Nothing Special draws back from Okkervil River's giddy pop whirls in favour of beautiful, ruminative, Lambchop-ish ballads which, while lengthy, never outstay their welcome. [Nov 2022, p.36]

A real beauty. [Nov 2022, p.38]

A bold endeavour with some genuine thrills. [Nov 2022, p.35]

The welcome brevity of most tracks gives Snaith even more room to vary tempos and textures. [Nov 2022, p.28]

Her light, airy palette, punctuated by arresting stabs and scattershot rhythm, is informed by vintage Squarepusher and Plain - but Eastman's pioneering work as a black, gay musician operating in challenging times clearly resonates with James. [Oct 2022, p.32]

A welcome return. [Nov 2022, p.29]

It's impeccably crafted, with Mitchell and Johnson's radiant harmonies to the fore over arrangements that sometime evoke the bittersweet bliss of Fleetwood Mac ot turn-of-the-70s Grateful Dead. [Nov 2022, p.26]

No overhaul then, but the BB alure still holds. [Nov 2022, p.26]

The band's pivot away from fuzzed-out jangle pop to something closer to shoegaze adds to the dreamy feel. [Nov 2022, p.25]

Producer Adrian Sherwood now completes the picture with this sound-system-style refashioning, breaking tracks open, resetting them in eerie dubscapes. [Oct 2022, p.25]

There’s little to be found here that doesn’t already sound inescapably familiar, but it’s perfectly rock-solid stuff all the same. [Oct 2022, p.25]

The Arkestra's rich, gestalt thinking makes these pieces simmer and spark, building ritualistic power. [Nov 2022, p.36]

The message is heavy but the music is tremendous fun. [Nov 2022, p.38]

A celebration of the inherent power of community and music’s ability to connect and resonate through the ages, created by someone fast becoming one of the most important young voices in modern American folk music. [Oct 2022, p.18]

Heaton and Abbott's fifth breaks taboos about infant deaths on the quietly moving “Still” and nobly restores self-belief on the uplifting “When The World Would Actually Listen”. They remain impervious to musical snobbery, too. [Oct 2022, p.31]

It's not quite experimental, but there is evolution in this superbly judged set. [Nov 2022, p.21]

Louis O'Bryen and Asha Lorenz paint a drunker, more heartbroken picture of twentysomething romance on this downbeat sequel. [Nov 2022, p.36]

Fastidiously complex, yes, but also capable of moments of disarming prettiness. [Oct 2022, p.23]

The results are sometimes too meta to be particularly satisfying, but when but coheres - as on the bracing, static-smeared "Backwash" - it's worth the effort. [Nov 2022, p.29]

You can almost hear doors swinging shut in monastic apartments, as he abandons his perfectionist MO to grapple with faith and loss over mangled voice demos and musique concréte sheets of rain. [Oct 2022, p.36]

For the most part it's Snarky Puppy at their jazziest, but there's still space for plenty of sweaty funk and prog-rock wigging out. [Nov 2022, p.36]

It's an album of rich multifaceted complexity that showcases what a truly inimitable artist Björk is. [Nov 2022, p.24]

It’s the work of a focused artist who is consistently attempting to stretch out the parameters of their own ever-expanding sonic world. ... Yet another late-career highlight. [Oct 2022, p.22]

Klaus Dinger’s Apache beat and Michael Rother’s steel reels of guitar still have elemental power. ... The National, and Stephen Morris (of New Order) and Gabe Gurnsey, acquit themselves adequately, but Neu!’s music is so singular, there’s next to no point trying to take the material on, even in tribute form. [Oct 2022, p.46]

“De-Hibernate”’s depths are murky but its surfaces sparkle, “Does It Go Dark?”s sludgy drones answer in the affirmative (before changing their mind), and “Haze Loops” drifts past in a beautiful blur swaddled in echoing, blissed-out guitars. [Sep 2022, p.30]

These songs balance the regrets with the triumphs, which lends songs like the title track and “My Hidden Heart” a playfulness as well as an immense poignancy. [Oct 2022, p.33]

If we can now safely conclude that the Pixies are unlikely to hit the heights of early days, then let’s face it, it’s the rare mortal who can; but it’s also the only slightly less rare mortal who can make albums as solidly good as this one. [Oct 2022, p.30]

Space and darkness area constant among these eight tight songs, but there’s also plenty of punch. [Oct 2022, p.36]