmonies and honky-tonk piano of "You Are My Sunshine". [Dec 2023, p.34]

His obvious poetic and melodic gifts have seldom sounded so compelling. [May 2003, p.108]

[The songs] all feel very much of a piece thanks to the coherence fostered by Mitski's high but agile voice and wry, self-deprecating humour. [Sep 2018, p.35]

They may not go out with a bang on this occasion, but Cheap trick's capacity to surprise prevails. [Dec 2025, p.28]

It's frequently lush and lovely. [Dec 2004, p.150]

Significantly more wonderful than it is frightening. [Oct 2017, p.24]

The Haze is a good go at [spontaneity and sense of fun], maintaining the propulsion while tying songs to sharp pop hooks. [Apr 2017, p.37]

Delicately powerful stuff. [Aug 2020, p.27]

An entertaining oddity which manages to recall both Bobby Gillespie and (late) Julian Cope in its reverence for over-the-top rock'n'roll excess. [May 2014, p.78]

This one feels a bit brighter, more pop, than usual, though the Stooges lift of "Some Unknown Reason" is dankly bloodied. [Sep 2019, p.24]

Tracks such as "Nihilist Abyss," "Fatal Gift" and "Minefield Of Memory" grapple with the "deceptive deal" of experience, while her elliptical melodies recall Elliott Smith in Figure 8 mode. [Oct 2017, p.30]

Kill The Wolf is another ruralist fantasy furnished with tales of witchcraft and maypoles. [Aug 2013, p.67]

Pere Ubu's punchiest effort since 1998's Pennsylvania. [Nov 2016, p.35]