Between Two Shores might be his most compelling and imaginative amalgam of Big Pink folk-rock and Muscle Shoals R&B. [Feb 2018, p.28]

Variety is this album's strength. [Oct 2023, p.33]

At other times he falls back on elegantly vintage-clad pastichery, but then the stomping baroque pop duet of "I Gotta Limit" and the sun-dappled wistfulness of "To Live For What Once Was" prick up our ears once again. [Jan 2025, p.31]

She embeds her anxious, self-flagellating lyrics in jaunty settings that dynamically replicate garage rock, girl-group pop and doo-wop. [Mar 2017, p.30]

Here his [Vieux's] guitar melts audaciously into Khruangbin's spacey atmospherics and futuristic R&B. [Nov 2022, p.38]

There's much beauty aid the flux of recorders, messy analogue synths and wayward sax. [May 2012, p.77]

This is all about the warm, soft glow of his voice and band, mostly taped together on the studio floor. [Oct 2020, p.36]

Smith sees the fragments left behind by an old songwriting mentor - paintings, cups of coffee, the gift of her first guitar - as things to be celebrated, and the same is true of these 10 fragments of herself. [Jul 2025, p.37]

A set of lush and moody ballads boasting ripe wisdom. [Oct 2025, p.31]

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

The piano house pop of “Woman” and synth-fuelled trance of “Holiday” could have been released in 1992, but they’re no less likeable for it. They’re shot through with CM’s trademark wry cool, as is “What I Like”, wherein Sugar Bones’ laconic vocal makes a dancefloor anthem sound somehow like The Dandy Warhols gone disco. [May 2022, p.25]

Younge and his horn octet create some fine pastiche of Fela Kuti's Egypt 90 band around Allen's beats. [Aug 2023, p.23]

It’s an affirmation of their relationship and personal and creative identities in an(other) electronic-soul set with muted beats and a meditative, rather than impassioned bent, though no less righteous for that. [Jun 2022, p.29]

Their playing is more expressive as ever. Happily, the maturation of Larkin Poe's sound coincides with a step forward in songwriting. [Feb 2025, p.39]

The current lineup lacks that ritualistic Jamaican component - the nyabinghi-style conga playing of the late Pablo Gonsales and the Skatalites-influenced sax of Mike "Bammi" Rose - but there are still great moments. [Jan 2025, p.32]

Amber Papini's beautiful, whimsical vocals are what strike you first when listening to Hospitality's more than decent debut. [May 2012, p.75]

The pill is somewhat sweetened by Braids' glossy new sound, a feelgood revamp that pairs swooning electronics with upfront drum'n'bass and will do some damage at large outdoor events. [Jun 2015, p.72]

Jump Into Life feels like a vital reminder of how the expression of joy can serve as both an act of resistance and a demonstration of resilience. [Jul 2025, p.33]

Subtlety with Skynyrd chops. [Dec 2003, p.117]

It's an insinuating set, bordering on morose in places. [Aug 2013, p.74]

Generally her pop is as adult as her lyrics. [Feb 2026, p.29]

A pygmy in the grown-up pop world, maybe, but in his own tiny corner of the cosmos, a giant. [Feb 2019, p.30]

The band's self-titled debut may inevitably lack the electricity of the live shows, but with the abundance of trashy thrills, "I Love LA" and "Let Her Be" still demonstrate the potency of Sytarcrawler's au courant mash-up of Raw Power-era stooges, Sunset Strip glam-metal and Nirvana at their hookiest. [Feb 2018, p.35]

Having scampered down the rabbit hole, COA seem hopelessly confused--and all the better for it. [Apr 2017, p.25]

A mixture of original songs, among them the propulsive title track, and covers, each of which are given a richly visceral makeover by massed female voices. [Apr 2017, p.26]

It all too often sounds like Metronomy's secret Hackney-themed indie project. [Mar 2014, p.78]

Although his dabblings in bluegrass pastiche are less convincing elsewhere, it’s all shot through with characteristic, likeable idiosyncrasy. [Oct 2022, p.36]

Another compellingly intimate listen. [May 2019, p.24]

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]

This is an album dominated by the two remaining Isley Brothers. Ronald Isley's distinctive tenor groan sounds particularly good on slowies such as "Mercy Mercy Me" and Leon Thomas' "Let The Rain Fall On Me." [Sep 2017, p.30]

McKenna merges glam, pop, indie and a touch of electronica to make a contemporary sonic exploration of a tumultuous world. [Oct 2020, p.34]

