A gig of the year, no question. You should have been there. Now you can be. [Dec 2004, p.150]

Exceptional in its melodic prosperity and calculated grandeur. [Mar 2002, p.96]

A gem. [Apr 2005, p.105]

Arbez not only shatters the risible notion that dance music is currently unwell, he also presents thrilling new ways of approaching pop, folk and rock'n'roll. [May 2005, p.100]

This album pursues a theme of escape from the more lurid temptations of early adulthood, and Darnielle locates an aptly urgent yet reflective tone. [Nov 2012, p.79]

[It] sees her expanding her horizons with out scrimping on nuance or emotion. [Nov 2011, p.84]

Ward's sweet, carefree voice is at odds with the urgency of the music. [Oct 2006, p.133]

An understated debut of mature sophistication. [Feb 2019, p.27]

Soul Time! is another thrilling homage to the glory days of Motown and Stax. [Dec 2011, p.87]

This album is heavy because it's dense with detail. [Jan 2015, p.63]

It's a testament of the savvy of darcy and his producers Ross Gillard and Amy Fort that the new album's experimental passages are very much cut from the same cloth as more obvious crowd-pleasers like "You Felt Comfort," which shares the drive and jangle of "Tall Glass Of Water," and "Saint Germain," a dreamy haze of a song that demonstrates Darcy's gift for melody, absurd turns of phase and more pointed expressions of inner turmoil. [Mar 2017, p.38]

This soulful, spiritual, experimental collection is a rich testament to the chemistry of collaboration. [Oct 2023, p.26]

In The Vines reveals more of its peculiar candlelit charm with every play. [Dec 2007, p.106]

The garbled way in which The Coral piece these disparate elements together creates an odd, timeless and cosmic music, buzzing with energy, and very much their own. [Apr 2016, p.80]

She writes about toxic masculinity and abusive relationships with racing candour, and she sings with a fresh, unnerving snarl that weaponises her signature twang. [May 2020, p.35]

It's all unceasingly beautiful. [Mar 2012, p.81]

The lyrics are shorn of detail. Hearts are dented, if not entirely smashed, but the emotional core of the songs are harder to locate, because the tropes of country songwriting ave been traded for something less defined. There's a restless energy. ... There's a refreshing purity, too. [Aug 2020, p.31]

The songs are rich in both melody and syncopation. [Feb 2024, p.25]

Monsters Of Folk ends as captiatingly as it starts. [Oct 2009, p.99]

Their second is a complex, pile-driving delight. [Jul 2016, p.78]

This is as much a celebration of collaboration, camaraderie and community as it is a noted personal evolution. [Jan 2023, p.17]

Its eight songs are distinct and stirring. [Jul 2013, p.80]

Who Is The Sky? benefits greatly from Byrne's singular perspective as a songwriter. It also shows how much more expressive he continues to become, even here in his eighth decade on Earth. [Oct 2025, p.26]

An album that has bite and snarl but also a wonderfully woozy and unfurling sense of groove. [Jun 2024, p.36]

The Maels' spectrum of tried-and-true on Sparks Album No 25 is wide and rich enough to provide no end of delights. [Oct 2017, p.39]

A career peak. [Oct 2015, p.78]

A succinct, deceptively simple half-hour outing. [Dec 2017, p.25]

The results are lively and irreverent. [Nov 2012, p.77]