There's a clutch of self-penned gems, "In The Middle Of It All's" momentous heartache, and some superlative country-soul interpretations, the pinnacle being Dan Penn and Donnie Fritts' "Rainbow Road." [Sep 2017, p.45]

A deft patchwork of stories and impressions largely drawn from first-hand experience. [Aug 2015, p.72]

Overall, Go To School is a blast, a joyous, ridiculous journey that treads a perfect line between silly, funny and heart-breaking. [Oct 2018, p.33]

What went Down is their most fully realised yet. [Oct 2015, p.75]

Almost every one is a pure and lovely miniature. [Aug 2013, p.69]

The collection not only shows the unexpected range of Gano's songwriting ability, but leaves you humming and wanting more. [Oct 2002, p.104]

Here, as always, he turns out to be a natural. [Sep 2011, p.81]

Jones displays a fluid keyboard touch and nuanced vocals, not unlike Diana Krall's recordings. [Nov 2016, p.31]

The musical settings are crisp, spare, folksy, recalling '96's The Doctor Came At Dawn and allowing Callahan to play one of his best roles: a campfire-friendly Leonard Cohen. [Jun 2005, p.97]

There’s the customary minor-key acoustic lilt played out at a range of tempos somewhere between rumba and reggae, served with the occasional light garnish of bleeps. Far from being a problem, that’s almost certainly the way Chao’s fans like it. [Oct 2024, p.35]

It's when they seemingly reach straight down the devil's throat, as on the ferocious "Deacon Brodie," a strangled punk/blues bottleneck, that this debut really distinguishes itself. [Dec 2015, p.81]

Martin’s work as The Bug has always dealt in heaviness, but Machine is particularly inspiring for its lethality, its intensity. [Dec 2024, p.32]

This is a record that genuinely sounds like nothing you have heard before. If you can rise to its portentous challenge... The Drift will prove to be a frightening, bewitching and rewarding experience. [Jun 2006, p.96]

This gradual sense of revelation is reflected in Gas’ musical development. Each album has its own characteristics.

There's little on her 16th album to suggest it's anything other than business as usual. [Jul 2023, p.36]

Confirms Lewis's now crucial role in their pummelling yet emotional propulsion. [May 2026, p.33]

Never did the Pumpkins build more sonically gorgeous than this...For those that haven't plumbed the depths of the Pumpkins catalog, it's a fair brace. [Jan 2012, p.97]

Massed cymbals’ shivering traceries and guitar glints adorn the drones, as sonic quantity bolsters quality, the ritualistic glide of Indian and kosmische influences roiling with stray, fuzzed-up incident, in an inspired meeting. [Apr 2021, p.37]

Harding lays bare the pain and discomfort felt in her previous work, though the road to it is far more dynamic and winding. [May 2019, p.33]

A most welcome return. [Aug 2021, p.23]

Self-indulgent in all the best ways, their third album isn't afraid to explore an idea for nine minutes, locating that revelatory moment when structure caves into soul. [May 2009, p.105]

The Brutalist Bricks isn't quite the match of 2004's career highlight Shake The Streets. But "Gimmee The Wire" mixes punky, Mission Of Burma dynamics with a garrulous, troubadour storytelling, while "Bottles In Cork" unfolds as a bar-hopping travelogue as colorful as anything Craig Finn has put his pen to. [Jun 2010, p.92]

It's a rootsy affair that evokes the spirit of the MC5. [Jul 2003, p.112]

He seems to have found his metier on his new label, Lost Map, where he delights in roving electronica. [Oct 2016, p.37]

Utopia Defeated justifies the hype. [Nov 2016, p.26]

Splendid. ... All the crafty hooks, Haim-worthy vocal harmonies, sumptuous layers of synths and unabashedly prefab beats belie the poignant nature of Girl Ray's odes to post-millennial love and longing. [Dec 2019, p.26]

Full of hooks as stubborn as burrs. [Aug 2005, p.94]

The immediacy is obvious, and the band stretch Yorkston's reassuring vulnerability in new directions. [Feb 2021, p.37]