An incendiary cocktail of muscular grooves, designed to delight and thrill the metallic faithful. [Aug 2013, p.88]

The predictable impression of a rich man's plaything cast with superior company remains. [Aug 2013, p.84]

What The Journey lacks in subtlety--nothing here quite matches the beauty of Porrohman or the sheer exuberance of In A Big Country--it makes up for in heart. [Jun 2013, p.92]

Oddly, the title track, a low-key ballad, is the least satisfying song on offer here. It's the only aberration. [Summer 2013, p.94]

Maybe hilariously, considering the video-friendly drama being aimed at, First You Break It conjures images of Justin Bieber when he makes that inevitable nasty rock album, cavorting in a black puddle. [Summer 2013, p.89]

Palms is a marriage made in post-rock heaven. [Aug 2013, p.86]

Fans will already know that this is a strong, alert Dave album, as Dave albums go. [Aug 2013, p.86]

There's no lioght, no shade, no nuance, no reflection--just a sheer onrushing, hurricane force. [Aug 2013, p.85]

He barrels unrepentantly into a sixth Gogol Bordello album that once again sounds like the traditional house band in Urals bear-meat restaurant going berserk on Green Day covers. [Aug 2013, p.85]

Brilliant. [Summer 2013, p.95]

While you may never be able to fully forget that Berry's tongue is in his cheek, the love, attention to detail and panache of Kill The Wolf make it a trip worth taking. [Summer 2013, p.95]

This River is all gravy, and the perfect opportunity to make your acquaintance with an artist at the top of his game. [Summer 2013, p.95]

For all of its freshness, there are clear influences at play here, most notably The Banshees or Yeah Yeah Yeahs. [Summer 2013, p.95]

It's not quite up there with Majestic hey-day offerings, but there's loads to reinvigorate the enthusiasm if fans disenchanted by recent ill feelings. [Summer 2013, p.93]

While the diet hip-hop of Something Different screams, unfortunately, of early noughties jock pop--they've returned with a fun, pacey slab of entirely unthreatening rebellion. [Summer 2013, p.93]

Some fans may miss the hobo simplicity of yore. [Summer 2013, p.92]

Strange Fruit is a nervy choice, respectfully done. Like most of the record, it's also pretty redundant. [Summer 2013, p.92]

Inviting famous friends to help him give the songs a fresh coat of paint doesn't, for the most part, make any real impact. [Summer 2013, p.91]

Much of the record is set to a reflective key--providing a flexible canvas for subtle mood changes, sassy alt-rock grooves and space to cultivate retro but relevant, non-cliche rock. [Summer 2013, p.91]

Affecting rather than affected, Grinning Streak sees cerebral craftsmen who've always refused to take music too seriously drop the winking and discover the pleasure of passion. [Summer 2013, p.90]

The stumbling block is that too many songs here never develop pasta dino-stomp riff, and that the vocals can be a little shrill. [Summer 2013, p.89]

The worst thing is, for all the nauseating country-rock-lite choruses, this is agonisingly catchy. [Summer 2013, p.89]

Their rejuvenating effects make this the most rounded and melodic QOTSA album in a decade, a triumph snatched from the mortuary doors. [Summer 2013, p.88]

No, 13 isn't as good as their first six albums--what is?--but it's a million times better than most of what followed. [Summer 2013, p.86]

Albatross is a step up, sailing closer to the crunch and proggy intelligence of their 1997 debut, with songs that manage to be both smart and visceral. [May 2013, p.91]

It may not be the most important return of the year, but 133 serves as a reminder that Muir is a leader in the field of party starting. [Jul 2013, p.87]

Musically, it's so tried and tested it's almost frictionless. [Jul 2013, p.92]

At best, for a former superstar, returning to the creative fray, the record is mediocre. [Jul 2013, p.88]

The result is both shamelessly derivative and gloriously entertaining. [Jul 2013, p.88]

As equipment hums, bass rumbles and Robb bellows over joyfully insistent melodies, it becomes clear that The Terror Of Modern Life is the sound of a band hopelessly in love with the music that made them. [Jul 2013, p.88]

["It's A;right, It's OK" is] Yet another foray into shameless retro pastiche, then, but it concludes this gloomy, ear-bashing album with a welcome blast of rousing optimism. [Jul 2013, p.90]

Texas have gone back to basics, reconnecting with the solidly crafted simplicity of their earliest albums, Southside and Mother's Heaven. [Jul 2013, p.90]

The fact that The Fall are still going is remarkable enough; the fact that they're still making extraordinary records is even more so. [Jul 2013, p.92]

It's the culmination of four years during which Megadeth have continuously raised their game. [Jul 2013, p.92]

Alkaline Trio's fangs are still sharp after all these years. [Jul 2013, p.92]

There's still a rich seam of experimentation, but with more palatable results than has often been the case. [Jul 2013, p.95]

It might never escape the long shadow of the past, but it deserves a fair hearing. [Jun 2013, p.86]

This is punk rock at its snotty, hilarious best, rattling along on an 100mph wave of smart, deadly one-liners and beautifully abrasive riffs. [Jun 2013, p.87]

This is an album that refuses to sit still and stagnate. [Jun 2013, p.87]

Clutch are getting better with age. [Jun 2013, p.88]

