{The album] bears many of the assured and lyrically deft hallmarks of Basher's own work. [Mar 2014, p.79]

It ends up being a more nuanced guide to the Thompsons' flawed but just-about functioning dynamic, divorces, remarriages and all. [Dec 2014, p.82]

[A] sonically rich debut. [May 2015, p.77]

The resulting appearances from the likes of Calexico, Mark Knopfler, Carrie Rodriguez and David Lindley are subtle and empathetic, blending easily into Brown's spare, atmospheric Americana. [Jun 2017, p.24]

When You're Ready is a sharply confident debut, as Tuttle proves an expressive vocalist and an idiosyncratic songwriter. [May 2019, p.37]

This is a downbeat set, lean and lonesome yet never morose. [Nov 2019, p.38]

Opulent, perverse and reassuringly other-worldly. [Oct 2019, p.30]

It's a rich, well-crafted piece of 1970s AOR, featuring elegantly written verses, choruses and - heaven forfend - middle eights. [May 2020, p.32]

Think Screaming Trees' Dust, or Chris Cornell's Euphoria Morning, steeped in folk and psychedelia, the teenage angst of old weathered if not quite mellowed. [Aug 2020, p.30]

Vertigo Days does not deviate far from the established Notwist formula of soft-focused indie-folk electronica, which can feel too tastefully non-committal at times. But there are vivid beauties here too. [Mar 2021, p.34]

These compact compositions inevitably risk straying into noodling self-indulgence at times. But in general, inspiration trumps masturbation. [Aug 2021, p.33]

Some songs are mere fragments and there's an early version of standalone single "U.S. Mail" in place of Sundowner's stunner "Jamie," but this is otherwise a beautiful and raw selection still bearing the scars and charms of creative birth. [Oct 2021, p.29]

There's a comfort, a natural ease, to Black Lips's Apocalypse Love that could never be mistaken for laziness. [Dec 2022, p.25]

Johanna Warren’s sixth solo record is as masterful as it is enchanting. [Oct 2022, p.36]

Smartly enlisted esteemed producer Dave Fridmann, who illuminates their loose-limbed, self-assured character on kickass Stones-y opener "If I Try To Leave" and the cowbell-powered "Forgiving Ties," with its hooky Harrisonian central riff. [Aug 2023, p.28]

Little Sun is one of his strongest sets in a while, whether he’s lost in the hypnotic reveries of “Bearhead Lake” or finding Michael Hurley-esque playfulness through “Ten Watt”. [Apr 2024, p.39]

“You Possess Me” and Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” are out-and-out power ballads, while the ramshackle roar of another cover, The Undertones’ “Teenage Kicks”, is arguably closest in spirit to what went before. [Nov 2024, p.40]

The caustic wit of their first two albums is too often buried under shouty non-choruses and dirgey post-punk bluster, either side of a couple of more notable moments. [Mar 2023, p.35]

A surprisingly introspective album. [Jul 2019, p.37]

While house purists might find it juvenile, and there are some aimless passages, the lo-fi production is beautiful. [Mar 2012, p.87]

Arguably, they are a little one-paced and some looseness would not have gone amiss--but the candid, striking honest lyrics about sex and love bear the strain. [Jul 2017, p.26]

Stephen McBean's merry bunch have toned down the heavier impulses of 2010's Wilderness Heart on this fourth album, plumping instead for a collision of gruff psychedelia, trippy space-folk and pulsing electronica. [May 2016, p.69]

A cover of 'Flower Sun Rain' by '70s Japanese supergroup Pyg sounds like the Super Furries, while a 16-mkinute doom jam with SunO)))'s Stephen O'Malley is as titanic as you'd hope. [May 2008, p.91]

Centipede Hz is an album that both gazes up into the cosmos, and stares down into the dirt--and perhaps that's not so weird.

Songs lurch from amphetamine ballads to sullen dream-pop and always keep you guessing. [Review of the Year 2023, p.23]

The lyrics are still all Rennie's, of course, teeming with mysterious metaphors and fantastical flights of fancy. [May 2009, p.90]

Their combination of new wave rhythms, with such conspicuous use if strings is impressive, but it falls a little short of grandeur. [Oct 2008, p.105]

The result is a richly produced album of breezy, melodic and infectious indie-rock with hooks galore. [May 2024, p.31]