While Powell's bruised vocals evoke early Cat Power, she does remarkable things with that sound. [Sep 2020, p.87]

The result is a meditative set full pf surprises, and songs that haunt. [Aug 2018, p.90]

An incantatory history of the acoustic guitar, as instrument of devotion, dance and lament, at times The Borametz Tree also feels like a book of incantations, spells for the universal elixir of joy, conjured up by a master alchemist. [Jul 2019, p.93]

Part of a singular lineage of deceptively amiable and peculiarly British music that reaches back from Supergrass to Madness and Squeeze. [Nov 2002, p.102]

A little gem. [Jul 2015, p.89]

As on her debut, beats are minimal, bordering on lo-fi, allowing Bey space to voice in meditative jazzy runs whose no- messing eccentricity strongly recalls primetime Erykah Badu. [Jul 2024, p.94]

It's all pretty essential stuff.

Hiatt sounds throughout as if gargling a box of frogs in some eternal late-night New Orleans backroom. And it's glorious. [Aug 2014, p.90]

A wholly unsanitised vision, where screeching white noise guitars eclipse thundering beats in a reverb dungeon far from prissy "Health & Safety" regulation. [Apr 2022, p.80]

His supersonic flow frequently dazzles, yet he remains intelligible and intelligent throughout. [Mar 2006, p.106]

Dan Auerbach takes Finley further away from his church-and-porch roots with a brief to present the artist as a classic all-rounder and on 10 songs written by Auerbach, John Prince and Nick Lowe, he proves himself just that. [Jan 2018, p.89]

Overflowing with ideas. [Apr 2021, p.83]

If it is meant to be a Pink Floyd homage, then it's an entertaining and highly distinctive one. [Nov 2013, p.84]

This rolling membership opens the palette considerably. ... The songs that leave the biggest impression, however, are the raucous yet soulful bangers. [Mar 2020, p.89]

It's another late-life triumph. [Jun 2022, p.87]

Halfway through and it's breathtakingly apparent that David Bowie isn't so much back on the horse as riding bareback towards a cliff-edge. [Jan 2016, p.86]

[A] disarming, relatable debut. [Mar 2017, p.97]

Remind Me Tomorrow feels full to the brim, flooded to the top with experimental colour and texture, drones and drums and synthesizers. [Feb 2019, p.85]

Flawless.

Americana shows a man still writing to find out his place in the world. He's seen it all, he's seen through it all, but there's still open road ahead. There's no better adventure than that. [May 2017, p.86]

Potential is a ripe showcase of Hinton's gift for alchemising base source material from unknowns such as London's MC SdotStar and Jamaica's Naturaliss into truly transformative dance pop. [May 2016, p.90]

The only unsatisfactory element of The Ballad of Dood & Juanita is that it's too short. [Oct 2021, p.92]

"This is a song for anyone with a broken heart," Fink sings on 'Blue Skies' and the break-up album of the year is complete. [Sep 2009, p.98]

Chilled, down-home charms remind of Duckworth and early dc Basehead. [Oct 2021, p.99]

A further refinement of their liquid improv vibe, the Thrill Jockey debut finds the quintet sitting on a mountain looking at the sun, high on Popol Vuh and who knows what else. [Apr 2011, p.97]

Early contender for pop album of the year? Definitely. [Apr 2024, p.85]

Raskit junks its predecessor’s egregious schmaltz for marauding bass and spartan trap backings. They amplify a biting double-time flow his nearest rivals would readily trade jaws for, Dizzee slaying his competition on Focus and Wot U Gonna Do? and literally eating them for dinner on Space (“Can’t find enough time to dine on rappers / All these MCs are looking like tapas”). There’s depth, too.

Claustrophobic ambient, minimal techno and orchestral themes for waiting for the axe to fall. 100 per cent Laibach. [Sep 2017, p.96]

Chewy but excellent. [Jul 2024, p.95]

Their ability to create spellbinding instrumentals that blend high-calibre jazz improvisation with accessible melodies is evidenced by the wonderfully serene Reunion and the more febrile Finding Neamo. [Jul 2013, p.94]

MOB sound as electrifying, as curious and as awake as they ever have. [Aug 2012, p.96]

Metheny returns with a beautifully understated acoustic album whose virtue is its bare-boned simplicity. [Sept. 2011, p. 98]

Lillies is an album which the solo Siouxsie Sioux would have been proud to record. [Nov 2017, p.96]

The concept here by Mac and co-producer/trombonist Sarah Morrow is terrific. [Sep 2014, p.88]

From here, Del Rey will surely be forced to redraw the blueprint, but for now, this is her best yet.

