Fado is a harder sell, a stronger taste. Still, Lina's voice has an irresistible dramatic heft, and combined with the smudgy ambient arrangements, all dark wood and bitter coffee, she and Refree could fill a gap that non-believers might not know they had. [Apr 2020, p.111]

Withering, in all the right ways. [Aug 2020, p.105]

There are also welcome flashes of their own identity. ... At 14 songs, however, that saccharine sheen starts to grate a little. [Aug 2020, p.102]

There's a wobbly quality to La Havas's toplines that means they can get lost in the more densely instrumented tracks, yet the sparser finger-picked guitar numbers give her songwriting space to shine. [Aug 2020, p.108]

It's a uniformly lovely if melodically insubstantial mode. [Summer 2020, p.105]

The business can feel overwhelming at times - more straightforwardly enjoyable are the pared-back tunes that leave enough room for Moore's slightly husky and hugely characterful voice to shine. [Aug 2020, p.109]

It might feel too in thrall to their heroes at times. ... But Bdrmm's world of noise is so artfully constructed it's hard to not find yourself lost within it. [Aug 2020, p.102]

They're less assured on the more experimental numbers. [Aug 2020, p.109]

Her multiple selves clash more often than they connect. [Aug 2020, p.110]

While she could let her hair down a little more, this record finds plenty of sweet spots between melancholy and euphoria. [Summer 2020, p.107]

Startisha is a marriage that nods to the old while leaning on the new, where results are more mixed. [Summer 2020, p.103]

These songs' surfaces are fastidiously arranged - but in his delicate vocals and allusive, nervy lyrics, Westerman still stirs up darker, less elegantly curated depths. [Summer 2020, p.107]

It's wilfully rough around the edges. [Summer 2020, p.101]

Music of the mid-00s is undergoing a revival. London-based Sports Team are the fresh case. [Jun 2020, p.107]

It can occasionally cloy, but on The Prettiest Curse, Hinds are on fighting form. [Jun 2020, p.100]

Just enough texture and colour to lift his affecting compositions above the neo-classical norm. [May 2020, p.104]

Soundtracked largely by sweet, inoffensive Scandipop flavoured with R&B, EDM and acoustic indie. Occasionally, however, she complements her subject matter with notes of punk and emo ... and produces something livelier and less conventional in the process. [Jul 2020, p.104]

He's still more traditionalist than outlier, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. [Jul 2020, p.19]

Fake is rearranging his sound rather than reinventing it. [Jul 2020, p.109]

Though their lyrical scope remains limited, they work hard to deliver the kind of catharsis you'd associate with a cherished coming-of-age movie. [Jul 2020, p.106]

Style and contentment. [Jul 2020, p.104]

The results are mixed. [Jul 2020, p.104]

Halo's score is detailed and meticulous - but far more sombre than her usually playful, exuberant records. [Jun 2020, p.100]

You come to see the The Lovely Eggs are an act of fine calibration of noise and sweetness, of intelligence and brutish mettle. [Jun 2020, p.102]

Feels so far behind the curve that it's just rolling gently backwards on roller-skates at this point. ... More edge, it seems, would only burst their bubble. [Jun 2020, p.106]

Their music conjures the Sahara via a hypnotic desert blues that informed by both Malian folk music and their love of Western bands such as Pink Floyd and Can. [Jun 2020, p.106]

Locked inside Womb is an excellent EP, but stretched out to 10 tracks it can feel predictable. [Jun 2020, p.105]

At times they meander a little too much, as on the ponderous Fool Thinking Ways, but this is far from the work of beginners. [Jun 2020, p.105]

Rodriguez digs deeper into rave and party culture here. [Jun 2020, p.97]

Casablancas's lyrics are, as ever, largely and deliberately incomprehensible, but enough phrases slip intermittently into the foreground to convince you that they must mean something. [May 2020, p.98]

The general vibe is of music for well-upholstered hotel suites. [May 2020, p.104]

A montage of brief yet expansive instrumentals, it veers from the richly choral to the dissonant, from busy polyrhythms to spare, awestruck synth-symphonies. [May 2020, p.112]

Rejoice is sparse, just drums and bass, with Masekela's flugelhorn providing the fluidity and freshness that elevates it above the park kickabout it might've been. [May 2020, p.100]

