This is more of the same bucolic electronica and smudgy rave that Fake does so well. [Mar 2026, p.32]

It bubbles with conviction, the mock-fearsome, statuesque diva loading her lyrics with Prince-like panche. [Nov 2008, p.105]

Modestly presented, then, but as skillfully turned as ever. [Mar 2022, p.31]

It has more garage-rock energy than the enervated Babyshambles. [Jun 2006, p.98]

The highlight is a creepy, prowling, marimba-driven take on The Knife's "Pass This On," which retains the female gaze of the original. [Jun 2014, p.82]

Drum machines and brass add a little range to the prettily strummed ethereal balladry. [Apr 2015, p.77]

The Drums are more stupidly contagious than ever. [May 2019, p.27]

Extreme Witchcraft snaps and snarls more than usual, but wit, tunes and third-degree self-awareness continue to serve the post-grunge Randy Newman well. [Feb 2022, p.28]

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

Weird but good. [Jun 2016, p.73]

Gonzales' conceptual stunts never detract from the music's inherent prettiness. [Apr 2015, p.76]

El Guincho is a kind of Iberian Kanye, and this is a twisted fantasy of wine-bar techno: busy, brash and migrainey, at its adventurous best on "Comix" and "Mis Hist." [Apr 2016, p.71]

A generic gem, full of virtuosic playing, breathtaking three-part harmonies and memorable, melodic songs about the human condition. [May 2023, p.32]

This is one mighty party album. [May 2006, p.105]

There's brio and craft behind the cosmetic nostalgia. [July 2008, p.100]

The music starts to grip most powerfully when it's more allusive and introspective.

Pop's lightness doesn't much suit Bulat; she's at her best on the banjo-driven title track and gospel toned closer "If It Rains." [Feb 2010, p.79]

Ellis' purist, even traditionalist, voice is the perfect vessel for his sanguine portraits of ordinary people, battered and bruised but never without hope. [Mar 2014, p.72]

Dr. Dog have stepped up to the plate for the fifth album and hits a homer. [Sep 2008, p.88]

Her country warble may be a little too trad. honey for eclectic tastes. [May 2003, p.91]

It successfully pins down black American sources, though it's occasionally marred by dated production. [Mar 2002, p.97]

Too often, all it offers is the rumble of starting engines. [Feb 2002, p.124]

Whereas so much downtempo leans heavily on two-note, oceanic synth washes, Blue States are masters of detail. [Sep 2002, p.111]

His wonky debut taps kosmische, post-punk and lo-fi electronic noise, but keeps its sights on the pop hook. [Sep 2014, p.79]

A set of faintly sad songs so minimal that they're often barely there at all. [May 2005, p.96]

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]

The production can sound derivative, but when Younge is on inspired form. [Sep 2015, p.75]

The end result creates an engulfing sonic swirl, recalling the enveloping work of Cluster and Tangerine Dream. [Dec 2018, p.24]

If you had Yamagata bagged as "winsome singer-songwriter," the breadth and ambition of this double-disc will knock you sideways. [Apr 2009, p.105]

There is, as usual, a lot of brass on cake's sixth album, a flourish that seem idiosyncratic 20 years ago but now leaves them sounding a little stale. [Feb 2012, p.83]

If there's a faint veil of disappointment hanging over all this excellence, it's that Allah-Las haven't built m,ore adventurously on the foundations of their debut. [Oct 2014, p.66]

Fantasy is a spellbinding return to form for the French producer. [May 2023, p.31]

Even if Rose is short on killer tunes or delivery, her oversupply of nostalgia charm is ultimately no bad thing. [Dec 2010, p.105]

A mostly rich and involving experience. [Apr 2005, p.98]

You're unlikely to be disappointed. [Apr 2011, p.84]

[The set] has ramshackle charm. [Nov 2013, p.89]

Once heard, they are not easily forgotten. [Jul 2013, p.76]

Alias is where the giddy exhilaration and buoyant lift of early Magic Numbers grows into a bold, spacey and sensational creation. [Sep 2014, p.75]

