Best blues album of the year so far. [Jul 2012, p.69]

Whispering Trees presents rain-sodden English romanticism of the Nick drake/Bill Fay school occasionally ramped up to cosmic proportions with the help of the Radar Brothers' effects units. [Feb 2013, p.78]

No surprises, no classic, but a warm and well-produced set. [Oct 2015, p.78]

Challenging, but deeply satisfying. [Aug 2016, p.83]

Both are versatile players, and while "Tonight The Bottle Wins Again" is a swaggering blues, Harper leans towards Otis Redding on "When Love Is Not Enough." [May 2018, p.28]

None of these fall too far from the ZZ Top tree, defined by crashing riffs and a raunchy sense of humour. [Nov 2018, p.29]

A robust if not radically groundbreaking set of hook-laden heartland Americana with occasional detours into college indie rock. [Oct 2019, p.39]

There are some points where it skirts tweeness, and Wilkinson's voice is a little too airbrushed, but there's pleasure aplenty here. [Aug 2020, p.27]

Astatke is still a virtuoso but it's mostly BJE who take the lead. [Aug 2020, p.25]

A crawling, paranoiac jazz-funk odyssey. It might be the best of these Dwyer & Co records to date. [Feb 2022, p.28]

Occasionally it can feel like you’re listening to in-jokes playing on repeat, but good tunes like “Eight Minute Machines” (Sleaford Mods, 1978) and “Twitchin’ In The Kitchen” (“It’s Tricky” repurposed for drug users) emerge from the funky environs with characterful fuzz intact. [May 2022, p.36]

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]

It's a smart, exuberant set. [Dec 2022, p.32]

'The Tipping Point' is typical of the album as a whole, a rush of hoe-down guitars and echo-laden drums topped off with a half-yelp of a vocal that recalls a slightly more unhinged Jack White. [July 2008, p109]

He puts a uniquely Rufus twist on the likes of "Shenandoah" and "Wild Mountain Thyme" of course, singing them in his best operatic tenor with a touch of John Jacob Niles. [Jul 2023, p.36]

The follow-up to 2010's Innundir Skinni is an even more intimate affair. [Feb 2013, p.67]

Dent May favours freewheeling, psych-funk pop that nods at The Beach Boys and The Carpenters, but adds notes of samba, mariachi and '50s lounge music. [Nov 2013, p.69]

They are less successful when they step beyond these templates--the trippy "Surface" doesn't quite come off-- but this is a strong set. [Oct 2011, p.95]

Despite the odd longueurs, Boys Don't Cry is a heartfelt, beguiling match of singer and song. [Jul 2012, p.80]

Their imperial phase may have passed, but Slayer will not go easy. [Oct 2015, p.83]

A (rap-free) triumph. [May 2015, p.77]

Muse redeem high-camp absurdity with a genius for sumptuous arrangements, mighty pop hooks and irresistible melodrama. [Nov 2012, p.79]

Lewis' piano still sounds as urgent and uncontained as it did whrn rock'n'roll was invented on it, and his insouciant snarl remains thrillingly feral. [Nov 2010, p.93]

A confident melodic sensibility ensures such self-conscious quirkiness stays just the right side of irritating. [July 2008, p.90]

Carson Cox's over-emotive delivery and a bombastic arrangement tip the album's power-ballad finale, "I Will Not Sleep Here," into Night Ranger Territory. Thankfully, the trio is more careful about its point of reference elsewhere. [Oct 2016, p.35]

The thing with the L-event EP is that across four tracks, there isn't the room afforded on their best LPs for something resembling accessibility. [Nov-Dec 2013, p.100]

With echoes of everyone from Big Star to Elliott Smith, Bored Nothing have sufficient promise to be really something. [Jul 2013, p.71]

Baxter's brilliance is varied. [Dec 2014, p.75]

An unapologetic confection of lush overstatement. [Jul 2016, p.67]

A terrific, laidback, sleep-headed dose of minor key psychedelia, which has something of the flavour of Spiritualized at their finest. [Jul 2016, p.79]

This hypnotic blend of R&B-pop, luminous chillwave and whacked-out funk has its own piquancy. [Jul 2018, p.37]

A thunderous epiphany of overlapping guitars and in-your-face lyrics. [Jan 2019, p.27]

On This Is Really Going To Hurt, singer Will Taylor's characteristic black humour still cloaks the West Coast harmonies of "Everyone's A Winner," but the emotions cuts deep. [May 2021, p.27]

