A wonderous, modernist mix of LiLiPUT, Husker Du and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. [Mar 2022, p.28]

Number 14 sees them rejigged as a quintet, allowing their reverb-drenched sounds to spread where they will. [Oct 2012, p.87]

It’s a vibrant and genre-spanning collection, from the stripped-back piano house of opener “Wanna” via the UK garage flavour of “Waited All Night” (featuring xx bandmates Romy and Oliver Sim). Elsewhere, there are touches of R&B, disco, pop and electro-funk as the record unfurls with all the grace and flow of a masterful DJ set. [Oct 2024, p.43]

With Oberst's frail and quavering but steel-lined voice high in the mix, it clarifies how exceptional his lyrics are, and what exactly they're about. [Jan 2006, p.104]

bdrmm have expanded their sound, retaining that youthful energy and combining it with ambition and impressive marshalling of dynamics that creates a strangely serene album. [Aug 2023, p.25]

[The set] has ramshackle charm. [Nov 2013, p.89]

It's Creevy's charismatically odd lyrics and playful, St. Vincent-style subversion of angsty feminine stereotypes on provocative curios such as "Daddi" that keeps us transfixed. [Mar 2019, p.26]

Producer Joe Henry's tribute to that album, 1964's Bitter Tears, reimagines it beautifully. [Nov 2014, p.83]

Ackerman's psych-mangling songs covers a riveting emotional and sonic range. [Dec 2008, p.92]

Balancing staccato rhythms and itchy guitars with a neat line in woozy, trance-like synthesisers, they have an oblique lyrical bent that's all their own. [Feb 2008, p.80]

Magnificent Fiend is both indebted to the past and utterly timeless, wild but controlled, chin-stroking clever and head-shaking dumb, referential without being reverential. [May 2008, p.88]

His style remains unequivocally distinctive on these two succinct pieces. [Apr 2018, p.32]

Some stunning inventive improvisation, with pianist Danilo Perez sounding like 10 excited monkeys jumping up and down on the keys. In a good way. [Mar 2013, p.76]

To Be Still is a quantum leap from its predecessor, and one which establishes Alela Diane as a significant figure in contemporary Americana.

While they're not doing anything particularly new, the mixture of bile and valedictory swagger here is exhilarating. [Apr 2014, p.73]

Packed with big, epic pop. [Jun 2003, p.102]

K Bay probes the Richmond, VA-based artist's teeming psyche while advancing his anything-does record-making style. [Oct 2021, p.34]

Lenker collects vivid details and lets them amplify each other, until the deeply personal becomes somehow universal. [Mar 2024, p.29]

They rise to each other's challenges surprisingly well, with sinuous lo-fi beats brushing against saxes, woodwinds and vintage synths. [Jun 2011, p.96]

Shields' four contributions are everything you'd hope for. [Oct 2003, p.126]

Two years on, her sound is equally ambitious but more committed: here are modern, maximalist pop songs with top notes of R&B, Trap and Afrobeat, plus experimental detailing. As ever, Taylor's lyrics convince. [Nov 2021, p.32]

Every note of this compelling album backs her up. [Sep 2014, p.72]

Spoon display their signature style, precision and immediacy in real time, locked together through 10 taut tracks. [Mar 2022, p.36]

Songs unfold as complex relationships, with attendant euphoria, doubt and internal demons. [May 2005, p.112]

A more contemplative, intimate offering that in its own heavy and soulful way is just as thrilling. [Oct 2014, p.79]

She sounds like a woman liberated, employing the services of Al Green's band, the Hi Rhythm Section, and cheerfully ratcheting up the soul textures hinted at on her 2010 debut, Obadiah. [Nov 2014, p.75]

Despite a few notable omissions--no "Big New Prinz"?--it feels like the most coherent overview of the band's 40-odd years to date. [Jan 2018, p.38] [Album: 9/10 Extras: 6/10]

Coming so soon after Depression Cherry, it would be easy to dismiss Thank Your Lucky Stars as a mere postscript, but, if anything, it's the more impressive of the pair. [Jan 2016, p.72]