William and Jim Reid remain as defiantly out of time as ever. [Mar 2024, p.29]

There's little identifiable guitar until track five, by which time anxiety and menace have taken hold thanks to the lumbering mien of "Bye Bye" and "I'm A Man"'s monstrous grind. "Shelf Warmer" lets in some air but it too is fabulously foul. [Mar 2024, p.26]

As bleakly dystopian as that sounds, the music is colourful and bursting with joyous melodies. [Mar 2024, p.26]

The mess is the whole point. It's a fascinating place to be, largely because she finds so much meaning in everyday observations and mundane ironies, in the small moments many other songwriters might overlook. [Mar 2024, p.30]

Matt Korvette is a misanthropic force of nature whether ticking off the negatives of cities from Boston to Rome ("Everywhere IS Bad") or addressing adult responsibility ("Helicopter Parent"). [Mar 2024, p.33]

It may not be fuelled by as many immediate hooks and gnarly grooves as The Overload, but it's a bold progression both musically and lyrically. [Mar 2024, p.24]

If the tunes and attitude don't grip as strongly as they did in either man's era-bending pomp, both parties still sound better for getting together. [Mar 2024, p.27]

At times Sheer Mag are miraculous pop hustlers, still pulling off the most absurd trick shots on the scuffed three yards of stained green baize. Which isn't to say that they're not above a little experiment. [Mar 2024, p.22]

The quick-take, live-in-the-room approach serves these songs well. [Feb 2024, p.30]

The south of France motorik and funk bass of "Protéïformunité" similarly reassure, before "Don't Forget You're Mine" charts choppier waters and communication breakdowns. "The Inner Smile" returns to Sadier's central quest, propelling her mantras of sexual and global reg=integration with eruptive, flute-heavy prog grooves. [Feb 2024, p.35]

Elemental and menacing. [Feb 2024, p.35]

It's notable for uncensored emotional gloom and an evergreen college sound. [Feb 2024, p.37]

As always, you know what you're getting -- and you get that they're knowing. [Feb 2024, p.27]

An album that is leaps and bounds above anything else Shah has done before – a record that’s layered and detailed, coated with beautifully rich production, yet also spacious and considered. [Feb 2024, p.23]

There is a hint of Nashville in the production, a dash of steel guitar, but the main symptom is the clarity of the sound. It dares to be understated, pushing Real Estate's artful ambivalence into the light. [Feb 2024, p.35]

They make a welcome return to the looser, roots sound of earlier albums. [Feb 2024, p.28]

It's a modern masterclass in psych pop. [Feb 2024, p.31]

Doyle has made a record that is as intricate as it is infectious, creating a deft yet complex pop collage that turns a troubled and chaotic world into a beautiful spectacle. [Feb 2024, p.28]

Switching guitars opens her songs up considerably, but Cohen maintains the intimacy and intelligence that have always been her signature. [Mar 2024, p.28]

When approached on its own merits, the Dave Cobb-produced Be Right Here is a minor classic of the genre. [Feb 2024, p.27]

It's the first time Grandaddy have in any way rooted themselves in a specific genre, and it proves strikingly successful; Lytle's more experimental electronica pushing against any notion of nostalgia or country pastiche. [Feb 2024, p.24]

The songs are rich in both melody and syncopation. [Feb 2024, p.25]

An instantly engaging, 11-track set with zip, heart, sly humour and real staying power, which shucks off the often dry terseness of the genre without trashing its template. [Feb 2024, p.34]

Tangk is more about diverse, swooning sonic details that support troubled singer Joe Talbot's redemption. [Feb 2024, p.28]

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 likes of "No Sun To Burn" (for brass) or the nine0minute title track, will pull on the listener's heartstrings at least as much as it endorses the composer's process. [Feb 2024, p.31]

Mixes have the tracks - stacked guitars and vocals, bustling basslines, played and programmed drums - hurtling along as if crammed into a tunnel. [Mar 2024, p.25]

While opener "Whispers In The Echo Chamber" tries too hard to startle with blasts of screaming horrorcore, her talent for a melodramatic melodic hook wins through on "Tunnel Lights"'s yearning torch-song noir and the heartbroken small-hours lament of "Everything Turns Blue". [Feb 2024, p.37]

While Phasor standouts such as "Flores" evoke Os Mutantes in a narcoleptic fugue. .... On "Colores Del Mar" and "Out There", he strikes an equally deft balance between aqueous abstraction and buoyant, big-hearted avant-pop. [Mar 2024, p.34]

A Jaime 2.0 likely to secure her status as an auteur in terms of both conception and execution. It's bigger, freer-thinking and more dynamically audacious record. [Feb 2024, p.20]

It's all very tasteful and refined, but ultimately feels a little bloodless. [Feb 2024, p.30]

The music is largely uninteresting, a bland hotchpotch of dub-flavoured electronic styles. [Feb 2024, p.34]

Sola can be detached but is at her best when she leans into the songs. [Feb 2024, p.35]

A rich saturnine, baroque-pop set full of romantic drama. Strings, piano and keyboard combine with muti-textured guitar in songs that, though engaging, tend toward the florid. [Feb 2024, p.30]

