It begins with Michael Stipe's stunning interpretation of "Sunday Morning." ... The tracks that fly highest here are in fact the least faithful, more subversive. [Oct 2021, p.22]

Levy's lo-fi sonic palette and dreamy, speak-sung vocals hint at intimacy, her creative use of sound effects and electronics the mark of an archivist. [Oct 2021, p.29]

It still possesses a certain screwball charm, particularly the curdled croon of "I Don't Mind The Wait," but too often sounds like smug pastiche. [Nov 2021, p.30]

Musgraves' superpower is her ability to convey complex emotions via concise phrasing, which means quieter songs such as "Good Wife" and "If This Was A Movie" hit especially hard. [Nov 2021, p.30]

Local Valley is positive, engaged, almost rousing. [Oct 2021, p.32]

Invigorating results. [Oct 2021, p.27]

He uses digital means to deepen, layer, smear, distend and otherwise tweak the emotive piano figures that remain discernable. ... As is often the case for Tiersen's music, the effect is mesmerising. [Oct 2021, p.35]

Self-reflection is twinned with a rueful survey of the current state of the nation. [Oct 2021, p.25]

It also might be the best album this consistently weird and interesting bunch have made. [Oct 2021, p.27]

Stasis Taylor enriches with resonant atmosphere. [Oct 2021, p.33]

Atmospheric soundscapes. ... Awash with an adventurousness some might find surprising in a 71-year-old. [Oct 2021, p.25]

Black Encyclopedia... is less abrasive but no less urgently meaningful [than 2016's Fetish Bones], a fusion of experimental hip-hop, soul, poetry and jazz-etched beatscapes that ebbs and flows around the concept of an Afrofuturist universe. [Oct 2021, p.29]

She immerses listeners in the remarkably wide range of textures and timbres she explores on chamber organ, Mellotron, oboe and other instruments rarely combined in such fashion since prog's golden era. [Oct 2021, p.27]

Though occasionally guilty of easy-listening tastefulness, the Haikus rarely sound less than gorgeous. [Oct 2021, p.28]

fter the snarling insensitivity that once defined The Stranglers, it’s reflective and poignant. Even if you strip away the late touches acknowledging Greenfield’s loss, the mood is suddenly grave and inevitably valedictory. [Oct 2021, p.20]

The real revelation here is 25-year old James Francies, who plays Jimmy Smith-style Hammond on "Timeline," heavy rock organ on the Hendrix-inspired "Lodger" and mischievous Monk-style piano on a version of Ornette Coleman's "Turnaround." [Oct 2021, p.29]

I've Been Trying to Tell You is immediate and soulful. [Oct 2021, p.26]

K Bay probes the Richmond, VA-based artist's teeming psyche while advancing his anything-does record-making style. [Oct 2021, p.34]

The Sniffers sometimes sound limited by their studiously low-brow, lo-fi aesthetic. Even so, Comfort To Me offers a mostly exhilarating mix of headbanging riffs, profane wit and gutter-punk attitude. [Oct 2021, p.24]

It is easy to make music that is difficult and it is easy to make music that is beautiful. But it is quite the trick to be both at the same time, and on Hey What, Low mark themselves out as masters of the art. [Oct 2021, p.16]

Diaz deftly carries the torch, fusing stripped-down, bleeding-heart acoustic meditations with bursts of fiery instrumentation, her glossy voice at once tender and insistent, rhythmically narrating her loveworn journey with precise, clever turns of phrase. [Sep 2021, p.27]

It's a set as vast as it is remarkable. [Sep 2021, p.36]

It's clear we're in for an introspective ride, though the more major-key, upbeat nature of many of the record's arrangements belie these melancholy undertones. [Oct 2021, p.29]

An even more ambitious conceptual album that finds her sharing her insecurities, praising her heroes and going on a fairytale voyage over 19 tracks. [Oct 2021, p.30]

The body of the album is given over to gorgeous, baroque instrumentals. ... But there is variety here. [Sep 2021, p.24]

Her fourth album's dramatically sparser, its unconventional structures recalling Julia Holter. ... She's most compelling on "This Time," whose haunted spaces are gradually filled with flickering keyboards and ebow guitar. [Oct 2021, p.31]

Brilliantly realised. [Oct 2021, p.31]

His brightest and most vivid record. ... Here he finds new dimensions, rethinking his phrasing, tone and cadence. [Sep 2021, p.16]