The many versions of that song [Ballad Of A Thin Man] sprinkled throughout the discs illustrate the fluctuations of interpretation, form and commitment that were a feature of Dylan’s first tour in eight years, unremarked at the time but now on full view. [Nov 2024, p.48]

While the recitation by guest Moor Mother lends form and force to “Our Mother’s Lights” and Fujita’s saxophonist father adds Jan Garbarek-like lines to three other tracks, the album is otherwise distinguished by the music’s shimmering beauty and other sounds that glide overhead like the birds evoked by the title. [Sep 2024, p.33]

As Shirt progresses, grungey riffs begin to cut through on “Itch” and the White Stripes-y chorus of “Rag”. Elsewhere, his slacker songcraft commands evermore empathy as “Voices In My Head” employs a neat acoustic motif and “Music” offers a piano-led lullaby to close a short, deceptively sweet affair. [Oct 2024, p.41]

It’s all strong enough to hopefully attract listeners beyond Tindersticks’ hardy fanbase. [Oct 2024, p.43]

Pure electronica, like the understated “Only Silent Words” and viscous “A Time Mirror (Biophony)”, is appealingly reflective too, but often one yearns for the unexpected, which “A Colour Field (Holocene)”’s slowly developing melody and a series of “Life Study” vignettes fortunately provide. [Oct 2024, p.41]

This Is BASIC plays as galvanising and gleeful, not only to audience effect but clearly for its makers, too. In all of that, it’s anything but. [Oct 2024, p.32]

Yet really immerse yourself in the thing, and these seven extended pieces become lighter, transcendent, strangely accessible. [Oct 2024, p.33]

For all the dark corners of her ever-changing self she avidly explores, the intrinsic brightness and irrepressible energies in her songwriting continue to enrich the experience of accompanying her. [Sep 2024, p.31]

Pure pleasure with an experimental edge. [Oct 2024, p.34]

Whatever the provenance of these songs, Indoor Safari is marvellous, by any reasonable critical metric a glorious confection. [Sep 2024, p.26]

While a little lacking in variation, it’s a most welcome return for a band who have come out of retirement but still know how to land a punch. [Sep 2024, p.36]

The band's deepest and most accomplished effort yet. [Oct 2024, p.40]

The Odeon version is everything you remember, played out in a lunar glow, Young and Frank Sampedro’s guitars like burning rivers flowing into each other, Neil’s guitar emerging from the maelstrom like something blown by a solar wind, at the time unlike anything you’d heard. .... Of the unreleased songs on these discs, it’s not hard to see why some of them have never found a home. [Oct 2024, p.44]

“Son” and “Chernye Tsvety” feel a mite glossier than their earlier records, which had a smudged and lo-fi feel that gave them the quality of samizdat recordings. Still present and correct, though, is a sense of dislocation and alienation that’s positively Kafkaesque. [Oct 2024, p.37]

It comes from a place of vulnerability, but speaks the language of strength and self-belief, with enough to share around. [Oct 2024, p.38]

On this ninth album of originals, Rev frontman Jonathan Donahue elects to vocalise in a soft whisper rather than his characteristic starry-eyed warble. It works best when their chamber-pop soundbaths are punctuated by rhythmic hooks and ear-catching lines. [Sep 2024, p.37]

The fourth album by childhood friends Carlotta Cosials and Ana Perrote is a masterclass in simple but devastatingly effective melodies. [Oct 2024, p.36]

Generally things are slower and less musically direct, and so you have an amalgamation of alt.rock, leftfield folk, pop, jazz and touches of electronica. However, while stylistically varied, it can feel a little lacking in variety and dynamism at times, as it very much sits in mid-tempo mode for much of the 12 tracks, the sprightly pop of their early period rarely appearing. Johnson feels nicely in sync with his band though, who possess both precision and personality in their playing. [Oct 2024, p.42]

Manning Fireworks, his third studio album and maybe his best, sounds like the Drive-By Truckers backing Vic Chesnutt. [Sep 2024, p.36]

Hang In There With Me radiates everything great about Rigby’s trademark Phil Ochs-y folk-punk, and the spectacular “Dylan In Dubuque” is a droll, defiant promise of more where it came from. [Sep 2024, p.39]