The result is Mascis's most fully formed and direct solo set to date. [Feb 2024, p.31]

The band's sophomore effort feels like more than a photocopy of past indie-pop glories thanks to the surprisingly punchy contributions by bassist Nick Oka and drummer Keith Frerichs and the degree of craft and care evident even in songs as breezy as "When You Find Out". [Jan 2024, p.36]

The threesome manage to toe the very fine line between control and chaos, suppression and release. [Jan 2024, p.34]

This is an album that sounds like it’s had time spent on it. It’s brilliantly recorded, pristine and perfectly imperfect. [Jan 2024, p.20]

It’s hard to recall a set of songs on which Rhys’s low-key radicalism and unquenchable sense of wonder have coexisted with such ease. [Jan 2024, p.24]

Kirby's second is more cosmopolitan than 2021 Cool Dry Place, with bandmates Alberto Sewald's and Logan Chung's muted soft rock production shifting her halfway toward Weyes Blood's polished indie folk. [Jan 2024, p.31]

Newdad's first full-length shows them expanding on their indie-pop roots, adding extra gnarly, post-punk bite and more sophisticated textures to their updated mix of The Cure, Slowdive and Curve. [Jan 2024, p.34]

What An Enormous Room takes her eclecticism to fresh heights, each of these songs exploring different emotional moods while influences range from The Breeders to Goldfrapp. [Jan 2024, p.36]

Though the band's affection for Blonie, Pixies and Osees is plain, it's not intrusive and music's x-factor is an ominous undertow, notably provided by the keyboard on breakneck instrumental "(Post Apocalypstick)". [Jan 2024, p.28]

On People Who Aren't There Anymore, then, no curveballs are thrown. However, the band's debt to OMD and New order is increasingly less obvious, while the earlier bombastic synths are being edged out by a more spacious, less forceful style of electronic poo that recalls fellow Baltimorean Dan Deacon, with echoes of Peter Gabriel. [Jan 2024, p.26]

The Smile take Radiohead’s privileges seriously, rewarding our attention with music that demands and – crucially – holds it. No frills, no distractions. A little like Radiohead, then; but there’s nothing wrong with that. [Feb 2024, p.29]

A knottily intricate yet oddly inviting album. [Jan 2024, p.30]

Sleater-Kinney strike a finer balance between their established punk sound and the New Wave references that gummed up recent records. [Jan 2024, p.36]

They unleash 15 compact, primarily pro forma bangers. [Feb 2024, p.28]

Finds The Vaccines at their terse, nervy best. [Jan 2024, p.38]

Whether deployed as a meditation aid or an object for more focused listening, Lovegaze succeeds handily. [Jan 2024, p.31]

Skillfully blending soft and harsh sonic moments: heartbreak, anxiety, lust. [Jan 2024, p.30]

Large, slow-drifting and majestic masses splinter into smaller sonic units, analogous to the glacial movements that signify environmental change. [Review Of The Year 2023, p.24]

Iechyd Da feels a culmination of all he set out to do. It’s a record that beckons you over and invites you in, that rewards your faith and careful listening with moments of extraordinary beauty, unflinching honesty, a sonic exchange of love. [Review Of The Year 2023, p.16]

Sprints' debut delivers on thrilling live shows, with singer, guitarist and songwriter Karla Chubb providing a visceral fury, not least on the furious "Adore Adore Adore", unheard since their label released Hole's Pretty On The Inside. [Jan 2024, p.36]

There's justifiable anger, not least "History"'s confrontation with generational trauma, but her potent self-respect is an inspirational as Roots Manuva, to whom the eerie "Marginalized" nods. [Dec 2023, p.27]

A mighty musical exorcism. [Dec 2023, p.30]

It may be the most accurate representation of her vision yet, a singular blend of abrasively charming feel-bad noir rock. [Jan 2024, p.28]

Despite a few interesting textures, New Blue Sun never really takes flight. [Jan 2024, p.25]

It's clear that Brown is still capable of being sonically adventurous even while pausing to take stock. [Jan 2024, p.27]

Niño’s adventurous, meditative spirit is a worthwhile companion for Ntuli’s masterful piano and expressive voice, resulting in an album that is vivid and subdued in equal measure, the vitality of a battle cry rendered as a warm embrace. [Jan 2024, p.29]

Classy Americana with a restless pulse and a passionate heart. [Jan 2024, p.33]

Her gusto is undeniable. Sadly, the abundance of karaoke-night misfires among the 30 tracks makes Rockstar such a slog. [Jan 2024, p.34]

This is about consistency of themes and mood over time, reimagined by a man reckoning with his past and drawing new light to the deepest of cuts. [Jan 2024, p.38]

Diligent cherry-picking makes this collection a decent illustration of their left-field charm. [Dec 2023, p.44]

Regal's freewheeling eccentricity brings a wild new dimension to White Denim's sound; he should stick around. [Review of the Year 2023, p.30]

The music is decent enough. .... The problem is Jake Duszik's vocals, which are soft and blank of affect in a way that is oddly characterless. It leaves Rat Wars feeling, if not completely without merit, a bit of an empty vessel. [Review of the Year 2023, p.29]