There are worse things to listen to as society slides into the abyss. [May 2020, p.104]

It finds Morrissey wandering down some interesting musical avenues. [May 2020, p.109]

Hey Joy, the second track on The Districts' fourth LP, is a moment of near-perfection. ... It's a bar the rest of You Know I’m Not Going Anywhere never quite reaches, though, it comes close. [May 2020, p.106]

At times the meandering is frustrating, while at others the release when a song finally locks into its groove, as on the twisting Lipstick Song, makes the experimentation all worthwhile. [May 2020, p.110]

There's almost too much bubbling up in their heads. [May 2020, p.109]

It's all very cinematic and atmospheric but with lyrics offering a light, sixth-form poetry vibe, much here is easy to bid adieu to. [May 2020, p.109]

Occasionally needs higher definition, yet her brittle voice and watchful lyrics cut through the Cocteau Twins grunge of With Love, the eye-rolling daze of All My Friends Are Drunk, the slacker energy of Keep It Near. [May 2020, p.100]

For all the many diverting moments, the lack of judicious editing leaves the album spending too much time going round in circles. [Apr 2020, p.114]

Ambition aplenty, but spread too thinly. [Apr 2020, p.111]

Color Theory is a record that weighs heavy with low self-esteem and personal tragedy. [Mar 2020, p.122]

Dividing their labour between two vocalists and songwriters does much to keep this second record interesting. [Apr 2020, p.113]

While taken individually each song has its merits, as a whole, Spook The Herd is disappointing musically, with nothing rising out of the politely artful haze to truly engage. [Apr 2020, p.111]

While the thumping psych-rock of Rollercoaster shines a light on the fears that still plague her, it's lead single For The First Time that makes for the most refreshing and cathartic moment. [Apr 2020, p.105]

Singer Dan Hyndman's mannered voice can get a bit wearing, but once Mush have bedded in, the evidence is here for a bright future. [Mar 2020, p.118]

A little more thematic variation would be welcome, but there are worse soundtracks to the chaos of the new decade. [Apr 2020, p.114]

As an act of Catharsis, Storm Damage was clearly an important one for the singer, even if ultimately it yields mixed results. [Apr 2020, p.114]

Their second album may not pack many surprises, but vocalist Haley Shea proves engaging company. [Apr 2020, p.113]

The LP's monotonous back half leaves Jackson running to stand still. [Apr 2020, p.111]

Their debut's wilful eccentricity is mostly unconvincing. [Mar 2020, p.119]

Even when the music threatens to sag into MOR dullness, as on Slow Burn Love, Almond's unmistakable voice - equal measures of defiance and fragility - lifts it up high.[Mar 2020, p.114]

It's during the quieter moments that Fearless discovers real depth. [Mar 2020, p.117]

Aims for the middle ground, aided by Phil Ek and a sturdier indie-rock back-up that doesn't always suit them. [Mar 2020, p.120]

A four-part story in the record's centre is propelled by a whirligig of percussion that rapidly becomes total overwhelm[ing]. But in its final 20 minutes the album finds steadier ground, allowing space for Deacon's undaunted imagination to come into its own. [Mar 2020, p.117]

Offsetting these slightly creepy lyrics, however, are seductive sonics. [Mar 2020, p.122]

At times, Leaneagh and Ryan Olson, her co-conspirator, glance off power-balladry, but when they ditch the linear, Poliça find their true form. [Mar 2020, p.119]

Sometimes his curious fusion works. ... Sometimes it doesn't. [Feb 2020, p.115]

Respite is offered up by the lilting Don't Go Outside, which reveals a beating heart beneath the conceptual framework. [Mar 2020, p.120]

Despite there being little opportunity for euphoric release, it's easy to lose yourself in Deleter's darker, more brutal moments. [Mar 2020, p.119]

This compilation of remixes doesn't find too many revelatory portals in St. Vincent's fifth album Masseducation, but there are moments that know just how to push open the wormholes in Annie Clark's flexible, fluid music. [Feb 2020, p.116]

Tremendous fun while it lasts, but hard to recall once the tracer lines have faded away. [Feb 2020, p.110]

