Supernature sounds brilliantly here and now. Less coldly perverse than Black Cherry, it's also a lot of fun. [Sep 2005, p.110]

Far from rehashing her debut, she's made an older and wiser sequel, where the quiet magic of each song gets stronger with every listen. [Mar 2003, p.101]

Brave and ambitious. [Jul 2005, p.122]

Musically and lyrically, Life In Slow Motion is his strongest collection of songs to date. [Sep 2005, p.108]

It may well be his strongest ever collection. [Feb 2006, p.98]

Deep voiced, disquieting and bristling with intelligence, Hobo Sapiens is a reminder of how intoxicating an artist Cale can be. [Nov 2003, p.107]

A remarkable record. [Feb 2003, p.96]

Such moments of wry genius make a very special record. [Oct 2003, p.104]

All of the elements that make the band great--the Shadowsy guitar solos, James Skelly's Eric Burdon-meets-Jimmy Corkhill croon, the breadth of imagination--are well lubricated, but the songwriting has rocketed. [Aug 2003, p.106]

Flabbergasting... a genuine revolution in the head. [Dec 2006, p.133]

Terrifying, but in a good way. The bar is raised. [Jun 2004, p.105]

An audacious, bold and provocative artistic statement, an album that raises the bar for any rock band who aspire to re-writing the rulebook. [Aug 2003, p.101]

Sounds so sure and committed that it could be the work of a new band. [Nov 2005, p.127]

Cut, copy and paste this definitive record into your world. [Jul 2005, p.115]

It's so out of step with most indie rock it's as if it's been beamed from outer space. [Apr 2005, p.126]

Rarely are albums this thrillingly original. [Jul 2005, p.120]

A leftfield classic. [Oct 2003, p.100]

It's a bewitching formula. [Jun 2005, p.120]

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

A record sufficiently impressive to suggest that White Blood Cells caught Jack and Meg using only a fraction of their talents. [Apr 2003, p.98]

An extraordinary record. [Mar 2007, p.115]

One utterly badass album. [Jul 2004, p.116]

Takk... [is] a thing of... supple, muscular beauty, throwing off the stultifying air of reverence that has sometimes surrounded them. [Oct 2005, p.116]

Idlewild is a dazzling album. [Oct 2006, p.124]

This record... is brimming with character, easily surpassing their debut, its energy level like a battery charge. [Sep 2004, p.108]

[Danger Mouse's] stunning flourishes... help place Demon Days notches above any vaguely electronic release in recent memory. [Jun 2005, p.104]

Their most coherent statement yet. [Feb 2005, p.100]

Not only do the rhythms here sound tighter and more intensely focused, Murphy's presence as a songwriter and frontman is a revelation. [Apr 2007, p.110]

In a genre considered creatively bankrupt, this is genuinely new metal. [Jul 2003, p.102]

Antics is ridiculously good. [Oct 2004, p.112]

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]

He remains rap's finest storyteller. [Jun 2006, p.115]

Eclipsing last year's Blueprint, it throws down the gauntlet to challengers Murder Inc. [Jan 2003, p.120]

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]

A proper soul album which hooks you with the first pneumatic beat and draws you deeper with every heady atmosphere and vivid emotion. [Jan 2004, p.111]

It's terrifically exciting stuff. [Apr 2003, p.101]

Very possibly, an even better album than Elephant. [Jul 2005, p.108]

Her voice is versatile, the beats delicioiusly languid, but it's the songwriting that shines. [Oct 2004, p.129]

Missy and Timbaland give us what we've come to expect--the sexiest, most ear-popping, jaw-dropping fusion of old-school rap tribute, sparse R&B, mutant bhangra, and beat innovation on Planet Pop. [Feb 2004, p.100]

A vibe of maverick playfulness married to fabulous tunes. [Apr 2002, p.106]

It perfectly captures the oscillating other-worldliness of their sound. [Oct 2016, p.110]

What makes Most Messed Up stand out is that Miller's self-aware enough to play with those cliches. [Aug 2014, p.112]

Cinematic, loaded and decadent. [Sep 2003, p.109]

Her voice is a thing of wonder. [Apr 2005, p.123]

While other rappers struggle to maintain consistency across one album per year, Big K.R.I.T. has made his second corker of 2012. [Oct 2012, p.106]

They're back to their trouser-soiling best here, genre-hopping like mad and avidly playing the "long game." [Jan 2016, p.113]

This two-disc set captures R.E.M. in their prime, erasing the memory of their middling final decade. [Jan 2012, p.135]

The result are a joy, exuding the same casual charm that has always characterised his best work. [Sep 2008]

This follow-up's newfound glossy production sheen suggests that is the intention [to move toward the mainstream]--but the creativity within is far from diluted. [Apr 2008, p.109]

His debut is more Will Oldham than Will Young, with hints of Bon Iver, John Martyn and the Buckleys. The best of a beguiling bunch comes last. [Apr 2016, p.104]

This seventh official LP is definitively their best so far. [Oct 2013, p.113]

He beefs up his sound with thumping drums and strings and what emerges sounds epic in comparison. [Mar 2012, p.111]

Meditative yet pulsing, awkward yet affecting Suuns' contrasting waves deliver an eerie, engaging adrenalin rush. [Apr 2013, p.111]

