Blends bluegrass, backwoods folk and hammered blues with a motorik groove. [Apr 2006, p.106]

Russell was always more super-sessioneer and songwriter than vocalist, and the rasp of advancing years does little for over-familiar pieces like "Fever" and "Georgia On My Mind." Better are more personal favorites like Billy Joel's "New York State Of Mind" and Mose Allison's "Fool's Paradise." [Jul 2014, p.80]

Bright, luscious and languid. [Apr 2005, p.102]

[A] sumptuous, immensely pleasurable throwback album. [May 2017, p.25]

Neither beholden to tradition nor self-consciously moderne, she crafts skeletal songs of great warmth and grace. [Oct 2006, p.117]

Commune is less immediately striking than World Music. [Oct 2014, p.81]

There's rich melodies buried in many of these tracks. [Aug 2015, p.73]

Behind their heavily stylised surface, these are fairly standard heartbreak ballads, but Li's voluptuous gothic gloom is still intoxicating. [Aug 2022, p.29]

His playing is smart but no flash, though he does show off his six-string chops with some acid blues bending on "rock And Roll". [Oct 2025, p.24]

Despite several terrific individual tracks, this record ultimately derives its considerable strength from a renewed appreciation of the power of collective identity. [Jul 2011, p.90]

Eventually Brad Hargett's depressive baritone voice will get you down, but not before it has demanded your attention. [Apr 2009, p.87]

Dulli remains a restless and unpredictable frontman, constantly distorting his voice from a soaring falsetto into a bellowing bass, as though he's just getting started. [Mar 2020, p.27]

Olive doesn't have the strongest voice, but songs like "Traveling" and the choolin' "Strange Attractor" have a pure pop heart that blends beautifully with Auerbach's retro-rock aesthetic. [Sep 2011, p.93]

Last original member standing David Thomas remains inscrutable, defining Lady from Shanghai as an album of dance music. [Feb 2013, p.78]

Their seventh studio album removes some of the widescreen electronica and replaces it with a more, stripped back, acoustic vibe that rather suits them. [Aug 2013, p.67]

Acoustic Classics is a useful update on 1984's live Small Town Romance, with Thompson this time attacking his back catalogue in the studio. [Sep 2014, p.78]

It shuns the cliches of oceanic atmospherics. [Aug 2015, p.73]

Their debut is squeaky-door dub that offers unexpectedly plentiful tunes. [Sep 2016, p.73]

It makes for another assured chapter in a celebrated life, a celebrated achievement. [Jun 2022, p.24]

Though their drive to fill all available space causes some songs to grow diff use, their vision coheres on “Taken By The Hand”, a suitably audacious fusion of ferocious post-hardcore and anthemic Southern rock. [Aug 2022, p.23]

Songs like "Let's Make A Mistake Tonight" and the restless "Forbidden Doors" vividly capture intimate moments in a shared existence. [Apr 2023, p.36]

When they learn to perfect a climax without gaining flab, this band could be a truly transcendental prospect. [May 2006, p.129]

With guests including trumpeter Terry Edwards and The Clientele's Alasdair MacLean, theses pure, poetic songs advance their euphoric yet melancholy quest for improbable romance. [Jun 2011, p.79]

Orton remains a luminous presence among often monotone peers. [Dec 2012, p.75]

He's made one of his most uncompromisingly lovely albums, a tender notebook of pointillist electronics, deep waves of drone and ever ascending, yet melancholy, melody. [Dec 2018, p.23]

Against hard-edged rhythms – Danielle Haim’s clattering drumming enlivens “These Kids We Knew” – and Solomon’s wordless reveries, Rostam sings in a creamy tenor tailormade for sharing the intimate feelings of his lyrics. [Jul 2021, p.33]

While Downhill From Everywhere climaxes with the ham-fisted “Until Justice Is Real”, the 72-year-old singer-songwriter has otherwise managed to thread the needle by embedding his compassion in consummate craftsmanship. [Aug 2021, p.24]

The rest of the album struggles to maintain that high standard [of the second track, 'I Know'], but 'Take It Home' is a magnificent dirge. [Sep 2009, p.86]