Some of Wold's tracks here with a full band don't descend into pub-blues mediocrity. [Apr 2015, p.83]

It's often closer to the music the group made during their 2000 comeback. [Apr 2015, p.69]

Fragrant but underpowered 10th LP. [Aug 2015, p.76]

The end result is something that's freaky and funny, as rigorously experimental as it is gleefully entertaining. [Sep 2015, p.82]

The added muscle suits them and you wish there were more of it. [Mar 2016, p.76]

They could do with adding a bit of mystery to their armoury--there's a clarity and earnestness to some of Wolves Of Want that can underwhelm--but the group come with a clutch of great songs that would sit nicely on a long-awaited third volume of Modern Method's compilation series A Wicked Good Time! [Apr 2016, p.69]

A series of typically charming, if not overly adventurous, indie-pop songs. [May 2016, p.78]

Nostalgic homage never overwhelms the heady sense of sonically rich, exploratory weirdness. [Jul 2016, p.71]

Mayall proves that playing the blues is seemingly impervious to age. [Apr 2017, p.35]

Fans of Ariel Pink, Sinkane and mild hallucinogens would do well to seek out this eye-opening, vibes-heavy debut by shamanic newcomer Feynman. [Sep 2017, p.26]

Felt's abundance of different textures and its carefully composed atmosphere of unease ensure this is more than another recombination of Krautrock and Warp Record Reference points. [Apr 2018, p.35]

Veers dangerously close to tastefully understated ethno-trance wallpaper on chiming, drowsy throbbers like "Zemlya." But thankfully Edwards is too smart to be seduced by the shallow allure of pointless beauty. [Feb 2019, p.32]

It's a new direction, one stretched fairly thin across nine similar tracks, but at least he's escaped that old echo chamber. [Mar 2019, p.32]

The 64-year-old artist time-travels to her formative years, bringing unexpected twists to 10 radio hits. [Aug 2019, p.31]

Notably rockier than its more pastoral predecessors and all the finer for it. [Oct 2019, p.33]

While the Joe Pizzulo-fronted "Love came Between Us" may sound like it once soundtracked an '80s romcom, that somehow adds to its retro charm. [Apr 2020, p.33]

Patti Smith's bewitching poetry readings make this an experience that demands full attention. [Oct 2020, p.36]

Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Ricky Medlocke co-writes one song, and most others sound like someone from Skynyrd did. But the best tracks, counterintuitively, are those furthest from Blackberry Smoke’s trademark boogie. [Aug 2021, p.24]

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

The finest moment is the moving wartime ballad, "No Man's Land." [Mar 2022, p.35]

A better-than-respectable restatement of many of their original virtues, the primary being the flair for sunny, Hollies-like melodicism. [Apr 2022, p.25]

Moonshine is a set piece, but “Greenway”, a nudge at The Beatles’ “Because” with rippling keys and cicadas, and the baffled starburst that is “With You” stand out. [Aug 2022, p.30]

The likes of “Casting A Spell” and “You May Leave But This Will Bring You Back” reassure that Burnett’s formidable facility for waspish wordplay remains intact. [Oct 2022, p.26]

The tracks play to the strengths of Dion's guests. [Mar 2024, p.25]

When delicate motifs from accordion, harmonica and piano join her softly plucked acoustic guitar it can make for a sweetly seductive sound, but just as often her vocal melodies meander without leaving a mark. [Oct 2025, p.31]

A moody, giddy, charming album, as ragged and dynamic as those the band were making half a lifetime ago. [Oct 2006, p.100]

Produced by The National's Aaron Dessner, their fifth album inflates Selkirk's hand-knitted Coldplay to vast proportions. [May 2016, p.73]

Much of it is overly polite, with Ilhan taming the hurt in PJ Harvey's 'Oh My Lover,' but he also teases mourful hidden nuances from Breeders, Smashing Pumkins and Tortoise tracks. [June 2008, p.83]

Musically it's toytown folk, like Jonathan Richman with out the complicated buts, but Green's narrative lyrics grow increasingly weird and witty, recalling early '70s Lou Reed. [Feb 2010, p.86]

Nothing here matches the astonishing brutalist bubblegum of her 2018 debut, but on tracks like the soaring “Love Me Off Earth” you can still feel the unearthly radiance of this vanished star. [Dec 2024, p.39]