There are points where his relentless utopianism can sound trite. .... But, let’s face it, these are nice flaws to have. In an era where so many of our musical heroes seem to be growing more cantankerous and ill-tempered with age, it comes as a welcome relief to see one heritage act pushing positively into the future – and making some of the warmest and most joyous music of his career. [Review of the Year 2023, p.21]

When The Roses Come Again feels like something impossibly ancient, sent back to us from some distant future. [Dec 2023, p.32]

Ther music is spacious yet intimate, drawing from the dramatic guitar textures of fellow Texans Explosions In The Sky, yet Sun June's hazy songs blur and shimmer at the edges, like a mirage on the horizon. [Review of the Year 2023, p.32]

An album of midnight moods. [Nov 2023, p.29]

The results are instantly rewarding. [Review of the Year 2023, p.21]

The biggest spiritual influence is The Kinks, another band adept at exploring London’s darker undercurrents. On Theatre Of The Absurd…, Madness gleefully peer through the net curtains of life, revealing the moth-eaten carpets and peeling wallpaper obscured by the elaborate facades we all hide behind. [Dec 2023, p.24]

The resulting 10 tracks, each maintaining a single key throughout, conjure interstellar space in all its sublime beauty and ominous unknowability. [Dec 2023, p.28]

Some fans just seemed to hate it [1979's At Budokan] very, very much. .... But listening to this expanded edition - featuring the two full concerts from which the original was compiled - the reaction is, "What's the problem?" Dylan sings his heart out. [Review of the Year 2023, p.40]

Who Can See Forever stands up fine as a live album in its own right. [Review of the Year 2023, p.29]

It's only on the lengthy, ambient, vaporous "La Sirena" and the pretty, dramatic ballad "ICU" that everything gels together. [Dec 2023, p.31]

This sprawling set is a testament to his talents not just as multi-instrumentalist but as bandleader, a rapturous unwind through sprightly bouzouki-powered jazz, soulful strings and serene New Age. [Dec 2023, p.25]

These renditions are suffused with the joyousness with which Hatfield embraces the source material as she finds the sweet spot between emulation and invention. [Dec 2023, p.31]

What really distinguishes LXXXVIII is its sense of soul. [Review of the Year 2023, p.21]

These slight but beautiful tracks have gossamer-thin melodies and are held together by repetition, willpower, a creaky Steinway piano and some stunning vocals. [Review of the Year 2023, p.23]

Songs lurch from amphetamine ballads to sullen dream-pop and always keep you guessing. [Review of the Year 2023, p.23]

Saved! is powered by a sense of joyful rebirth. [Review of the Year 2023, p.29]

Smith has skill and ambition galore, but too often settles for tasteful stupor. [Review of the Year 2023, p.32]

It all seems to emerge from some vast, long-abandoned cistern, though the astonishing degree of detail contained in "Awakening" and "Vigil" rewards listeners willing to be fully immersed. [Review of the Year 2023, p.32]

"White Horse" and the chest-thumping "South Dakota" recall the redneck drama of a Skynyrd show closer, and standout "Think I'm In Love With You" is a simmering mirrorball-country slow jam. [Review of the Year 2023, p.32]

The duo show renewed confidence as they strike a balance between pristine electro=pop songcraft and the loopier inclinations that once fuelled Dazzle Ships. [Review of the Year 2023, p.30]

The pair's keen rhythmic sense makes even the unusual palatable. [Review of the Year 2023, p.30]

An album that has moments of shiny, hooky, electro-disco-pop as well as moments of more reserved melancholy. [Review of the Year 2023, p.30]

Hadsel sounds both ethereal and earthly. [Dec 2023, p.27]

For the acoustic half, she genuflects a little too readily, but the limberness of her voice hades new contours for the songs; the electric half takes a while to ignite, but "Like A Rolling Stone" is gorgeous. [Dec 2023, p.27]

Another fine encapsulation of what has become Price's signature mix of bracing honesty leavened with droll self-mockery. [Dec 2023, p.34]

A masterpiece in any time zone. [Dec 2023, p.26]

The manic, galloping "Susie Mullen" proves Anderson's still got a nose for fun. [Dec 2023, p.31]

The likes of "Scapa Flow" and "Rose With Smoke" are assured orthodox shoegaze, while "Tarantula" reflects a more playful, almost power-poppy tendency. [Dec 2023, p.28]

This rock'n'roll album falls far short of Little Ricard's atomic excitement in a genre here showing its age, but 78-year-old Van sounds youthly eager, even sensual in between the hushed female harmonies and honky-tonk piano of "You Are My Sunshine". [Dec 2023, p.34]

Her new album whizzes by in a 28-minute blur of finger-tapped melodies, lopsided time signatures and arrangements that, on tracks like "earth Eater" and "Believing IS Seeing", whip from jazz to glitter to metal with neck-snapping precision. [Dec 2023, p.36]

A baggy sprawl in places, but generally rewarding. [Dec 2023, p.36]

Standouts such as "Rocks Of Time" and "Next One, Maybe" have all the depth, richness and candour that Veirs' admirers have come to expect. [Dec 2023, p.36]