Gaye's music was on the move, but it never moved quite like What's Going On: still seraphic, still turbulent. [Aug 2011, p.95]

Another mature masterpiece from America's finest. [Album Of The Month, March 2002, p.94]

Streetcore negotiates a resolution between the ethnocentric beats that hallmarked the two previous Mescaleros albums and the classic Clash sound that remained pivotal to Joe's live performances. [Nov 2003, p.110]

So wild and stripped-down it makes The White Stripes sound like Yes. [Jan 2004, p.102]

Almost every tune sounds like a hit. [Dec 2001, p.108]

Every track is a precision-tooled triumph. [Mar 2012, p.81]

Nope, this is not easy listening, yet he's never made a more beautiful album. [Jan 2006, p.108]

A brilliant album. [Aug 2012, p.80]

Great by Smith's standards. Practically genius by everybody else's. [Feb 2004, p.74]

In this sparer setting, the extra space plays to the benefit of McCartney’s loyal co-travellers: “No Words”, which serves reminder just how vital the harmonies of Linda and the song’s co-writer Denny Laine were when it came to defining the Wings sound; Linda’s purring ARP Odyssey and MiniMoog contributions are what suddenly take centrestage on “Jet” and a rollicking vocal-free canter through “Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five”. Yet, none of that detracts from the primary energy source of Band On The Run. [Feb 2024, p.42]

The Big To-Do, it's pleasing to report, rocks as hard and loud as anything they've previously done. [Apr 2010, p.78]

The pairing of the wily old tomcat and the classy country thrush turns out as magically in reality as it seemed unlikely on paper.

It's their first masterpiece. [Album of the Month, May 2005, p.94]

Arguably, not since early Costello has a British solo artist combined such bare-arsed soulfulness with such corrosively perceptive humour. Quite something. [Album of the Month, Nov 2002, p.112]

For the 56 minutes that "Ys" lasts, all the doubts evaporate. Every elaboration has a purpose, every labyrinthine melodic detour feels necessary rather than contrived. Tempting as it is to fixate on the gilded reputations of her associates, this is unequivocally Newsom’s album.

An essential listen for anyone interested in where music might take them. [Jun 2004, p.86]

Morph... sounds utterly of a piece with Aja. [Apr 2006, p.104]

It's a record of passion and richness, with a hoard of memorable songs, that demands to be treated the equal of its inspirations. [Sep 2003, p.102]

Lookaftering is some kind of miracle. [Nov 2005, p.100]

The album’s a gas, a riot, a hoot.

The catch-all quality of this reissue presents a kaleidoscopic vision of what pop music could be. ... One of the most compelling and joyous albums of Prince's career, not to mention the most fun.[Oct 2020, p.44]

Rarely has contrived weirdness sounded so utterly bewitching. [Jun 2004, p.85]

“I Promise,” “Man Of War,” and “Lift” are the most exciting, crucial elements of this deluxe edition. ... [The B-sides are] a perfect counterpart to the three new tracks, and point towards Radiohead's convention-defying next chapter of Kid A and Amnesiac. [Aug 2017, p.44]

Make no mistake, the Lips have done it: three astonishing LPs in a row. [May 2006, p.94]

As a State of the Union address, this bold and often brilliant record is less inclined towards optimism than, say, Springsteen’s admirable "Working On A Dream."

Even by their standards, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots is astonishing.... Plainly, this is music abnormally alive with possibilities. [Album of the Month, Aug 2002, p.96]

White's willfully basic approach is what gives Van Lear Rose its freshness.... If you thought Rick Rubin's Johnny Cash reinvention was impressive, wait 'til you grab a fistful of this. [Album of the Month, June 2004, p.84]

There is much, meanwhile, to recommend the O’Brien remix, or “deconstruction” as he puts it. What O’Brien has mostly done is strip away the more ornate layers of the Palmer mix and cutting back on the album’s moments of more florid melodrama.

Invoking and evoking just about all the spontaneity and scariness that you'd want from rock'n'roll, Tago Mago can offer experiences as spellbinding as the sequence that originally comprised side one ("Paperhouse", "Mushroom", "Oh Yeah"), or can be so extreme that you feel yourself under attack by maniacs.

This is the pop album of 2003 which everyone else will have to beat. [Jul 2003, p.124]

It's Cash, at the top of her game as a singer, who carries the day. [Jan 2014, p.65]

There’s more, too much more, to come, but for now, Volume One will do just fine.

