Dour, yes, but possessed of a regal sort of beauty. [Nov 2016, p.26]

The addition of EDM and hip-hop elements to the arsenal have a reinvigorating effect. [Dec 2016, p.37]

As ever, it all coalesces around that voice, and its still potent conjuring of beauty and darkness. Timeless music, for heavy times. [Dec 2016, p.34]

Eternally Even affords James the opportunity to take his music to places My Morning Jacket are less likely to inhabit. The result being that his solo albums are rapidly becoming profound statements in themselves, rather than mere sideshows to the main event. [Dec 2016, p.31]

A feelgood record with a troubled soul. [Sep 2016, p.70]

The lighter moments are more endearing. [Dec 2016, p.28]

Exhilarating or jarring, depending on taste. [Dec 2016, p.26]

As ever it's Collins' wonderfully unfussy voice that is the star. [Dec 2016, p.26]

Spanning conflicts from China to Chile, Algeria to Israel, the songs have a shared universality and power that makes up for the way the Anglification process erases cultural context. It works because Moddi's delivery is empathic and superb. [Nov 2016, p.32]

A decade on the formula hasn't change much. [Nov 2016, p.37]

FLOTUS ranks as one of Lambchop's most confounding to date, an album whose form and content are united in intimate, private purpose, but which may well turn out to be one of their best and most accessible. [Dec 2016, p.18]

Of their own material, "Glory" best captures the ensemble in full flight--fluid rhythms, breakneck percussion and melodic patterns--while the sweeping "Remain" foregrounds McCaslin's expressive sax skills. [Dec 2016, p.32]

The charming meld of discordance and melody is displayed throughout, with Rønnenfelt shrieking and hissing above tar-thick bass, piano stabs and guitar. [Dec 2016, p.32]

Often the music sounds aimless in its open-endedness, too uniform in its cruise-control tempos, but the austere, restrained arrangements reinforce the world-weariness of Roberts' vocals, which recall Townes Van Zandt at his most bluesily pensive. [Nov 2016, p.37]

All the usual Madness fixtures are present--the jaunty ska-meets-Motown rhythms, the tricksy chromatic chord changes, the well-crafted narratives. What much of the album lacks is any kind of heart. [Dec 2016, p.32]

Two Vines mostly sticks with the tried-and-true. [Dec 2016, p.26]

Strands is one of Hauschildt's finest efforts, unfolding through a dense fog of ambience and gently bubbling electronics, always staying weird and disobedient enough to offset its new-age tinge. [Dec 2016, p.30]

There's an appealing disjuncture at the heart of this collaboration. [Dec 2016, p.32]

On their third album, this Brighton via London quintet seem to have finally harnessed their Krautrock pulses, shoegazy guitars and MBV distortion to some decent songs. [Dec 2016, p.38]

Their collaborative debut is inventively dippy. [Dec 2016, p.38]

The racket they raise compensates in exuberance what it lacks in subtlety. [Dec 2016, p.37]

Music Must Destroy finds original members Segs Jennings and David Ruffy in reassuringly rude health, bludgeoning their way through a bunch of songs that weld punk and metal. [Dec 2016, p.37]

Overnight is their most ambitious record, as well as their most accomplished. [Dec 2016, p.26]

There's a certain modish charm to the opener, "Lucifer's Dreams," while "Finest Hour" show an aptitude for gentle balladry. Elsewhere, though, sub-Smiths smartarsery abounds. [Dec 2016, p.26]

There's still a noisy edge to the group and some moments do shine, such as the LCD Soundsystem-like "Welcome To Hell" or the sneering "I'm Sick," but largely the album feels a little lost and confused. [Dec 2016, p.26]

When their formula works, like on the Brian-Wilson-joins-Radiohead splendour of "Thousand Thoughts" or the soul-weary, sci-fi lullaby "Blue Faces," they can sound untouchable. The lush, mechanised, bluesy trip-hop of "Driving Nails" and the sub-Underworld shouty gallop of "Stay Tribal" are diverting enough, too. But Archive's blind spot is a fondness for graceless pomp-rock. [Dec 2016, p.23]

Alone is filled with tremendous vocal performances. [Dec 2016, p.24]

Even as Atrocity Exhibition plumbs depths, Brown remains a savvy operator. [Dec 2016, p.25]