With a singular perspective though, Hand Habits are in a lane of their own. [May 2019, p.111]

It's a powerful record that reconfigures the classic mnid-90s New York sound more skillfully than anyone's done for some time. [Feb 2013, p.103]

Excellent, soul-infused debut. [May 2019, p.112]

Common's best album so far, one that proves hip hop can be both smart and mainstream. [Jul 2005, p.114]

As giant a leap on from the lo-fi oddness of 2009's Gather, Form & Fly as it was possible to make. [Oct 2011, p.124]

To hard-hitting R&B and funk akin to God Foot-era James Brown, Jones can strip paint and soothe with equal aplomb. [Dec. 2011 p. 129]

The range of his ambition and the nailed-on vocal performances soar beyond. [Mar 2016, p.119]

Startling, shape-shifting music by a band reaching the peak of their powers. [Mar 2013, p.108]

The tragedy, once again, is that nothing here approaches greatness. [Mar 2008, p.103]

The Hunter represents them at both their most concise and their thrilling best. [Nov. 2011, p. 135]

What emerges contains much that's familiar but it's presented in revitalised new settings, with grit, urgency and delicacy in abundance. [Mar 2015, p.117]

The Ballad of The Kingsmen is just about the best distillation of free speech and the delusion of democracy ever recorded, while Mushroom Story will have you laughing and crying. [Apr 2011, p.98]

Occasional voyages into proggy oddness (Future Crimes)bring some esoteric intrigue to their indie insouciance, but, ultimately, this band wants you to have as much fun as they so clearly are. [Nov. 2011, p. 143]

As mesmerising as it is innovative, Swim is a record you want to dive in to. [May 2010, p.120]

A stark record that showcases her unsettlingly direct vocals. [Dec 2003, p.132]

Stylistically, Lynne steps out in several directions and gives the impression that she could succeed in any of them: the warm caress of her voice and the cool, cutting edge of her songs suggest great things.

As musically dazzling as Midnite Vultures often is, the one criticism that can be still levelled at Beck is that his songs remain strangely soulless, failing to ever really grip the emotions or stir the soul.

His most poignant and accessible work to date. [Feb 2003, p.96]

Reveal[s] a finely tuned pop ear setting them apart from the noisier kids in the punk playground. [Feb 2004, p.98]

There are guitars, but they are rarely central. The beat-driven tracks veer towards the arty, white boy-with-beatbox line of Talking Heads and The Clash. [May 2003, p.96]

Steve's boy finally finds his voice on this third record. [Dec 29010, p.104]

Classic thrash gets proper remastering for 25th birthday. [Sept. 2011, p. 123]

This is essentially a couple of singles spread way too thinly. [Jun 2005, p.110]

You sense that once this entertaining diversion is done, it will be back to the real business. [Apr 2007, p.112]

The Mountain boys at the--ahem--peak of their powers. [Apr 2009, p.107]

This all-original 20-tracker works even better as an intimate, end-to-end, night-drive companion than a snack tray despite Williams's often grueling vocal intensity. [Nov 2014, p.119]

Chatma is a polished set. [Nov 2013, p.116]

This all Peters's show as she shines a light under some very dark roots. [Mar 2015, p.114]

It all points towards an altogether shinier future. [Dec 2018, p.114]

A work very much bigger than the sum of its parts. [Feb 2020, p.108]

The songwriting is more direct. [Jun 2020, p.105]

It's the multi-layered harmonies and busy, overlapping rhythms that stick. [Jul 2020, p.104]

You Could Have... doesn't take you on the journey of highs and lows that the very greatest albums do. Its Greatest Hits feel is both its major strength and its major weakness. [Oct 2005, p.108]

A guest spot from scene legend Greg Hetson confirms Eyes And Nines as the real deal. [Jun 2010, p.120]

More varied stylistically, it offers a powerful reflection of the band's consistently bleak worldview. [May 2014, p.116]

Finds their meld of expansive rock, country melodies and myriad other elements scraping truly inspirational heights. [Oct 2003, p.111]

SVIIB is a memorial, yes, but it's a glorious one. [Mar 2016, p.107]

An album that dares to tackle life's big questions head on. [Jun 2020, p.101]

The Dodos are too uptight to freak-out totally and the clash between slacker lyricism and unpredictable acoustic outbursts lends an intriguingly split personality. [July 2008, p.101]

A deranged and thrilling experience, there's been nothing from them to touch it since. [Dec 2012, p.122]

Irresistible. [Apr 2018, p.112]

Here If You Listen evokes CSN&Y Deja Vu than a Croz solo LP. [Dec 2018, p.107]

A Bath Full of Ecstasy feels like a glorious concentration of Hot Chip's skills. [Summer 2019, p.111]

This is a heady journey through excess, absurdity and 21st century mores from arguably the world's most eloquent singer-songwriter, which seems to take us that bit closer to who he really is. [Jul 2018, p.117]

Fallen street poet gets remixed by rising street urchin. Result: comeback complete. [March 2011]

A unique and thrilling voice forging a new folk tradition. [Jun 2014, p.122]

[A] heartfelt tribute to country music. [Dec 2006, p.133]

It's rarely an easy listen, but in among all the post-punk references lurks a soundtrack to 2018's looming global catastrophe that's urgent and compelling. [Feb 2018, p.113]

Soused remains a distinctly perverse pleasure. [Nov 2014, p.120]

By the end, Lopatin has captured the uneasy calm of a mind unhinged by information overload. [Jul 2018, p.115]

