It's an intriguing juxtaposition of the crunchy and the smooth. [May 2012, p.75]

Falling Off The Sky is the rare comeback effort worthy of its legacy. [Jun 2012, p.82]

Perfectly pleasant, but a little bloodless. [Jun 2012, p.80]

Reeling Skullways is a paean to the previous step on techno's evolutionary ladder: the analogue acid sounds of Detroit, Chicago, and Manchester. [Jul 2012, p.69]

Best blues album of the year so far. [Jul 2012, p.69]

The results are charming, melancholy and achingly beautiful. [Jul 2012, p.84]

He may come to rue the day he traded his trusty ukulele for a cheapo drum machine that makes his attempts at pop-funk sound more gauche than his nifty songcraft deserves. [Jul 2012, p.77]

Another 21 songs of baffling titles, ingenuous melodies and charming amateurism. [Jul 2012, p.73]

Gelb's masterstroke is the inclusion of Brian Lopez, Gabriel Sullivan and Jon Villa, whose flourishes of Tex-Mex and cumbia accentuate Tuscon's feel of pan-cultural enchantment. [Jul 2012, p.70]

The occasional sense of a well-won formula being diligently followed is counter-balanced by the committed performances and a sufficiency of hooks. [Jul 2012, p.77]

The best electro-pop debut since La Roux. [Jun 2012, p.80]

There's ample sustenance for the heart as well as the head. [Jul 2012, p.68]

With this one weighted heavily toward the dance floor, there's no shortage of sublime moments. [Jul 2012, p.74]

The results are startling, setting Womacks's distinctive voice against stark electro backings and thunderous beats. [Jul 2012, p.75]

Swedish singer-songwriter Kristian Matsson has upped his skill factors on this. [Jul 3012, p.84]

Seldom has retro sounded so pleasingly stubborn. [Jul 2012, p.85]

Its initial oddness now just sounds like a ramshackle tryout for what was to follow. [Jun 2012, p.91]

Producer Thomas Bartlett enlists the likes of Rob Moose and Brett Devendorf to add sharp edges to the Australian's singer's dreaminess. [Jul 2012, p.83]

Miller can't help occasional returns to his powerpop protocol. [Jul 2012, p.77]

The real standouts are "Daddy's Little Girl," in which M Ward puts her inside the head of Frank Sinatra, and the Jack Pendarvis-Andrew Bird collaboration "We Can't Have Have Things."

Burton's glassy lead lines and Corea's jerky modalism lend an unusual air to classics by Tadd Dameron. [Jul 2012, p.70]

It seems pretty much like business as usual. [Jul 2012, p.63]

Infectious stuff, and 30 years on from the first Pastels single, there is still no escaping indie's fey power. [Jul 2012, p.67]

The Absence isn't just an experiment in various styles. The songs are terrific. too. [Jul 2012, p.73]

Album number five is the sound of the law of diminishing returns finally kicking in. [Jul 2012, p.73]

At her best, and across much of Banga, Patti Smith still dramatises the distance between South Jersey and the San Francisco basilica, the street tussle between the poet and the factory girl, the devotion of the mongrels of faith for the betrayers of salvation. [Jul 2012, p.78]

Not quite criminal, but close. [Jul 2012, p.84]

The follow-up, recorded in a fully equipped studio with backing band, retains an acoustic ethic, but is more richly textured. [Jul 2012, p.84]