All in all, an interesting exercise, far less arch and shamateurish than Kisses On The Bottom. [Nov 2012, p.74]

Kelis' versatility... may mean she'll never hit like Beyonce, but she's still many producers' most stylish leading lady. [Nov 2006, p.117]

Inspired by the memory of departed friends, it sits midway between Cave's grand guignol, and the sweet hurt of Robert Forster. [Jun 2011, p.85]

Their rather timid approximation of prog lacks the charisma or gravitas required to persuade listeners that theirs is a cosmic expedition worth joining. [Sep 2008, p.100]

This is urban-global rather than world music. [Mar 2012, p.92]

As frustratingly close to perfect as ever. [May 2014, p.73]

Tremendous stuff. [Mar 2014, p.83]

Feldwick is clearly a livewire talent adept at mashing up everything from vintage Sega sample to the arthouse end of dubstep. [Jul 2012, p.83]

"Earth 1" demonstrates the band's ability to pursue any number of loopy tangents without losing the woozy charm that comes more strongly to the fore in the dreamier "Heaven 7". [Apr 2025, p.39]

A set that touches on the laser-guided minimalism of his early work but mainly finds him knocking out shaggy bar-room psych and strung-out doo-wop. [Oct 2014, p.67]

This is a meaty-sounding affair. [Dec 2017, p.30]

Sadier's intonation can be awkward, but her compassionate yet detached voice remains as affecting as ever. [Nov 2010, p.97]

There's a touch of mum-at-the-disco about the dancier numbers, but the sweet acoustica of "Some Kind Of love" and the wispy electronica of the title track still underpin earwormy hooks that won't be denied. [Apr 2019, p.28]

Their third LP reveal a sweary rock toughness that suits them (surprisingly) well. [Nov 2008, p.120]

There's a softness and elegance to Trickfinger. [Jun 2015, p.83]

If his 20th solo album, The Man Upstairs, is less excitable than the likes of Underwater Moonlight, Fegmania! and Queen Elvis, it's a change that many Hitchcock agnostics will welcome. [Sep 2014, p.68]

A decidedly sassier affair. [Jun 2006, p.110]

She's a brilliant reinterpreter and sounds far happier in Raitt territory than she ever did as a Morissette clone. [Feb 2003, p.84]

Their mischievousness is still palpable, but it's shot through with purpose, gumption and spectacular riff-raunch action. [Sep 2002, p.114]

Self-consciously odd, but entertaining. [Sep 2001, p.98]

Glossy and glamorous, maybe, but it feels like a beautiful-designed dead end. [Oct 2018, p.37]

If TDD's Cure obsession at times gets the better of them, their buoyancy and drive will still fill floors. [Apr 2011, p.95]

Faithful to the source material and occasionally inspired. [Apr 2016, p.81]

The seariung guitars, walloping drums and emphatic double-tracked vocals have determined power and character. [Mar 2010, p.81]

For much of the album, there's a poppy ebullience reminiscent of the MTV-friendly '80s Elton. [Mar 2016, p.70]

The fifth and final Streets albums suffers as a result of his self-imposed exile from the hubbub he once chronicled with such verve. [Mar 2011, p.101]

Though not quite the full Finn, nonetheless Pajama Club is fresh and fun. [Oct 2011, p.95]

Air seem to have found little fresh inspiration in his bricolage. [Mar 2012, p.79]

No doubt Oyamada has a fine ear for sound design, but he handles his tunes with antiseptic gloves. [May 2007, p.88]

Talbot treads lightly, and a melancholy beauty predominates. [Jun 2012, p.73]

The dreary emotional content and the sub-MBV soundscapes set out to gaze enigmatically at their shoes. Sadly, they don't get past the navel. [dec 2008, p.115]

Those bel canto melodies will still be a little syrupy for some. [Jun 2007, p.94]

The Feist-like 'My Favourite book' and the triumphant 'Today Will Be Better, I Swear!' are songs of rare craft but you'll need to suspend disbelief to make it through to curtain-down. [Nov 2007, p.123]

Their choice of guest vocalists this time around indicates good tatse, although in practice there's not much call for subtlety in these chewy, club-oriented productions. [Sep 2009, p.95]

Dig deeper into This Is The Computers, recorded at the San Diego home of former Rocket From The Crypt man John Reis, and it's clear they have a pop heart. [Jul 2011, p.86]

