There's no shortage of melancholy here, but it's of an understated and universal kind. [Mar 2016, p.74]

Their playing and singing has laser-sharp focus, while still allowing the songs and their rich, raw melodies the space to breathe. [May 2018, p.35]

On "Silenced By Hum" her amorphous delivery helps bring Bjork's more recent experiments to mind. Nonetheless, "Come About" suggests the duo's closest kindred spirit is Jenny Hval. [Dec 2020, p.30]

A fine racket it is. [Apr 2021, p.32]

Ultimately it’s this balancing between considered atmospheres and rattling noise that gives Present Tense such a sharp bite. [Jun 2021, p.25]

He uses digital means to deepen, layer, smear, distend and otherwise tweak the emotive piano figures that remain discernable. ... As is often the case for Tiersen's music, the effect is mesmerising. [Oct 2021, p.35]

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]

It starts with rousing rebel anthem “The Real”, and further highlights include the shoegaze drawl of “What’s In A Name?”, the jittery “Silenced” and the sinister growling surf of “You Think I’m Joking”. [Jul 2022, p.25]

Singing in Spanish in a deep baritone over the ringing tones of his tres guitar, the Cuban rhythms sway as enticingly as you'd want. [Aug 2023, p.36]

There's a clear path being charted, expanding the grammar of R&B into the heart of the modern-day mainstream. [Oct 2023, p.34]

A reworking of an early Squirrel Flower track, "I Don't Use A Trash Can", and the delicately atmospheric "Finally Rain" bookend the work, showing Williams' quiet strength as a songwriter. [Dec 2023, p.34]

These are distressed, in-limbo songs. Their unlikely latter-day alliance with Dave Fridmann adds poignantly lavish flourishes and echoing space-age keyboards to the dead-end punk tattoo of “I Don’t Fucking Know What I’m Gunna Do” and monotone monologue and suffocating synths of “Nothing/Everything”. [Jul 2024, p.35]

Morton's naive delivery gives "Purple Yellow" the poignancy of Portishead, and UB40's Ali Campbell popping up on "Broxtowe Girl" feels like a fever dream. [Jul 2024, p.38]

A slippery amalgam of Chicago house, Detroit techno, acid house grooves and sleazy electro-pop. Delirious fun it is too. [Jan 2025, p.32]

A bold and vibrant tableau of pulsing beats over which Hamdan's serpentine voice coils and caresses. [Oct 2025, p.28]

Inexorable forward movement is shadowed by existential dread. [Jul 2018, p.30]

Ad hoc, anything goes is the mood of what follows. Much is accomplished and playful. ... When he allows himself to forget who he is and just remember what it is that he does, he can still come up with songs to surprise you. More impressively, maybe even surprise himself.

For all the effective arrangements, most of the songs sound a bit anonymous. [Jun 2010, p.92]

Shuffle and skip for best results. [Jan 2016, p.71]

All The Young Droogs plots a grotty course through its age, but finds something joyful and heroic at the bottom of the bargain bucket. [Mar 2019, p.38]

The record is a listen-through winner, but the title track and languid, acoustic closer "John Prine On The Radio" are standouts. [Aug 2024, p.35]

Post-Bush, post-9/11, post-financial crisis, they sound more like [a] documentary. [Jan 2013, p.77]

Williamson is good at painting Hogarthian grotesques in a few brushstrokes. [Aug 2015, p.70]

Each track has been precision-tooled for playlist perfection but even here the sheer class of "Rendezvous" and "Karma" shine through. [Aug 2018, p.35]

After a strong start, though, her sixth album sags in the middle with a run of ho-hum numbers, until Welch summons the elements again with the orchestral flourish of "You Can't Have It All". [Review of the Year 2025, p.24]

On Room Inside The World, we hear them filling out their sound with synths, vibraphone and--on "Desire"--a 70-piece choir, an the songs are growing too, laced with emotional nuance. [Mar 2018, p.31]

Rarely has the deep past sounded so stirring, or so modern. [Oct 2009, p.94]

Here the pair [Richard Swift and Damien Jurado] resume roles for an equally enchanting follow-up. [Feb 2012, p.96]