A Brief Inquiry... feel not just hugely entertaining and moving, but necessary. [Jan 2019, p.104]

Their parched, skeletal songs, built around simple guitar figures, Appalachian-style harmonies and super-catchy tunes merit a wider audience. [Jan 2020, p.109]

Each of its 11 songs luxuriating in an unhurried, pillow-soft airiness that draws you in, as opposed to giving up secrets too willingly. Free of expectation, Shura's found her own pace. [Oct 2019, p.108]

It's a graceful exhibition of light melody over dark mood. [Jun 2014, p.110]

As long as they continue to ask themselves difficult questions, and answer them with records as full of fire and vitality as Futurology, failure is not an option. [Jul 2014, p.113]

Despite the slight air of "tell me something I don't know" hanging over proceedings, both musically and lyrically, there is an earworming swagger here. [May 2018, p.112]

Understated yet charismatic, Harding has the gift of making reality seem like a very fragile and porous thing indeed. [Jul 2017, p.108]

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]

[Wrongtom's] meeting with East London jungle MC Deemas J is his most faithful homage yet. It's also his best. [Nov 2012, p.112]

Transience finally give its long-serving creator the option of stepping off the road and retiring on a high. [Summer 2019, p.116]

With strings, brass and a great deal of drama on his side, it's a beautiful escalation. [Summer 2020, p.103]

All That Reckoning hums with barely suppressed threat. [Sep 2018, p.110]

Star Wars feels like the work of a band remapping their space. [Oct 2015, p.115]

While these 12 songs carry a lick of humour, there is a sublime tenderness here too. [Aug 2017, p.107]

American Gangster sounds less like a last gasp than the possible start to a second act in Jay-Z's career. [Jan 2008, p.103]

With its soft lilts and cracked delivery, his rusty voice presses the same emotional buttons as Shane MacGowan and Arab Strap's Aidan Moffat. [May 2004, p.98]

The bed springs chez Wegg-Prosser are clearly creaking. [May 2014, p.121]

Eerie yet often enthralling electronica. [Aug 2019, p.108]

Smart, sophisticated, noodly--what else would you expect? [Apr 2006, p.113]

An impressive set. [May 2007, p.123]

Combining jazzy looseness, rustic picking and an undertow of drugular mind expansion, this is one head cocktail that leaves no pain after it hits. [Apr 2015, p.113]

This deeply melancholic brand of haunting, sparse folk is as intoxicating as it is unsettling. [Feb 2020, p.111]

Although the music is minimal, propulsive and built for clubs, Avery's formative years spent listening too rock and proto-electro lend the album a dynamic that suits headphone immersion. [Nov 2013, p.102]

It's a record that draws you in, first with its story, and then with its songs. [Aug 2020, p.106]

Unsurprisingly, their music proves equally mysterious, the lava-like bass and shuddering beats suggesting a familiarity with dubstep's experimental margins. [Aug. 2011, p. 116]

Though for all the slick instrumental interplay, with guitarist Steve Lacy again outstanding, it's Syd's hushed, Aaliyah-like delivery that supplies the core emotional connection. [Aug 2018, p.111]

After a couple plays, his just-crawled-out-of-bed falsetto and homemade designs start taking root. [Nov 2002, p.102]

Stylistically he's been likened to just about everybody from Leonard Cohen to Kurt Cobain. However, the use of loops and samples on Chemical, for instance, are just as likely to recall Beck, while the damaged tone could give Eels's E a run for his money.

Small, perfectly formed and wonderfully refreshing. [Jun 2004, p.105]

Brown's vivid storytelling skills bear testament to a major talent. [Jun 2012, p.108]

The hardest-working slacker in rock goes from strength to strength. [Nov 2015, p.108]

A warm, spirited pop record that holds its own against everything else in their canon. [Nov. 2011, p. 134]

Throughout Grace is brave and brutally honest. [Mar 2014, p.107]

Baffling, but exhilarating. [Nov 2006, p.144]

Cenizas creates the precious illusion of space and motion. [Jul 2020, p. 109]

All thoughts of age, celebrity and stadium itineraries melt away as the Stones work their peculiar alchemy with vigour, mastery and jeu d'espit. [Feb 2017, p.114]

While AAARTH doesn't veer too wildly from the template--tightly-wound rock riffs and pummelling drums forming a circle around frontwman Ritzy Bryan's atmospheric hooks--it doesn't put a foot wrong, either. [Nov 2018, p.109]

A bright, bold new talent just got bolder. [Oct 2019, p.106]

This LP shows fierce songwriting strength. [Feb 2020, p.108]

This record, however, makes an indelible mark. [Feb 2010, p. 110]

The voice may be more Grandpa Simpson than Grand Ole Opry these days, but the spirit on Ramble At The Ryman live set is unbeatable. [July 2011, p. 106]

A masterpiece of bombed orchestral elegance, at once expansive and intense. [Dec 2002, p.112]

There are slamming riffs to be found, but they're still wrapped within synaspse-melting mathcore that requires a PhD to genuinely appreciate. [May 2010, p.112]

Nine Types of Lights finds them boldly going forward with their most cheerful, party-centric effort to date. [May 2011, p.123]

A vigorously thought-provoking record. [Aug 2014, p.113]

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]

So no, it's not perfect. But Whatever People Say... has that edge, that thrill that comes only when a band have hit the zeitgeist hard and timed the punch to perfection. [Mar 2006, p.102]

More of these slinky, emotional outpourings please. [Dec 2019, p.113]