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]

Mitch Ryder here astutely merges heartbreaking social realism with accomplished, funky Motown/James Brown grooves. [Mar 2012, p.97]

Anglo-Saxon sextet Sweet Sweet Lies dress nasty themes in sweet acoustic melodies and sharp suits. [Mar 2012, p.98]

No doubt Arnstrom can craft an uplifting tune but his simpering tone ultimately suggests The Whitest Boy Alive being kicked in the face with sand. [Apr 2012, p.84]

It works well enough that when "Falling Away" pastes on some broiling guitar feedback, it sounds almost superfluous. [Apr 2012, p.77]

It's remarkable that the cosmic Ekstasis--recorded in Holter's home with only five musicians--feels surer of itself than Tragedy, a record rooted in millennnia-old practice. [Apr 2012, p.72]

Breton are distinctly maximal, all corrosive guitars, callow vocals and beats jutting at awkward angles. [Apr 2012, p.73]

It's certainly a brave move to furnish it with such exotic pieces, but one that pays off beautifully. [Apr 2012, p.81]

It's the most potent sound to come out of South Africa since DJ Mujava's '08 left-field hit on Warp with "Township Funk." [Apr 2012, p.82]

Most of the songs are breezy reflections on romance--even two Q-Tip productions lack bite--but its melodious artiness is engaging. [Apr 2012, p.84]

The pair's [singer James Mercer and producer Greg Kurstin] pop instincts ultimately prevail over more esoteric ambitions. [Apr 2012, p.86]

The loss of drummer Ryan Sawyer has gutted their alt.rock muscle, making Out of It less visceral, but ultimately more singular, affecting and timeless. [Apr 2012, p.87]

That Gedge remains, at 51, stranded lyrically at a romantically disappointing post A-Level party is less cause for celebration. [Apr 2012, p.88]

On their second release for Thrill Jockey they sometimes clear space in the pummeling blizzard of delay, fuzz and reverb. [Apr 2012, p.88]

The second full-length album is richly textured and exceedingly complex in its arrangements. [Apr 2012, p.75]

McCarthy's catharsis is often gripping. [Apr 2012, p.88]

Sometimes the union flourishes, but at times it's a grab-bag that's fallen apart at the seems. [Apr 2012, p.87]

It's a solid rather than spectacular effort. [Apr 2012, p.87]

The exhilarating collision of muscular breakbeats and ripe trance synths makes this one of the most enjoyable dance albums in recent memory. [Apr 2012, p.84]

Think Veronica Falls meet Arthur Russell, and investigate further. [Apr 2012, p.83]

A set of pristine ballads that veer somewhere between the atmospheric folk of Suzanne Vega and Sade's austere pop-soul. [Apr 2012, p.83]

It's a feast of contextual songwriting and sizzling guitar. [Apr 2012, p.83]

It's so generic it could be sold in a supermarket basics range. [Apr 2012, p.83]

Break It Yourself by contrast [to Noble Beast] feels like an attempt to communicate more directly and is his most affecting album yet. [Apr 2012, p.82]

While the lyrics are cliched to a fault, Lloyd is a convincing loverman across the range of backdrops he's given. [Apr 2012, p.81]

Too many tracks are still founded on tiresome conceits. [Apr 2012, p.81]

It's certainly easy to believe that these sublime pieces could have inspired such a profound reaction [from director Cameron Crowe]. [Apr 2012, p.81]

There will doubtless be more varied shades on future records, but for now, this pensive debut gives notice of a fine new talent. [Apr 2012, p.80]

Over the course of an album even dogs will find the whistle register wearing, but taken individually these are sublime cocktails of post-geographical orientalism. [Apr 2012, p.79]

Fabulous stuff all round. [Apr 2012, p.79]

Failure looks a long way off. [Apr 2012, p.75]

The malevolence and needling insistency of Gang Of four and Fugazi are this record's core. [Apr 2012, p.77]

The addition of vocals is hugely welcome, even if they are only Panda Bear-style chants. [Apr 2012, p.77]

A mature album that's abrasive but not "freaky" or "weird", that enjoys its moments of harmony when it finds them, and is as serious-minded as the times demand. [Apr 2012, p.76]

There's a passion and naturalism to these songs that make them worthy of the hubbub. [Apr 2012, p.75]

The stream of banjo, fiddle, bones and spoons rolls on agreeably, marred only by a tendency to tweeness. [Apr 2012, p.73]

Less reactionary souls will thrill to the dynamic Zoo. [Apr 2012, p.73]

Cardinal's fine harmonized vocals and muzzy, Byrds-like melodies are still intact. [Apr 2012, p.73]

Album number three enlarges their sonic palette with piano, dobro and touches of strings and woodwind but maintains the same folksy charm. [Apr 2012, p.71]

There are moments of terrific turbulence, solemn quietness and some sadness, but the collection eventually lights on safe harbor. [Apr 2012, p.70]