This is a record that opens up the time and space to think, picking up echoes, melting them down into something new. [Aug 2020, p.102]

A parade of intriguing timbres and textures ensures each song is as seductive as the last. [Summer 2018, p.113]

Infectious, sun-bleached and psychedelic--the welcome return of a South American institution. [Oct 2009, p.114]

While these songs still have Matsson's trademark melancholy at heart, there is a new kind of gladness and hope to them too. [Jun 2015, p.112]

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]

Espers' folk apocalypse is very now--and very welcome. [Dec 2009, p.112]

Superb. [May 2012, p.105]

Produced again by former Arcade Fire man Howard Bilerman, here spare, lovelorn songs such as zithery vigil The Shore evoke an elegant melancholy, while the more rugged likes of Gold Rush dart forth on galloping drums, fiddles and banjos. [Feb 2010, p. 104]

Sprawling, ambitious and politically conscious. [Sep 2016, p.102]

Teenage Fanclub may just have made their best record yet. [Oct 2016, p.110]

The whole thing is raw, exhilarating and completely compromised. [Aug 2013, p.102]

These are immaculately crafted songs. [Oct 2016, p.105]

It all feels so much more intentional than before, the mix of pop and experimentation they've long striven for. [May 2004, p.99]

As You Were stands as proof that rock's most charismatic general is back on active service and spoiling for trouble. [Nov 2017, p.102]

Potent stuff. [Jan 2018, p.114]

Sees a great guitarist becoming a great songwriter. [Apr 2006, p.113]

It's easily enough to leave you wishing The Coral would get their distinctive acts together again soon. [Dec 2014, p.108]

Wordy troubadour's sixth and finest effort. [Sept. 2010, p. 118]

The London Sessions isn't quite the hoped-for wholehearted embrace of the UK house nation, but it witnesses the reawakening of one of modern soul's most durable sirens. [Jan 2015, p.127]

A second disc continues the upbeat mood of the main album. [Jan 2012, p.135]

This zeitgeist-friendly genre-hopping proves the trio are moving with the times, but it's satisfying to note that when they return to their starkly simple, powerful melodic trademark sound on closer Hallelujah, Haim remain in a league of their own. [Jun 2020, p.94]

It's 20-minute closer Unrelenting Unconditional, however, which steals the show with its spectacular reimagining of Miles Davis's epic early '70s experiments in transcendental jazz-funk. [Apr 2015, p.108]

While Cuttin' Heads hardly stretches him, Mellencamp dresses up his old tricks beautifully. [Mar 2002, p.125]

It does reconfirm her knack for making grown-up dance albums unlike anyone else. [Jun 2015, p.106]

Matt Shultz makes a natural showman firmly in the mouth Perry Farrell mould. Front of house taken care of, it's then just a matter of pairing the noise and excitement, something they achieve in short, sharp bursts with room to spare. [Apr 2011, p.98]

Beck thrills tot he max--and Loud Hailer hits career peaks of tough, funky belligerence. [Sep 2016, p.102]

This album sees the acquisition of a new twin-sticksman rhythm section, which powers Dwyer's ever-progressive tracks to new heights of psychedelic delirium. [Oct 2016, p.110]

Their electro-acoustic psych-soundworld can't disguise crisp earwormers. [Oct 2016, p.109]

This is a record of towering acoustic-based songwriting. [Sep 2005, p.114]

It's fortunate that the warmly accessible Way Out Weather, which showcases his melodious, improvising guitar, exists in less esoteric numbers [than his limited released vinyl albums]. [Nov 2014, p.112]

Effectively a double album proving that time hasn't blunted Heaton's lyrical sharpness. [May 2020, p.108]

Their anthem-filled fourth album's brazen swagger may prove irresistible. [Nov 2007, p.137]

A record of a very fine sort. [May 2019, p.110]

This is a very welcome return of a singular talent. [Jun 2017, p.112]

Like Boys Outside, Monkey Minds casts Steve Mason as a gifted songwriter, a world-worn bringer of anger, melancholy, hope and melody. [Apr 2013, p.96]

While the musical backing is occasionally sweeter than it is memeorable, Moss's narrative lyricism saves the day resulting in a rich debut that provokes fresh thoughts with each listen.

Part Of The Light finds him in dream-like mode, and though he'll never rival Guy Garvey for loquacity, he's so comfortable in his own skin that To The Sea details a cheery trip to the seaside and his voice soars where it once growled. [Jul 2018, p.112]

Platform is always engaged and engaging, the questions it raises never merely academic. [Jun 2015, p.107]

The Casadys' knack for sifting vivid, dreamy songs out of harrowing subject matter is no less potent here. [Jun 2013, p.96]

Disturbingly sensual stuff. [Jun 2013, p.99]

The flawless record that Yorkston has long promised. [Oct 2014, p.121]

Tucker's inimitable vocals are savage and exhilarating throughout. [Nov 2012, p.108]

With their harmonies having never sounded more like perpetual benchmark The Everly brothers, the cantina guitars and dusty, hazy lyrics conjure a world of adobe bars and lazy roof-top jams as the sun dips behind the cactus. [Mar 2017, p.111]

It's focused, punchy and beautifully poetic. [Dec. 2011 p. 129]

This second installment is immaculate, an artful, emotional tour de force that underlines their "American rock's Radiohead" status. [May 2008, p.130]