The opening, “Sky Hooks” is beguiling, too, while “Hooked Paw” amps up the dub and woozy quotients to unique effect. [Sep 2024, p.39]

Enumclaw’s second album further confirms the impression of a group combining most of the virtues of The Replacements at their snottiest and Violent Femmes at their most confrontationally awkward. [Sep 2024, p.30]

He’s on top form for the slow-burning, “Wish You Were Here”-ish title track and the wonderfully dreamy “Sings”. .... A hidden gem is the bonus track “Yes, I Have Ghosts”, a harp-led Celtic waltz that’s as affecting as anything in Gilmour’s canon. [Oct 2024, p.34]

Talkie Talkie benefits from a sharpening of focus even if the instrumental foursome remain determined to recombine such normally disparate elements as sun-scorched psych, Caribbean rhythms, Turkish disco and the kind of rock bravura rarely captured outside of an ’80s movie soundtrack. [Oct 2024, p.31]

Anderson's admiration and affection for this feminist icon is such that you come away from Amelia with a greater respect for those who keep on taking risks. [Sep 2024, p.28]

This is deluxe lava-lamp music, pleasantly pretty at worst, hypnotically beautiful at best. [Sep 2024, p.33]

Woodland is ultimately about these two people, these two voices, and these two guitars. Never is it more moving than when there are simply playing together the way they might at home, blurring the line of who is singing lead on “Howdy Howdy” or who is picking which note on “The Bells & The Birds”. Adding new flourishes to their core sound, Woodland is a beautiful addition to their catalogue. [Oct 2024, p.63]

Reunited with his band, orchestrated and multiplied, Cave surfs a swelling tide of preposterous proportions. He is the wild god, a wearied charismatic presence, flitting between the songs. Nobody else sounds like this. [Oct 2024, p.26]

Though the more sweeping likes of “Black Heart” evoke the menace and grandeur of Angelo Badalamenti’s scores for David Lynch, there’s an appealing degree of rattle, clatter and noodling elsewhere as Wallumrød and Silvola commune with the spirits of Harry Partch and Charles Mingus. [Oct 2024, p.41]

Squint hard and it could be Beck’s Midnite Vultures run through a flanger pedal and recorded on a Maxell C60, but that’s no bad thing. [Oct 2024, p.34]

There’s a suitably euphoric rush to tracks such as “Sun Come Up” and “Golden Hour” as McAlmont’s vocals soar gloriously over Dickson’s layered synths, the banging dance rhythms and surging choruses evoking Ibiza rather than California, Faithless rather than The Beach Boys. [Aug 2024, p.35]

Foster's processed vocals roam the album's glossy surfaces and robotic grooves, evoking Prince and Daft Punk, while the widescreen title track and the trippy "Glitchzig" sound like outtakes from the Tron soundtrack. [Sep 2024, p.32]

It feels as though the band have carved out a new sonic space for them to operate in while still retaining their own identity. [Sep 2024, p.32]

Running the gamut from freakbeat to post-Sabbath blues rock to dark prog invention. [Sep 2024, p.50]

Ian Gillan doesn’t attempt as many sky-scraping howls as he once did but still delivers characteristically rascal-ish lyrics such as “Lazy Sod” and “A Bit On The Side” with swagger and relish. [Aug 2024, p.32]

The chugging arrangements are often overwrought, and the lyrics slightly too pleased with themselves, but Hawk's lusty baritone croons lend passion and swagger to salacious funk-pop confessional "Big Cat Tattoos" and the sardonic, self-lacerating "Questionable Hit". [Sep 2024, p.33]

Dwyer's unique hiccupping rhythm continues to dominate, ensuring the band are distinctively Osees, but this is the group's most experimental and unusual record for a few years. [Sep 2024, p.37]

This is much more of an Esperanza Spalding album than a Milton Nascimento one. But what Spalding has been able to do successfully is subsume herself into the world that Nascimento has created over the last 50 years – a dreamlike realm of folkloric myth, plugged into nature’s heartbeat. [Aug 2024, p.28]

