The true spiritual kin to Neal's spectral fragility is Mazzy Star's. [Mar 2021, p.35]

A bold step into more contentious terrain. [Feb 2021, p.34]

Everything on Little Oblivions will make you feel, and it's the catharsis we all need. [Mar 2021, p.26]

"Hard Drive," meanwhile adds spoken word and Bogie's swirling saxophone to a touching tale of psychic recovery, before "The Ramble" concludes with pretty pastel drones. [Mar 2021, p.31]

In many ways, Distractions is an enigma. In years to come, we may look back on this record as transitional, or a product of its times. But to hear a band of this vintage still listening – and responding – to their instincts is a joy in itself.

Lyrical references to stargazing, sprawling jasmine and the passage of time paint a picture of the infinite, and our small place in it, that is heightened by the band's soaring melodies. [Mar 2021, p.39]

The result is a quietly moving hymn to home and humanity. [Mar 2021, p.29]

Bristles with the unruly energies that enlivened their younger incarnations. [Mar 2021, p.32]

A confident reiteration of this singular group's virtues. [Mar 2021, p.38]

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]

New Fragility is emotionally fraught but musically generous. [Mar 2021, p.28]

While Django Django have spent much of the last decade assembling art-pop collages from eclectic grab-bags of styles, this fourth studio set seems to pull off the trick more seamlessly than ever. [Mar 2021, p.29]

It's when Slowthai turns the lens inward on the soulful "NHS" and loved-up "Feel Away" - featuring James Blake and Mount Kimbie - that he proves himself something of an original. [Mar 2021, p.37]

Start Walkin’ emphasises the team’s many deviations from the mean, demonstrating how inventive and subversive Sinatra’s music could be even before her music with Hazlewood took a more avidly idiosyncratic direction with Nancy & Lee. ... 23 concise chapters that are thrilling, surprising and sometimes sublime.

His joyous fourth album proper leaves behind the folksy stylings of his earlier solo work and instead builds on 2018's glitter-strewn Karma For Cheap. [Mar 2021, p.39]

Picks up where 2015's Justin Vernon-helmed If I Was Left Off, as their three-part blood harmonies form the shimmering centre of an elaborate, album-long soundscape. [Mar 2021, p.37]

Thankfully, there's more than just wannabe Fall stuff here, offering up a variety of teeth-rattling noises. [Jan 2021, p.32]

Conjures worlds of chilly, pulsing synths and waspish guitar. [Mar 2021, p.27]

You'll be hard pushed to find a more adventurously self-assured debut this year. [Mar 2021, p.27]

Richer textures, but no luxury-studio sheen or indulgence: the expanded resources are deployed with the care and rigour that characterised her previous use of humbler tools. Her voice is so distinctive and her writing so personal that a strutting backbeat and a flying hi-hat don't affect the essential character of the music. ... Perfect. [Mar 2021, p.36]

This follow-up is mightily impressive too, the band ramping up their sound into something approaching classic rock. [Feb 2021, p.30]

Giraffe applies a drowsy charm to a wide variety of characters on songs that tap into the traditions of Harry Nilsson and Van Dyke Parks. [Feb 2021, p.30]

Vertigo Days does not deviate far from the established Notwist formula of soft-focused indie-folk electronica, which can feel too tastefully non-committal at times. But there are vivid beauties here too. [Mar 2021, p.34]

Rats On Rafts are shooting for something bold on their third LP. They land their shot too. [Mar 2021, p.35]

These songs feel as if they were written on the fly (which most of them were), their sense of immediacy reflected in the use of skittery acoustic guitar, banjo, and rattling piano. Slim's voice is geared to match. [Feb 2021, p.26]

Their conceptual hinterland is sometimes more interesting than their clobbering racket, but both are exhilarating in places. [Mar 2021, p.29]

Blended with earnest acoustic guitar picking and rattling electronic production, the young songwriter reveals a bright future at the end of personal agony. [Feb 2021, p.35]

Taken as a whole, On All Fours is an impressive balancing act, creating something fresh from the group's diverse influences. [Feb 2021, p.28]