Russian Circles display a welcome eagerness to cut to the chase whether they're crafting gentler soundscapes like "Overboard" or hurtling through the doomy mathcore of "Vorel." [Nov 2016, p.37]

Booker T can still effortlessly access the pleasure principle that transcends musical trends and fleeting fashions, with an instinctive grasp of groove and momentum that speaks directly to heart, feet and head alike. [Sep 2013, p.84]

Fletcher’s and Pursey’s The Catenary Wires offer sweet vocals and dirty guitars on “Wall Of Sound” and Heavenly comrade Peter Momtchiloff jangles in French on Tufthunter’s “Monsier Jadis”, while Secret Shine still pursue shoegaze, Boyracer remain appealingly chaotic, and Sepiasound’s bucolic instrumental “Arcadian” maintains Blueboy’s yearning. [Apr 2022, p.36]

An exploration of what common ground there might be between it and Prophet’s usual métier of deadpan country rock. It turns out to be substantial, as does this album, from the shuffling Colombiana of “Betty’s Song” to the drawling Tom Petty vibes of “Sally Was A Cop” to the near Glen Campbell-ish “Red Sky Night”. [Nov 2024, p.41]

The familiar finger-picking textures and soft-sung romantic paeans of 2019’s Cala have been superseded by an almost ghostly atmosphere, as echo-swathed, lysergic-sounding reveries evoke spellbinding romantic visions. [Dec 2024, p.37]

It is a fitting tribute and resounding success. [Jan 2016, p.81]

Menneskekollektivet's foibles – and the sense that it’s incomplete – are what make it so compelling. [May 2021, p.34]

Mostly Kin is a deeply rewarding immersive experience. [Oct 2012, p.81]

Apply megawatt tunes and career-best performances and you’ve got an album to top even 2002’s criminally neglected "Life On Other Planets."

She crafts tightly coiled rock epics with just a few elements, sounding like The Strokes one minute, Liz Phair the next. [Apr 2019, p.39]

TATE's debut touches on Stooges garage rock, sultry blues, Strokesian pop, all swaddled in opulent Americana. [Mar 2009, p.87]

It's a structurally savvy set stuffed with impeccably wrought pop hooks. [May 2016, p.81]

Dawes come into their own as an articulate, self-assured SoCal rock band. [May 2013, p.69]

Sculptor is the strongest and most assured record of their career. The songs dig deep emotionally--but critically their aesthetics are well-balanced, the voice and instruments perfectly calibrated. [Aug 2018, p.18]

This new 23-track compilation, cherry-picking the back catalogue from 1989's "Box Elder" through to 1999's "Terror Twilight," might help resolve the band's final enigma. [Apr 2010, p.102]

[A] strong final work. [Sep 2015, p.71]

It can sometimes feel a little over the top but that's partly the point, and Fleming's voice has enough sincerity to hold it together. [Oct 2015, p.73]

Yes, they're really that good. [Feb 2022, p.37]

Every moment shimmers with atmosphere, as the rippling melodies and contoured choruses enclose Payseur's knotty ruminations in sun-dappled serenity. [Jul 2023, p.23]

The Lemonheads' sixth album is looser and shaggier than its predecessor; his purpose beginning to waver, though essentially Dando is continually saved nu his songwriting gifts. [Jun 2023, p.47]

The wonder of it all lies not so much on the amount of ground she covers but the way she inhabits her material so convincingly. [Oct 2011, p.94]

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]

It's more memorable than Mush's debut, simultaneously weirder and more melodic: and the peak of the record, and of this mix of the the strange and the infectious, comes right at the end. [Mar 2021, p.30]

A joy to listen to. [Nov 2013, p.69]

Distracted may be his most coherent album to date. Less prone to abrupt zigzags than its predecessors, it's his smoothest, too. [May 2026, p.35]

This is no desperate grab at nostalgia, then, rather a chronicle of important personal moments reexamined through the lens of time. [Feb 2019, p.30]

Line for line it's her best and funniest album in a decade. [Jun 2026, p.33]

It helps that Karen Peris’s voice continues to convey so much warmth and wonder. Likewise, her lyrics captures the tiniest joys of everyday life in modest but very finely crafted songs. [Jan 2025, p.35]