Reflective of our era of political polarisation, the likes of “Contempt For You” can make for bruising listening experiences. Yet there’s still plenty of solace to be found in performances by Iceland’s Elin Ey and the ever-remarkable Anohni. [Jul 2022, p.26]

Happyness gets more interesting when they dig deeper into rock history. [May 2017, p.32]

This album subtly expands her metrical, folksy songcraft to the point where songs like 'Heard It All Before' and 'Fireheads' are just one spoonfed breakbeat from being charttoppers. [Oct 2008, p.113]

Fabulous stuff all round. [Apr 2012, p.79]

Sure, at times, they sound like Gene, but on tracks like "Do You Really Wanna Know" they are nigh-on perfect: Jangly and breathless, with traces of The Smiths but a softer edge. [Apr 2011, p.89]

High art, low humour and deluxe filth: a hugely seductive combination. [Jun 2009, p.95]

It may be their best yet. [May 2015, p.71]

Having grabbed attention for their collaboration with Jenny Lewis on "Rabbit Fur Coat," then their own "Fire Songs," this takes a bold shift in direction. [Mar 2010, p.104]

13 toe-tapping and soul-stirring treatises against hate, inequality and violence. [Apr 2023, p.26]

That old adage about the quiet ones hold true for Elanor, whose debut capitalizes on I'm Going Away's fleeting ease. [Aug 2011, p.87]

Cuttin' Grass Vol 1 is Simpson's warmest, most life-affirming record by a country mile. [Jan 2021, p.26]

Thurston Moore’s ninth solo album might begin with a weirdly angular nursery rhyme set to sparse plucked strings but he’s soon bending his guitar into all sorts of freaky shapes on an album that stands among his best solo works. [Oct 2024, p.37]

It's dumber, filthier, sturdier and packed with more euphemisms than Viz's Profanisaurus. [Aug 2006, p.104]

The sound of a group entering their prime, Silent Shout--strange, bold and tuneful--is textbook Euro-pop. [Apr 2006, p.110]

A comeback album that feels vital rather than forced. [Apr 2021, p.25]

Much of it... sounds like the spiritual cousin of Neil Young's After The Gold Rush and Harvest, sharing the same back-to-nature rusticity. [Jul 2006, p.101]

Woof has to be one of the weirdest debut albums of the year, a record that throws everything at the wall in the conviction that some of it will stick and so what if it doesn’t. [Nov 2024, p.34]

An open, compassionate record with a fierce spirit. [Sep 2023, p.33]

This is not pastiche or revival - this is jazz created in a distinctly London accent; the sounds you hear in cars and minicabs, the fractured beats you hear pouring out of teenagers' phones - refracted through the prism of jazz. [Mar 2020, p.28]

Cassadaga is fulsome, epic, and swirling, by far Oberst's most sophisticated, seamless effort. [May 2007, p.89]

The chronological sequencing, kicking off with the delightfully sloppy "Gardening At night" from the "Chronic Town" EP, charts a course from indie college jangle to pensive AOR, and tracks fro their latter days on the IRS label sparkle with eloquence and grandeur. [Jan 2012, p.96]

With Bergsman's dourly dreamy voice and wistful songcraft, it's recognisably indiepop, but sent delightfully pie-eyed on Blur Hawaiians. [Dec 2012, p.77]

With strong ensemble backing Escovedo alternates gentle, reflective lullabies with incendiary Mott-styled rockers, to marvellous effect. [Aug 2008, p.93]

Catchy as hell. [Oct 2008, p.90]

She addresses transformation, loss, connection and apartness in literate, finely turned pop songs centred on her sweet, pellucid voice and filled out with dreamy loops and strings. [May 2016, p.73]

Space and darkness area constant among these eight tight songs, but there’s also plenty of punch. [Oct 2022, p.36]

Evam Caminiti and Jon Porras' third album lumbers slow as Earth's stoner rock, but throws its arms open, in a slow-burning ritual, to the infinite, star-flecked space above the Californian wilderness. [Dec 2001, p.85]

Nile's title track offers up celebration and togetherness, with disease and idiocracy pushed into the back mirror, and guitars and organs to the fore.[Sep 2021, p.31]