The envelope-pushing gets a bit much at times. [Feb 2020, p.116]

There's a pleasing mundanity to their lyrical scope. [Feb 2020, p.115]

Previous music shine through while new material inevitable has the scrappiness of work assembled posthumously with Peep's childlike drawl sprawling over markedly lighter beats than the dark pop-punk rap he coined. [Feb 2020, p.112]

Free of the shackles that hobbled his debut, Styles manages to show more of his personality here, especially on the Vampire Weekend-style Sunflower, Vol. 6. It's just a shame he can't quite keep up with his ambition. [Feb 2020, p.110]

Entering his maze of influences can initially prove a challenge. ... But over 13 tracks clarity slowly emerges. [Jan 2020, p.109]

More familiar than freaky. [Jan 2019, p.114]

It's as welcome as a warm fire on an autumnal evening. [Dec 2019, p.110]

It's on the quieter moments--the lovely Wild, closer I Tried--that Champion finds its emotional sweet spot. [Jan 2020, p.106]

It's their determination to flaunt their multi-instrumental credentials that derails some songs. ... Much more effective is when HMR exercise restraint. [Jan 2020, p.109]

A vigorous, if patchy comeback. [Jan 2020, p.114]

The result is undeniably lovely, if never truly transcendent. [Jan 2020, p.114]

There's a grating tweeness that pushes the saccharine levels far into the red. [Jan 2020, p.113]

It's warmly unreal how in thrall he remains to The Beatles, from melodic progressions down to the thwack of drums, but these heartache-powered ballads retain a simple elation at the power of rock'n'roll. [Jan 2020, p.110]

While the proceedings might be more restrained than usual on the '80s hardcore-aping Husker Don't and Sabbath clatter of Halloween 3, if you think Lightning Bolt have softened you're very much mistaken. [Jan 2020, p.110]

He remains a maestro at the mixing desk, even as the album's split-down-the-middle concept undermines his genre-splicing strengths. [Jan 2020, p.106]

It won't give the Foo Fighters sleepless nights, but it's fun while it lasts. [Jan 2020, p.109]

Actual thrills are in short supply. [Dec 2019, p.114]

If this isn't Quite her own trip, she leaves intriguing tracks to follow. [Dec 2019, p.110]

A solid, if not essential, Desert Sessions return. [Dec 2019, p.109]

With the exception of I've Got Reason, the ripsnorting garage rock that enlivened his earlier work has disappeared. Instead, the likes of Shelter and Show Me veer towards ponderous MOR. [Dec 2019, p.109]

Sensual melancholy is a mood but Cry occasionally needs another one or two up its heart adorned sleeve. [Dec 2019, p.106]

Dawson's vision is exceptional; his sound is harder to follow. [Dec 2019, p.109]

He lets the currents take it where they will, from the churning tumult of The Wave to the cresting, Bon Iver-ish Broken. [Dec 2019, p.113]

Sadly much of this record is stuck in the shallows. [Dec 2019, p.114]

It resonates with the kind of high seriousness that never weighed on his father. Still, the younger Jeffes brings a winning feel for modern, post-ambient arrangements. [Dec 2019, p.113]

Memory Streams is the sound of a band locked in a classy holding pattern. [Dec 2019, p.113]

As with a lot of their work it can occasionally lack bite, some fire in their impeccably tasteful bellies. [Nov 2019, p.108]

The main distinction is the relative lack of spellbinding melodies. [Nov 2019, p.108]

Like a lot of world music, it probably has niche appeal, although Soroor's voice is beautifully expressive. [Nov 2019, p.112]

It's an occasional return to their punk roots, more often smoothed over by the glistening pop production they've been known for more recently. [Nov 2019, p.116]

Nice, but probably inessential. [Nov 2019, p.111]

It's a punishing listen. ... But this is not a record for the faint-hearted. [Nov 2019, p.111]

JPEGMAFIA's flashes of brilliance are obscured by a bloated tracklist, but they're worth digging out. [Nov 2019, p.111]

Clever, if a little monotonous; very much an LP for our times. [Nov 2019, p.112]

It often feels as if Aitchison's nasal croon and counter-intuitive toplines are the least interesting bits of her own project. [Nov 2019, p.116]