The fury running through these songs is mostly the joyous, exhilarating kind. [Aug 2026, p.29]

This appreciation for our increasingly complex emotional survival distinguishes The Ground Above, rendering affecting what might have been arduous. No longer are her tremulous vocals instantly ravishing, but they’re still convincingly, endearingly sincere, born of consequential experience. [Jul 2026, p.32]

There are intimations of Basinski, The Cure, New Order and (yes) AC, but also of auteurs like Dean Blunt. [Aug 2026, p.26]

It's ultimately quite boring. [Aug 2026, p.45]

He makes a bold splash - so idiosyncratic, in fact, that you'll wish the music was as powerful and eccentric as the vocals. [Jun 2026, p.26]

The band's elemental approach peaking on the likes of "Diablo" and "Guilt Trippin'", with Ian Gillian in impressively full-throated mode and Don Airey's keyboard runs often worthy of predecessor Jon Lord. [Aug 2026, p.29]

At times it can feel as if Stoltz is demonstrating his mastery of each genre, but he does so with sicu Nick Lowe-esque insouciance it's impossible not to be charmed. [Jun 2026, p.34]

While Hackney Diamonds was about return and resurgence, Foreign Tongues offers something more nuanced. Above all, the Stones' 25th studio album carries an unforced pleasure in playing together. [Aug 2026, p.98]

There’s nothing here to suggest they went unreleased for quality-control reasons. [Jul 2026, p.46]

Young's digressive manoeuvres are given added flexibility by his latest, excellent backing band. [Jun 2026, p.35]

It's teeming with complexity, feeding references to places, events and literary signposts into songs that wrestle with the violent contradictions of being human. [Jul 2026, p.38]

Though the turbulence threatens to shake some songs into their disparate doom-metal and shoegaze components, Wattie's alternately tremulous and ferocious vocals provide a centre that somehow holds. [Jul 2026, p.29]

"Knock Em Out" is a feral prog-punk highlight; "Mr Lion" a shambolic 16-bar blues et in the jungle; "Hangover" a piece of slow-burning sludge metal that narrates a morning recovery; while "vermin Attack" is the heaviest song you'll ever hear about mouse infestation. [Jul 2026, p.38]

It's a bracing reminder of a back catalogue that stretches from Dada cut-ups to honorary status as house music influencers. [May 2026, p.29]

Dredging up the legends of the location [Rhode Island] and the memories of the musicians and setting them to Deer Tick's signature Americana, to gripping effects, [Jul 2026, p.29]

What they have achieve here is a lovely, becalmed sprawl, where Jaime Fennelly's swimming, drifting electronics corral instrumentation from Nathan Bowles and Joe Westerlund, creating a curious kind of rural kosmische. [Jun 2026, p.34]

If there's a math equation at the centre of it all, this one continually produces highly unpredictable and unusually captivating results. [Jul 2026, p.28]

Eight intense instrumentals that run the gamut of emotions from deepest sorrow to supernal euphoria. [Jul 2026, p.35]

When Johnson stretches his helium voice into a yearning falsetto in the chorus of "The Saddest Part Of The Song", it's as if Al Green has been transported to Walden Woods. Then, amid sultry grooves, he spins out a Newman-esque character study ("Silverfish In The Sink") and some Nilsson-esque Whimsey ("Fishin' For a Vision"). [Jul 2026, p.30]

This is a more self-consciously "prog"-sounding LP than Yes have made in a while. [Jul 2026, p.39]

Not quite a full house, but not far off. [Jul 2026, p.31]

No doubt the future Notting Hill star would have made for an exemplary rockstar, but you can already hear his relatively conventional glam-punk growl beginning to chafe against the band’s whimsical harmonies. Ultimately it was to everyone’s benefit that he chose to pursue a different path to fame, allowing Gruff Rhys’s more idiosyncratic talents to blossom. [May 2026, p.42]

It clocks in at 82 minutes, but curiously, never flags; every song is a new twist in the tale. [Jun 2026, p.30]

Spanning alt.blues, grunge, Appalachian folk and slacker country soul, all 13 tracks on Eyes Full have instant appeal. [Jul 2026, p.26]

It's some of Barnes' finest work. [Jul 2026, p.36]

It's heartening to hear Perry still having so much fun and exploring exciting new terrain in his final days. [Jul 2026, p.37]

A hook-loaded gem, showing off the songwriter's playful side and a fluttering new vocal register. [Jul 2026, p.39]

That songs as complex and restless as "Orbis Tertius" and "The Day Of Execution" were largely recorded in single takes elicits and additional measure of awe. [Jul 2026, p.38]

It's nothing new, but the songwriting and arrangements are on point, the references impeccable and the execution classily heartfelt. [Jul 2026, p.35]

An Eraser... is overstuffed with too many short studio experiments, but there are many more moments of startling humanity. [Jul 2026, p.35]

It's knowingly daft in parts, and clearly the band are having a good time, but beyond the irony and sometimes silly lyrics lies a group with impressive chops who can pull off this jagged post-punk as seamlessly as sugary indie-pop. [Jun 2026, p.26]

Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson aren't ploughing new ground, they've explored this patch for two decades. .... The Flaming Lips may add vocals and keyboards to the pillowy drift of "Chemicals Make You Small", but there's no escaping Slowdive's influence on "Deconstructing's" celestial haziness, [Jul 2026, p.31]

The agitated "How Heavenly A State", the world-weary "Riptides" and two renditions of the title song, the first wistful, the second brutally self-flagellating, enact the stages of a musical exorcism. [Jul 2026, p.29]

Abrams' extended composition drifts beautifully between ambient abstraction and glacial melody. [May 2026, p.25]

Featuring typically sharp guitar lines interspersed with thoughtful, almost jazzy interludes on songs like "SoHo" and "Ida Strong". [Feb 2026, p.35]

It might be Bishop's finest solo set yet. [Jul 2026, p.26]

There's no reinventing of the wheel here; it's business as usual, but there's plenty of forward momentum left in this outfit. [Jul 2026, p.31]

Economical as he is, Mendez suggests wider musical ambitions with the light lysergic choral coda of "Mary/Dreaming" and the budget baroque of "Frog". [Jun 2026, p.33]

This sixth album is played ragged and on the brink of collapse, as if Iceage were still teenagers, but with the added weapon of Elias Rønnenfelt's sharpened songwriting. [Jul 2025, p.31]

They've regrouped impressively here. [Jul 2026, p.26]

The knowing zaniness of "The Simplest Of Deeds" or "The Wake Up Call" don't amuse for long but the T. Rex-style boogie of "WAP" is more potent, as is the space-pop swirl of "Melody Of Entrophy". [Jun 2026, p.27]

Though "You Still Look Good To me" is a Diamond in classic, romantic philosopher mode, too much here is unflatteringly exposed. [Jun 2026, p.29]

Fiddle and banjo veer between gentle bucolic landscaping and clamorous cacophony, while occasional field recordings add further colour. [Jun 2026, p.33]

A brilliant album that doubles down on Boards of Canada's core strengths and finds room to move their music forward. [Jun 2026, p.20]

These 12 big-hearted, wayward country-soul songs deliver manifold charms, not least of all with "Chance To Bleed", a carousing, unabashed tilt at Sticky Fingers-era Stones. [Jun 2026, p.35]

Ritual invocations are summoned by suggestive titles as much as music, setting the improv in its moment. [Jul 2026, p.31]

Anderson is ever the compelling soft-voiced MC. [Jun 2026, p.25]

The result is invigorating: a passionate recommitment to the group's ethos of catharsis through rage. [Jul 2026, p.35]

Future Present Past captures them at their most tightly wound. [Jul 2026, p.31]

Suffused with the spirit of ska, soul and doo-wop. In keeping with those traditions, the vocals are particularly bewitching. [Jul 2026, p.29]

This is the band at their most hypnotically funky, all skeletal arrangements, whispered vocals and Jaki Liebezeit-style motorik drumming from new recruit Tony Coote. [Jun 2026, p.32]

A beautiful record that transcends the concept. [Jun 2026, p.26]

It's an auspicious pairing. [Jul 2026, p.36]

Some songs, like "Ripples In A Pond" (A pop song for his wife Nancy), hit with the contemporary Andrew Wyatt wallop, which is very much why musicians in their ninth decades so revere his production; but as ever, it's the bits where McCartnet lets appearances be damned that work out best. [Jul 2026, p.24]

It's undeniably lovely stuff, with just enough bite to keep you from napping. [Jun 2026, p.35]

A triumph, personally and creatively. [Jun 2026, p.33]

Fans of Jason Molina, Bill Callahan or Bonnie "Prince" Billy will find nourishment a plenty in Fenceline, which draws added colour and depth from four-way songwriting and shifting lead singers. [May 2026, p.33]

When bassist Anna Butterss breaks free for a lubricious solo around the 14-minute mark of "Life Swimwear", it's to usher in an exquisite passage of dubbed-out psychedelia threaded through with Josh Johnson's tender saxophone. [Jun 2026, p.34]

Batmanglij rarely gets out of first gear, fussing through vanilla ballads like "Hardy" and "Forgive Is To Know". [Jun 2026, p.34]

These 13 richly expansive, tender-hearted songs also map the in-between places, questioning what living means now, in the face of an apparent apocalypse, [Jun 2026, p.27]

Pharrell is just one of the 11 producers on a record that shows Kidjo's full range. [Jun 2026, p.28]

Laibach's most pop album to date - five tracks are co-produced by Richard X - and at least as curious and contrary as any of its predecessors. [May 2026, p.32]

It's easily her most accessible album yet. [Jun 2026, p.32]

10 more melodic guitar songs expertly weighted between worldly and coltish. [Jun 2026, p.33]

With the entire 10-track affair compressed into just 25 minutes of vaguely expressed melancholia, this flimsy career coda is not the grandly melodramatic Lynchian finale that Li's doom-diva shtick deserves. [Jun 2026, p.32]

There's nevertheless an easygoing air to the duo's otherwise experimental-minded pieces, which began as spare guitar instrumentals by Portner that were then warped, distorted and reshaped into beguiling psych-folk forms. [Jun 2026, p.29]

