Perhaps inevitably, it's female voices that fare best. [Aug 2015, p.81]

Brave and different. [Sep 2015, p.80]

His first solo album is more entrancing than anything he's recorded to date. [Aug 2015, p.78]

Lead guitarist Sean Thompson displays precocious virtuosity through For Use And Delight, spinning out bent-note filigrees that recall the work of his legendary namesake. [Nov 2015, p.81]

On I Abused Animals, Leigh works with stretched song forms--the result is remarkable. [Jan 2016, p.77]

He's been in this territory before, covering the Bunnyman's Crocodiles (2001), but never with such verve. [Dec 2015, p.79]

The spirit of the band's old leader Ronnie Lane comes shining through. [Feb 2016, p.80]

The sisterly joie de vivre marks out Songs Of Separation as a very special record indeed. [Mar 2016, p.82]

This double album is both poignant and richly inventive. [May 2016, p.69]

The tunes, by now, are richly coloured--there are tasteful flurries of cello, violin and brass--but the centrepiece remains Michaelson's lazy baritone, which makes up in emotional richness what it lacks in energy. Happily, Dan hasn't cheered up. [Jun 2016, p.76]

Day To Day's fusions feel accomplished and natural. [Aug 2016, p.77]

This unheard set, captured at Athens venue The Mad Hatter in 1983, shortly before the band's dissolution, confirms their two fine studio albums were no fluke. [Sep 2016, p.93]

For all of their doom-mongering--this record feeds on notions of dereliction and abandonment--Marconi Union always finds beauty in the bleakest places. [Sep 2016, p.76]

Sadness is necessarily these songs' anchor, but there's hope and resolve, too. [Oct 2016, p.35]

The result is a work that blends crackling blues, jaunty country and mesmerising folk balladry that sends shards through the heart. [Jan 2017, p.22]

Ibibio Sound Machine barely need drums to weave their polyrhythmic magic. [Apr 2017, p.32]

The morning moods are more immediately engaging, with Eno-ish rhyme schemes and country stylings. [Jun 2017, p.23]

Every song on Big Bad Luv seems to stem from emotional trauma, but he's pragmatic enough to get something good out of each one. [Jun 2017, p.36]

Weaver grounds all this analogue fizz and crackle in strong songwriting, erecting a razzle-dazzle wall of sonic scaffolding around richly referential lyrics and lysergic pastoral harmonies. Her best yet. [Jun 2017, p.38]

Fistfuls of dirty riff'n'rolll with a side order of voodoo and psych. [Jun 2017, p.30]

Throughout, tracks like "Love Matters" and "Salt Cleans" keep the oddness in check with some irritatingly catchy pop hooks. [Jul 2017, p.30]

This follow-up is even better [than 2015's Music In Exile], their skittery rhythms making fuller use of R&B grooves, brass and funky licks. [Jul 2017, p.39]

Kin Sonic is a far more expansively international affair. [Aug 2017, p.32]

Beautifully moving. [Aug 2017, p.32]

Though jangly sounds abound on the 71 songs collected here (so much so that there's an inevitable degree of twee fatigue), the contents demonstrate a shift away from the original shambling scenesters' distaste for displays of ambition, and a new eagerness to grab hold of the brass ring that The Smiths had surrendered to other contenders. [Aug 2017, p.50]

Transform a set of ancient griot tunes into something dramatically new. The Kronos crew seem to calibrate each piece exactly right. [Nov 2017, p.36]

That voice [of Marry Waterson]--sometimes sharp and slightly acrid, often warm and consoling, even when passing a dispassionate eye over the tales it tells--is the real magic here. [Nov 2017, p.39]

The universal motifs of loss, redemption and freedom from bondage are brought home in moving, understated style. [Oct 2017, p.28]