Mono are masters of the emotionally saturated slow build, though they have their own variations on the dark/light dynamic, as in “Reflection”, which moves with a casually graceful swing, and “Holy Winter”, where an upright-piano motif shapes the celestial whole. [Jul 2024, p.38]

Jaunty and beholden to fuzz, White Reaper comes on like Kentucky's answer to Supergrass on this charming debut, crammed with short melodic powerpop gems. [Sep 2015, p.83]

This is the work of a star-crossed original in full flow. [Mar 2016, p.73]

A listener might be impressed by the scale of the experience, but ultimately there is something missing--intimacy?--missing. [Jun 2017, p.30]

The group allows O'Rourke to indulge his songwriter instincts and Tweedy to exert an often-suppressed experimental imperative. [Feb 2003, p.82]

Exquisite. [Feb 2003, p.80]

It's autumnal but never overbearingly bleak, thanks to the enduring warmth of Thorn's voice, and the empathy of her lyrics, even on the almost desolate "Singles Bar." [Jul 2010, p.125]

Impeccably arranged, the whole thing plays out like an extended, pragmatic version of "A Day In The Life." [Mar 2012, p.82]

"The Reason Why" and "Motoring" swath Tom Dougall's sighed vocal in sheets of Ride-like guitar. [Oct 2012, p.87]

Basar is marred by a couple of misguided forays into coffee-table trip-hop, but when Africaine 808 aim for the dancefloor, they usually hit the spot. [Feb 2016, p.71]

Lucy Gooch's early life as a chorister feeds into Desert Window's beauteous soundscapes, looping her gentle soprano voice over gauzy layers of synths in a seamless shift of classical ambient, jazz and dream-folk textures. [Jul 2025, p.28]

Hardcore contains some of their most affecting tunes since the early singles, instrumental parts coiling around each other in graceful, liquid polyphony. [Mar 2011, p.97]

Dark cabaret with an unhinged, dervish energy. [Feb 2006, p.70]

A confident, more expansive--emotionally and musically--annexe to his impressive, soul-baring debut. [Dec 2014, p.75]

Space Gun fizzes with an energy and seamless melody that recalls the band at their mid-'90s peak, and there's an intriguing assortment of songs to be found. [Apr 2018, p.27]

Thankfully, more often than not Eitzel is on great form. [Nov 2012, p.82]

These moody, brooding pieces avoid TV cliche and occasionally produce gems in their own right. [May 2013, p.74]

The Lucky Ones frames this new worldview in a punchier, tauter, leaner sound--less fuzz but more crunch. [July 2008, p.104]

The Coincidentalist, as with most things Gelb puts a shoulder to, is a thing of strange, understated pleasure. [Nov 2013, p.68]

Things are more cinematic here, with every melody weaving through a mise-en-scene packed with dramatic incident. [Nov 2006, p.101]

More by accident than design, it works sometimes. [Aug 2010, p.79]

More fun are the African-tinged "Radio Bemba," "Odeon," where New Orleans meets Irish tin whistle, and the Mexico-meets-Chopin "Black Hibiscus." [Mar 2014, p.80]

Pylon sees Killing Joke maintain the late-career renaissance precipitated by the original lineup reuniting for 2010's Absolute Dissent. [Nov 2015, p.77]

Sampson has broadened her horizons on this largely self-produced album, mastering a richer range of sounds and styles clipped synthfunk to sleek R&B to sumptuous gospel-pop. [Feb 2017, p.37]

Its high-beam intensity and near relentless drive triumphing over the niggling familiarity of some songs. [May 2017, p.30]

Laid-back and loose maybe, but neither lazy nor lacklustre. [Dec 2019, p.33]

Swift navigates Sansone's majestic folk-rock arrangements like the able captain of a frigate sailing over shimmering seas. [Sep 2020, p.36]

While Pearlies often invites comparisons with music by Lush’s many dream-pop descendants – “The Presence” and “Tonight Is Mine” being just two songs here that Beach House will wish they’d crafted – Anderson continually finds intriguing ways of deviating from those templates. In so doing, she’s able to nudge the guitar pedals aside and demonstrate that her music still has other places to go.