On the first LP, the 60-piece Brussels Philharmonic adds top-heavy accompaniment to his melodic playing. .... On the second LP, however, the 11-member Umbria Jazz Orchestra sounds simultaneously nimbler and heavier. [May 2024, p.32]

While Live Laugh Love could benefit from more of the tension that builds in "Tethered" lest it all start seem too comfortably slack, Chastity Belt's blend of blissed-out effervescence and sly wit remains very appealing. [May 2024, p.32]

Its themes are plainly evident in the earworm metal stomp of "Many Doors To Hell" and gothic menace of "Fingers In The Wounds", although more subdued (but equally sombre) hues inform the portentous, piano-led power ballad "Shadow Of The Gods". [Mar 2024, p.25]

Moody shades of The National and Tunnel Of Love-era Springsteen abound, though the whole thing never quite manages to fully convince. [Mar 2024, p.25]

Moments feel somewhat bombastic, but where Scope Neglect hits, it certainly hits. [Mar 2024, p.26]

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]

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]

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]

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

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

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]

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

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

While the material is frequently just serviceable, the arrangements are inspired thanks to the virtuosic interplay of JaRon Marshall's gilded piano, Brendan Bond's percolating basslines and Quesada's sizzling solos. [Dec 2023, p.27]

Less effectively soothing than 2022's A Journey..., it's unconventionally beguiling, more ambient predecessor. [Dec 2023, p.34]

Faithful and reverential throughout, there's nonetheless clear signs of Joe's own personality shining though. [Nov 2023, p.27]

As an artistic exercise, it's interesting enough. [Nov 2023, p.33]

The eight songs of Midnight Rose range from serviceable to cringeworthy. [Oct 2023, p.33]

The diversity here is testament to the sheer scope of his [Leon Russell's] writing. [Oct 2023, p.37]

There's a tense, nervous energy o songs such as "Obsession", "Our Song" and "Oversize Sweater" and surprises aplenty. [Sep 2023, p.34]

The better tracks are ones where Lydon stops grumbling about the modern world and creates his own mythic universe, both lyrically and musically. [Sep 2023, p.22]

Here it's his "Story Of An Artist", delivered with a disarming simplicity. With contributions from regular collaborators Jim James and Neko Case, the other eight songs are striking originals. [Aug 2023, p.38]

While lyrics like "this is the hottest summer I can ever remember 'cause the world is on fire" leave little to the imagination, the final product is hard to dislike. [Aug 2023, p.26]

Even a recreation of the harmonica sound from "When The Levee Breaks" on "The Falling Sky" and the same song's famous cavernous beat on "Sacred The Thread" can't help either song stick in the memory. [Sep 2023, p.27]

Had Lofgren trusted his considerable gifts to carry these earnest songs, Mountains would've been a more satisfying album. [Aug 2023, p.34]

Finds itself caught between emulating the original's enviable qualities and overhauling its almost four-decade habits. [Aug 2023, p.36]

It's hard to begrudge the Boos this sunny, mellifluous midlife comeback. [Aug 2023, p.25]

On first hearing it's a little underwhelming, but its subtle charms certainly grows. [Jul 2023, p.30]

Ultimately it's a record that happily exists in something of a fog - wilfully embracing hazy, almost groggy textures. [Jul 2023, p.30]

She threads Lou Reed's vocal rhythm over the band's brisk skank on "Hangin' Round", while "Song To The Siren" and "The Man Who Sold The World" slip with similar ease into reggae mode. [Jul 2023, p.24]

Jean plays a mean guitar and the trademark rockabilly romps of "fate" and "trouble", or heavier numbers such as "Godmother", are perfectly fine. ... The wild, carnivalesque cover of Enya's "orinico Flow" - a novelty but a thoroughly enjoyable one. [Jun 2023, p.31]

Ultimately, too much easy-listening stoner-tronica makes Prism yet another pleasant but inessential late-career Orb album. [Jun 2023, p.35]

The subject matter sits somewhere between Wagner's Götterdämmerung and Led Zep. ... Yet the sounds owes little to either as flute and mandolin lend a folk-rock ambience and John O'Hara's keyboards and Jow Parrish-James' guitar essay '70s prog tropes like they never went away. [Jun 2023, p.31]

Some tastefully lightweight, pleasantly inessential filler ultimately make Fuse a minor late-career coda. [Jun 2023, p.26]

Most of this album is more laudable than listenable. [Jun 2023, p.26]

The album is at its most interesting when it breaks from this mould [dreamy psych rock], embracing more atmospheric sensibilities. [May 2023, p.36]

A passionate but ultimately rather clean record of angst-filled ballads. [May 2023, p.27]

Too many artists on this well-intentioned and occasionally even enjoyable tribute album seem to forget they're country artists. [May 2023, p.38]

Over the full 82 minutes, though, 93696 can feel a little relentless, undone by the scale of its own ambition. [Apr 2023, p.32]

it's another kaleidoscopic exploration of neo-psych and garage. [Apr 2023, p.24]

