The drowsy pacing and solemn tone drag at times, but these slow-burn ballads from a lo-fi Lynchian netherworld are most achingly beautiful. [Dec 2025, p.37]

A Bridge To Far finds Midlake refining what they do best. [Dec 2025, p.30]

Cook puts Staples right at the front of the mix, accentuating her voice to the point where it's like she's whispering in the listener's ear. [Dec 2025, p.37]

It's a remarkably textural and atmospheric record. [Nov 2025, p.28]

Pedigo is often plugged in, his nimble fingerpicking surfing waves of sludge guitar. But there are moments of unlikely beauty too. [Nov 2025, p.31]

Sometimes ethereal and meditative, and at others blowing his sax and flute with an intensity that belies his seniority. [Nov 2025, p.33]

Thrills and dazzlement abound. [Dec 2025, p.33]

Snider's self-effacing charm radiant through the murk of "Stoner Yodel #2", the Chris Robinson co0write "While We Still Have A Chance" and the closing "The Temptation To Exist". [Dec 2025, p.36]

Chrissie Hynde's worldly ache elevates any lyric, here drawing worthy partners for a set of duets. Spare arrangements coloured by organ and pedal steel mid-tempo, statically framing the singers. [Dec 2025, p.31]

This is a wonderful, creative fusion of pop, electronica and more experimental styles. [Dec 2025, p.37]

The band's range has expanded impressively from their debut. .... Again is the confident fulfilment of the promise of Lush Life, from a band with the spirit and the songs to match their work ethic. [Dec 2025, p.22]

There's no cathartic yelling, but feelings are certainly to the fore in eight tracks that features violin, clarinet, lap steel and piano, with a guest spot (on "Just") from ambient psychedelicist M Sage. [Dec 2025, p.36]

There are highlights galore. .... A shiver goes through you when Dylan opens his November 1963 Carnegie Hall concert with the public debut of “The Times They Are A-Changin’”. Imagine hearing that for the first time. The entire show plays out over Discs 7 and 8. The setlist is incredible, his performance impeccable. [Dec 2025, p.38]

They can still surprise, too, with tinges of organ psychedelia, anxious time-signatures and, on the sweet acoustic reverie of "Salt Water", evocative found sounds. [Dec 2025, p.29]

The sound overall mostly evokes the primordial, punky, pre-grunge Lemonheads, leavened now as then by Dando's insuppressible pop sense. [Dec 2025, p.33]

The hightlight is the 14-minute, exploratory "Heat Sink", as the pair size up and seduce each other like a pair of tropical birds in an elaborate courtship dance. [Oct 2025, p.31]

The greatest pleasure of its four eloquent tracks comes from the way the duo hint at narrative, delicately suturing disparate sounds to build a complex electro-acoustic suite. [Oct 2025, p.29]

it's not just a band getting back together after nearly a decade apart, but a band reaffirming the ideals that animated them in the first place. [Nov 2025, p.29]

The remastered Nebraska album and Springsteen’s stately live performance – accompanied by Dylan sideman Larry Campbell and his own Charlie Giordano – complete the story, but the magic comes with the first two discs. They reveal that Nebraska would have been an incredible album if the electric versions of “Atlantic City”, “Johnny 99” and “Downbound Train” were included, but it wouldn’t be Nebraska. [Dec 2025, p.42]

A bold and vibrant tableau of pulsing beats over which Hamdan's serpentine voice coils and caresses. [Oct 2025, p.28]

Cheap bubblegum keyboards sound even more archaic in a present the embattled singer knows all too well. .... Beach Boys harmonies brighten "Electric Rock And Roll", and the '70s dream-time of Mike Post themes and lost childhood comfort is caught in "Glorious Chorus." [Dec 2025, p.36]

Ashcroft's ornery, sometimes conspiratorial resentment of authority and spiritually minded uplift feel of the moment. [Nov 2025, 28]

This south London trio are fine-tuning their battling-for-attention combination of three voices and elegantly scruffy indie-rock. [Dec 2025, p.29]

A curious hybrid. Side One is a series of haunting instrumentals. .... Side Two sees his chamber jazz outfit provide delicate accompaniment for assorted vocalists. [Nov 2025, p.36]

This set of songs are Pollock’s richest and most melodic. Her dusky alto voice, once compared to Dusty Springfield, is weighty with newfound wisdom, ushering the listener to come closer where the subject matter shifts from the confessional to more straightforward narrative storytelling. [Nov 2025, p.30]

[Soulwax has] always been great at eroding the lines between rock and dance music, utilising and harnessing the power of the riff in an electronic context. This continues to be forcefully apparent on tracks like "Idiots In Love". [Dec 2025, p.36]

At 15 tracks, The BPM is rather too much of a sensory overload, but this is enthusiasm in context. [Dec 2025, p.37]

The extrovert quintet hold their nerve and deliver another wild pop ride. [Dec 2025, p.31]