A final suite of three songs--"Wait For Her," "Oceans Apart" and "Part OF Me Died"--offer a more intimate perspective; a warm, optimistic coda to Waters' apocalyptic reveries. [Jul 2017, p.40]

The result is akin to walking in the woods alone at midnight--both spooky and compelling. [Nov 2006, p.104]

Their horizon expands via garage-psych incantation "In The Roses" and chugging closer "Everybody Knows," which suggests a Granddaddy epic; the Shjips' ragged country-rock opus is clearly some way off yet. [Dec 2013, p.75]

We'll be lucky if the year yields another headphone album as sumptuous as this one. [Jul 2017, p.30]

Noise, which might frustrate hardcore types because despite the promise of its title--delivered via speed-metal monster "Quicksiler" and 18-minute, FX-strafed-epic, "Angel"--it leans on their melodic shoegazing tendencies. [Jul 2014, p.70]

Occasional similarities to Placebo may be unfortunate, but they are countered by the record's bracing directness and infectious vitality. [Dec 2010, p.109]

When your attention drifts you barely notice it's there. But when you do, it evokes a warm and evocative pleasure. [Dec 2012, p.72]

The results are inevitably polished - but, crucially, never overly so. [Sep 2025, p.28]

They've really only got one trick. But it's a treat, all the same. [Oct 2011, p.98]

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

He's a man who cleary thrives on company, his stringy voice bolstered by the presence of Jolie Holland, Neal Casel, an on "No time To live Without Her," Vashti Bunyan. [Jan 2011, p.92]

The bristling performances more closely resemble the solo piano excursions of such post-bop masters as Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett, which s no bad thing at all. [Aug 2020, p.33]

10 Futures propulsive blend of soul-pop and electronica sees him indulging a more experimental side, making it a satisfying proposition all round. [Feb 2015, p.73]

It's a testament of the savvy of darcy and his producers Ross Gillard and Amy Fort that the new album's experimental passages are very much cut from the same cloth as more obvious crowd-pleasers like "You Felt Comfort," which shares the drive and jangle of "Tall Glass Of Water," and "Saint Germain," a dreamy haze of a song that demonstrates Darcy's gift for melody, absurd turns of phase and more pointed expressions of inner turmoil. [Mar 2017, p.38]

On >>>, you get carried along by BEAK>'s sheer enthusiasm--cut adrift from their past, sealed off from expectation, existing entirely in the moment. [Oct 2018, p.25]

Having helped define '90s alt.rock with Pavement, Kannberg here turns felicitous rock classicist. [May 2019, p.34]

Unfortunately, and rather ironically, Mojo is ultimately undone by the very virtuosity of its creators: the band stumbles repeatedly into that musican's trap of making music that sounds intended principally to impress other musicans. [July 2010, p.102]

The intimate, minimal work done by his accomplices serves to channel Pop at his bleakest and most rueful. [Oct 2019, p.34]

A records that spurts gloriously in all directions. [Oct 2013, p.65]

This self-produced fourth still has many charms. [Apr 2017, p.39]

The diversity here is testament to the sheer scope of his [Leon Russell's] writing. [Oct 2023, p.37]

It ["Hurtin' Or Healed"] is one of many moments on the record with a reflectively slow and gentle pace. But there are also subtle dynamic shifts and spikes throughout. [Nov 2023, p.32]

Her rapping/singing is insightful, stroppy and hilarious. [Oct 2008, p.96]

It's silly in parts ("Little Things"), deranged in others ("Keep An Eye On Dan") but the "ah-ha ah-ha" chorus on "Just A Notion" comfortably makes up for a multitude of sins. [Feb 2022, p.23]

She proves... that she's more than a professional widow. [Jul 2005, p.104]

The album sounds like one good idea stretched out to a meandering and repetitive 40 minutes. [Oct 2016, p.32]

The understated gospel-style fervor and steely determination of "Nothing But The Whole Wide World" with Neko Case stands out. [Jun 2010, p.84]

Mostly, it's funky pop, half-deconstructed and relentlessly optimistic. [Jun 2012, p.71

