It has its charms.... but the naivety of their debut remains elusive. [Nov 2014, p.84]

Slick and seductive. [Nov 2014, p.78]

An unexpectedly excellent set of sinuous and sensual techno. [Nov 2014, p.76]

It's hard to really connect with most of In A Dream; not only does it play through as tirelessly, tiringly arch, many of the songs just don't quite cut it. [Nov 2014, p.76]

Cool to the touch, but vanilla sweet as well. [Nov 2014, p.76]

Gamble is a dab hand at sound design and creating textures that convey anxiety and paranoia--some tracks are smothered in hiss--but because of its sprawling length, parts of KOCH feel rather one-dimensional. [Nov 2014, p.75]

Close to monomaniacal in their passions--weed, Satan, vintage British horror--Time To Die nonetheless introduces a gnarly edge to their downturned churn. [Nov 2014, p.73]

The Tom Waits-ish jazz of the title track, the slinky CCR-ish trundle of "My Baby Drives" and the gentle pedal-steel-led-weeper "White Gardenias" confirm that Earle's quieting of his demons has lost him little. [Nov 2014, p.73]

It's a strong return, though bad luck for the copycatting Royal Blood and DZ Deathrays who'd been counting on their obsolescence. [Nov 2014, p.72]

Trouble is a typically tender, casually contemplative, occasionally tearful goodbye. [Nov 2014, p.72]

This is songwriting with a stunning paint job, but with its training wheels still on. [Nov 2014, p.71]

While there's nothing as pop as "Windowlicker" here, it's still thrilling to hear him romp deliriously through all manner of styles in the key of Apex for the bulk of these dozen tracks. [Nov 2014, p.71]

The overall mixture of anger and longing, fierceness and calm, is breathtaking. [Nov 2014, p.68]

There is more raw drama here, a prevailing starkness. [Nov 2014, p.65]

The good news is that Something Shines also enriches her puritanical sonic palette with lush instrumentation, mid-song tempo shifts and free-jazz digressions. [Oct 2014, p.77]

Owens has never been afraid to comet to terms with his troubled past, but here those stories are slathered in such cliched schmaltz that it's hard to empathise. [Oct 2014, p.76]

The third suffers from a bit of improv cliche in its fox-sex vocals, but the central melodic theme is robust enough to return for a warm-hearted final track. [Sep 2014, p.73]

Ben Glover makes his fifth album a bringing-it-all-back-home beauty. [Oct 2014, p.73]

This is quicker, sleeker and punkier [than Water On Mars]. [Oct 2014, p.77]

Her fourth full-length album effectively showcases the breadth of her sound. [Oct 2014, p.76]

An album of great depth and richness, Sukierae finds Tweedy at his most dignified, addressing life-changing events across all aspects of the full emotional spectrum. [Oct 2014, p.64]

If there's a faint veil of disappointment hanging over all this excellence, it's that Allah-Las haven't built m,ore adventurously on the foundations of their debut. [Oct 2014, p.66]

This underrated band progressively unleash waves of measured ferocity over he turbine drumming of Brandon Young toward payoffs that are staggering in their intensity. [Oct 2014, p.71]

It's a stunning comeback that whets the appetite for an autumn tour. [Oct 2014, p.74]

The dozen sly and witty songs are all Setzer originals, but it takes a liitle suspension of disbelief to imagine "Calamity Jane" and "Cock-a-Doodle Don't" could've been authentically written 60 years ago. [Oct 2014, p.79]

Rapid-fire delivery often make catching his drift difficult, but when spaces allow it, as on the hallucinogenic "Upsweep" or pointed "Retirement Ode," Busdriver's wit and wisdom flash through. [Oct 2014, p.69]

There's a little too much preciousness here. [Oct 2014, p.72]

A triumph. [Oct 2014, p.77]