She's angry, but she's trying to offer some answers too: more power to her for such positivity. [Feb 2023, p.32]

Although his take lacks Bob's iconoclasm, there's something deeply reassuring about his laid back schmooze on abiding classics such as "Night And Day" and "Fly Me To The Moon." [Nov 2018, p.34]

Even as a covers band, Madness remain one step beyond. [Aug 2005, p.90]

Surfing Strange hits similar touchstones to Waxahatchee--Sebadoh, The Breeders, that whole '90s grunge wave--albeit with rather more noisy brio. [Dec 2013, p.74]

Kohncke hasn't yet managed to pull off a completely successful, consistently great album. Wonderful Frequency Band is the closest he's come, terrible punning aside, largely due to its focus on the dancefloor. [Feb 2014, p.77]

There’s a strong Big Thief vibe to tracks like "Lot's Wife" and "Silsbee" - named after the small town where the album was recorded - but Why Bonnie have a more traditional concept of melody, best expressed on the excellent "Sharp Town". [Oct 2022, p.36]

This neo-disco banger ["Emotion"] overshadows the rest of the record, leaving the listener longing fir those same types of compact, entirely snackable treats. [Sep 2021, p.25]

Delicate, desert-baked confessionals a plenty. [Nov 2020, p.33]

The band's most organic-sounding record since 1996's Emperor Tomato Ketchup. [Mar 2004, p.90]

Altin Gün's more psychedelic tendencies are less overt this time around, though there's still plenty to enjoy. [Mar 2026, p.25]

One of his better efforts. [Nov 2013, p.75]

Her 10th album steps back from the literary conceits and high concepts of her last couple of albums and finds humility and grace amid the "permanent emergency" of the present. [Jun 2025, p.41]

Their prevailing operatic bleakness has barely changed in the intervening 14 years. [Jun 2015, p.72]

[Producer Dessner's] immersive production, including layered keyboards and twinkling harmonics, pairs perfectly with her elegant voice. [Sep 2020, p.29]

A record that provides few surprises but at least captures the feral energy of their live shows. [Sep 2016, p.78]

They add multiple voices, such as Dina Ipavic and Penelope Isles. this can result in a slightly disjointed and incohesive listen, but sometimes, as with Anna B Savage on the pulsing "Home", they get the alchemy just right. [Mar 2023, p.32]

So charged it crackles. [Feb 2005, p.82]

A feelgood record with a troubled soul. [Sep 2016, p.70]

A record that is intensely visceral, loud and charged yet not needlessly overblown. [May 2022, p.26]

It's probably the most personal project of Gilmour's career. [Apr 2006, p.108]

Doubling down on the Deadhead-to-Lagos sound of “Frisco Beaver” may mean fewer surprises but the band’s loyal herd will no doubt savour the greater prominence of keyboard-driven freakouts and the greater fullness of grooves like the one that powers the mighty “Ouroboros”. [Nov 2024, p.36]

For all its old-time vibes, a typically inspired record from Ferry. [Jan 2019, p.21]

Dare's songwriting feels to be improving, even as he pares his music to the bare essentials. [Mar 2020, p.26]

Halo is occasionally guilty of tasteful conservatory restraint, but overall this is a richly, immersive headphones experience, a haunted sonic mansion of many chambers. [Nov 2023, p.29]

Lyrical malaise is matched, as ever, by immaculately crafted electronic pop music that veers just as much into joy, elation and euphoria as it does melancholic introspection. [Sep 2022, p.24]

A kind of Joshua Tree for the heavily pierced and mildly upset. [Dec 2004, p.140]

As with her best material, it's an album to lip-synch for your life to. [Oct 2021, p.31]

Ceremony feels appealingly gigantic. [Jul 2013, p.83]

Remastering these original recordings not only unmoors these songs from that particular era in rock history but also sharpens the band's attack and showcases each player's contribution to Adam's House cat's unruly sound. [Nov 2018, p.45]

The album's palette feels broad, with electronics switching from twinkling and melodic to antagonistic industrial clangs. [Apr 2017, p.40]

[The songs are] stoked by a slow-burning intensity that peaks in controlled explosions, Marcus Gordon's voice their focus. [Jun 2016, p.79]

Much of that atmosphere [from previous albums] remains on Captain Of None, thanks to whispered vocals and a focus on the courtly pluck of a viola da gamba. [Jun 2015, p.73]

This discreet sense of procession is very much in keeping with Staples' MO on Arrhythmia, be it via the loops and beats of "A New Real" or the hushed calm of the exquisite "Memories Of Love." [Aug 2018, p.35]

