The highlight is the lengthy Elvin Jones tribute that opens the album---an expansive Afro-tinged big band upgrade of a piece originally recorded with Jim Keltner. [Jun 2017, p.38]

Think Randy Newman crooned in a voice like Peggy Lee and delivered with the panache of Rufus Wainwright. [Sep 2004, p.96]

An instantly likable, energetic pop set stacked with guitars; his easy voice shot through with enquiry and regret. [Sep 2015, p.75]

How To Replace It doesn't quite scale those heights [Worst Case Scenario and The Ideal Crash], but it finds the returning to the fray with particularly eloquent poise. [Apr 2023, p.26]

Vol 1 is reflective and rootsy, all folkish acoustic guitars, from the elegiac melancholy of "End Of The World" to the hushed vulnerability of "Rejection." [Oct 2017, p.26]

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]

This is pulverising cacophonic stuff but it's also considered and atmospheric. [Feb 2021, p.25]

Loaded with guests, from Slash to Tom Morello, it’s no-frills hard rock which, while occasionally a little dated and clichéd, still has plenty of fizz to it. [Nov 2024, p.40]

Tomberlin's second long-player seems to semi-consciously urge you to move along – nothing to hear here. Yet it creates its own slow-burning allure on repeated listens. [Jun 2022, p.34]

It's a world away from their introspective acoustic work... but [Producer Mitchell] Froom's airbrushed studiocraft... suits their well-crafted songs. [Apr 2007, p.105]

The best tracks gently slip their moorings, as with the sour fuzzed guitar and damaged lyrics of "Got The Fear", and hazy warp and alchemical concerns of the insinuatingly additcive "Green". [Jul 2023, p.33]

Their debut has a raucous charm that makes it easy to overlook their songs' emotional punch. [Feb 2016, p.77]

The music is similarly diverse [as his guests], combining orchestral strings and beats, flamenco guitars and rap, and an array of other global styles. [May 2021, p.32]

Old weaknesses remain, with Sullivan's declamatory lyrics often mistaking grandiosity for gravitas, but Between Dog And Wolf is mostly an impressive beast. [Jan 2014, p.76]

Selvutsletter is a shapeless sprawl in places but covers an impressive range. [Nov 2023, p.31]

Not a while world away from the primitive throb of his Stiff pomp. [May 2018, p.37]

Inexorable forward movement is shadowed by existential dread. [Jul 2018, p.30]

The album's highlight comes when "I See You" wiggles free of its '90s indie-disco mooring and shoots at the moon; Luminous could have done with a few more of those moments. [Jun 2014, p.78]

[A] LP of sophisticated soul songs built around her exquisite vocals. [Sep 2015, p.76]

Cheap bubblegum keyboards sound even more archaic in a present the embattled singer knows all too well. .... Beach Boys harmonies brighten "Electric Rock And Roll", and the '70s dream-time of Mike Post themes and lost childhood comfort is caught in "Glorious Chorus." [Dec 2025, p.36]

Vol. 2 is high-class punk trash, from the rambunctious but melodic "Jumpstarting" to the amphetamine rush of "Mr Nothing Gets Worse." [Oct 2017, p.26]

More polished than 2012's ragged debut, Acousmatic Sorcery. [Oct 2013, p.63]

It's not as scintillating as we've come to expect from the OutKast camp, but plenty of fun nonetheless. [Mar 2013, p.67]

At their best, they sound like a still-warm, half-remembered dream. [Feb 2013, p.79]

Tales of protest, battle, compassion, camaraderie, segregation and loss are recalled in rich tones. [Feb 2014, p.83]

The brutal realism Greil Marcus heard in X’s debut Los Angeles remains in John Doe’s solo incarnation as hard-bitten Americana troubadour, here offering 1890s tales of spartan hardship, his songs’ killers and victims chased across the South by poverty and guilt. [Jun 2022, p.26]

It's a mysterious affair, but never obscure. [Feb 2014, p.68]

Seven songs in 19 minutes feel like a tidy introduction to this contemplative Californian. [Aug 2021, p.21]

It's hard to think of a UK R&B album that sounds as formidably ready for the world as A Little Deeper. [Jul 2002, p.114]

After three albums, they've learned to speak the same language. [Jul 2017, p.40]

Singing in a voice roughly as big as the Saskatchewan plains, the cattle rancher writes lyrics full of violence, darkness and death. [Oct 2020, p.39]

