Lattimore's harp is beautifully clean, and Barwick's vocals less affected than usual. [Jan 2026, p.27]

An explicitly confessional record attempting to make sense of, and give vent to, a degree of personal turbulence. [Jan 2026, p.25]

The Cribs' wild, unfinished edge is elsewhere polished by producer Patrick Wimberly (MGMT, Solange) in a lyrically rueful but musically soaring record. [Feb 2025, p.27]

Unabashedly emphatic songs that nod to Robyn (notably on skyscraping opener "Good Intentions"), Cyndi Lauper ("Every Ounce Of Me") and Kate Bush ("Appetite"), though the settings are largely those of a US mainstream, '90s grunge-pop band. They flatten the resonance of Hollingworth's lyrics. [Feb 2026, p.35]

Its songs are as poetically heartfelt as they are acerbic. [Jan 2026, p.34]

The resulting set is intense, clamorous and deranged (often thrillingly so). [Jan 2026, p.31]

Secret Love, produced by Cate Le Bon, obliterates the thought [they would struggle to surprise a second time] entirely. [Jan 2026, p.29]

The softer edges and new accessibility only makes the fury and dread eerily heavier. [Jan 2026, p.35]

Generally her pop is as adult as her lyrics. [Feb 2026, p.29]

Your Picture is full of love, radiating Beach Boys bliss with that killer thread of melancholy, and evoking Pastor TL Barrett's choral devotionals. [Review of the Year 2025, p.28]

It's a shame that Night Light fails to cohere, especially since the suave, Roxy Music-like shades of Euro-disco in "Going Nowhere" and "In The Middle" suggest another route out of the stylistic quagmire of recent efforts. [Jan 2026, p.36]

A Dolby Atmos mix deepens the sound of the album and a steven Wilson makeover of a legendary 1975 live bootleg from Los Angeles is another welcome inclusion. [Review of the Year 2025, p.40]

White digs deeper into the seemingly symbiotic, drums/keyboard relationship, playing both with intuitive flair to hypnotic effect. [Review of the Year 2025, p.29]

An exhausting yet improbably exhilarating listen. [Jan 2026, p.31]

The set ebbs and flows, Cave alternating between charming and cajoling, vulnerable and scathing. [Jan 2026, p.24]

Stripped ac and stretched out, in Toral's hands these pieces become devotional as he zones in in on their essence. [Dec 2025, p.37]

A beautifully composed record that feels alive with texture. [Review of the Year 2025, p.23]

It’s a deep, melodic record, preoccupied – as you might expect from a sixty-something punk troubadour – with dreams, small kindnesses and the end of the world; all of these things feeling suddenly more prominent. [Review of the Year 2025, p.22]

Using banal sample does lead to some fairly bland passages, but Lopatin and his studio partner Nathan Salon squirrel enough unorthodox ideas into their sound design to give the likes of "Lifeworld" and "Rodl Glide" real verve. [Jan 2026, p.35]

Shifts them into a warmer, fully 3D landscape without sacrificing the songs' imposing build or the solipsistic intensity of Katie Ball's lyrics. [Jan 2026, p.34]

It's heavy R&B with a slight goth-punk vibe thanks to the pummelling rhythm section and Childish's dead pan vocals. [Jan 2026, p.31]

Love And Fortune is a reckoning with loss - of relationships, homes, a younger, more carefree version of herself - but one that does not wholly relinquish Donnelly's playful side. [Jan 2026, p.29]

This bold, moving and purposeful record proves De La remain eternal. [Jan 2026, p.29]

The resulting album is a joy. [Jan 2026, p.27]

[The new remix] is sympathetic and subtly revelatory. .... However, there is one near-unforgivable gaff: on "Hot Stiff", around 2 mins 50, just as Mick comes back after Keith's scribbling wah-wah solo, the new mix inexplicably omits the word "Hot", hitting is only with a mighty - "Stuff!" [Review of the Year, p.41]

A convincing demonstration of the group's rejuvenation and reorganisation after the departure of longtime frontman Duke Amayo. [Jan 2026, p.27]

The way Eric evokes the "shabby shires" brings to mind Ray Davies, while "Land Of The Faint At Heart" swings with the bruised energy of Springsteen (if the Boss had been raised on suburban terror and garden gnomes). [Jan 2026, p.36]

Her own material is far less raucous [than The Pogues], but the introspection is laced with dark humour and spurred on by her storytelling instincts. [Jan 2026, p.36]