While there are a few too many round-the-campfire gloom-fests on I Forget Where Were, there are also displays of real musical background. [Dec 2014, p.77]

Apache holds its focus on straight-ahead vintage soul-pop, blending mid-tempo workouts and big weepy ballads with swampy shuffling grooves. [Sep 2016, p.78]

Wilderness is a logical step for the group, honing their aesthetic, and finding intimate rapture in the peak moments of their carefully crafted songs. [Feb 2017, p.24]

It's Macve's self-assurance and rounded expression that impress- that and her voice, a Lustrous and powerful instrument with a yodelling swoop that she wisely never overworks. [Apr 2017, p.32]

The highlight is the lengthy Elvin Jones tribute that opens the album---an expansive Afro-tinged big band upgrade of a piece originally recorded with Jim Keltner. [Jun 2017, p.38]

Canadian Colter Wall is just 21, but in delivering his rich imagery of railroads, frauleins and codeine dreams, he sounds closer to 71. [Jul 2017, p.40]

On her band's follow-up to its 2014 self-titled debut, Rankin returns to that comfort zone with largely engaging results. [Oct 2017, p.24]

Enriched instrumentation and subtle electronic flourishes make this Ackroyd's most rewarding collection. [Mar 2018, p.21]

The third Cd features interesting but inessential 12in mixes. ... There are diamonds throughout the sprawling set, which also manages to sound cohesive thanks to Lydon's binding, blaring vocals and the atmosphere of managed, jagged chaos. [Sep 2018, p.48]

"Overrated" tosses in traces of Disintegration-era Cure, with Matilda Bogren's dreamy vocals buried deep in a richly murky, shoegaze-friendly mix, while "Apart" leans towards the gothic and "Hard Ending" adds a little New order. [Jul 2018, p.27]

A pygmy in the grown-up pop world, maybe, but in his own tiny corner of the cosmos, a giant. [Feb 2019, p.30]

This is voluminous in length and style. [Feb 2019, p.33]

It's sometimes more about the journey than the getting there, and the contents of this latest Bowie box help document many of the steps. ... The 1969 Space Oddity record remains more than its title track, the tender love songs particularly strong. It's a hippie record of social observation and heavy inner trips, Bowie's wit and tenderness rendering it a cut above. [Dec 2019, p.41]

Lucifer Is A Flower contains something of the narcotic mischief that made his 1978 debut such a delight. [Sep 2020, p.27]

Sprout can get a little too earnest - greater distance might, perhaps counterintuitively, make these songs more globally affecting - but he's still a great pop writer. [Oct 2020, p.36]

It's a deeply personal and poignant exploration of loss. [Jan 2021, p.27]

The Dharma Wheel channels the Allman Brothers, Grateful Dead, Crazy Horse and more in its generous spirit. [Nov 2021, p.29]

Where the haunted vocals and atmospheric production remain, it's in service of something bolder, more dynamic. [Jan 2022, p.22]

It feels slightly too long but there's much to like. [Mar 2022, p.36]

Their unfussy but subtle playing embellishes the simplicity of Nash’s melodies, while experience brings renewed pathos to songs like “I Used To Be A King”, “Man In The Mirror” and even something as straightforward as “You’ll Never Be The Same”. [Jul 2022, p.30]

Efterklang deal exclusively in Big Music and there are plenty of stirring passages – “To A New Day” could be Take That; Mabe Fratti provides cello – and it all flows, rather too safely, at a steady pace. [Sep 2024, p.30]

A set of lush and moody ballads boasting ripe wisdom. [Oct 2025, p.31]

Gentler hues are to the fore on the soft strum and harmonies of Teenage Fanclub's "Lonely Night", coming as near as dammit to an indie Crosby, Stills & Nash. They veer from the template just once, on the slow country rock of "Me And Magdalena". [Apr 2026, p.26]

The songs are largely Solomon accompanied only by a primitively strummed acoustic guitar, a sparse but effective backdrop to confessional odes about facing fears. [Jun 2026, p.34]

The way they smudge together sounds can feel more untidy than enjoyable, but when they get it right, as on the riff-heavy "taste" and "Spend The Night," it's exhilarating stuff. [Feb 2018, p.24]

Despite the sense of loss that inevitably pervades the music here, Steve Goodman's first solo effort as Kode9 also charts out some exhilarating new directions. [Dec 2015, p.74]

Despite a few interesting textures, New Blue Sun never really takes flight. [Jan 2024, p.25]

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