Fans of Hawley's rueful view of love and relationships, his fine guitar playing, and his magnificent singing voice will find them all present and correct here, if displayed in unexpected ways. [Jun 2012, p.75]

After the lackluster Touch, Mantasy at least captures the bonhomie that permeates the best releases from his house and techno label. [Nov 2012, p.77]

With Rough Carpenters, the pickers are deeply respectful of the revenant forms they're extending, but the music is never leaden. [Mar 2013, p.67]

Doldrums' frequently multi-tracked falsetto is the icing on an appealingly irregular cake. [Apr 2013, p.71]

Mostly, Dear Mark J. Mulcahy, I Love You sounds supremely happy to be here: it's an infectious feeling. [Jul 2013, p.82]

A 40-minute guitar wig-out at the end of the immense White Numbers--filling two CDs or three LPs--will delight Bevis Frond fetishists, but the toytown pop of "More Chalk" and teary madrigal "She's Just Like You" better showcase the cottage industrialist's skills. [Jul 2013, p.71]

For a record that often shifts all over the place--someone busks "Wonderwall" on "U1"--it's an absorbing listen. [Jan 2014, p.74]

Climax is both poundingly heavy and pleasingly melodic, at times recalling the Sisters Of mercy in their crossover pomp. [Feb 2014, p.71]

An engaging distillation of Weiss' rumbustious style that locks the listener into a groove and doesn't let go. [Jun 2014, p.74]

Night Surfer is a swashbuckling set of blasted guitars and rootsy grooves. [Dec 2014, p.80]

We find their extreme metal interspersed with more reflective moments. [Dec 2014, p.80]

What A Terrible World continues to sharpen the band's sound. [Feb 2015, p.81]

Fernandez's tunes have an endearing air of fragility. [Jul 2015, p.75]

Understated and in, places, unfashionable. [Oct 2015, p.83]

Their third and strongest album, pitching them closer to Captured Tracks labelmate Mac DeMarco. [Oct 2015, p.84]

Due to Joe Dilworth's propulsive drumming and Holger Zaf's synth work, these 12 tracks never stray into stuffiness. [Mar 2016, p.71]

Broad in scope, and naturally playful, this is a spectacular, fresh as the proverbial, triumph. [Sep 2016, p.73]

"Feedback Delicates" and "L'Quasar" shelter their hooks amid shimmery, heatstroke production; but there's an urgency here, too. [Nov 2016, p.40]

"Blue Noise, Black Lake" and "Rusty Machines, Dusty Carpets" both overdo the tension-release dynamics--but it is always compelling. [Dec 2016, p.35]

A mixture of original songs, among them the propulsive title track, and covers, each of which are given a richly visceral makeover by massed female voices. [Apr 2017, p.26]

Their 10th album in 25 years underlines their skill at combining heavy guitar solos with gauzy pop melodies and blizzards of noise. [Apr 2017, p.25]

Stanley's "Rosewood Bitters," a slice of swampy country rock with Todd Rundgren on keyboards, is a highlight, along with Dewey Terry's "Sweet As Spring." a gnarly love song with frenetic orchestration. [Jun 2017, p.51]

It's a beautifully judged (electronic) psych-pop record that hums with warmth, quiet eccentricity and gentle wryness, recalling Robert Wyatt, '60s French pop and Gruff Rhys' solo fare. [Jul 2017, p.39]

After three albums, they've learned to speak the same language. [Jul 2017, p.40]

A neat sampler of MacKay's unshowy virtuosity, at once brisk and mellow. [Jun 2017, p.33]

[Queens Of The Breakers] is busy without ever feeling overcrowded, its liquid acoustics following the soft contours of Brad's vocals to telling effect. [Nov 2017, p.24]

A soul-funk "cousin" to Big Inner, featuring a hefty dose of off-kilter Afro-pop alongside jazz-rock freak-outs and the acid-country of "Blue As My Name," where Blau claims to be "drunk with Wonder again." He sounds it. [Dec 2017, p.22]

Her striking debut--recorded in 10 days and originally self-released on her own label--brims with as much honest emotion as it does uncalculated cool. [Jan 2017, p.23]