Her mother had died, but she had also found love. Musically, she's equally diverse. Mostly, there is the voice, a swooping instrument that swirls and eddies beneath sparse folk rhythms. [Jul 2018, p.24]

This set borrows from those same Nebraska recording sessions [of 2017's Tomorrow Forever] with nary a weakling to show. Pounding rock'n'roll colludes with lethal hooks, while jangly guitars and soulful harmonies mesh with ethereal melodies. [Jul 2018, p.34]

Horse Feathers have found their way to a much richer, more confident sound, marrying Southern soul grooves and rough-hewn Americana to Paul Simon eloquence. [Jul 2018, p.28]

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

The frenzied, immersive and hard-charged psych the band has explored previously gives way to an album that is woozy, melodic and reflective. [Jul 2018, p.37]

Simultaneously stupid and very smart. [Jul 2018, p.30]

The musical backing is politer than the lyrics, but it can't altogether blunt the boldness of their discourse. [Jul 2018, p.30]

Despite flashes of intense beauty, the going is heavy. [Jul 2018, p.30]

Though the stadium-EDM elements of "Miracle" are an unwelcome addition and there's a slight clash between two brands of brooding, when Matt Berninger guests on "My Enemy," Chvrches excel at an electro-pop simulacrum that's actually more craftily structured than most of their favourite records of 1982. [Jul 2018, p.26]

With an empathetic band featuring strings, keys and pedal steel, Castle alternative;y pulls the songs into focus with her clear, honeyed voice and lets it drift free inside them. [Jul 2018, p.24]

As ever, Case finds room for expansive manoeuvres in the gap between her lusty, orthodox pop choruses and droll, deadpan voice. Still a singer-songwriter like no other. [Jul 2018, p.24]

When it's glorious, it really is glorious. [Jul 2018, p.18]

Modern Studies' Emily Scott, Rob St John and their cohorts once again supplement their brackish folk with tape loops, harmonium, a Mellotron and more to create songs both ancient and modern. [Jun 2018, p.30]

Like a long walk in the woods, it's richly and deeply transporting. [Jun 2018, p.35]

It's far more restrained, foreboding and ultimately effective. [Jun 2018, p.27]

The predominantly instrumental Hundred Of Days is a more expansive affair than 2016's At The Dam. [Jun 2018, p.30]

Haines' mean-spirited gifts abide, but Airfix cannot mend a broken spirit. [Jun 2018, p.28]

Like The Siren’s Song itself, it feels both ageless and beguiling, a classic record for this or any other time.

The bruising "Madder" betrays the influence of Scott Walker producer Peter Walsh, but there are flickers of respite, notably "The Bomb," which tethers its emotional unravelling to a lovely piano figure. [Jun 2018, p.24]

There's an appealing American cynicism lurking beneath their enchanting '60s doo-wop-indebted sound. [Jun 2018, p.30]

Magpies, for sure--but rather brilliant ones. [Jun 2018, p.30]

Nelson's voice has lost none of its wry warmth, his fretboard fingers little of their astonishing agility. And the songs here are terrific. [Jun 2018, p.33]

Sultry, compelling and ever so slightly spooked, Cosmic Wink flickers and flashes like a series of time-lapse landscape photographs, but the place it documents is the heart. [Jun 2018, p.36]

The album could sometimes benefit from a shift in pace from its often locked-in, mid-tempo state. [Jun 2018, p.35]

Deafman Glance picks up the thread he's laid down with the stronger songs on Golden Sings That Have Been Sung. [Jun 2018, p.34]

Despite ts sometimes laidback nature, Sparkle Hard also bristles with an energy that proves he's got a place in the present, and a new accessibility that compromises none of his eccentricities. [Jun 2018, p.18]

It's droll, evocative and occasionally moving. [Jun 2018, p.30]

Girly-Sound to Guyville is something much more revealing than an anniversary commemoration. It's a document of an artist finding and raising er voice: a souvenir from an era that questions long-held assumptions about the sex and the business of rock'n'roll. [Jun 2018, p.38]