It's the gently chiming guitars, summery synth lines and Vallesteros' Beach Boy melodies that dominate. [Sep 2014, p.71]

[Robinson] has certainly indulged his preference here, mixing M83-style synth-pop with Daft Punk/Justice bangers and adding assorted nu-rave and EDM tropes, to end up with not much to call his own. [Sep 2014, p.76]

It can feel a little slack-jawed, its dreaminess concealing slight lack of substance. [Sep 2014, p.71]

It's strictly a mood piece, complete with daffy lyrics about mermaids, bicycles and "Gypsy Tears." [Aug 2014, p.81]

Acoustic Classics is a useful update on 1984's live Small Town Romance, with Thompson this time attacking his back catalogue in the studio. [Sep 2014, p.78]

His eighth solo album is a fine place to start investigations of this dappled terrain, in laces a little heavier and more psychedelic than one might expect. [Sep 2014, p.74]

The intensity and drive of the guitars--when they hit--matches the passion and righteousness of O'Connor's mesmerising delivery. [Sep 2014, p.80]

Excessive emoting is unfortunately typical of the record's exhausting inclination toward overwrought histrionics. [Sep 2014, p.74]

[The album] is not so much a radical departure as a dalliance with a marginally more brooding, textural musical aesthetic. [Sep 2014, p.75]

Everything shines out brighter and louder than ever before as they return from a three-year break. [Sep 2014, p.64]

Mellow but heartfelt. [Aug 2014, p.70]

If Hypnotic Eye was just about the snarl, it'd lose steam fast. Instead, it's only one element of a story that's bigger and richer, which is how a storied American band returned to the core principals of yesteryear without having to pretend to forget all they've learned in the meantime. [Aug 2014, p.63]

The overall effect is almost hallucinatory. [Jul 2014, p.83]

Odd--and oddly impressive. [Jul 2014, p.81]

His fourth album is leaner and meaner than 2010's A Train Bound For Glory. [Jul 2014, p.77]

Calling this Wells' pop album does a disservice to its cheerfully experimental tone. [Aug 2014, p.76]

Soul Mining is arguably Johnson's defining work: ambitious, strange, exciting. And, 30-odd years on, remarkably fresh. [Aug 2014, p.86]

Anthology is no means definitive, but it remains a comprehensive overview of a terrific and influential band. [Aug 2014, p.89]

Brilliance and beauty, abounding in equal measure. [Aug 2014, p.79]

The Shabazz sound is sprawling and promiscuous, but also deep, which might make for uneasy listening. [Aug 2014, p.79]

Lewis conducts what navel-gazing there is on The Voyager with her characteristic mordant wit, and she has shed none of her way with an irresistible, deadpan pop melody. [Aug 2014, p.75]

A risk of pastiche is never far away, but Presley staves it off with energy, songcraft, cunning and a renewed, relatively streamlined focus. [Aug 2014, p.81]

From Scotland With Love successfully and movingly unites past and present, old and new, sight and sound. Another diamond. [Aug 2014, p.77]

Over the course of a whole album, a little more ribaldry is required. [Aug 2014, p.81]

Honeyblood is a captivating debut that prizes atmosphere over precision and is characterised by soaring melodies and terrifically spiky lyrics. [Aug 2014, p.94]

Gulp's debut Season Sun is spooked set of crepuscular pop, a Moogie wonderland furnished with some very good songs. [Aug 2014, p.73]

[A] stunningly assured fifth studio album. [Aug 2014, p.80]

My Love IS A Bulldozer is of a similar vintage [as 2005's Rossz Csillag Alatt Szuletett]. [Aug 2014, p.79]