Timeless, tender and sparse. [Dec 2019, p.35]

Foil Deer is catchy, exhilarating and smart. [May 2015, p.81]

You won't find it hard to reciprocate Open Your Heart's approach. [May 2012, p.79]

You could call it happy hardcore, even if there's nothing particularly upbeat about its content. [Feb 2012, p.83]

Dwyer's unique hiccupping rhythm continues to dominate, ensuring the band are distinctively Osees, but this is the group's most experimental and unusual record for a few years. [Sep 2024, p.37]

These sketches give a sense of how Reed’s songs would be finessed. The less familiar tunes reverse the telescope, throwing the focus on the way Reed bullworked his writing muscles, toying with novelty and genre. ... What these early sketches show is that by combining novelty and song craft with the soul of a poet, Reed could reach higher. [Sep 2022, p.42]

These songs insinuate via a vaguely vintage sound that recall both Jonathan Donahue's spangled dreaminess and the (s)weary brio of Father John Misty. [Apr 2025, p.29]

Generally her pop is as adult as her lyrics. [Feb 2026, p.29]

Skeleton romps along at a joyful gait peppered with breathless harmonies and squalls of noise and subverts some familiar tools along the way. [Nov 2008, p.87]

Palomino is upbeat, glossy country, tending somewhat towards the generic, but redeemed (as usual) by the rich twang in Lambert’s voice and the waspish humour which frequently enlivens her lyrics. [Jun 2022, p.29]

He’s got a trippy sense of humour (sampling a bong hit on “MORBUD4ME”), but there’s a pervasive melancholy running songs like “In The Clear” and “Gild The Lily”, as though what he leaves behind is just as important as what he discovers on that endless highway. [Jan 2024, p.40]

Contains some of their most objectively beautiful songs. [Jun 2025, p.41]

Loaded: Reloaded stands as a lavish sequel. [Nov 2015, p.92]

King Gizzard's most cohesive record to date--a hyper-detailed punk opera that few of their peers have matched for intensity, ambition or sheer derangement. [Jun 2016, p.77]

I kept wishing I'd been there that night, 45 years ago. [Mar 2020, p.42]

This fruitful collaboration between k.d. Lang, Neko Case and Laura Veirs succeeds largely because it makes room for all three distinctive voices and songwriting styles, alongside sublimely blended three-way harmonies. [Jul 2016, p.71]

They're bummed to learn that adulthood breeds more angst than adolescence, which inspires a sharp-edged '70s hard rock, with songs celebrating kink and demanding equal pay and full-body autonomy on "Big Trouble". [Sep 2023, p.23]

Their masterpiece. .... They've matured- not like a fine wine, but maybe like a magnificently ripe Wensleydale. [Jul 2025, p.20]

[A] darkly compelling new album. [May 2017, p.24]

Wildflower does a robust job of reiterating core skills rather than offering radical reinvention. [Sep 2016, p.66]

The Remote Part is Idlewild Mark II--sleeker, bolder, better. [Oct 2002, p.107]

Another truly wondrous record. [May 2004, p.99]

Like Ill Communication, it's a superbly paced album, its felicitous stylistic juxtapositions the product of judicious cut-and-paste. [Jun 2011, p.89]

Drew's desire to be all things to all 'hoods is the weakness of the soundtrack to his debut movie. [Oct 2012, p.86]

Alternating between acoustic ballads and full-on roots rockers could have created a disjointed feel, but it works splendidly with the salty, blue-collar honesty of his dustbowl voice providing an emotional cohesion on vivid, affecting songs such as "Heart's Too Heavy" and the warmly nostalgic "American Flags In Black & White." [Feb 2016, p.78]

The parade of fretboard styles Cooder brings to the album is masterly. [Jun 2018, p.22]

There's a biting political edge to the off-kilter "In The Desert," which savages Bush and Blair for instigating the Middle East crisis and its attendant horrors. At the same time, this wouldn't be a Mekons record without a fair dollop of humour. [May 2019, p.26]

Add sublime dimensions to James's already impressive canon. [May 2022, p.36]