Arctic Monkeys were never comfortable as the ‘voice of a generation’. Humbug subtly shrugs off that unwanted mantle, and in the same deft movement, promises a much more interesting future.

Bliss, bliss, bliss--get Loved up and float away. [May 2012, p.77]

It's all inimitably Sparks. [Jul 2025, p.37]

While this Dublin quintet's latest stops short of total reinvention, the changes are marked - John Congleton brings the darkly spangled, alt.rock power, and textured synths do a lot of the melodic lifting. [Feb 2023, p.32]

His tidiest folk-pop tunes to date. ... Irresistible. [Oct 2020, p.27]

The best parts of An American Treasure are the snapshots of a less self-straitened Petty. [Nov 2018, p.48]

The new versions are, to all intents and purposes, exactly the same as the old versions, they're just more so, if that makes sense.

A cappella shanty "Poor Old Horse" is a working class hymn with real bite, while muted electronica gives "As I Roved Out" a thoroughly modern sheen. [Feb 2018, p.35]

Peter Silberman's half-whispered vocal melodies are more accessible than ever. [Apr 2021, p.25]

Lonesome sounds, but comfortably familiar. [Feb 2025, p.34]

Highlights are the playfully bobbing rhythms of "Geruhsam" and epic closer "Aus Weiter Ferne," a masterful interplay of harmonic sweetness and menacing drone. [May 2020, p.32]

The four players are able to design the tracks in architectural detail, each part locking into the rest with unerring precission, and this tautness keeps the album from sagging through its most challenging stretch. [Oct 2008, p.78]

Her candid, self-interrogating lyrics and glassy, soulful voice take centrestage. [Oct 2022, p.29]

It is an album in the original sense of the word, offering a coherent display of Auerbach’s influences.

M Ward and Garth Hudson, members of Giant Sand, Los Lobos and Calexico are all present and correct on Middle Cyclone lending their distinctive instrumental hands--but this ultimately Case’s tour de force, and hers alone.

It's a feast of contextual songwriting and sizzling guitar. [Apr 2012, p.83]

In 39 tracks over two CDs, the punk-fuelled folk-rock group that had ruled the ’80s along with U2 magically reappears.

Musically, it predictably alternates between relentless, driving guitars and agonisingly slow dirges, but Bazan's gift lies in lyrics. [Oct 2002, p.112]

"Timber" is almost all Tyler, "Spider Ballad" a lowkey club throbber, all of it only made possible by this unexpected partnership. [Nov 2025, p.33]

What unifies these wildly disparate modes [political satirist. self-loathing lothario, celebrity stalker, Cali yacht-rocker, and Nilsson-like romantic crooner] is Baxter's musical sophistication, which puts him closer to the witty elegance of 10cc than the alt.country label he's been slapped with. [Sep 2018, p.26]

On this generous and kaleidoscopic soul album, Harding holds nothing back. [Dec 2021, p.30]

Superior, though, is Heavy Rocks, the group's second release to go by that name. [Jul 2011, p.79]

Hawk's followup hints at a talent that will outlive hipster buzz, drawing not just from hazy '80s nostalgia, but from the artists who populated his own youth. [Aug 2011, p.93]

Following on from a 2017 album of standards, this chiefly replaces covers with original compositions and adds a meaningful, Slint-like loitering on chord to his repertoire of shattered blues licks. [Nov 2019, p.30]

Such a heady, high-octane swirl that, perversely enough, you often forget you're listening to a Madonna record. [Dec 2005, p.102]

It's a warmer interpretation of Fay's celebration of and concern for the state of the world than on 2015's icier Who IS The Sender? [Feb 2020, p.22]

A fantastic hybrid of Spacemen 3 and Deep South voodoo. [Oct 2006, p.99]

The shape, tone and settings of songs from "Gitarhum" onward shift their author's stance and point her somewhere else, perhaps yet to be determined. That they do so without throwing her off balance is another mark of Evergreen In Your Mind's achievement. [May 2026, p.28]