Sinclair's knack for storytelling, wordplay and a warm voice carry sufficient wit and energy to ride the jazzy undercurrent. [Apr 2014, p.81]

There are delicate nylon-strung acoustic guitar solos, punky and ecstatic Ornette Coleman covers, thrash metal improvisations for just guitar and drum, and intriguing battles with saxophonist Chris Potter. [Jul 2016, p.88]

A lovingly rendered family portrait. [Jul 2018, p.37]

Imagine a jam session between King Crimson, Fugazi and '70s Miles. Now imagine it working. That's the Mars Volta. [Aug 2003, p.98]

Her despondency is balanced with levity elsewhere. [Jul 2012, p.74]

Their sixth album intersperses passages of barbed attack with atmosphere and nuance. [Oct 2017, p.40]

Delicious desolation. [Mar 2022, p.23]

Discovering all this mellow gold now is akin to discovering Laurel Canyon was actually on the other side of the Pacific. [Dec 2017, p.47]

Proceeds with the unhurried observational vividness of extended takes in a Richard Linklater film. [Dec 2019, p.35]

AM feels a considerably more self-assured album: heavy in a dramatic and confident way, conceptually strong and not without groove. [Oct 2013, p.73]

Airy melodies and Rachael's breathy vocals combine to create music that gets under the skin. [Jul 2023, p.24]

This is MF Doom's most accessible moment to date. [Nov 2005, p.108]

The deep-cut-heavy, career-spanning set is manna for the faithful. [Oct 2023, p.48]

The more melodic and less maniacal "Melting" and "Sleep Drifter" point toward newer ambitions and influences. Especially welcome is the turn toward Middle Eastern and North African sounds on "Anoxia" and the title track.[Mar 2017, p.32]

It's a darker, deeper affair. [Jun 2007, p.94]

The Brooklyn-based veterns have beefed up the arrangements on LP number five, and Matthew Caws' material happily carries that weight. [Mar 2008, p.96]

Two fetching female voices bring a soft-focus glow to the linchpin songs on this incandescent album. [Apr 2016, p.79]

Apparently Stith shied away from any musical expression for years--in which case Heavy Ghost represents a quite spectacular plunge. [Apr 2009, p.87]

These septuagenarians have made a Doobie Brothers album that sounds like it was recorded by their much younger selves, and the passing years haven't blunted their vibrancy. [Jun 2025, p.36]

An album that takes in atmospheric ambient, immersive synth soundscapes and ripples of cosmic electronics that shift from beautifully immersive to hauntingly eerie. [Dec 2022, p.26]

Familiar, sure, but a highly potent blend of the ancient and modern nevertheless. [Sep 2003, p.98]

An inspired and fruitful fusion. [Sep 2018, p.35]

Whenever his scorched Bill Callahan drawl appears, the effect is at once jarring and intoxicating. [Dec 2014, p.72]

Raggedly glorious covers of Muddy Waters’ “Mannish Boy” and Bo Diddley’s “Crackin’ Up” rate as major highlights along with the live debut of Tattoo You’s “Worried About You” and a blistering take on “Hot Stuff” that amply demonstrates the liberating effects of the band’s temporary escape from baseball stadiums and hippodromes. [Jul 2022, p.44]

He's unafraid to risk sentimentality in his quest for real feeling. At the end of a vexed, troubled third album, it feels like a hard-earned affirmation of his roots, people and community he's still a part of and still committed to. [Mar 2025, p.30]

A satisfactorily dramatic return. [May 2017, p.30]

This third album is even better, his voice smoother, more assured, and the tunes equally as confident. [Nov 2010, p.92]

Wainwright’s vocals imbue the material with a mixture of world-weariness, compassion and delight, qualities that didn’t loom large in the emotional lexicon of his younger self.