While the recitation by guest Moor Mother lends form and force to “Our Mother’s Lights” and Fujita’s saxophonist father adds Jan Garbarek-like lines to three other tracks, the album is otherwise distinguished by the music’s shimmering beauty and other sounds that glide overhead like the birds evoked by the title. [Sep 2024, p.33]

Adopting Franz Ferdinand's arty edginess and the raw energy of the Pistols, Art Brut tilt at everything from the ephemeral nature of popular culture to erectile dysfunction. [Jun 2005, p.100]

The Grinderman hat seems to have tilted the basic Bad Seeds stance brilliantly on its side, bringing out a new humour and a grumpy-old-rocker gravitas. [Apr 2007, p.102]

Mountains' skillful manipulation of texture and space creates a sound that stealthily envelopes you like an Appalachian fog. [mar 2009, p.92]

Generous of spirit and cutting-edge sound, Hopelessness is a statement for our times, and one that will not be easy to dismiss. [Jun 2016, p.63]

It's a record that begs for repeat listens. [Oct 2020, p.36]

The overall mixture of anger and longing, fierceness and calm, is breathtaking. [Nov 2014, p.68]

A mini-masterpiece. [Jun 2012, p.82]

It's a typical cyclical riff and chant but, unlike other Tuareg bands, driven by full drums. Elsewhere, the quieter "Achaka Achail Aynaian Daghchilan" comes complete with subtle blues flourishes. [Nov 2013, p.79]

This is a melancholic album, but a determined, thoughtful one. [Mar 2015, p.80]

Sounding emphatically Icelandic on every note, sister act Ásthildur and Jófrídur Ákadöttir coo gorgeously flinty, frosty, intertwined harmonies over stark, piano-led chamber-folk arrangements. [Sep 2016, p.78]

Wasteland retains a wilful catchiness. [Dec 2018, p.33]

As is usually the case with archival material of this kind, nothing here is any improvement on the finished product. These tracks are, however, humbling reminders that what we end up hearing as astonishing lightning-in-a-bottle transcendence is very often the result of repetitive, labour-intensive hackwork. [Aug 2024, p.46]

He’s on top form for the slow-burning, “Wish You Were Here”-ish title track and the wonderfully dreamy “Sings”. .... A hidden gem is the bonus track “Yes, I Have Ghosts”, a harp-led Celtic waltz that’s as affecting as anything in Gilmour’s canon. [Oct 2024, p.34]

Lower fused dream-pop, experimental hip-hop, indie sludge and illbient, with texture and production effects crucial. ... Best are the wonky blues-hop of "Pompeii Statues" and "Hope For The Night Time", which suggests the raspy-voiced Booker joining a lo-fi Mercury Rev on Spacebomb. [Feb 2025, p.33]

Poet Joshua Idehen adds desperate, apocalyptic testimony to the opening of "All That Matters Is The Moments," while "The Lifeforce Part I" and "II" gradually dial up the intensity, Hutchings blowing with dervish energy as drums and synth lock into a spiraling groove. [Jan 2020, p.25]

Richly textured music. [Apr 2020, p.35]

The mood of Expert In A Dying Field is yearning and reflective, as Stokes picks over the bones of relationships on mournful janglers like “Your Side”, punky rocker “Silence Is Golden”, the shimmering “Best Left” and terrific closer “2am”. [Oct 2022, p.25]

Singing exclusively in Turkish, it's hard to judge her message, but her voice is a gloriously expressive instrument full of mystery. [Nov 2018, p.23]

Ayewa always makes ambitious albums, but Jazz Codes feels like her richest yet, her Lemonade, her To Pimp A Butterfly. [Sep 2022, p.28]

The use of reverberant instruments such as marima, bells and steel drums--as well as, on "Stick To My Side," the ethreal vocals of Noah 'Panda Beear" Lennox--give a real depth to his ambitious productions, and yet despite the elemental yearning, they retain a clubby toughness. Breth-taking stuff. [Mar 2010, p.90]

As strong as this record is, there's a way to go to make good on the promise of its title. [Nov 2005, p.92]

A compelling new chapter in their long history. [Jun 2020, p.39]

It's a record of passion and richness, with a hoard of memorable songs, that demands to be treated the equal of its inspirations. [Sep 2003, p.102]

The result is typically elegant and--perhaps surprisingly, given the circumstances--uplifting work about the affairs of the heart. [Mar 2016, p.80]

Visiter suggesting both a rhythm-centric Shins and a more hard-bitten Feelies. [Aug 2008, p.90]

The production is beautifully OTT, with everything stretched and digital, zeroes and ones working binary overtime to warp some of Herrema and Hagerty's greatest anthems into robotic rock mantras. [Feb 2013, p.94]

Aching pop-soul bathed in nostalgic warmth of another era. ... Yet Atkins is also possessed of a singular, torchy voice that floods these songs with genuine fervour. [Aug 2017, p.25]