"My Heart Is In Your Hands Tonight", a fusion of "Needles And Pins", "September Gurls" and "Go All The Way", boasts the signature flair of a Michelin chef. Brian, meanwhile, breaks new ground with the harmonically adventurous closing set piece "Your True Enemy". These "spot the reference" whizz-kids have grown into formalist savants. [Jun 2026, p.32]

She's radio-ready with the first cut from Train On The Island. Taster single "One Stop" is the earworm of the album. [Jun 2026, p.24]

Remember The Humans makes sumptuous use of its star talents Feist and Hannah Georgas. .... But a handful of hazier, more ruminative mantras are harder to grab hold of. [Jun 2026, p.36]

Sol. Hz feels skeltal, with saffron threads of treated guitar slicing through piston-pulse rhythms and reverberant bass. [Jun 2026, p.34]

Long Wave Home is full of innovative arrangements and quirky vocals, but it's equally stuffed with great songs. [May 2026, p.30]

Choruses are big, lyrics purposes stripped, side and Hammond summoning rock's halcyon days. [Jun 2026, p.30]

Line for line it's her best and funniest album in a decade. [Jun 2026, p.33]

There is a gentle healing touch to Angel In Plainclothes. [May 2026, p.29]

The live-off-the-floor Peaches! is the antithesis of 2024's overcooked Ohio Players, the duo's nadir, and a delectably scuzzy sequel to Delta Kream, complete with another seductively squalid William Eggleston cover photo. [May 2026, p.26]

Live Forever crackles with outrage and compassion. [Jun 2026, p.32]

It's U2 reconnecting with first principles, all big choruses and defiant optimism, and is confidently glorious. [Jun 2026, p.35]

Whether you choose to hold the eco themes in mind or simply revel in its textures, Requiem is a gripping listen, a powerful late work from a veteran who has weathered more storms than most. [May 2026, p.24]

With Orange his style cuts loose and shifts around, relaxing into large, at time echoey spaces while recalling '70s Bowie and Lenon and The Verlaines, though not entirely forsaking jangle. [May 2026, p.37]

While all this makes for a rich, dense and sometimes overwhelming offering, Amos still ensures there's some light amid all this darkness. [May 2026, p.25]

The songs are largely Solomon accompanied only by a primitively strummed acoustic guitar, a sparse but effective backdrop to confessional odes about facing fears. [Jun 2026, p.34]

As much as Volumes: One demonstrates the power of the collective, Vernon's own extraordinary voice remains the star of the show, whether delivered straight or stunningly refracted through his custom Messina effects unit. [Jun 2026, p.42]

Bid's songs are as dapper as ever, their concatenation of light-footed pop, bossa and la variete winsome and delightful. [Jun 2026, p.33]

They're every bit as gleeful as they are virtuosic. [Jun 2026, p.26]

The thoughtful intimacies of Wendy Eisenberg make for some of their potent artistic statements yet. [Jun 2026, p.29]

For all the overwrought sentiment, A Wave... is strangely compelling. [Jun 2026, p.35]

She is in her Hot Gossip element on the camp, gasping electro of "Sauna", while the Morricone-referencing "Ride" channels Sheila B Devotion by way of early-'90s Madonna and the title track is sheer seduction in silk pyjamas. [Jun 2026, p.35]

Grohl claims the title track set the tone for this self-produced set, which squares with its adrenalised, garage-rock push, though not its cheeky nods to Quo and ZZ Top. Variety is the byword. [Jun 2026, p.29]

Here they come dressed in post-punk garb. The arena singalong "Wild Rut" mutates into a piece of motorik new wave; the toytown confections of "Leave You On A High" and "Loyal" both come wreathed in ice gothic synths and Peter Hook-style bass plunking. [Jun 2026, p.33]

Plaintive harmonies pull on heartstrings, furthering the pair's reputation as modern Americana's Everly Brothers. [Jun 2026, p.33]

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]

The title track ends proceedings on a high, with Sheryl Crow on backing vocals, a smattering of mandolin and a semi-surreal spoken interlude in which Starr sounds ever so zen. It ends, as it surely should, with a single snare shot, delivered like the most emphatic of full stops. [May 2026, p.30]

They're still loud and angry - exploring themes around national identity, solidarity and challenging political establishments - but there is greater musical depth and breadth. [May 2025, p.32]

An album that is clearly having a blast while showing blatant disregard for genre convention. [May 2026, p.37]

Friko's second is sonically ambitious but just as immediate. [May 2026, p.29]

With her voice repaired to the mesmersing breaking point of There's Always Glimmer, the closeness of her almost-whisper is startling on "Everybody Around Me Dancing" and "Moon Not Mine", although it's her light-touch production - vaguely New Age and recalling Cassandra Jenkins - that truly elevates this intimate folk record. [May 2026, p.33]

Their sound is accordingly pared down, the overall tone downbeat and perhaps appropriately rueful. [May 2026, p.34]

Cast in pale sunlight with a touch of frost and Darby's fragile, close-mic'ed voice their focus, these 13 unflinching songs call to mind "Some Velvet Morning" and "fade Into You". [May 2026, p.29]