Warmer and more upbeat than One Day, Another Day hangs around just long enough to make an impact. [Sep 2024, p.32]

KGLW now take their foot off the gas via this countrified, ’70s rock’n’roll set with a warm, relaxed air. [Sep 2024, p. 37]

It’s a decent primer on the culture, but the real treasures are the deep cuts, namely some radical dub remixes of punk also-rans (Generation X’s “Wild Dub”, Angelic Upstarts’ “Different Dub”) and a string of projects from Dennis ‘Blackbeard’ Bovell, including the gloomy skank of 4th Street Orchestra’s “Za-Lon” and Matumbi’s sunny, horn-powered “Point Of View”. [Aug 2024, p.53]

It’s their most reflective and measured set yet, a record of personal experiences with broad-spectrum resonance for our peculiar times, still charged with the thrill of creativity. [Aug 2024, p.33]

For all Metheny’s experiments with electronics, or the orchestral sweep of albums such as 2020’s Dream Box, these solo pieces on baritone string guitar contain his essence of mellow melodicism and romance. [Aug 2024, p.38]

On first listen, Cellophane Memories sounds reliably Lynchian in its hypnagogic moans, bluesy torch songs and voluptuous slow-motion noir-scapes. But it also pushes beyond these familiar tropes, notably by layering, intertwining and tape-reversing Zucht’s sultry mezzo-soprano vocals on deliciously weird stand-outs. [Sep 2024, p.29]

Makes good on the promise of 2022's Big Love Blanket by finetuning their melodic instincts without sacrificing the anything-goes chaos that makes them such a thrilling proposition. [Sep 2024, p.37]

There are further pointers to the record serving as a noisy epilogue, its energy and venom a reminder of when they, and their devoted following, were much younger souls. [Sep 2024, p.39]

There are several lengthy, furious, deliberately alienating diatribes from the Jamaican feminist poet Staceyann Chin, whole sections in French and Steve Reich-style phase-shifting sound collages. All of this does a slight disservice to some excellent songs. [Sep 2024, p.37]

Birds & Beasts is nothing if not vivid – a summoning of the mythical American landscapes that kept pilgrims heading west. Despite its antecedents, the album is rarely conventional. [Aug 2024, p.41]

Tight but loose, Are Possible sits nicely alongside other hypnotic, folksy acts like 75 Dollar Bill and Natural Information Society. [Sep 2024, p.29]

A 3LP set captures Sunday’s entire show, and there’s a shorter ‘best of both nights’ version – which surprisingly, but perhaps thankfully, skips “Country House” – but there’s no questioning the band’s enduring energy and charismatic chemistry, whether emphasising “Under The Westway”’s Bowie fixations or “The Narcissist”’s unforgettable hooks. [Sep 2024, p.29]

There’s a sometimes bipolar feel to the 10 original tracks, particularly the first half, before the four singles crash in to save the day. .... Sleevenotes, memorabilia, alternate takes, B-sides and demos galore, although vibrant live cuts such as a 1979 tear through “Message In A Bottle” offer the most value beyond curiosity.

At times they sound as if they are seeking to recreate The Clash, before suddenly erupting into jagged film-score strings (“Blue Kite”). [Aug 2024, p.32]

On No Name, he’s done something special on his own terms, delighted and surprised his audience, and provided one of the great rock moments of the year. [Oct 2024, p.30]

“The Wraith Behind Our Eyes” sounds like the kind of thing Ian Dury might have come up with if he’d been raised in sunny California, while the New Age jazz flourishes of tracks like “Threaded Dances” hit home what a unique concoction of flavours and sounds Izenberg has put together here. [Aug 2024, p.35]

Songs still betray their freestyle origins in what is Wand’s most exploratory album to date, from the disquieting “JJ” to the seven-minute churn of “High Time”. [Aug 2024, p.40]

Down-home majesty. [Sep 2024, p.29]

While about as niche as it gets, this is a strangely endearing and subtly beguiling album that does much more than just send you to sleep. [Sep 2024, p.29]

