Robbie Robertson has enlisted Bob Clearmountain to provide a new mix in order to give the recordings more "space" and clarity, and it especially reaps rewards on the woozy duet between Richard Manual and co-writer Van Morrison, "4% Pantomime", and Allen Toussaint's New Orleans brass arrangement on "Life Is A Carnival". [Feb 2022, p.43]

You can’t fault the songcraft , though, as “Dreams”’ romantic reverie and hooky freeway anthems such as “Can’t Stop The Rain” transcend Francis’ rather detached delivery. [Dec 2021, p.27]

These shimmery reworkings of Cave classics including "The Ship Song" and "Red Right Hand" are pleasingly free of both solemn reverence and ironic kitsch. [Feb 2022, p.33]

Amplifying the convivial otherworldliness of his music by grabbing hold of mythic melodies like "Outer Spaceways Incorporated" and "We Travel The Spaceways" and filling them with their analogue fantasia, alien chants going intergalactic in gently fried circuit boards. [Dec 2021, p.25]

From the yearning opener “Hold On” through to the life-affirming ruckus of “Queens” and “Better Love” and to the final epiphanies in “Alpine Drive”, Observatory is a triumphant expression of resilience in the face of all the hard knocks and harder lessons that fill a life.

This is a coherent set of transformative reveries by an older, less angry man. [Jan 2022, p.31]

Artists from Phil Lesh, Bob Weir and Steve Earle, to J Mascis and Aaron Lee Tasjan, whose "Travelling After Dark" is a strong cut - interpret Casal's lifetime of work, fittingly as radio staples. [Feb 2022, p.37]

It's the sound of two people deeply interlocked. [Feb 2022, p.25]

old Friends... flows as a set piece but there are standouts. [Feb 2022, p.25]

The most thrilling moments are those in which you catch a glimpse of the band jamming away amid the aural wreckage. [Feb 2022, p.25]

"Things You Learn The Hard Way" is a droll litany of wry advice evocative of Jason Isbell's "Outfit", and "Hometown Here" and "Let 'Em Burn" display a commendable facility for the deftly sketched potted soap opera. [Feb 2022, p.34]

Few tracks aside, this Volume 2 contains very little trace of the jazz pivot her music would take later in the decade. The outtakes covering that period are going to make fascinating listening. Meanwhile, this feels like a completist’s dream –because even Joni Mitchell’s storeroom sweepings are spangled with diamond dust.

Barn is a stronger effort than its predecessor [2019's Colorado], with this particular lineup finding its footing. [Jan 2022, p.20]

The warm homeliness drifts into untethered territory. [Dec 2021, p.31]

Another batch of weapons-grade psychedelic reggaeton that buckles and grooves with sinuous grace. ... The sole clanger is "Born Yesterday." [Jan 2022, p.21]

Sardonic opener “Down From London” showcases Caravan’s pop smarts, while they make complex fun on the title track, exploding into Steve Hillage-style Euro-rock around the nine-minute mark. [Dec 2021, p.25]

The results are radical without losing sight of Garcia's original vision. [Dec 2021, p.27]

Intimacy is still her trump card. [Dec 2021, p.26]

The pick of the bunch are the two recordings made in 2000. The first is a live set recorded shortly after Glastonbury at the BC Radio Theatre featuring Bowie's well-drilled band on a post-Glasto high, working through the hits. The second is Toy. [Jan 2022, p.38]

Dawson is able to soar gloriously over Circle’s layers of sound, while the group are stronger with his mighty voice and melodies elevating their tumult. The rest of us are just lucky to be able to dive into these seven songs, as heavy as Redwood trunks and as complex as cladoxylopsids. Cue thunderclap.

It's not always on the right side of cliché but, when it works, it's glorious. [Nov 2021, p.29]

This is chamber music taken into a different dimension. [Jan 2022, p.30]

Exquisitely crafted, lightly experimental chamber-folk album. [Jan 2022, p.21]

Many of these songs also feel like polite recital pieces, stripped of high drama, so that Wilson often sounds like a shadow of himself. [Dec 2021, p.35]

Driven by beats and rhythmic synth, the songs are meticulously constructed yet warm and intimate, if low on distinguishing characteristics. [Jan 2022, p.22]

This boxset – beautiful, thorough, a labour of love, offers an opportunity for many more of us to hear and to reconsider Nyro’s music; to sit there, like Alice Cooper, and go, “That’s songwriting.”

The accent firmly on the spiritual. The stately "Family Bible" touches base with Willie's early career. ... There's a jubilant hoedown vibe to Hank Williams' "I Saw The Light," bettered only by offspring Lukas's plaintive lead vocal on George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass." [Jan 2022, p.27]

Slothrust demonstrate a melodic elegance that belies their grunge-punk roots. [Jan 2022, p.29]