It feels like one of the landmark American albums of the century so far. [Jan 2008, p.86]

Abbey Road is the sound of the Beatles walking into history. [Nov 2019, p.38]

Under the direst circumstances, he has painted his masterpiece. [Album of the Month, Sep 2003, p.96]

Deep, warm, fully rounded and with no slack, Prairie Wind is Neil at his best. [Oct 2005, p.101]

It's this insistence on resolutely following her instincts that makes this record so lustily appealing from top to bottom. [Nov 2011, p.95]

Terrifically thorough. [Nov 2004, p.131]

Where Manu Chao might have smoothed off some of the rough edges during his spell as co-producer, this album positively celebrates those grungier moments.

Accompanying all this is Giles Martin's newly mixed stereo version inspired by the original mono. It means everything is fuller and better balanced. ... The Beatles never worked with such unified purpose again, but what this Pepper boxset captures is the fun, intense, playful ferment; the triumph, in other words. [Jul 2017, p.42]

By far the strongest collection of songs the band have ever assembled. [Nov 2003, p.114]

A brave and beautiful album of humanity, hurt and hope from the songwriter best qualified to speak to and for his country.... A towering achievement. [Album of the Month, Sep 2002, p.102]

A record nobody could fail to love. [Feb 2005, p.84]

Folk-rock masterpiece of quietly influential Northern miserabilism. [May 2011, p.80]

The guitar sounds engineered here by Young and Lanois are astonishing, almost terrifying at times in their elemental beauty. [Nov 2010, p.78]

Dear Heather is Cohen's highest tide yet, his most exquisite marriage of song and poetry and ambiguous grace. [Nov 2004, p.114]

Sugar Mountain is a fascinating snapshot of Neil Young at a transitory moment in his long career, for which it also provides an indelible template.

It is music whose scope, erudition and vitriol makes everything else in this year of exceptional musical timidity seem puny. [Nov 2003, p.106]

Fly Or Die has more in common with 10cc and XTC than it does Common.... Prog-pop album of the year. [Jun 2004, p.91]

It's like the best music of the '70s compressed under '80s new wave dynamics. [Feb 2005, p.74]

La Radiolina reaches out beyond it's core audience to a universal constituency, not so much a world music record as a global-rock mission statement.

Third is the most stunning, stark and superb Portishead album yet. [May 2008, p.84]

The Evangelist isn’t a Go-Betweens album, but it’s more cohesive than any of Forster’s other solo albums, and more moving.

You won't hear a more humane, moving or mysterious record all year. [Album of the Month, Oct 2003, p.110]

Smart, cocksure and as cosmopolitan as New York itself, Live At Shea Stadium deserves a place amongst the greats.

My Dusty Road is facinating as an archive set. [Oct 2009, p.120]

American Slang delivers spectacularly on all expected fronts. Everything that was great about The '59 Sound is here, but the sound is even bigger, epic without getting blustery.

May well come to be regarded as the best British rock album since OK Computer. [Sep 2002, p.118]

Fed is beautifully excessive, ornamented with dazzling soul/pop arrangements. [Sep 2008, p.114]

An extraordinary achievement. [Album of the Month, Aug 2005, p.86]

In the transition from imitator to originator, the old boy has made one of his best albums ever. [Oct 2011, p.83]

Love And Theft was quite unlike any other pop album--apart, that is, from Modern Times, its direct and audacious sequel. [Sep 2006, p.72]

This is a stunning album, bristling with astute and funny words, glorious tunes and delivered in performances all the more impressive for sounding so utterly effortless. [Mar 2008, p.80]

What's in here finds the band inventive, unfailingly tuneful, and, rather belying the title, mellowing magnificently with age. [Aug 2009, p.87]

You have to adjust to its lack of ornamentation and let it settle, seep, uncurl like smoke or love. And there are songs here to equal his best. [Album Of The Month, Dec 2001, p.100]

80 minutes of astonishingly powerful and beautifully preserved music. [Sep 2023, p.43]

As with Martin's other special edition remixes, his work is subtle and tasteful. ... Listening to this package, it's clearer than ever just how Revolver set the template for the Beatles' future. ... Their peak, as well as the end of something - can be found here. [Dec 2022, p.40]

Unavailability has also played its part in pumping up the myth – so much so that you wonder if, heard in 2008, these songs stand to disappoint. In fact, key moments of Pacific Ocean Blue square dramatically up to your loftiest expectations.

