Phosphorescent has followed 2010's country-rock homage Here's To Taking It easy with an equally magnificent beast, mixing country jams with claustrophobic electronica and mournful Mariachi horns to create a beautiful but discomforting album. [Apr 2013, p.74]

The band's sophomore effort feels like more than a photocopy of past indie-pop glories thanks to the surprisingly punchy contributions by bassist Nick Oka and drummer Keith Frerichs and the degree of craft and care evident even in songs as breezy as "When You Find Out". [Jan 2024, p.36]

From the Ground Up takes a heartland rock template and imbues it with tougher, weather-beaten elements asking big questions. [Apr 2013, p.72]

Humility and sobriety suits a band who have never sounded more fresh and alive. [May 2013, p.73]

This seventh studio album doesn't find them doing anything much different but still doing it with grit and conviction. [Dec 2009, p. 113]

Performance is expertly weighted between great hooks and loose, Southern-styled jams that dare you to shake a leg. [Sep 2018, p.39]

[An] edifying fourth solo album.[Aug 2015, p.78]

Spans Essiebons' output between 1973-84 and gives some indication of its profile as both a prime mover of modern highlife and promoter of Afrobeat and funk. [Jan 2022, p.44]

The new ‘Ultimate’ mixes are an excellent reimagining of the original’s tinny sound, giving a clearer route to Lennon’s voice while ensuring each instrument gets due prominence. Songs like “Aisumasen (I’m Sorry)”, “You Are Here” and “Out The Blue” can now take their place among Lennon’s finest. [Aug 2024, p.49]

Think swoonsome pop at its most non-cynical but with a left-field twist. [Aug 2004, p.98]

September November is undeniably a vital, relevant 21st-century artefact. [Apr 2023, p.22]

The band's deepest and most accomplished effort yet. [Oct 2024, p.40]

Simpson and Ferguson keep the country stylings fresh, and Childers delivers the songs with the melodic urgent of early Steve Earle. [Feb 2018, p.34]

Most impressive is Peel's ability to take the source material and make it her own. [May 2021, p.31]

In sentiment and execution, Feeling Mortal is more Hank than Dylan, yet there's a subtle poetry in the way the lyric flits between life and death, dreams and wakefulness.

TNP have slimmed down, morphing into a thoughtful electronic pop group with shades of Depeche Mode or late Talk Talk. [May 2019, p.37]

Preposterous on first listen, more utterly beguiling with each repeat. [Mar 2015, p.71]

The results are instantly rewarding. [Review of the Year 2023, p.21]

Weird-but-wonderful free-folk explorations. [Jul 2017, p.25]

The extent of [Caleb Scofield's] bandmates' shock and grief is palpable throughout the eight songs they built up from the demos recorded with Scofield. All that sadness and fury adds further turbulence both to the more melodic likes of "Winter Window" as well as "Led To The Wolves." [Jul 2019, p.26]

One small quibble, though: while it’s great to have documentation of the band’s early live sound (and in many ways the versions of the songs from Bleach are superior thanks to the sprightly energy), you don’t really get a sense of the sheer ferocity and electricity Nirvana generated in a tiny, cramped college bar.

An album of flashing wit and giddy ambition. [Oct 2002, p.110]

Tusk this isn't, but Tusk it doesn't need to be. In an age of off-the-shelf LInda Perry pop, the Mac keep the mainstream interesting. [May 2003, p.98]

Deep-pocket blues covers alternate with scintillating originals. [Oct 2018, p.32]

Moving On Skiffle is richer and more sophisticated [than 1998's The Skiffle Sessions] but has a lightness of touch that recalls Bruce Springsteen's delightful 2006 album of Pete Seeger reinterpretations, We Shall Overcome. [Apr 2023, p.27]

It holds together remarkably well, and has an atmosphere at least as distinctive and beguiling as that of, say, Punch The Clock or The Juliet Letters. It isn't typical Elvis Costello album, but then they never are. [Dec 2020, p.24]

All Mirrors is her boldest reinvention yet. [Nov 2019, p.30]

A set of well-crafted songs that resemble PJ Harvey's collaborations with John Parish, but which mainly recall various stages of David Bowie's career. [Oct 2020, p.29]