It’s all impossibly good, from the walloping riff that drives opener “Reason To Hide” through hardcore thrasher “La Plage”, the grunge-pop of “Here It Comes” and the jazz-dub title track, right up to the steadily building whirlwind of ominous closer “Gunboats”. [Aug 2024, p.39]

The core trio of Chris Gunst, Brent Rademaker and Farmer Dave Scher, plus various friends, excel on the breezy optimism of “Falling Forever”, while the mellow vibes of “Faded Glory” recall Teenage Fanclub at their sunniest. [Aug 2024, p.31]

Justin Moore’s “Here Comes My Girl” and Brothers Osborne’s “I Won’t Back Down” both sound like expensive karaoke. The best tracks take more than a few liberties with the source material. [Jul 2024, p.41]

He may not offer many surprises – those Beatle-esque inclinations remain ubiquitous – but he does pull in some impressive guests. [Aug 2024, p.35]

Cohen displays a light touch throughout, whether spiking “Dog’s Face”’s reverberant honky-tonk piano with detuned guitars and brass, constructing “Sunever” around swinging mandolin or conjuring ’80s DIY indie on “Wishing Well”. [Aug 2024, p.31]

The miraculous, heartbreaking conjunction of found text and ancient lament, forged together in the alchemy of Elkington’s production, feels the most perfect realisation yet of Fussell’s project: tradition sparked back to life by unexpected everyday encounters. [Aug 2024, p.24]

The music adds majesty to the industrial primitivism which purports to be the output of the fictional band, Memorial Device, with Pastel ensuring period veracity by revisiting cassettes of his teenage jams. [Jul 2024, p.38]

The pair share a fascination for esoterica and ritual, and it’s this impulse that powers their new collaboration, Jinxed By Being. [Aug 2024, p.40]

“Day 2000 Awake”’s warmth, inspired by parenthood, is perfectly poised too, and if “Poor Symmetry” seats her at a piano in Joni Mitchell mood, the pulsing “My Hands In The Water” recalls Kate Bush’s mature, sumptuous pop. [Jul 2024, p.31]

The new ‘Ultimate’ mixes are an excellent reimagining of the original’s tinny sound, giving a clearer route to Lennon’s voice while ensuring each instrument gets due prominence. Songs like “Aisumasen (I’m Sorry)”, “You Are Here” and “Out The Blue” can now take their place among Lennon’s finest. [Aug 2024, p.49]

Travis continue to subtly experiment with their sound, and on this 10th studio set it regularly pays dividends. [Aug 2024, p.40]

Lyrically, the album plunges into some vulnerable and troubling places, but musically it lacks a similar emotional range, instead feeling static and one-note. [Aug 2024, p.31]

The result is a record that confirms … Phenomenal Nature was no fluke. This is the sound of Jenkins hitting her stride – less disembodied than its predecessor, more grounded, its tone ranging from the easy warmth of Tom Petty to the steady discernment of Aimee Mann, via a little Laurie Anderson. [Jul 2024, p.28]

he power of Landless lies in their own exquisitely intertwined four-part vocal harmonies, which add spine-tingling beauty to even the most fatalistic lyric, from an achingly gorgeous rework of traditional Celtic heartbreak lament “Blackwaterside” to the adventurously chosen Slovak-language ballad “Ej Husari”, a radiantly lovely murmuration of swooping, cooing, chirruping voices. [Jul 2024, p.35]

As a standalone soundtrack Evil Does Not Exist is a fine addition to Ishibashi’s singular work – the mood is darker and eerier than her fêted Drive My Car, but it’s the stronger album nonetheless. [Jul 2024, p.33]

[Aug 2024, p.40]

Mono are masters of the emotionally saturated slow build, though they have their own variations on the dark/light dynamic, as in “Reflection”, which moves with a casually graceful swing, and “Holy Winter”, where an upright-piano motif shapes the celestial whole. [Jul 2024, p.38]

Co-producer Alex Goose injects some hip-hop chink and spaghetti-western vistas into the arrangements, goosing the languid rhythms, and the hooky “Time Will Tell” momentarily quells the heartache. But the hopeful notes recede on the closing barroom ballad “The Fool”, as Frazer runs out of words, leaving melancholy piano notes to signal the encroaching dusk. [Jul 2024, p.32]