These essentially dour, '90s synth sounds aren't an obvious nirvana, though, but a wounded vocal sensitivity sometimes suggesting Midlake and Harp's Tim Smith, and deceptively crafted lyrics, add complexity to the prayers for peace. [Jul 2024, p.39]

For an international pop act on a major label, this is a daring album. [May 2005, p.109]

It's all craftily entertaining, but loopy lead single 'Paris Is Burning' is the one track that escapes pastiche. [Oct 2008, p.94]

Another group who make a virtue of the physical and cultural space America has to offer, drawing on the disparateness of their origins. [Ju l 2010, p.108]

Some fascinating music but... you suspect Parish's talents are best utilised as a collaborator. [Oct 2005, p.111]

All pleasant enough, but much like its predecessor, Flux suffers from too much frictionless filler and too few actual dancefloor bangers. [Sep 2025, p.31]

The finest tracks here update the duo's attitude as well as their sound, dissecting anew cultural and emotional climate with a bittersweet detachment reminiscent of the Pet Shop Boys. [Oct 2002, p.124]

Less startling than its predecessor Ft Lake, but it's still a brave departure for a 4AD band previously synonymous with ethereal whimsy. [Nov 2002, p.118]

DeLaughter is stingier with his pop songs this time, filling out the album with much ponderous, quasi-symphonic ballast. [Aug 2004, p.94]

Puts welcome top-spin on a genre fixated on Suicide by reviving Devo, adding the glamour and flamboyance of The New York Dolls, Ziggy-era Bowie and Roxy Music, then whipping the lot along with the Glitter Band's ludicrous stomp. [Jul 2004, p.112]

The overall effect is all a bit "earnest teen drama"--"Dead Hearts" is a surely shoo-in for the soundtrack of the next Twilight movie--but the hit-rate is impressively high. [Sep 2010, p.104]

His songwriting style is pitched somewhere between Elvis Costello, Burt Bacharach and early Roddy Frame, displaying a knack for heart-tugging chord changes and delicately deployed Brazilian rhythms. [Nov 2011, p.91]

It's a breezy and easy listen, as displayed on the melodic shuffle of "Unfamiliar Sun," but there's also a deeply layered approach where stacks of harmonies and melodies interweave gracefully. [Nov 2019, p.33]

Ranaldo's spoken-word ambles can feel a bit precious, and at times the material doesn't cohere--a natural risk with experimentations. But when it falls together, it's beguiling. [Mar 2020, p.35]

It’s an album packed with leftfield ideas and off-kilter lyrical narratives seemingly fashioned in fever dreams. [Aug 2021, p.24]

With everything slathered liberally in reverb, Ester is wrong in all the right ways. [Feb 2012, p.90]

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

Most of the album comes across as a weedy, irritating student pastiche of the DFA sound rather than something that deserves a place in its esteemed catalogue. [Sep 2009, p.105]

Joseph Mount and co have tried to narrow their focus, with 'My Heart Rate Rapid' and 'A Thing For Me' the most obvious benificaries of a new streamlined approach. elsewhere, however, an off-putting manic surrealism remains, which somehow feels like an act of self-sabotage. [Oct 2008, p.p.101]

A more mature expression of self-understanding. [Jun 2020, p.34]

The album has its fair share of filler.... But, at its best, World Peace feels like a perfect penultimate episode in the last season of a beloved TV series. [Aug 2014, p.66]

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

A couple of tracks are interesting alternatives versions of songs from A Weird Exit, while on the all-new pieces, the general mood is mellower than usual. [Jan 2017, p.31]

Sentimental yet experimental, ii suggests Liima could be the band Efterklang always wanted to be. [May 2016, p.75]

A light summer picnic, not a full meal. [Jul 2017, p.36]

The issue here is the sameness of his songs. [Dec 2017, p.25]

A little may go a long way with Telepathe, but there's enough variety here to reward repeated listening.