The caustic wit of their first two albums is too often buried under shouty non-choruses and dirgey post-punk bluster, either side of a couple of more notable moments. [Mar 2023, p.35]

On "Operator Error" and "Less From You", the duo nimbly reintegrate the post-punk and power-pop elements of their mid-'00s selves with the more avidly dance-oriented direction of the band's last decade. [Apr 2023, p.38]

Despite the scattered and itinerant nature of the process, there's a pleasing coherence and warmth to the record. [Apr 2023, p.26]

Although at times it's a little too knowingly shambolic, the band nail the mood on "Peace Of Mind", while the outstanding Stonesy number "Anyway I Find You" finds a great bridge between their two styles. [Mar 2023, p.32]

His 2021 solo debut Times topped the UK dance chart and, the follow-up offers more of the same adrenaline rush. [Feb 2023, p.32]

An uneven, ugly set that's still weirdly compelling. [Feb 2023, p.25]

Letissier is a fascinating and riveting performer, but this passion project feels unfocused and undercooked. [Mar 2023, p.26]

While it's sometimes a little too precious or studied, there's plenty of beautifully blank melody here, too. [Feb 2023, p.26]

Fascinating, though fans of their later work are advised to approach with caution. [Dec 2022, p.48]

The album largely struggles to match the buzz and momentum of its tone-setting opener. [Nov 2022, p.36]

There are some cloying twee moments, but the players' telepathic interaction imbues even their slightest songs with crackling immediacy. [Nov 2022, p.36]

The earthbound "This Love", shuffling along on metallic, moody guitar, and the twining, spaghetti-western eeriness of "Sucker Punch" are more engaging, but Here Is Everything could use more of the punch that lists the standout "Trouble". [Nov 2022, p.25]

The results are sometimes too meta to be particularly satisfying, but when but coheres - as on the bracing, static-smeared "Backwash" - it's worth the effort. [Nov 2022, p.29]

There are strong moments, from the sweet, mixtape-ready “Backup Plan” to “Sweet Tooth”, which brings pep and rockier guitar. But Moss badly needs a bit more Upside Down energy. [Oct 2022, p.29]

The songs are raunchy and resentful, idealising and vocally aching for a lover, or wrestling with more complex feelings. [Nov 2022, p.26]

The album come out riffing, with a packed list of guest guitarists. ... Ozzy sounds world-weary, sometimes a bit knackered. [Nov 2022, p.35]

This recurring tendency to grandiosity is especially frustrating given that less is generally more throughout the album. [Nov 2022, p.35]

He describes the album as a “coming of age” project, and at 59 it’s evident he’s still processing the past. [Oct 2022, p.31]

If the reggae-metal of "I'm Insecure" is a little club-footed, the charisma of her delivery still wins through. [Oct 2022, p.31]

Treading familiar terrain on a succession of tracks that adhere to his comfort zone of mannered electro-pop. [Sep 2022, p.29]

Young Blood is far darker than 2020’s soulful El Dorado. “Blood On The Tracks”, which chugs along behind a swampy, cowbell-accented groove, provides relief from the monolithic heaviness, which becomes enervating on the generic “Hard Working Man”. [Sep 2022, p.26]

Dylan Hadley and Cole Berliner’s songs are fragmentary and unpredictable, their springy guitars and elliptical vocals sometimes coalescing into sparkling hooks, at other times deliberately abstruse; think the quirky post-punk of The Raincoats, or a country-folk Deerhoof. [Sep 2022, p.26]

Where earlier material flowed freely, here his fiddly funk and plastic grooves contrive a kind of new-age electro that at times is suave and smooth but rarely settles into anything satisfying; as much as they exude a sense of wellness. [Aug 2022, p.23]

“Build A Fire”, too, is an air-punching anthem, though Torquil Campbell prefers lighter-waving on “To Feel What They Feel”, which, like “If I Never See London Again”, turns to polished ’80s production techniques. They can’t shake their melancholy, however. [Sep 2022, p.32]

Full of hits and misses as it sways back and forth between indie and electro, never quite finding its feet. [Aug 2022, p.30]

You're left wishing these jazz quintet pieces breathed more. [Aug 2022, p.26]

Works best when it diverts furthest from the originals. [Aug 2022, p.25]

An album of skippy, infectious, electronics-soaked disco rock. [Jul 2022, p.26]

There’s a new sense of maturity, even kindness, starting with “More Power”, a song of odd, regretful sentiments, reputedly addressed to Noel and full of family references. ... Songs mostly remain Frankenstein stitch-ups, though: Jeff Lynne’s softly simulated psychon the Threetles’ “Real Love” seems the production template, when not mixed for terrace power, minus tunes. [Jun 2022, p.26]

Vincent Belorgey’s obsession with buffed-up synths and corny lyrics earnestly sung (“Reborn” by Romuald, “Renegade” by Cautious Clay) does pay off, but the air-tight production and endless cascade of saccharine arpeggios – plus a lovesick Sébastien Tellier pining on “Goodbye” – lays on thick the sentimental shtick. [Jul 2022, p.29]