If there are few surprises, the tracks are charming, well crafted and kept to a fighting-trim 11. [Sep 2018, p.36]

Confirms Momus as a laptop Tom Lehrer. [Jun 2005, p.102]

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]

Krgovich reflects wryly on his own situation, the perennial underdog whose day might be just around the corner. [Jan 2018, p.23]

While the overall sound is massive, it's become somewhat restricted in tone and texture, most tracks careering towards climaxes of cacophonous synth whines and heavy rock guitars, a narrower palette than on previous albums. [Nov 2013, p.66]

Fear Of The Dawn succeeds better when it surprises. [Jun 2022, p.34]

This live site from New Year's Eve 2011 reminds why these songs are firmly embedded in NZ music folklore. [Dec 2013, p.81]

It's the sonic equivalent of a Douglas Gordon video installation. [Jun 2021, p.27]

This is unabashed bar room vibes with a healthy side order of redneck grit. [Mar 2020, p.25]

[An] atmospheric and generally likeable debut LP. [Mar 2015, p.76]

Flitting between Black Sab homages such as “Busted Room” and the Zep-esque quasi-Middle Eastern “Recessinater”, and shorter rockers such as the Stooges-like “Front Street” and “BFIOU”, which opens with the riff from the Beasties’ “Sabotage” before exploring even scuzzier directions. [Jul 2021, p.24]

What An Enormous Room takes her eclecticism to fresh heights, each of these songs exploring different emotional moods while influences range from The Breeders to Goldfrapp. [Jan 2024, p.36]

There's barely a track above three-minutes as it charges along with spiky intent, bursting with energy. [Sep 2025, p.32]

They're at their best when they dial down the melodrama. [Sep 2015, p.77]

Good-natured album. [Apr 2020, p.35]

John Rouse's ninth album is a return to the sound that made 2003's 1972 such a gem. [Apr 2013, p.77]

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]

While the earlier albums had a rich dramatic and conceptual structure, things feel looser thus time round. [Sep 2025, p.39]

It's an effortless charmer. [Feb 2023, p.29]

Jaunty and beholden to fuzz, White Reaper comes on like Kentucky's answer to Supergrass on this charming debut, crammed with short melodic powerpop gems. [Sep 2015, p.83]

There's an appealing innocence to their songs about the daily joys and troubles of tribal life, and the overall effect is as charming as it is arresting. [Jul 2024, p.41]

The album's only real flaw is a penchant for sketchy, banal lyrics that can jar with the imaginative and highly polished musical backdrop. [Oct 2012, p.71]

Overall, a triumph of assurance and tenderness. [Feb 2017, p.28]

A real joy, though it bears an inevitable sadness. [Feb 2020, p.25]

Confirming the band's Merseyside-'67 LA space-time portal, retracing familiar if melodically firm ground. [Oct 2023, p.26]

A second LP that builds on the promise of their 2009 debut, Harum Scarum. [Mar 2013, p.72]

Diligent cherry-picking makes this collection a decent illustration of their left-field charm. [Dec 2023, p.44]

Poetic ruminations largely accompanied by sparse piano and string quartet ("Coming Home", "Time To Go"), with the occasional curious detour. [Jun 2025, p.39]

Just as it's a struggle to name parallels beyond Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, it's equallly difficult to imagine why anybody would want to. [Jun 2018, p.24]

The pair became friends and, on this memorable acoustic show, a great double act. [May 2012, p.83]

The late '60s and early '70s serve as the band's natural milieu. [Aug 2020, p.39]

Thrashes to the classic American assembly-line rock of Springsteen and the choppy pop of early Nick Lowe/Joe Jackson. [June 2004, p.88]

An engaging exercise in psychedelic computer music that sees him exploring a more satisfying style of production after the itchiness of 2016's Unstepping. [Oct 2018, p.26]

Fans will be relieved to know that although it pulls few lyrical punches, slam-dancing is still possible. [Nov 2004, p.119]

Producers Todd Terje and Bjorn Yttling help effect a subtle but distinct shift, without sacrificing FF's Identity. [Sep 2013, p.89]

Live with it a little and Algiers reveals itself to be a warm and compassionate affirmation of the band's deep-rooted DNA, with enough fresh twists to keep this compelling story moving forward.

