While Mid Air is an album occasionally rooted in grief following the loss of Romy's parents, it seeks to take those moments of joy and dancefloor elation. [Oct 2023, p.34]

"Bad Apples'" Sonic Youth guitars provide a punkish response to policing following Sarah Everard's murder, while "Company Culture" breathlessly addresses workplace harassment. They boast a grim wit too. [Feb 2025, p.36]

This is an explicitly fallen world and yet, with its "Super-8 mote" and "temples of tragic skyscrapers", one of strange Lynchian wonder. [Jul 2025, p.31]

The most straightforward of Oldham's catalogue, and yet still rich with the oneiric and mysterious qualities that drew so many listeners to his art. [Apr 2026, p.20]

This wildly varied collection begins with their first release in 2002, "No Pasaran" about the Spanish Civil War, and include treats such as "Dream Come True," a self-released 7" given away at gigs, which sounds like Henry Rollins singing the "Grease "soundtrack while vomiting marbles. Yes, it's that good. [Feb 2010, p.84]

It's a tough, late-night, soul-searching kind of process that Kurt Vile signed up for here. It's a testament to his talent that he takes it so seriously, but makes it all sound effortless. [May 2013, p.61]

Loveless' songwriting on Real is sharp, economical and wickedly funny. [Sep 2016, p.77]

The music is straight and soothing, a band coming together in a rootsy salve as Williams returns to a favourite theme, deliverance through music. [Feb 2026, p.24]

We can enjoy Foxing's prophecies of impending doom, particularly when they're clothed in Animal Collective harmonies, U2 bombast and even avant-garde R&B. [Sep 2018, p.29]

Gibbard's freighted eloquence gives Asphalt Meadows its unsettling immediacy. [Oct 2022, p.26]

Stelmanis using her hurt as fuel for a series of sleekly designed tracks that alternate between surging, propulsive pieces of dancefloor-ready catharsis and more delicate yet still dramatic passages that emphasise the most crystalline properties of Stelmanis' voice. [Review of the Year 2025, p.21]

Hot Thoughts finds Spoon at the peak of their considerable powers, their ninth album effortlessly unfolding and revealing its mysteries as they cement their place in the firmament of undeniably great rock bands. [Apr 2017, p.34]

[It] sidles forth with an easy-going aura, belying the artistry within. [Jul 2007, p.107]

Lush and lively. [Feb 2017, p.29]

The best moments of Inferno are tender hymns to everyday pleasures. [Apr 2019, p.29]

The real heart of this record seems to lie in moments of stillness and rest, where strung-out slackerdom attains an almost sacred quality. [Apr 2011, p.88]

Raitt isn't breaking new ground--she's emphatically marking out the turf she's owned for 45 years. [Mar 2016, p.78]

Reaffirms their status as masters of white heat smoulder, turning down the amps but heightening the ravaged intensity.... A career high. [Oct 2002, p.119]

Murray Street contains some of the best music Sonic Youth have recorded since the landmark Daydream Nation in 1988. [Jul 2002, p.122]

Five tracks of interlaced and overlapping open tunings and drone where individual parts shape the eloquent whole, to irresistibly radiant effects. [Jan 2025, p.31]

Africa's new axe hero marches on. [Aug 2011, p.104]

An album that takes nothing for granted, that doesn't consider your attention a gift, that wants to impart something profound to you. Trust her. [Sep 2019, p.28]

For all the haunting, dislocated atmospheres here, Coombes still has an ear for melodies. [Feb 2015, p.75]

While "Godmother" confounds with its sci-fi babble, the likes of "Alienation" and "External" suggest that a tune is a tune in any language. [Jun 2019, p.29]

Historian fulfills all the promises of 2015's No Burden. [Apr 2018, p.26]

A rousing debut that constantly eschews genre conventions. As a result, the record manages the impressive juxtaposition of perpetual unfurling in unpredictable ways yet remaining tonally coherent. [Aug 2019, p.26]

It's the range of styles that impress most, from slow cowboy ballads and Western swing to full-throated honky-tonk, Tin Pan Alley and exquisite break-up songs. [May 2009, p.90]

It is this methodical exploration of the ancient and modern that makes Weyes Blood such a seductive proposition, and the ambitious Front Row Seat To Earth--intimate and enveloping, romantic and psychedelic--marks a significant progression in Mering's increasingly impressive career. [Nov 2016, p.38]