There are plenty of deft touches but it's perhaps too knowing to truly connect, to sketchy to reward deep listening. [Jul 2014, p.80]

Sound Mirror pursues a roving brief set to a pop aesthetic. These are compact but restless songs. [Jul 2014, p.81]

Not every track gels, but the duo's easy chemistry never feels like gimmicky contrivance. [Jul 2014, p.81]

Page's notion of what might catch the ear was eccentric, but generally infallible. Duly, these remasters aren't asking you to extend your idea of the Zeppelin canon, but retract it--to realise why the albums have the power and mystery they do. [Jul 2014, p.86]

Page's notion of what might catch the ear was eccentric, but generally infallible. Duly, these remasters aren't asking you to extend your idea of the Zeppelin canon, but retract it--to realise why the albums have the power and mystery they do. [Jul 2014, p.86]

Page's notion of what might catch the ear was eccentric, but generally infallible. Duly, these remasters aren't asking you to extend your idea of the Zeppelin canon, but retract it--to realise why the albums have the power and mystery they do. [Jul 2014, p.86]

Over it all, Vek free-associates with the kind of bland monotony which serves his music--and these times--surprisingly well. [Jul 2014, p.83]

Slender and strange, Await Barbarians once more finds the singer on the back foot, his default position, peering cautiously at the things around him. [Jul 2014, p.81]

It moves at a cracking pace, its 10 concise songs picked clean of fluff and with their sugar content much reduced. [Jul 2014, p.74]

In Conflict feels starkly personal. [Jul 2014, p.77]

There's no seismic shift here, but the differences--and listening rewards--lie in the indeterminate spaces between their sources. [Jul 2014, p.77]

The Nihilist feels like a collision of Gotham's manic energy and the otherworldliness that has permeated Kiwi music from Uncle Tim's Splitz Enz to Lorde. [Jul 2014, p.73]

A Letter Home illustrates that vagaries of sound quality can sometimes enhance the drama of a record, and rarely undermine the potency of a good song. [Jul 2014, p.68]

Johns suggesting a hunger for discovery still resides in us all, and his beautifully considered songs make for an emotive sat-nav. [Jul 2014, p.70]

While the unrelenting energy can be somewhat exhausting, it's hard not to get swept up. [Jul 2014, p.73]

So while Lazaretto may sometimes appear to be a more nakedly emotional collection of songs than we've come to expect from its creator, the contents also rate among his wittiest and his wildest efforts to date. [Jul 2014, p.63]

Strange Friends marks a measured step towards accessibility for one of Britain's most inventive bands. [Jun 2014, p.82]

Emma Jean is mellower, mournful and unimpeachably authentic.... A magnificent piece of work. [Jun 2014, p.76]

Beauty & Ruin falls short as a masterpiece but it quietly lets the handbrake off on Mould's creativity. [Jul 2014, p.79]

At times it can get a little overheated but the pair are more than capable of reining it in when they want to. [Mar 2014, p.85]

We Have Band seldom make things look easy--and sees them achieve a kind of punk-funk perfection, regardless of fashion. [May 2014, p.81]

Runaway's Diary is a record with hugely impressive depth and emotional range. [Jun 2014, p.79]

Howe doubles as the "link" drummer for Amorphous Androgynous and his authentic beats bring the requisite darkness to Shadow. [Jun 2014, p.79]

Nightclubbing is the album that came to define Jones as the complete performer, in her own way, as singer, muse, actress, alien and androgyne. [Jun 2014, p.90]

Even back-porch sketches like "Free" and plaintive instrumental "First Snowfall In Detroit" radiate a warm, freewheeling, unforced beauty. [Jun 2014, p.91]

If Definitely Maybe still sounds pretty much as Noel envisaged, that's certainly to do with the quality of the songs, the delivery and the timing. [Jun 2014, p.95]

Are We There's subtler songs point to a painfully well-honed understanding of what drives and degrades long-term love. [Jun 2014, p.70]

Luke Haines' trilogy of rock follies concludes with this perverse mediation on New York punk. [Jun 2014, p.78]