An aquatic, slow-moving work, rich with melancholic atmosphere. [Oct 2017, p.35]

The sound of a major talent gone major league. [Apr 2003, p.105]

For all its muddied textures and sideways lurches, it is a magnificently engaging and expansive work. [Jul 2003, p.112]

There are many wise, deceptively simple insights on this wonderful album. [Jun 2015, p.82]

This expertly wrought debut is an impressive platform for twentysomething polymath Heloise Letissier. [Apr 2016, p.71]

Beautiful, weird and wasted, Songs For Judy never lets us forget it. [Jan 2019, p.28]

Stylistically promiscuous and consistently inventive, Martin remains a maestro of multiple mutant genres, many of his own making. [Oct 2021, p.25]

The Sniffers sometimes sound limited by their studiously low-brow, lo-fi aesthetic. Even so, Comfort To Me offers a mostly exhilarating mix of headbanging riffs, profane wit and gutter-punk attitude. [Oct 2021, p.24]

if Shannon Lay's solo expression has been a steady blooming across three albums, Geist represents its full-blown folkish splendour. [Nov 2021, p.29]

She has crooned before, but the freight of intimate emotion here, letting low notes waver within the ferally alive arrangement, is masterful. Ending an album of looking back, this is the new prime of Chrissie Hynde. [Oct 2023, p.22]

Arab Strap songs mostly have a strong, vinegary flavour, and this is abracingly sour album over the long haul. The relentless misanthropic grind can drag in places. But as ever, Moffat’s withering scorn is sweetened by beautiful poetry, tender emotion and self-aware, bruise-black humour. [May 2024, p.36]

13 songs of luminous, impeccably judged country-folk. [Nov 2025, p.36]

The xx have expanded their horizons without sacrificing any of the emotional intimacy that makes them one of the most compelling acts around. [Feb 2017, p.22]

Too often the crossover strategy mires these songs in the most banal cliches of dream pop and arena grunge. [Sep 2018, p.29]

Helplessness Blues is as passionately desolate as anything on Closer, the record which documented Ian Curtis' romantic guilt and existential confusion. [Jun 2011, p.74]

Confirms System Of A Down as one of the most innovative bands in modern rock. [Jun 2005, p.110]

Only a couple of tracks into Bonny Light Horseman’s third album, it’s clear this is something special. Beauty erupts from the vocal harmonies of Eric Johnson and Anais Mitchell, who lift the Technicolor folk-rock of “Lover Take It Easy” into something close to heaven. And then it keeps getting better. [Jun 2024, p.29]

Edan's punch and broad vision distinguish him from the rest of the pack. [Jun 2005, p.110]

Purple is a formidable show of power and resilience, the band--with the help of produce Dave Fridmann--achieving its most consistently thrilling fusion of metal, southern rock and the edgier end of '90s alt.rock. [Jan 2016, p.72]

These elegant, cosmic soul-jazz excursions are a fine fit for Sumney's extraordinary voice. [Oct 2017, p.40]

As with all of Le Bon's projects, the claustrophobic, wonderfully awkward whole is very much her own. [Mar 2022, p.31]

A charming, confident voyage through sonic moods he's explored throughout his career. [Apr 2025, p.27]

Every song contains a clever new idea. [Mar 2024, p.35]

By turns darker and more challenging than 2003's dazzling Electric Version. [Oct 2005, p.96]

Benji is brutally sad, which may prove a deal-breaker for anyone who appreciated the comparatively light Among the Leaves, but it never feels gratuitous or exploitative. [Mar 2014, p.84]

Running over with ideas. [Nov 2006, p.128]

While what was lost with Smith is immeasurable, what he left was amazing, and New Moon is an appropriately spectacular monument. [Jun 2007, p.112]

Interplanetary Class Classics smears Saoudi's nihilistic euphoria across throbbing new-wave and singalong Glitter Band boogie. [Apr 2017, p.35]