This is a good record mostly because the two men at the heart of it all sound like they’re actually enjoying being The Cult again.

Like all Bush albums this is really Rossdale’s. When they take a breather on Creatures Of The Fire, his Eddie Vedder-esque croon seizes the moment, and on the outstanding Identity he deals with paranoia (‘Please keep your kids indoors’) and loss of status (‘We used to be someone, now we’re nobody’) in swashbuckling fashion.

This album will leave you so wobbly and weak-kneed, you might have to take a few days off work to recover. Headphone melter of the year so far, for sure.

It's the sound of a band returning to the apex of their creative potency. [Oct 2022, p.71]

These eclectic make-overs [on NEU! Tribute] are pleasingly irreverent and mostly excellent. ... Also worth a fresh listen is NEU! 86. [Oct 2022, p.83]

It's McClain's show, with writing as young as yesterday. [Oct 2022, p.71]

After all this time, Pixies can still surprise and intrigue. [Oct 2022, p.72]

This is one helluva return. [Oct 2022, p.77]

It's a brimming grab-bag of brilliance and a total joy. [Oct 2022, p.77]

First High and Born Tough seek out her adolescence, while the title track and Black Widow stress her continuing defiance. This girl is not just following the satnav. She's older, but wilfully no wiser. [Oct 2022, p.73]

From the fourth set of bonus tracks, Fantastic is a swelling resolution to see in a new century. Strummer commits to a ‘ramshackle parade’, but sadly he would see little of it. Nevertheless, the music seems to resonate more than ever.

Restored and mixed by Giles Martin and Sam Okell – who worked wonders with The Beatles’ Get Back footage – it’s a pristine listening experience, with little between-song chat. It showcases Creedence Clearwater Revival’s many strengths.

Dr. John sounds in tip-top form here. [Oct 2022, p.73]

As if his glorious slipping of the blues genre's straitjacket wasn't brave enough, Son Little's latest album is also an excavation of some pretty heavy-duty personal trauma. ... Consider our minds expanded. [Oct 2022, p.71]

The end result is a sweet and thoughtful set from one of the genre's lifers. [Oct 2022, p.70]

There's a remarkable sense of interplay, open space, hard rock and ambition that suggests other bands might as well pack up their tents and think about heading home. It's hard to pick gems from a sea of diamonds. [Oct 2022, p.72]

Suede’s ninth album is a back-to-basics ‘punk’ affair utilising their raw alt.rock thrust to deliver some equally unvarnished personal truths.

How does it burn? Darkly, but with sparks.

When not recycling hand-me-down Gallagher-by-numbers, has his moments. [Sep 2022, p.77]

While perhaps not as emotionally loaded as Ordinary Man, Patient Number 9 better captures the mischievous, defiant energy of heavy metal's original madman. [Sep 2022, p.72]

A clutch of powerful original songs. [Sep 2022, p.76]

Occasionally things are wide of the mark, such as with the ponderous Junkie, but that's mostly an anomaly in a record full of snarky, sneering metal that has the punky energy of a new band on the block. [Sep 2022, p.77]

A fascinating and entirely listenable record of an imminently great talent. [Sep 2022, p.80]

Gritty, punchy and hooky. [Aug 2022, p.67]

This is an album on which Muse master the wider range of future rock and pop sonics they've been toying with for the past decade and refine and define their current sound as neatly as Black Holes & Revelations did for their 2000s period. [Sep 2022, p.74]

This Melbourne trio blaze undeniably with desperate Saints thuggery, causal swagger and an occasionally skronking No Wave sax. [Aug 2022, p.71]

First pleasure-shock come with previously unknown 1974 demos of the Shangri-La's Out In The Street, The Disco Song (Heart of Glass) and Labelle-like Sexy Ida. ... First impression on hearing this much remastered Blondie is how perfectly Harry unleashed beautifully nuanced sexualised dynamite over the band's tightly crafted power-pop bombs and genre diversion on what remains one of the last century's finest bodies of work. [Sep 2022, p.80]

There's a lot to enjoy here, the constant changes in mood keeping you guessing, but because it's so dense and so very long it becomes a bit of an endurance test. [Sep 2022, p.77]