It'll be nice on a Netflix drama, but removes much of the tension between ambition and accomplishment in which melancholy indie rock traditionally thrives. [Jul 2020, p.30]

Head Above The Water is a triumph of sensitivity, as Power's exquisite voice gives shape and contour to folk-centric songs that assimilates elements of country, jazz and experimental drone. [Jul 2020, p.33]

The Nashville-based songwriter's toughness and tenacity soars through her brand of showstopper 1970s country. [Jul 2020, p.39]

A lachrymose collection of Elvis Costello-rootsy, mid-Atlantic songs expertly constructed but running rather low on stardust. [Jul 2020, p.36]

The Gallic tendency to prettify everything into anodyne melodic gloop occasionally jars. [Jun 2020, p.38]

Clear-eyed, warm and stylish. [Jul 2020, p.20]

It's a wild ride and brilliantly sequenced. [Jul 2020, p.30]

As irresistibly loopy and buoyantly Beefheartian as anything in Deerhoof's formidable back catalogue. [Jul 2020, p.29]

Not a disaster = almost a triumph. [Jul 2020, p.39]

Weird and sporadically wonderful. [Jul 2020, p.39]

Layered vocal effects and unexpected rhythms on tracks like "Messenger" and "Loud" reward repeated listens, while the pounding, jagged drums of "Caged Sleep" and blissed-out fuzz-pop of "Wheel" offer immediate satisfaction. [Jul 2020, p.39]

The result is park reckoning and part explosive joy, as the band lean further into the hip-hop side of their influences. [Jul 2020, p.36]

Smith habitually flows everything together, creating glowing and serene canvases of sound with her own gentle and expressive voice hymning at the centre. [Jul 2020, p.34]

These delectable hookfests metaphorically parallel Hadreas's move from the gloom of his Seattle hometown to his new base in sunswept L.A. [Jul 2020, p.33]

While her low-slung, downtempo default doesn't always hit the mark, though, she dissects every lyrical twist of hope and disgust on a fine version of Neil Yong's "On The Beach." [Jul 2020, p.30]

The top line melodies don't always cut that deep, but with such intriguing decoration, we're still enchanted. [Jul 2020, p.29]

His workmanship persists. Forever on the skids, but still upright. [Jul 2020, p.27]

Fetch The Bolt Cutters is mostly the soundtrack of liberation, not recrimination, with Apple's piano keys, battering on the walls and barking dogs as its percussive, beating heart. [Jul 2020, p.27]

It's unwieldy, cheesy, overlong, confusing and, just occasionally, inspired. [Jul 2020, p.25]

Untamed talent still. [Jun 2020, p.37]

Strange To Explain might be about dreaming and escape but it's also about their limitations, our need for hoke and the importance of other people. [Jun 2020, p.31]

For all that Ghosts Of West Virginia is a serious work contemplating a serious subject, there are moments where Earle sounds like he's having more fun than any time since The Mountain. [Jun 2020, p.32]

Comes awfully close to the masterwork he so clearly gunning to make. [Jun 2020, p.38]

A typically assured piece of work. [Jun 2020, p.30]

Filled to the brim with usual abundance of trademark lyrical zingers, tenacious earworm melodies and stylistic zigzags. [Jun 2020, p.26]

At first the music seems hermetically sealed; only with repeated listens - and an emphatic twist of the knob - do the subtle splendours burst out of the aural chrysalis containing them and take flight. [Jun 2020, p.34]

The woozy, lovely songs on their third album now have an unexpected urgency. [Jun 2020, p.34]

Though the more rhythmic nature of tracks like "Oblivion Theme" prevent the album from dissolving into ambient haze, the deep bass rumbles and rich textures provide plenty of pillowy comforts for other weary listeners. [Jun 2020, p.30]