Johnston's own songs, though jauntily paced, come with familiar themes of isolation, despair and the cruelty of love. [May 2013, p.73]

Spedding's ever-luscious quiff a measure of his stylish, if eternally backdated MO. [Mar 2015, p.83]

At times, mellifluous minimalism shades into mundane monotony, but these electro-mechanical reveries mostly achieve a kind of hypnotic power through accretion and repetition. [Jan 2017, p.24]

Happily, their third set rejects the sterility of 2004's When It Falls in favour of the kind of nuance-rich arrangements that give contemporary jazz-funk a good name. [Jun 2006, p.126]

There's a lurking suspicion of contrivance here, as opposed to the spontaneity that characterised Don't Give Up On Me. [Apr 2005, p.102]

It's the intoxicating instrumentals, "Boudica" and "In Motion Slow," that remind you of her capricious talent. [Feb 2012, p.91]

Playful homages to country at its most synthetic and dancefloor-friendly, “Better Than Any Drug” and “Fall In Love Again” bridge the gap that once existed between Madonna and the Mandrell Sisters. [May 2022, p.29]

The attempt to stir his inner shitkicking garagepunk isn't always successful but a handful of tracks here are creepily sensual. [May 2010, p.85]

Surprisingly invigorated. [May 2007, p.89]

For all their adroitness, most of the songs on Tonight sound too similar to each other (and to existing Franz Ferdinand songs).

There is beauty aplenty in these 10 songs, but anyone yearning for the delicious ache of old will find it only fleetingly. [Feb 2011, p.92]

Despite stuffing their saddle bags full of choice musical cuts old and new, The Middle East somehow contrive to sound like nobody but their own sweet selves. [Jul 2011, p.86]

It lacks the debut's punchiness, and a compelling thread to bind those disparate elements. [Oct 2014, p.67]

The duo seems to be pursuing a more focused vision than they do in the rambunctious, eclectic Men. [Dec 2014, p.75]

The results are terrific; which is odd. in a way, given the stark simplicity of Johnston's songwriting and BTS's reputation for angular and faceted. [May 2020, p.25]

This new album is a bit of a mess at times, though its scope is almost as impressively broad as its top-loaded guestlist. [Dec 2017, p.25]

The Aussie Maestros deliver seven concise tracks of electronica, largely indebted to Giorgio Moroder but with ventures into many of those elements Moroder inspired, from disco to techno and even jungle. [Dec 2023, p.33]

There's little discordance but much invention and beauty. [Aug 2012, p.73]

This luxuriant collection is one of Moby's most consistently inviting and uplifting in years. [Jul 2024, p.38]

The outcome isn't exactly surprising, as it falls in line with a relatively recent explosion in modular exploration (see Bitchin Bajas, Caterina Barbieri) but at times it is very beautiful. [Mar 2025, p.32]

After Ready For The Flood, Mockingbird time feels dense, and somewhat cluttered. [Oct 2011, p.85]

Kelley Stoltz is one of the millennium's great unsung auteurs. To Dreamers is frustrating though. [Nov 2010, p.102]

There remains the faintest hint of gothic romance, a kind of Dead Can Dance Class. But you are likely to slip off trying to locate any kind of edge. [Apr 2015, p.83]

A rockabilly Jesus And Mary Chain. [Mar 2003, p.114]

Their love batteries have all but corroded and instead we've hangovers and metropolitan psychosis over the kind of guttural guitars you'd expect from their bastard American offspring. [May 2003, p.89]

Brings to the surface all of the volatility and emotional charge that was inherent in their work. [Apr 2003, p.104]

Extremely mixed results. [May 2006, p.119]

It's occasionally redolent of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, but the likes of 'Hornett' retain a heady, defiantly exploratory quality. [Dec 2008, p.92]

Old Money is rather more sharply honed--indeed, only the lack of vocals distinguishes this from a Mars Volta record. [Feb 2009, p.93]

Nowadays they're of more select appeal, and Where You Stand suggests they're actually quite comfortable with that. [Sep 2013, p.95]

Teaming up Oberhofer with veteran producer Steve Lillywhite seems to have drawn out an impressive sophistication. [Jun 2012, p.80]

"FBI" sounds like a comatose disco track being sung in a toilet, but the default position is a weirdly bluesy take on Krautrock. [May 2013, p.75]

It's good stuff, but also strangely nostalgic. [Nov 2008, p.117]