The constant is Wilson’s fiery vocal, still powerfully passionate well into her seventies. [May 2022, p.36]

“Sex Magik” and “If We Get Caught” offer unashamedly lusty visions punctuated by agreeable glimpses of pop glitter. Otherwise, though, waspish, charismatically delivered lyrics are let down by workaday instrumental backing. [Jun 2022, p.25]

On her 2019 debut album Keepsake, Harriette Pilbeam, who records as Hatchie, showed an inclination to take her shoegaze-infused pop onto the dancefloor. That’s something continued on Giving The World Away. [Jun 2022, p.28]

There’s a sweet sadness to the end-of-relationship duet with Dave Gahan on “Stop Speaking”, but while the melancholy romantic meditations of other tracks can also be initially intriguing, the songs then lack the peaks and troughs to keep you from disengaging. [Jun 2022, p.29]

There are some pretty melodies here, like “Bells”, “Hymn” and “An Intimate Distance”, but there are some tracks where Eno’s melodies are so minimal that they become quite mind-numbingly banal. [May 2022, p.26]

Opens with three tracks that feature his street set-up and have the sparse rawness of Lomax’s 1930s Mississippi Delta recordings. The other eight tracks were recorded in a studio with a full band and bounce and ricochet with the joyous energy of the Bhundu Boys at their most exuberant. [Mar 2022, p.29]

The whole work glides in one long, soft landing. [Apr 2022, p.35]

That unsubtle drive for huge hooks can sometimes be a bit exhausting, but tracks like "New Age Millennial Magic", the groovy "Feel The Change!" and "Demolition Song" come so loaded with good vibes it's hard not to smile. [Mar 2022, p.25]

Subtle this isn't, but ironically, for a band once compared endlessly to Interpol and Editors and their Joy Division-inspired brooding indie, White Lies Have probably shown more versatility and evolution than either on their latest. [Apr 2022, p.36]

"Don't Worry 'Bout What I Do" get quite heavy-metally, while James takes tracks like the wah-wah-infused "This Is Who I Is" in a distinctly Hendrix-inspired direction. [Apr 2022, p.29]

If a few concessions are made to mainstream mores here, it still works on its own idiosyncratic terms. [Mar 2022, p.25]

Amid all this weirdness, the sleek disco banger "The last Dance" stands out like a beacon in a cave, lighting the way towards a more sustainable reinvention. [Feb 2022, p.34]

Her solo works have generally furnished her extraordinary voice with more obviously congruent vehicles, and Age Of Apathy is no exception. [Feb 2022, p.34]

The deviations from the general upbeat mood vary - "Louder" is a clunky if well-meaning protest song, but the melancholy piano-led ballad "Marvelous To Me" is a thing of downbeat beauty. [Mar 2022, p.32]

Too often, though, good-not-great tunes can't quite make up for generic song structures and performances that seem to have lost a certain charismatic shine during the downsizing operation. [Feb 2022, p.37]

Still groovy, but these voyagers might want to plot a new course. [Feb 2022, p.37]

The vocals feel a bit hammily gothic at times but it’s a small complaint compared with the album’s intoxicating density. [Jul 2021, p.33]

It's not always on the right side of cliché but, when it works, it's glorious. [Nov 2021, p.29]

Many of these songs also feel like polite recital pieces, stripped of high drama, so that Wilson often sounds like a shadow of himself. [Dec 2021, p.35]

McCraven's label debut deploys his own musicians with Horace Silver and the rest, giving a steamy hip-hop stutter to Blakey beats already halfway there, and letting the aching melody of Kenny Burrell's "Autumn In New York" simmer under new rhythmic cross-winds. [Dec 2021, p.31]

The LP's sonic cocoon bursts apart with the horn blasts and slashing guitar of the Lennon-like rocker "Easy To Love," rescuing the record from suffocating in whimsy. [Jan 2022, p.22]

Texis sounds like a band having more fun than they have had in years. [Dec 2021, p.33

Unpredictability is its greatest asset. [Dec 2021, p.31]

Despite Chris Martin's underdeveloped lyrics – "Be an anthem for your times" at least explains his motivation – there's something reassuring in their ham-fisted urge to bring people together. ... Glam-stomper "People Of The Pride" or well-meaning power ballad "Let Somebody Go," and instrumentals harking back to earlier Eno adventures offer pleasant reprieves. [Dec 2021, p.25]

A rum selection of Zoom collaborations with everyone from Dua Lipa to Lil Nas X, that old keenness is still there, though only on "It's a Sin," his Brits team-up with Olly Alexander. [Dec 2021, p.29]

“Move”, featuring Thomas, is a thrilling mix of swaggering pop hooks and sweltering Latin grooves and the album’s undoubted highlight. Yet, elsewhere, you can’t help wondering if Santana’s fluid guitar playing really needs “help” from such a ragbag of heavy friends. [Dec 2021, p.33]

His sixth solo album has some decent uptempo moments. ... Less compelling are the albums world-weary ballads, but one old downtempo number, "Foreign Sand," benefits from a stripped-back acoustic treatment. [Nov 2021, p.35]