The result is her most diverse and audacious album to date. What remains rooted in her jazz origins, though, is her voice. [Jul 2024, p.40]

From the stripped-back acoustic touches on “This Will Go On” to the distorted vocals and gritty overdrive guitars of “Leaving Umbrella”, it’s a pleasing yet ever-shifting journey to be taken on. [Jul 2024, p.35]

As is usually the case with archival material of this kind, nothing here is any improvement on the finished product. These tracks are, however, humbling reminders that what we end up hearing as astonishing lightning-in-a-bottle transcendence is very often the result of repetitive, labour-intensive hackwork. [Aug 2024, p.46]

“Right Hand Over My Heart”, an irresistible number with moody Omnichord and synth motifs, and at the opposite end of the emotional spectrum, the sinuous “Water Torture”, in which a disgusted Davis addresses his country’s barbarity practised in the name of world order. “Moonlit Kind” closes the set, an existential hymn with an agreeably lazy, Yeasayer-ish groove. [Jul 2024, p.30]

A self-titled collection that ranks among their very best. [Aug 2024, p.39]

Attains new heights of intoxication on reconvening after four years away. [Aug 2024, p.38]

Nathaniel Rateliff fully integrates his parallel identities as exuberant frontman, introspective folkie and perpetuator of rock's sacred texts on South Of Here. [Aug 2024, p.39]

They conjure a sequence of absorbing soundtracks for unmade dramas, of which the pick is “Love Changes Everything V”, an intense dialogue between violin and guitar, suggesting My Bloody Valentine reinventing themselves as a folk group. [Jul 2024, p.32]

Fratti delivers some of her most musically and emotionally rich work to date here, her dreamy voice and impressionistic Spanish-language lyrics adding an extra layer of magical realism. [Aug 2024, p.36]

The most affecting songs are the drum-less, spacious, guitar-led numbers: the spartan ragtime of "Boots Of A Soldier", or the wonderfully Tom Waits-ish waltz "The Knowing". [Aug 2024, p.32]

Precious but powerful. [Aug 2024, p.38]

There are moments when the orchestrated bathos feels promising. .... But the lyrical clunkers pile up and ultimately capsize an intriguing venture into sophisti-pop. [Aug 2024, p.39]

Stung! is a detail-rich trip as warm as it is wiggy. [Aug 2024, p.39]

Even if restless shape-shifting sometimes blunts strong melodic ideas, standout tracks like the epic freakout "Cosmo" and the goth-dub inner-space odyssey "Whammy" showcase a small band with big ambitions. [Aug 2024, p.39]

The record is a listen-through winner, but the title track and languid, acoustic closer "John Prine On The Radio" are standouts. [Aug 2024, p.35]

Ghostface is still, occasionally, a force to be reckoned with on the mic. but Set The Tone feels unworthy of his talents. [Aug 2024, p.34]

He sounds distant during "Shy Eyes'" woozy synth-funk, while "Over Your Shoulder" seems to connect his own separation and his mother's divorce in a resolute folk-pop ballad. [Aug 2024, p.31]

Gently irresistible throughout. [Aug 2024, p.31]

Their creative freedom is evident again on their final album. [Aug 2024, p.30]

The most appealing Actress record since Splazsh. [Aug 2024, p.29]

Accompanied by a swinging combo in which double bassist Ferg Ireland, pianist Joe Webb and Giacomo Smith on clarinet/sax are outstanding, she captures Vaughan’s depth of expression with perfect control, but proves she’s more than just a talented imitator by authoritatively stamping her own considerable personality on a stark, radical take on “Inner City Blues”, very different from Vaughan’s 1973 version. [Jul 2024, p.38]

Sometimes a more shadowy affair, with McKiel’s voice on the title track reverberating in what sounds like a deep cave, its woodwind and wriggling bassline emerging from different chambers to establish a Beta Band shuffle. Elsewhere things are dusky rather than dark. [Jun 2024, p.37]

Taking the Rio Grande as a confluence point between Mexico and the American Southwest, it reflects TexiCali’s exuberant sense of musical inclusivity. [Jul 2024, p.34]