LA Woman is at times a raw and bluesy affair, but still one of exquisite taste and judgement. [Feb 2012, p.84]

This slice of weird-rock from a more contented American decade is playful and preposterous in equal measure. [Feb 2009, p.89]

It features tracks recorded with rock outfits like The Flying Hearts which recall Jonathan Richman and Lou Reed; minimal, folksy miniatures that sound a ltttle like John Martyn or James Taylor; and a string of delicious, whimsical synth-pop songs that are as good as anything in the early-'80s canon. [Dec 2008, p.115]

Exile itself remains the tour de force it's been since release in May '72. [Jun 2010, p.104]

For all the influences, their voice is uniquely, gently mad. [Mar 2004, p.88]

What's absolutely consistent is Young's almost alchemical ability to mesmerise with the sparest of tools - his reedy quaver and sturdy but unflashy accompaniment providing the only embellishments to his elliptical lyrics and aching melodies. [Jan 2010, p. 120]

The best rapper this country's ever produced, period.... Next to Dizzee Rascal everybody looks pale, uninteresting and irrelevant. [Sep 2003, p.98]

Even at 25 years remove, Doolittle's lively morsels still taste startling fresh. [Jan 2015, p.89]

It excels at that classic pop trick of combining the euphoric with the melancholy. [Apr 2005, p.108]

The supersized culmination of the Chili Peppers' artistic journey. [Jun 2006, p.102]

It's remarkable... how much of a piece the entire set is, reflecting how skilfully Waits has welded the various tributary styles of his art into a seamless whole. [Dec 2006, p.122]

He concocts a series of dazzling interior epics with just a fingerpicked acoustic guitar and his echo-drenched voice. [Nov 2006, p.101]

Finn’s writing is sharper than ever, the various narratives driven less by the wordy exposition of yore than acute observation, devastating detail, by turns exclamatory, epigrammatic and grainily authentic.

Starts loud, alienated and proudly rockist, and stays right there. [Jan 2012, p. 93]

It's hard to believe there will be a better record than Last Exit released this year. [Jul 2004, p.102]

Whereas the fucked-up, punk attitude [Ryan] Adams feigned on Rock'n'Roll was based on little more than pique, The Heat is all genuine passion, brimming with energy, anger and great tunes sandwiched between the dense guitars. [Jul 2004, p.114]

Fully realised in its ambition, Bon Iver possesses all the austere beauty and understated emotiveness of its predecessor. [Jul 2011, p.81]

Tell Tale Signs is awash with evidence of his staggering mercuriality, his evident determination even in the studio to repeat himself as little as possible, re-takes not merely the occasion for refinement, the honing of a song into static finality, but serial re-imaginings.

There is an unassuming brilliance to much that they do and, as ever, We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River is a-bristle with finely-tooled detai.

In ditching the band ethic, they've tapped into the finest folk gothic traditions of death, suffering, misery and hardship and fashioned a paradoxically uplifting, transformative record of extraordinary power. [Album of the Month, Jul 2003, p.110]

Makes you want to chain-smoke while swigging a quart of Jim by the neck and taking agreeable houswives to stud. [Aug 2003, p.110]

Sincerity of intent is one thing. But they've got the music to back it up.... This is Scissor Sisters' first Greatest Hits collection. [Feb 2004, p.70]

Excellent and indispensable. [Sep 2011, p.94]

The Smile Sessions fits into no present-day category, context or franchise. [Nov 2011, p.105]

Not since Lennon howled "Mother" have there been songs as naked and fraught as "Mama Here, Mama Gone" and "March 11 1962." [Jun 2010, p.88]

Laced with enough blue-eyed longing to make the most diehard Gram Parsons fan weep with wonder and the sort of verbal acuity that would give even Dylanologists pause for thought, Elephant is where the tabloid phenomenon of summer 2001 prove they are no flash in the pan by making a truly phenomenal record. [May 2003, p.94]

Audacious cybernetic pirouettes such as "Poison Lips" and "Flashmob" bear the hallmarks of a musician enjoying a purple patch, who is able to caress from his machines a spectrum of emotion that leaves the listener purring with pleasure. [Oct 2009, p.119]

Loveless holds it own as one of the great rock albums, period. [Jun 2012, p.90]

The Brewis brothers may be at odds with the modern world, but in this stunningly realised double album, they've created the ultimate sanctuary.

It's the most extraordinary smorgasbord of styles, moods, modes, a far more daring, jolting record than 2001's Essence. [Album of the Month, May 2003, p.88]