Closer in quality to [his] five immeasurably influential '70s standard-bearers than anything from Wonder's '80s or '90s catalogue. [Dec 2005, p.102]

With its indelible songs and bug-eyed intensity, this album makes you wish that more bands could be so irreverent. [Apr 2006, p.100]

Promise Of The Real--ie, Willie Nelson’s son Lukas et al--prove superb foils for this sludge guitar god/master melody maker, hence the harmony-rich chorus of Already Great sounds exactly that immediately, and the horn-bolstered power-chords of resistance anthem Children Of Destiny are just breathtaking.

It's Numbers that punches hardest, it's compassionate message about the futility of measuring ourselves against others deftly handled. [Apr 2021, p.86]

The trademark use of acoustic as a lead guitar still sounds refreshing, and Knights' sweet and salty vocal style is still full of vulnerable charisma. [Nov 2013, p.88]

Valerie June's siren-like vocal delivery [is] both beautiful and tempting. [Apr 2017, p.98]

Not for the uncommitted, this is a time capsule to a place where those over-burdened by taste will not want to go. but junk shop superhead/compiler/indie rock Zelig Phil King has reminded us that if we do some things differently in the past, they do other things--thrills, strangeness, escape--the same. [Apr 2019, p.103]

A remarkable, wonderful calling card. [Jan 2014, p.100]

Throwing down a persuasive gauntlet, opener Undying Love For Humanity is all breezy percussion, percolating synths, chiming vibraphones and complex, wordless backing vocal arrangements--a sunny, tropicalia-like setting for Sadier's typically liquid delivery of lyrics. [Apr 2017, p.97]

Hard, hearty and at home amid the grooves set out by the venerable likes of the Hodges brothers. [Feb 2014, p.96]

Powerful stuff. [Jun 2020, p.93]

The material is faultless. [Apr 2015, p.92]

With O’Brien running the gamut from one-night-stand shelf lurker (No One To Blame) and post-coital dewy (Dawning On Me) to resentful (Hot Scary Summer) and widowed (Darling Arithmetic). It’s a risky exercise but O’Brien pulls it off thanks to his trademark musical economy.

With its measured banjo pecks and perfect shadow bv's, courtesy of rising Southern rock talent MJ Lenderman, Right Back to It's simple classicism seem to explore over sensitivity, while Crowbar, possessed of a lovely, Peter Buck-ish jangle, also stands out. [Apr 2024, p.91]

Tiersen lays out nine densely dripping songs, full of lavish orchestration, indeterminate clanking and on the choral Midsummer Evening, a kind of Wicca-pop maelstrom. [Jun 2014, p.96]

Getting back in touch with his anger hasn't come at the cost of Mould's innate tunefulness. [Oct 2020, p.86]

Fans of the early records of Margo Price and Courtney Marie Andrews will find much to love here, while the diversion into groovesome country soul on Rows Of Clover keeps the head nodding. [Feb 2023, p.84]

Punchier and more accessible, while still showcasing the sextet's psychedelic bona fides. [Nov 2020, p.84]

This is Hogan's first solo album in 11 years and her best. [Aug 2012, p.96]

Mind Over Matter's sleazy rockabilly nightmares and Captain Beefheart-channeling psychedelic detours are entirely keeping with the group's '80s records. [Jun 2015, p.93]

Musical touches such as Stephen Large's baroque harpsichord solo on Patchouli and the little three0note 'now boarding' motif that opens Departure lounge cement the sens e of an act that know exactly how to proceed. [Nov 2017, p.94]

A singular voice, in more ways than one. [Dev 2017, p.90]

CocoRosie sound, blissfully, like no one else. [Sep 2005, p.102]

The combination of shimmering sonics and dislocated characters is what makes Hyperspace so holistic, and compelling. [Jan 2020, p.83]

It'll be a bit much for the casual fan with no need for all those stereo/mono variations, but they do have at least a couple dozen other best-ofs to choose from. [Oct 2013, p.102]

This new 11-song album is dense, almost joyous with sound, instruments all jostling for space--guitar, banjo, drums, horns. [Jan 2018, p.90]

Organic, evergreen loveliness. [Oct 2023, p.88]

The result is tender, powerful avant-rock to shake the walls. [Jun 2017, p.94]

How Do You Burn? finds the group on vintage form throughout. [Oct 2022, p.82]

From His Head To His Heart To His Hands is a generally satisfying mix of milestones and rarities. [Mar 2014, p.100]

