The sole new composition, "Prungen," is a funked-out blast of galloping synth arpeggios, while the terrific "Music! Dance! Drama!" fires up a cyclotron of raucous electro-punk fanfares and weapons-grade xylophone riffs. [Jul 2013, p.77]

The Weighing Of The Heart marks a fresh start for Schott, whose decision to sing brings a warmth and intimacy to her music-box miniatures. [Jul 2013, p.73]

All the hustle, serendipity and moments of beautiful clarity that characterise urban life are here in nuanced, very modern song. [Jul 2013, p.78]

The nicest moments come when his simple structures are allowed to do their thing. [Jul 2013, p.75]

Slow Summits is bold and immediate. [Jun 2013, p.78]

Aside from the odd burst of medieval flute, their fifth album is unlikely to scare the horses, striking a neat balance of darkly powerful and whimsical. [Jun 2013, p.70]

This is what The Graceless Age as a whole does so unforgettably, bearing witness to a burning world. [Sep 2012, p.70]

Rarely since the Laurel Canyon heyday of CSNY, Jackson Browne et al, has the confessional mode been quite so unashamedly mined for artistic ore. [Jun 2013, p.68]

It's a treat to finally hear Moyet stretch herself on a classy and engaging modern collection that's only really let down in places by the santitised electro of one-time Bjork and Robyn producer Guy Sigsworth. [Jun 2013, p.76]

The album never lags completely, but its fair to say that the band aquit themselves far more strongly on "You Haven't Got A Chance" and "I Watch You" than on rather less comprehensively developed garage rock like "Go Blow A Gale." [Jun 2013, p.69]

Their brand of gut-wrenching emo, aligned to fearsome fantasy rock remains both wildly overcooked and deeply derivative. [Jun 2013, p.79]

The animal kingdom looms large but human experience is still at the core of Rennie's surreal couplets, given added portent by Brett's compellingly mournful baritone. [Jun 2013, p.73]

She hasn't acquired any other new weapons here, though, sticking to her usual palette: intimidating, sludgy-but-spare garage that builds like someone surreptitiously tightening a thumbscrew. [Jun 2013, p.76]

It works well, the results low-key but luminous. [May 2013, p.69]

At times the backdrop is so subtle that the end result is almost like an aria. Elsewhere the tunes deliver more pf a punch. [Jun 2013, p.75]

There's barely a wrong-placed note on the whole magnificent album. [Jun 2013, p.81]

The mood is heavy throughout, but only the closing, exhausted "Katla" outstays its welcome. [Jun 2013, p.81]

The clutch of pre-album demos on LP3 of the boxset reveal how tightly plotted her vignettes were before The Breeders even entered the studio.... The post-Last Splash EPs are manna from heaven for college rock connoisseurs.... The only black mark against LSXX is that the brighter, re-recorded single versions of “Divine Hammer” and “Saints” serve to make the album originals sound a little underpowered.

Perhaps for the first time, The National sound relaxed in their skin. [Jun 2013, p.77]

Its collision of tea-time melodrama and Gary Barlow make her sound more Pop Idol than pop idol. [Jun 2013, p.67]

It is the instrumentation that offers the complexity, bringing texture to this deceptively simple-sounding album. [Jun 2013, p.72]

An unmissable craftman. [Jun 2013, p.69]

It's a record that manages to sound deeply affectionate without being sentimental. [Jun 2013, p.70]

Laurie reprises his well-intentioned but essentially unconvincing bluesman shtick. [Jun 2013, p.75]

Not everything works, but somehow everything fits. [Jun 2013, p.66]

The occasional glint of mandolin and fiddle fails to alchemise Time's glossy LA rock, or excuse some shocking lyrics. [Jun 2013, p.79]

In a genus so often characterised by grandiloquent gesturing, this is drama of the pensive and underplayed kind. [Jun 2013, p.74]

Songs Cycled is opaque and entirely accessible. [Jun 2013, p.80]