Sea Of Cowards is undeniably a major rock record in terms of production and personnel, but is caught between two camps: What is contains is neither major, nor indie, simply enjoyably minor. [Jun 2010, p.94]

The World Is Yours contains repetition aplenty: but no hesitation or deviation. [Feb 2011, p.93]

Those who adored The Make-Up may find the skeletal drum machine thunk of "Stuck In A Box" a little demo quality. But Svenonius' charisma is unflagging, and his commitment to the theme can thrill. [May 2014, p.71]

Revels in its own thudding nastiness but brings few new ideas to the table. [Dec 2004, p.138]

A welcome return. [Jan 2013, 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]

Good fun. [July 2009, p.84]

In The Blue Light might thus be a rather tardy, and expensive, way of going with his initial instincts. [Oct 2018, p.22]

As a whole, demanding of patience. [Apr 2014, p.78]

The lurch towards conventionality has exposed Isis' limitations: their paucity of melodic ideas, the pompous drumming, the lack of wit or soul. [Jan 2007, p.100]

Only emphasises their problems. [Jul 2006, p.92]

They may be shamelessly role-playing their Joan Jett schtick, but The Donnas still out-rock earnest retro-bores like Jet and Kings Of Leon. [Dec 2004, p.157]

Instead of idling into wry balladry of the later works of their obvious idols The Replacements, which would have suited Green Day well, they've affected the airs of Serious Artists. [Jul 2009, p.88]

This is surprisingly, refreshingly, "modern" music. [Mar 2002, p.104]

Strangely compelling. [Oct 2003, p.124]

At their best, Orton's songs do achieve what Daybreaker sets out to achieve--a sense of watching the dawn rise, all hyper and half awake from having been up all night arguing, making love or simply conversing intensely. [Sep 2002, p.108]

The duo's liking for repetitive Royal Trux-style riffage forms the core of their debut but they frequently explore more sparse territories. [Apr 2003, p.110]

Ultimately, it's that out-of-time devotion--along with soaring choruses to put most contemporaries to shame--which makes this a debut record to cherish. [May 2004, p.104]

By The Way presents a band who have mellowed and matured with unusual benefits to their music. [Sep 2002, p.118]

Full of surprising songs with some cracking tunes that step far outside the punk-funk-grunge-metal formula of the Chili Peppers. [Mar 2004, p.99]

The first six tracks of pared-down techno loops give way to the ambient sound-and-speech collage of "InterZil" before the metallic funk jackhammers of frenzied current single "Krekc." [Jul 2002, p.106]

[A] sturdy ensemble record. [Jul 2005, p.104]

When the shuffly mountain music is bolstered by some unobtrusive electronics it sounds more natural than it should. [Mar 2008, p.84]

Canning's default setting is a distorted, drone-laden, melodic indie rock that recalls My Bloody Valentine or Sonic Youth, but he also goes off on some interesting tangents. [Oct 2008, p.81]

Radian, the Vienna based trio of martin Brandlmayr (drums), Stefan Nemeth (guitars, synthesizers)and John Norman (bass), are a cerebral, digital post-rock outfit whose wibbliness too often leads them into a state of rhythmic paralysis. [Jan 2010, p. 123]

They have bell-clear voices, and a spooky ability to envince naivety and world-weariness in the same breath. [Feb 2010, p.88]

Their debut is an urgent affair full of scratchy, slyly melodic and occasionally anthemic post-punk rock. [Apr 2011, p.83]

Not radically reinventive, then, but Vessels deserve to keep their foothold on the post-rock face. [Apr 2011, p.100]

Stuffed full of prospective hits, Wretch's desire to rank beside Kanye and Jay-Z may not be that far fetched. [Sep 2011]

It suggests that, far from being a cynical piece of auto-karaoke, the bulk of this album is motivated more by art than nostalgia. [Nov 2011, p.82]

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

The good news is [single "You Don't Know How Lucky You Are"] is not even the best song on his debut album. [Mar 2012, p.89]

It could do with some Toe Ze-style danger, and it's a bit coffeetable--but a sun-dappled, rum-stocked coffee table to be fair. [May 2012, p.69]

[This LP] is rammed with coming-of-age songs masquerading as outlaw tales, driven by Smith's happy knack for finely chiseled narratives and a great blustery voice that roars through bluegrass shanties. [Nov 2012, p.85]

Oak Island does for Chicago what Panda Bear's Personal Pitch did for The Beach Boys. [Apr 2013, p.74]

An unusual taste that's well worth acquiring. [Dec 2013, p.66]

Amelia Rivas and Christian Pinchbeck were "on" before they recorded their debut album, but are now very much "off," a situation which adds a fraught edge to the woozy Sky Swimming. [Jun 2014, p.76]

It's to The Felice Brothers' credit that Favorite Waitress never quite becomes oppressively earnest, though it's a near thing at a couple points. [Jul 2014, p.75]