Some of the songwriting is exceptional. [Dec 2003, p.114]

What Dizzee Rascal has done with this record is find his own - profoundly satisfying - balance between grime's digital vortex of ringtones and car alarms and an older more contemplative electronic tradition. [Oct 2004, p.104]

It’s a beguiling, meandering sprawl that rewards total immersion.

The fourteenth Bad Seeds record is willfully untidy and, at times, pretty chaotic. It also rocks like crazy. [Apr 2008, p.104]

Retains an elegant spirituality. [Mar 2021, p.89]

At 70 minutes long, there's a lot to digest but it's worth persevering with as repeated listens gradually unveil a musical universe unlike any other. [Sep 2015, p.89]

This is bruised, bruising music, intellectually satisfying, animalistic. [Jul 2017, p.91]

The results have the in-the-room intimacy of Lenker's best work. [Apr 2024, p.91]

What makes the album itself addictive is Isbell's fusing of gothic Memphis blues and Nashville tenderness. [Nov 2013, p.90]

It routinely achieves a perfect fusion of forma nd content. [Dec 2021, p.87]

This time Fussell has a full band to flesh out his vision, providing front porch grooves that carry the same kind of woody resonance as those of The band. [Jul 2019, p.91]

Creatively, Reward is on point. [Jun 2019, p.89]

Display[s] a lurid intelligence that seeks to explore an alternate American history. [Oct 2004, p.102]

It's on hypnotic original compositions such as Excess Success or reworked pieces like La Jetee that Parker's true genius shines through, an ability to create entire new sonic worlds from the tiniest of elements. [Mar 2022, p.88]

The Beach Boys vault, though, is full of Dennis tracks, and Feel Flows makes a great showcase for that Wilson's unlikely gifts, and the inconsistent strategies that bedevilled the band. [Sep 2021, p.90]

These evocative originals, inspired by road trips, inevitably reconnect ti her Memphis roots. [Mar 2014, p.96]

Lasting only an economic 33 minutes; on this form, she could pull off a double album. [Apr 2021, p.84]

It is a deeply odd but consistently compelling work. [Nov 2014, p.98]

What Los Lobos's thirteenth long-player lacks in surprise it makes up for in groove and mood. [Oct 2006, p.103]

Ultimately, it's Woods and Elucid who provide the intense, erudite, funny through-line. [Nov 2023, p.93]

Her debut LP eschews 4/4 rhythms to create a loose-limbed, free-ranging treat. [Feb 2020, p.91]

A thrilling 90-minute swansong. [Oct 2023, p.93]

Hood have crafted a singular meeting of modern electronics, carefully layered arrangements and more conventional rock melancholia. [Dec 2001, p.96]

It is all heart, it is truth and it is beautiful. [Jun 2003, p.94]

Measuring out grief and resilience with a steady hand, these are the best songs of Low's quiet career. [Feb 2001, p.98]

New York is one of Reed's strongest solo albums, with its tight focus, impassioned lyrics and spare, almost punky music. This is a deserved reissue, but the extras - a complete, energetic live rendition of the record from 1989, and some outtakes including he unissued The Room - are for fans only. [Nov 2020, p.92]

And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow again shows Mering's most extraordinary craft. [Dec 2022, p.82]

This is Swans at their most user-unfriendly and trouser soiling. [Sep 2012, p.94.]