The Musicianship is on point, the recoding crystal clear. But as a listener, it feels difficult to penetrate the album's inky darkness, and you suspect they like it that way. [Feb 2015, p.77]

Musically at least, [Jacksonville] confirms Adams' restoration to rude health. [Oct 2005, p.106]

An epic hour of music. [May 2012, p.69]

It never quite matches the promise of the excellent opening half. [Jun 2015, p.75]

The Heavy's debut album is a dirty, bluesy, funk rock noise that, on paper, looks deeply uncool but might actually be the album of the year. [Dec 2007, p.97]

Mondanile doesn't always have the songs to pull off the silver jacket. "Wearing A Mask" hints at band beefs past, much as "In The Hallway" does to the Real Estate mode, but these and the intricate guitar licks of "Mannequin" are the only moments where Ducktails make their fusion spark. [Nov 2017, p.26]

It sounds, to its considerable credit, very much like the record that might have followed. [Jun 2018, p.24]

There's a sense that he's doing little more than cobbling together offcuts from his recent stream of projects. [Dec 2008, p.105]

The belated follow-up is a massive upgrade. [May 2017, p.26]

A predominantly female choir features throughout, boosting Taylor's crises of confidence on "Focus Is Power" and "What Now" into communal rallying cries. But there is fun here too. [May 2025, p.39]

Feyness is a constant threat, but Mitchell's British debut generally tiptoes clear of whimsy, mixing up the guitar loops, squitting beats and genteel vocal angst in a way which becomes insidious. [Apr 2003, p.105]

Think the Chemical Brothers meet Flaco Jiminez and you'll get the idea. [Jan 2003, p.119]

While Baby I'm Bored is way too modest to be a masterpiece, it's far more than a join-the-dots account of a life on the rocks, and grows brighter, and more optimistic, with every play. [Apr 2003, p.102]

For every inspired turn, there's an insubstantial one, while some merely appear sluggish. [Aug 2005, p.96]

[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]

This release compiles non-album tracks, remixes and a couple of new tunes, but it feels like a perfectly focused set of retro-modernist dance. [Jan 2012, p.90]

{I Still Do] offers a typical Clapton mix of covers and original material. The former are rather more impressive than the latter. [Jun 2016, p.72]

Purling Hiss set aside their chaotic brand of psychedelic garage rock in favour of a collection that seems to owe a surprising debt to British New Wave of the late '70s and early '80s. [Nov 2016, p.35]

Watkins' judicious arrangements and less-is-more approach throw different shades onto these songs she fell in love with a child. [May 2021, p.35]

There's nothing quite as forward looking here. [Oct 2009, p.102]

McCauley's time might just have arrived.

A little more zip wouldn't go amiss. [Aug 2019, p.36]

Coomes rasps and hollers across the kind of gurgling voodoo boogie that Suicide or Clinic would consider too deranged to release. [Sep 2016, p.71]

There's still a noisy edge to the group and some moments do shine, such as the LCD Soundsystem-like "Welcome To Hell" or the sneering "I'm Sick," but largely the album feels a little lost and confused. [Dec 2016, p.26]

Ultimately, Phrazes For The Young testifies that the qualities that made Julian Casablancas so noteworthy in 2001 remain in place, just a little more difficult to predict.

He's at his best here on the playful Beck-like 'Hurricane' and the sweetly mournful 'Rope of Sand,' but Jamiroquai-averse listeners would do well to avoid 'Figure Me Out.' [May 2008, p.102]

This follow-up is a lackluster affair. [Sep 2009, p.95]

There us ab agreeably lo-fi C86 sloppiness to much f this debut, even if it sounds more cheap than raw in places. [Feb 2014, p.81]

Rarely has emotional repression sounded so coy, or so appealing. [Dec 2010, p.86]

It's yielded his best solo album in years. Rather than home, it's actually a close-knit kind of jam session. [Oct 2010, p.96]

Stuttering breakbeats, looped effects and suffusive psychedelia. [Feb 2007, p.72]

The album has a hazy, deeply romantic quality. [Nov 2006, p.112]