To their credit the quartet's swaggering garage rock, stuffed with grit and glam, has a certain edge, largely due to frontman mark Saunders' Welsh-accented sneer. [Apr 2016, p.81]

A hugely entertaining album. [Jun 2016, p.71]

The resultant tracks are dominated by Allen's fidgety, polyrhythmic Afrobeat rhythms, particularly the Fela Kuti-ish "Bade Zile." But the Haitian singers and FX-laden soundscapes of Glasgow guitarist Marc Mulholland take things into other dimensions. [Aug 2017, p.69]

Lacking only a killer single, Big Box Of Chocolates has a great balance of rockers, ramblers and ballads, giggling throwaways and low-key philosophising. [Dec 2016, p.30]

The Jayhawks provide a diverse, autumnal foundation that amps up when needed. Stace's deceptively winsome voice, meanwhile, delves deep into memories, dreams, relationships and life's absurdities. [Mar 2017, p.40]

Guild takes a few listens to really seep in, but there are some truly hallucinatory moments here. [Oct 2019, p.39]

Dangerous Visions is a curious half-and-half. Side One collects raucous new material. ... Side Two, meanwhile, rests on an exhumed Peel session from 1989. [Feb 2021, p.30]

A bold step into more contentious terrain. [Feb 2021, p.34]

There's no denying the smooth grooves of Willie Mitchel and Al Green is a template for several cute here. [Sep 2021, p.33]

The early-’60s soul-jazz strut belies the emotional purpose of career-spanning songs. Van’s voice and heart are unaccustomedly youthful and light seeking a West Country grail in “Avalon Of The Heart”. [Oct 2024, p.40]

Amid opiated baroque arrangements, Allison's impressive vocal abstraction stays the main attraction. [Feb 2025, p.33]

"Slow Rise (To The Middle)" reels from the crush of diminished expectations amid instrumental interaction as heady as Oliver Wood's lyrical musings. [Sep 2025, p.39]

The likes of "Hard To Beat" and "Cash Machine" jack not just the offbeat skank and dubby bass of The Specials but some of their creeping dread and downbeat humanity as well. [Aug 2005, p.92]

Whoever is singing, the beats are choppy and the mood intense. A revelation. [Oct 2018, p.24]

Revitalising indie-pop. [Feb 2004, p.78]

The result is a fresh and invigoratingly modern take on black music and as far removed from a musical history lesson as you get. [Mar 2013, p.69]

Fragments could have been made any time in the last 25 [years], yet the down-tempo warmth, tasteful orchestrations and immaculate production are still a winning combination. [Feb 2022, p.26]

Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig apply a dance-pop shine to the 10 songs here, an approach that lightens the load of heavy-hearted lyrics rooted in changes and challenges like Wolfe’s recent divorce. [May 2022, p.30]

Although at times it's a little too knowingly shambolic, the band nail the mood on "Peace Of Mind", while the outstanding Stonesy number "Anyway I Find You" finds a great bridge between their two styles. [Mar 2023, p.32]

Although nothing matches the sexy Prince-funk pastiche 'Test' that Yukimi Nagano and co delivered on their self-titled 2007 debut, there is more depth and variety on their secpnd album. [Oct 2009, p.101]

Glasper steps into the spotlight, less ostentatiously [than Kamasi Washington's The Epic], with a live trio album. [Aug 2015, p.75]

Consistently stirring and heartbreakingly lovely. [Feb 2018, p.18]

The most thrilling moments are those in which you catch a glimpse of the band jamming away amid the aural wreckage. [Feb 2022, p.25]

The likes of "Sauchiehall Withdrawal" and "Diop" add a few crumbs to the collective's heaving table, but there's plenty here to chew on. [Jan 2018, p.22]

As with Daft Punk's sleek 1970s upgrades, his accomplished 1780s meditations go past pastiche. [Jun 2023, p.25]

Cabic’s limited vocal powers are part of the problem. His dusty delivery is allusive when wrapped in instrumental swirls--asked to front up a song, it sounds merely flat.

The result is an impressionistic and intriguing set of instrumentals that draw on an eclectic set of influences from the obvious (Satie and Glass) to the surprising (gamelan and Robert Miles). [Jan 2018, p.24]

An entertaining oddity which manages to recall both Bobby Gillespie and (late) Julian Cope in its reverence for over-the-top rock'n'roll excess. [May 2014, p.78]