The whole thing sounds like they had a blast. [Jun 2013, p.88]

The album gets better with every play. [Jun 2013, p.89]

BMTH sound more genuine, dramatic and emotional than they ever have before. [Jun 2013, p.89]

Ready To Die suggests Iggy is anything but. [Jun 2013, p.90]

Mind Control may occasionally lack the outright mania of its predecessor but this is music made in a puff of red smoke, heady and hypnotic. [Jun 2013, p.90]

Magnetic may veer close to Maroon-5-at-their-very-best territory, but let's not get sniffy. It's a life affirming, joyful record. [Jun 2013, p.91]

A glorious return to form for one of the world's most peculiarly successful bands. [Jun 2013, p.92]

Repetitive chants and moments of unfettered melodic joy further bolster or confuse the situation, depending on your mindset. [Jun 2013, p.93]

Meir is bigger, bolder and broader in its sweep and scale. [May 2013, p.91]

Eric Burdon's flame still burns brighter than that of most bands half his age. [May 2013, p.91]

Unlikely to win any new fans, then, but this richly textured mix of soft-focused funk, soul, jazz and R&B will delight those in thrall to an artist not so much laid back as horizontal. [May 2013, p.88]

Clapton's guitar work [is] sizzling and defiant where elsewhere it merely simmers. [May 2013, p.88]

Love Triangles Hate Squares is a forceful blast of passion-fired pastiche, but never quite escapes feeling like a cheap holiday in other people's history. [May 2013, p.87]

Fabulous, fun and irresistible. [May 2013, p.87]

A great version of The Fugs' Carpe Diem aside, Everybody Loves Sausages feels like an in-joke that was never funny to begin with. [May 2013, p.87]

It's every bit as sprawling and dramatic as you'd expect from something set to be followed by a four-part comic book expanding on the story within the songs. [May 2013, p.86]

A parade of beige pop numbers that even Taylor Swift would turn down for being too generic. [May 2013, p.86]

It's an undeniably intriguing and often inspired collection, shining with genuine heart and humanity. [May 2013, p.86]

Earle's narrative is compellingly singular, and the musical variety feeding his fiery and thoughtful tunes well measured. [May 2013, p.85]

It's still awesome, of course, just don't expect to enjoy it. [May 2013, p.85]

This is the best Wire album of this century. [May 2013, p.84]

Sometimes, as on Domina, the mood is almost singalong, but much of the album, including the title track is sublime. [May 2013, p.84]

For all the loving homages to past recording techniques, they sound laboured and bored. [May 2013, p.84]

MBV is no great leap forward, though it's still aeons ahead of its 21st century competition. [Apr 2013, p.98]

Their most self-important but least memorable, engaging or relevant album yet. [Apr 2013, p.98]

Suede sound like Suede again. [Apr 2013, p.97]

Voivod have again recorded something that will appeal to those with an open mind. [Apr 2013, p.96]

While wonderfully idiosyncratic, Oddfellows finds them at their most accessible to date. [Apr 2013, p.95]

Mostly it works. [Apr 2013, p.94]

An instant classic. [Apr 2013, p.94]

There's enough here that's new to renew your love of Hendrix. Yes, there's blood in the stone yet. [Apr 2013, p.94]

BRMC have transcended a past that was extremely full of the past and arrived in the present. [Apr 2013, p.93]

Intriguing stuff, but Stereophonics are incapable of shredding the trad rock rule book for an entire album. So the rest of Graffiti is pitched firmly in their beige rock comfort zone. [Apr 2013, p.93]

A vintage Bowie album for vintage Bowie people, of whom there are many; a reflection on his own journey and also on ours. [Apr 2013, p.92]

Not only have the Bad Seeds delivered another healthy baby, but perhaps the most gracefully beautiful of the whole brood. [Mar 2013, p.98]

This is classic, turn-of-the-century-style emo for those old enough to remember the scene before the eyeliner an hairspray brigade came along and spoiled it all for everyone. [Mar 2013, p.98]

Big? Nope. Clever? Definitely. [Mar 2013, p.98]

Lush and romantic, Evidence is the kind of timeless electronic album you can dream inside. [Mar 2013, p.98]

There's a familiarity to much of the material which, while not quite formulaic, does sometimes hint at self-reference, brazenly so on Tears Don't Fall (Part 2). [Mar 2013, p.97]

Concise, clever and at war with everything from alienation to greed and loss, it's a rallying cry in a world that's lost its voice. [Mar 2013, p.97]

Their music, while distinctive, is a rather rudimentary and static thing, with a limited melodic spectrum. [Mar 2013, p.96]

This knuckle-biting howler ["The Season's Upon Us"] aside, SASIB raises the roof with good vibes and memorable songs. [Mar 2013, p.96]

A bona fide, big, stadium-pleasing epic. [Mar 2013, p.95]

Mostly, it's an invigorating set that sounds, like a cubist marriage of King Of Limbs and Eno & Byrne's My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts. [Mar 2013, p.95]

Electric is a return to one of his best attributes, the snarling electric guitar. [Mar 2013, p. 95]

My World Is Over proves to be another step up. [Feb 2013, p.95]

Kudos to Pure Love for taking a ludicrous concept of comedy commercialism and successfully straightening its face. [Feb 2013, p.95]