There's a more pronounced sense of drive and velocity. [Aug 2020, p.36]

The best record he's made since 1996's Casanova, it's one of those rare instances when an artist retraces their steps and successfully locates what made them interesting in the first place. [May 2004, p.102]

Where the haunted vocals and atmospheric production remain, it's in service of something bolder, more dynamic. [Jan 2022, p.22]

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]

Sole's fast and fluid rhymes deal with a wide range of socio-political concerns, but are saved from sounding like diatribes by his sly wit. [Apr 2005, p.114]

Wood is in his element, delivering needle sharp licks and belting the classic, while a passing Imelda May adds some serious sizzle to "We Wee Hours." [Dec 2019, p.35]

Inside Problems is a rather less meticulous and more spirited band set that examines the questions that keep him awake at night, in ear-snagging songs shot through with ’70s country rock, chamber pop, Balkan and Appalachian folk and Tin Pan Alley eccentricity. [Jul 2022, p.23]

Whatever meanings are to be gleaned here, Bleed Out still rates as one of the band’s hardest-rocking outings. [Sep 2022, p.28]

Andy Gill's guitar work is still distinctive and angular on tracks like "Toreador" and "Don't Ask Me," but the band seem intent on lending the old with the new. [May 2019, p.23]

Though sometimes a tad one-dimensional, at its best this music is as warm, sad and effortlessly beautiful as a midsummer sunset. [Apr 2014, p.69]

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

It's a(nother) set of hushed, impressionistic tracks tapping the British folk tradition, digital psychedelia, Talk Talk and Japanese death poems. [Aug 2019, p.36]

Why only eight songs are included isn't clear, but it's academic when the trio sound this energised. [Mar 2023, p.35]

They can still surprise, too, with tinges of organ psychedelia, anxious time-signatures and, on the sweet acoustic reverie of "Salt Water", evocative found sounds. [Dec 2025, p.29]

A band that long ago perfected their sound, such collaborations rather suit them. [Apr 2013, p.68]

Tunde Adebimpe's gorgeous voice guarantees quasi-spiritual uplift even in their more obvious moments, but there are a couple of wild cards. [Dec 2014, p.81]

Closer "Underdog", a stripped-back self-portrait of a striver still "trying hard [to] leave a mark", provides an intimate coda to Harwood's depiction of his teeming inner world, a hermetically sealed ocean of emotion. [Jul 2022, p.27]

Rice is at his best when indulging his penchant for punk bubblegum. [Dec 2013, p.71]

Barker's fourth album has a clean, rootsy feel. [Aug 2013, p.67]

[John Tejada] maintains his penchant for melancholic, Detroit-inspired tech-house better suited to the home than club environment. [Feb 2015, p.84]

A great leap backwards. [Feb 2014, p.80]

Organic set of gorgeously gilded songs which English folk sensibility mixes with the freewheeling spirit of Californian Canyon rock. [Mar 2024, p.35]

There's an effortless clip... that suggests renewed confidence. [Mar 2005, p.93]

It revolves around bleak, squalling repetitions and a mood of wretched abjection. But Gira's voice has weathered grandly. [Sep 2012, p.86]

An intriguingly diverse "double" (well, 53 minutes) album. [Jan 2019, p.25]

Well-crafted compositions. [Jan 2019, p.31]

Selections from wake Up The nation and Sonic Kick stand out, especially the former's "No Tears To Cry" and the latter's "That Dangerous Age", but it's the times when he turns back the clock or nods to his influences that make the deepest impression. [May 2026, p.51]

With Suicide's spooked primitivism and Depeche Mode's throbbing anguish as blueprints, Sartain's synthesised shock treatment is a compelling segue from his spartan rockin' past. [Mar 2016, p.78]

This follow-up feels almost like business as usual. Luckily, there are a clutch of standout songs. [May 2016, p.75]

The malevolent, Stooges-and-Suicide-styled noise of their definitive Blood Red River is less apparent, but attitudinal chops and unpredictability abound. [Sep 2021, p.33]

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 duo's lesser songs may not stray from a familiar pocket of retro-soul, but it's a very fine pocket nonetheless. [Jul 2019, p.24]

Aching pop-soul bathed in nostalgic warmth of another era. ... Yet Atkins is also possessed of a singular, torchy voice that floods these songs with genuine fervour. [Aug 2017, p.25]

Dark Days And Canapes feels both bleaker and more robust than [earlier works]. [Sep 2017, p.28]