There are echoes of Jenny Lewis or perhaps the Swedish pop of Hello Saferide, but the mix of sass and vulnerability adds a melancholy air to the understated twang of "It's Our Time." [Nov 2011, p.94]

This, their sole album, is a curious beast, reminiscent of The Lounge Lizards or Devo, but defiantly its own thing. [Nov 2011, p.98]

Icy washes and brittle synth clanks complement the pair's wintery vocals. [Nov 2011, p.107]

Banjos, acoustic guitar, pedal steel and piano arrangements honour the songs' origins and add lilting texture to an album that will charm those who hear it, irrespective of their age. [Dec 2011, p.104]

He still produces beautiful albums of impeccable tone and fine songs. [Dec 2011, p.96]

The quartet are once again playing it safe with their crowd-pleasing formula of surging riffs, queasily memorable choruses and lyrics which, like Mystic Meg horoscopes burn with portent while saying nothing. [Dec 2011, p.96]

These are great songs, but Believers is all about the whole: a beautifully paced and structural album, with a powerfully singular mood. [Dec 2011, p.91]

The result is exhausting, an album of songs that all want to be showstoppers. [Dec 2011, p.86]

The Strange Boys have added some muscle to the general mix. [Dec 2011, p.83]

While nothing else here is quiet as astonishing, ["Junior Dad" is] a perfect ending to the most extraordinary, passionate and just plain brilliant record either participant has made for a long while. [Dec 2011, p.80]

Glass Swords places him squarely out there on his own, programming the kind of computer-game fluoro-rave crunk that's easy to admire but hard to love. [Nov 2011, p.97]

The mechanised backbeat rarely strays too far from the dancefloor, but the ever-shifting textures keep it interesting. [Nov 2011, p.91]

The faux-naif schtick still grates somewhat, but there's also real substance, wit and heart here. [Nov 2011, p.91]

ADD is death mental headache. [Nov 2011, p.84]

Ice cool and white hot by turns, Emika is a singular and significant new voice at the interface between pop and dubstep. [Nov 2011, p.83]

This vaguely "concept" album comeback mostly consists of polished jazz-pop and coffee-table Americana with faint echoes of Steely Dan, Tom Waits and Prefab Sprout. [Nov 2011, p.83]

The results are impressive enough, though never totally successful in effecting seamless rapprochement between cultures. [Nov 2011, p.92]

The inclusio0n of a live concert DVD from 2005 add some roughness but no reason not to just go out and buy whichever Sting albums you already like. [Nov 2011, p.98]

Two decades on, it remains U2's brightest, darkest, finest hour. [Nov 2011, p.100]

The Smile Sessions fits into no present-day category, context or franchise. [Nov 2011, p.105]

Coracle is more about a kind of glittering ambiance, one forged in a liminal space between drone, electronic Krautrock and the heady shoegaze of Ulrich Schnauss. [Nov 2011, p.107]

This is one of those brakes-off country records you wish more people would have the guts to make. [Oct 2011, p.94]

It's all served with such a knowing grin that you can't help but love it. [Nov 2011, p.96]

This is a seriously dense and elaborate album. [Nov 2011, p.94]

Like all the best of heavy metal, effortless dumb good fun. [Nov 2011, p.89]

Odd missteps apart You Are All I see turns out to be one of the year's boldest, most beautiful debuts. [Nov 2011, p.81]

Compelling in its way, but a bit Isobel Campbell when it should be Joni Mitchell. [Nov 2011, p.81

An LP that's uncharacteristically respectful of the traditional country and hushed folk idioms that make it up. [Nov 2011, p.81]