A mind-blowing creation merging the high period Dungen of Ta Det Lugnt with its more straightforward predecessor, 2002's Stadsvandringar. [Nov 2022, p.91]

If you enjoy a record that can gently coax a cathartic tear or two, Monovision fits the bill. [Aug 2020, p.88]

Almost three decades into their journey, age has only emboldened them. [Jul 2009, p.99]

A-grade pop songwriting. [Aug 2020, p.94]

With Sing to the Moon, Laura Mvula set a new standard for 21st century soul. With this follow-up, she's raised that standard higher. [Jul 2016, p.89]

Countless moments of sheer melodic magic. [Dec 2001, p.116]

Strings offers one of his most vulnerable vocal takes yet on John Deere Tractor, a tender note home to a country mom from a son stuck in and troubled by a city; it feels like a letter from the road, hungover and threadbare. And the playing is flawless and charged, from Cleveland’s steam-engine fiddle during Way Downtown to Rob McCoury’s edgy delicacy during Frosty Morn. [Jan 2023, p.85]

He covers old bases with new fervour, but there's so much happening, so much detail that it feels like a giant leap forward. [Dec 2021, p.92]

[His bathroom's] natural reverb add a wobbly-otherworldly feel. [Sep 2017, p.96]

If the default mode of these simmering barroom confessionals is a certain existential weariness, they're nonetheless dispatched with substance and soul. [Mar 2023, p.90]

A slick, clever and diverse set of populist dance and digi-rock songs. [Nov 2002, p.110]

Soroor is the star of this set. ... Her pre-relocation stuff--even her Afghan Star audition is online--is always interesting, but this is a whole new level. [Oct 2019, p.86]

There are times on Bunny when Dear doesn't stray far from the hypnotic, hedonistic mood that underpins his dancefloor moniker, Audion. ... But Bunny really shows its teeth on Can You Rush Them. A smouldering, malevolent breakbeat stomp, its exhortation to "take back the streets" hints at America's political turmoil. [Nov 2018, p.86]

The bulk of In Dream is much darker, but no less alluring. [Nov 2015, p.94]

This is a remarkably strong set. [Dec 2016, p.88]

13 evocative songs. [Jan 2020, p.84]

Cue more mariachi mystery carefully balanced on John Convertino and Joey Burn's tenth studio LP. [May 2022, p.90]

A blast from start to finish. [Aug 2006, p.102]

This is Coldplay getting in, delivering the tune, getting out, influenced by the discipline of cutting-edge R&B but still capable of testing arena acoustics with some supermassive bluster, glitterball lustre and classic Buckland glide'n'twiddle. [Dec 2011, p.46]

Baroness have delivered their masterpiece: an album grounding their cosmic heaviosity with earthbound, compelling drama. [Jan 2016, p.88]

Surrounded by punchy horn and a rhythm section that knows its Duck Dunn and Al Jackson, Jr., this is one Paperboy who delivers. [Jun 2010, p.102]

Ultimately, Mid Air is an ecstatic love letter to love, but also the queer clubs where Romy found validation and her soundtrack to liberation. [Oct 2023, p.88]

A starkly beautiful unerringly poetic outing. [Sep 2011, p.100]

A delight. [Apr 2020, p.95]

Another impressive cocktail of Eastern-inflected drones, mantra-like vocals and thick slabs of empyrean noise guitar. [Dec 2007, p.100]

Although California-based, her echoey swamp sound encompassing bottleneck guitars and cellos recalls the friendly/eerie seductions of Bobbie Gentry or Emmylou Harris's Wrecking Ball. [Mar 2013, p.90]

Post Pop Depression is every bit as startling, both in sound, and end-of-days openness. [Apr 2016, p.86]

With every album, Jacklin is finding more of herself, strengthening her voice. It's complicated, but Pre Pleasure is a joy to hear. [Sep 2022, p.88]

This sequel ups their ante further; there's inventiveness here that rivals Girls Aloud producers Xenomania. [Apr 2009, p.103]

Broken repeats the team-up, but in wider-screen yet, fully evocative of its genesis in the sprawl of Los Angeles. [Sep 2009, p.95]

It's darker and more complex than their debut, but also bigger-sounding. [Sep 2020, p.80]

Walls is an essential slice of art-punk history. It's also a blistering good time. [Apr 2024, p.97]

The undoubted highlight is a completely reconstructed version of Ring of Fire that's guaranteed to stay in your heart forever. [May 2012, p.82]