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]

The kids know where it's at, and so, in this career-high purple patch, does Paul Weller. [Apr 2012, p.69]

The demos are undoubtedly this boxset's main attraction. [Apr 2012, p.91]

The dominant flavor is deliberately faceless and club-friendly electro, but the highly finessed sonics and subtle attention to detail emerge over repeat listens. [Apr 2012, p.88]

The band's smarts and muscle come together with a resounding whomp on the new LP. [Apr 2012, p.75]

He's never sounded quite so bitter as he does on Wrecking Ball.

This painful exercise in manufactured soul-baring Is a genuinely grim proposition. [Apr 2012, p.82]

This singer-songwriter neatly balances the darkly troubled with the charmingly childlike, acoustic clunkiness with intricate finger picking. [Mar 2012, p.98]

Wilner hits a few gorgeous highs. [Mar 2012, p.90]

It's an ingenious arrangement, featuring juddering, minimal percussion, spare piano chords and vocoders that soar to the edge of the studiosphere, worth the price of the album alone. [Mar 2012, p.84]

Phantom Limb mine a solid seam of Southern soul, rock, country, and gospel. [Mar 2012, p.97]

Musically, too, he became far more adventurous than both Roxy Music and the New Romantic legions who echoed the original glam-rock innovations, his work paralleling that of questing artists like Scott Walker and Talk Talk.

It all sounds like a band working out who they are. [Sep 2011, p.88] [Review of UK release The Future Is Medieval]

This is urban-global rather than world music. [Mar 2012, p.92]

With its fidgety electronica and shredded rave, 11th album Parastrophies might've raised eyebrows in 1996, but today there are few Spotify playlists that would unironically accommodate squiggly chip-tunes. [Mar 2012, p.92]

Guthrie's work endures because if its essential big-hearted hospitality--and Farrar, Johnson, Parker and Yames have mad themselves right at home. [Mar 2012, p.93]

Like Maja Ratkje, Jenny Hval and Bjork, Hukkelberg adds another to her already impressive catalogue. [Mar 2012, p.87]

It's all unceasingly beautiful. [Mar 2012, p.81]

The album's heavily layered ambi-rock confections indulge the duo's mutual love of spangled guitar effects, tinselly twinkles and pearly dewdrop shimmers. [Mar 2012, p.97]

It's quite beautiful, even if it feels a little pacific and lav-lamp-like in the long haul. [Feb 2012, p.84]

Will Ozanne comes across as a milder version of James Blake. [Mar 2012, p.84]

These are beautiful songs with a murderous heart. [Feb 2012, p.90]

Screws Get Loose is crammed with infectious pop and arch lyrics that recall The Runaways or Shampoo. [Mar 2012, p.101]

Stewart's preoccupation--narcissism, sexuality, body horror--translate into a sort of febrile synth-pop, dotted with orchestral excursions and abrupt electronics. [Mar 2012, p. 107]

Wong works up from trickling sounds as seemingly innocuous as mid-morning TV music to a rumbling, looped ferocity. [Mar 2012, p.107]

Ghostory is supposedly a concept-album song-portrait, but [the album] feels as evanescent as expensive perfume. [Mar 2012, p.98]

This rather too eager-to-please set doesn't quite live up to its promise. [Mar 2012, p.82]

Every track is a precision-tooled triumph. [Mar 2012, p.81]

This, the follow-up to his lo-fi 2010 debut Learning is a dark business. [Mar 2012, p.97]

White has not only fashioned a terrific album from less than ideal circumstances, but one that finally feels like a worthy successor to No Such Place. [Mar 2012, p.96]

One-hit wonders no more, White and de Martino now sound prepared for a big pop future. [Mar 2012, p.101]

Hotel Sessions is infinitely more charming than the finished item. [Feb 2012, p.91]

LA Woman is at times a raw and bluesy affair, but still one of exquisite taste and judgement. [Feb 2012, p.84]

Brave and bonkers. [Mar 2012, p.94]

Derek Miller's flashy axemanship and Alexis Krauss' swoon are compromised by sanitized production. [Mar 2012, p.98]

[The album recalls] the warm, breezy charms of labelmates Beach house. [Mar 2012, p.92]

A musical time machine. [Mar 2012, p.82]

Here the pair [Richard Swift and Damien Jurado] resume roles for an equally enchanting follow-up. [Feb 2012, p.96]

The album's highpoints, particularly "Show Me Everything" and "This Fire Of Autumn" showcase a band who seem to have rediscovered new ways of putting together their already impressive constituent parts. [Mar 2012, p.101]

The Caretaker creates ambient music that doesn't merely settle in the background but is evocative of memory and loss. [Feb 2012, p.83]

The songwriting is always of a high quality. [Mar 2012, p.79]

It does feel [like] a somewhat softer collection than its predecessor. [Feb 2012, p.84]

A remarkable, genre-defying album. [Mar 2012, p.86]

If you fell for Real Estate and their peers, here's the root. [Mar 2012, p.81]

It's frequently impressive and occasionally lovely, but often loses its soul in Emmanuel's relentless barrage of spectacular effects. [Mar 2012, p.107]

Ultimately though, Tennis are too polished and MOR to rival the peaks of the trio's edgier peers. [Mar 2012, p.101]

The odd gauche moment remains, but her plaudits are not undeserved. [Mar 2012, p.98]

While house purists might find it juvenile, and there are some aimless passages, the lo-fi production is beautiful. [Mar 2012, p.87]

Mr. M is bold in arts and surprisingly experimental. [Mar 2012, p.76]

These 13 examples can get annoying when they stray into willful atonality, but really hit the spot when he lingers on simple themes. [Mar 2012, p.81]

Angular oldies like "Map Ref 41N 93W" and Kidney Bingos" still sparkle, and the relentless "Drill" is boring in all the right ways. [Mar 2012, p.107]

His blend of house and Eurodisco soon settles into a bland formula of bittersweet Balearic fare. [Mar 2011, p.98]

Todd Terry and Masters At Work's percolating euphoria warms every groove on this intelligently realized debut. [Mar 2012, p.79]

Like The Fall, PSB are always different, always the same. [Mar 2012, p.97]

Americanized rock'n'roll that sounds as modern as it does vintage 1970s and effortlessly blends AC/DC riffage, Fleetwood Mac AOR and White Stripes punk-blues pyrotechnics. [Mar 2012, p.79]

At times, as on "De Javu," it's a dazzling new dimension, but some may await his return to more conventional zones. [Mar 2012, p.90]

Kweller is a disarming presence and an unpretentious sonic architect. [Mar 2012, p.90]

The Blondes' expansive synth jams can sometimes feel a little directionless. [Mar 2012, p.81]

There's a striking purity to this record. [Mar 2012, p.79]

This collection is ample testament to one of the last great English avant-pop careers. [Mar 2012, p.84]

This album is made with care, love and expertise and it shows on every song. [Mar 2012, p.80]

Other tracks hide catchier tunes amid the quagmire of guitar. [Mar 2012, p.79]