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

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

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

A dozen remarkable tracks. [Feb 2006, p.78]

The thrill it provides will send a shiver of recognition through anyone who grew up with The Specials, The Smiths or Parklife. [Album of the Month, March 2006, p.86]

It would be fanciful, not to mention disrespectful, to say that Morrison has waited his whole career to make this album. But he makes it sound like he has. [Apr 2006, p.96]

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

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

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

Could very well be the best record of this restlessly self-critical career. [Jul 2006, p.90]

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]

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.

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

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.

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]

Their scratchily rhythmic guitar music with dour, sardonic vocals has proved immensely influential. [Dec 2006, p.114]

While what was lost with Smith is immeasurable, what he left was amazing, and New Moon is an appropriately spectacular monument. [Jun 2007, p.112]

They continue to find some clever ways to do a pretty dumb thing. [Jul 2007, p.112]

Under The Blacklight is by far and away the most accessible album that Rilo Kiley have ever made.

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.

Street entirely avoids DIA’s flinty spectrality and staticky crackle and turns a bright light on the smart, compact and relentlessly exciting arrangements he’s here coaxed from the band.

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

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]

For Emma, Forever Ago is such a hermetically sealed, complete and satisfying album, the prospect of a follow-up--of a life for Vernon beyond the wilderness, even - seems merely extraneous.

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.

Hailing from the wrong coast, the Charleston, South Carolina-based Explorers Club have done the near-impossible, turning an obsession with everything Beach Boys into an utterly beguiling pop album. [June 2008, p.88

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.