The residency produces inspired results. [Apr 2012, p.87]

Everything's fuzzy, fractured and out of focus, which makes it all the more mesmerizing. [Jun 2012, p.74]

Dr. Dee is the most compelling record Albarn has made since Blur's 13; his first proper solo record, with all the emotional engagement that implies. [Jun 2012, p.63]

The likes of "Stay Here And Look After The Chickens" and "Never Go Home Again" sound as if they've been shaken out of the band in rickety fashion of early Violent Femmes, Tattersall the penurious narrator whose rambling delivery contains flashes of brilliance. [Jun 2012, p.84]

Fans of Hawley's rueful view of love and relationships, his fine guitar playing, and his magnificent singing voice will find them all present and correct here, if displayed in unexpected ways. [Jun 2012, p.75]

Ignore the arch titles and you'll find some lovely psych pastiches. [Jun 2012, p.69]

They're pop-culture-versed update on the Gravesiggaz, murky collective efforts like "NY (Ned Flanders)" popping with grisly imagination. [Jun 2012, p.80]

Teaming up Oberhofer with veteran producer Steve Lillywhite seems to have drawn out an impressive sophistication. [Jun 2012, p.80]

She sounds more lusty and confident on this sequel. [Jun 2012, p.83]

The remaining quintet have lent their cosmic retro-rock both better tunes and more surprising detours. [Jun 2012, p.83]

Bruised suburban romance sparkles through the twin jangles of Edwards and James Wignall. [Jun 2012, p.84]

These songs, dehydrated after 50 years, sound bright and timeless. [Jun 2012, p.97]

Pushing too hard, then or maybe not hard enough. [Jun 2012, p.79]

Generally Strangeland is all too familiar fare. [Jun 2012, p.77]

Madonna's 12th album has a good title and a nice cover, but that's almost as much as you can say in its favour. [Jun 2012, p.77]

Talbot treads lightly, and a melancholy beauty predominates. [Jun 2012, p.73]

Guitarist Dan Moss writes the songs, but it's Katherine Whitaker's voice that give them life, and the more space she has, the better the result. [Jun 2012, p.71]

This, to paraphrase Burnett, just tore 2012 a new one. [Jun 2012, p.71]

An occasionally excellent but disjointed album. [Jun 2012, p.71]

Dross Glop sounds a long way from Battles themselves. [Jun 2012, p.69]

[Fear Fun is] packed with sardonic, self-effacing songs that recall the finest traditions of harmony-soaked West Coast folk-and-country influenced rock'n'roll. [Jun 2012, p. 68]

The bulk of these puttering analogue scowls can be filed as John Carpenter castoffs alongside half the Not Not Fun label roster. Luckily, splashes of color appear in the widescreen drama of "Dome Horizon" and "Inhale." [Jun 2012, p.67]

Whether she'll increase her fanbase on this second album by cloaking her naked ambition in the character of a self-obsessed bunny boiler called Electra Heart remains to be seen, but she's certainly given it everything. [May 2012, p.78]

Nootropics is a slow burn that lingers long. [May 2012, p.78]

Skulk is impeccably sung and flawlessly executed by the handpicked musician on show. [May 2012, p.79]

Cowley's songs sound lie pulsating Bond themes, funeral laments and the greatest stadium-filling anthems that Coldplay never wrote. [Feb 2012, p.83]

City Awakenings mostly retains the meatier arrangements of MacIntyre's solo work. [Feb 2012, p. 92]

Stark and poetic, with an echo of danger. [Feb 2012, p.105]