This debut is an enjoyable, wittily written selection of material that, in its desire for vintage feel, manages to be instantly familiar. [Nov 2015, p.80]

There's much to like, though the groovy, Frank Ocean-adjacent "Cherry" stands out. [Apr 2026, p.34]

There's no showboating and every classically nuanced arpeggio oozes with an elegant, crystalline beauty. [Apr 2021, p.32]

His wavering voice embraces sun-kissed pop on "Always The Right Time," twilight noir on "Leaving California"--and most emotions in between. [Mar 2017, p.28]

Sherwood's production is typically stylish - clear when needed, dubbed-out and spiraling when the music demands; heavy and uplifting. [Nov 2023, p.26]

These compact compositions inevitably risk straying into noodling self-indulgence at times. But in general, inspiration trumps masturbation. [Aug 2021, p.33]

[An] impressive solo debut. Largely focused on synths, it still leans on hypnotic, motorik rhythm, if more reflective than her band. [Jun 2018, p.37]

[Graves reinvents] himself as wistful purveyor of psych dream pop. It happens to suit him. [Jun 2018, p.27]

A starting point for rich exploration of the variety of American popular music by a veteran who has previously tried most of them on for size. [Aug 2020, p.37]

Hassell's immediately recognisable trumpet-playing--a tone that's feathery, flute-like, wheezing, weathered--binds everything together. [Sep 2020, p.31]

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

As ever, the single 44-minute track sis immersive; those coming to The Necks for a transcendent mindfulness session, however, may find it distinctly unnerving in places. [Dec 2015, p.75]

The third installment of Jarre's eco-themed trilogy follows the same pattern as its predecessors. [Jan 2017, p.24]

The Calling finds her in fine voice, nestling somewhere between Shawn Colvin and Helen Reddy. [Apr 2007, p.116]

A brace of Nick Lowe-penned Brinsley Schwarz tracks (“Surrender To The Rhythm”, “Don’t Lose Your Grip On Love”) are forensically faithful to the originals, but the older men bring an oaky maturity to Neil Young’s “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere” that likely eluded their younger selves. [Sep 2022, p.30]

There are dark undertones--drug references mainly--but Lewis is no moper. [Apr 2019, p.32]

Much here mediates around one unnerving groove. [May 2012, p.83]

It's the thickness of these synth textures and the intensity of the sounds that create a thoroughly immersive experience. [Jul 2016, p.78]

Miss Fortune is her least mainstream album to date and finds her moving delightfully nearer the terrain occupied by sister Shelby Lynne. [Sep 2002, p.114]

Their latest brings welcome variations in tone and tempo. [Nov 2020, p.29]

The Tarnished Gold, mature, with a revelatory appreciation for the simple life, might prove to be the true spiritual heir to their auspicious 2000 debut. [Jul 2012, p.81]

Producer Max Dingel fashions a crystal clear sound, full but never overblown, bringing an attractive universality to some very personal emotions. [Jun 2014, p.79]

If you've not already bought into the LDR mythos, it's like joining a long-form TV show midway through its difficult fourth season. [Jun 2023, p.26]

[The] 4CD set filleting his post-Auteurs solo works. ... Disc four features wreckage from his abandoned musical about demon landlord Nicholas van Hoogstraten. [Nov 2017, p.48]

Centipede Hz is an album that both gazes up into the cosmos, and stares down into the dirt--and perhaps that's not so weird.

There's no revolutionary do-over taking place here, just solid, reliable indie rock from a songwriter who knocks it out with what's bordering on flippant ease. [Apr 2022, p.28]

His blazing guitar leads contrast with the sombre tone of the 20-track We're Your Friends, Man, the fragile-voiced Saloman haunted by third-age problems. [Jan 2019, p.19]

Bright Spirit is a wide-ranging set flooded with singer-guitarist Kavus Torabi's metaphysical imagery. [Apr 2026, p.33]

Britfolk's most adventurous neo-traditionalist takes the surprise quotient to new heights on this conceptual set. [Feb 2020, p.30]

The likes of Khruangbin, St Vincent, fhoebe Bridgers and Josh Homme spice up Macca’s songs in their idiosyncratic fashion, while a few improve the originals. [Jun 2021, p.28]

The effect [sung wordlessly, a cappella, with a multi-tracked choir humming the arrangements] is initially comic but soon becomes utterly mesmeric. [Mar 2013, p.72]