Welcome signs of movement after a lengthy stasis. [Mar 2014, p.80]

Canyons Of My Mind amply confirms the considerable promise Combs has previously displayed. [May 2017, p.26]

Seldom is the personal married to the political in such an enchanting fashion. [Aug 2015, p.75]

An elegant, sculpted electronica that's cerebral of construction but robust enough to beat a dance floor into life. [Jan 2015, p.69]

Cruel Country is the rare album that throws everything that came before it into sharp relief – a small miracle for a band 30 years into its run. [Jul 2022, p.22]

Dig deeper, though, and what we have here is a record more in line with the excellent, vengeful Americana of frontman Michael Gira's latter-day Angels Of Light fare. [Oct 2010, p.106]

[An] utterly wonderful record. [May 2015, p.76]

Their breakneck energy highlights the thrilling strangeness of their structures and textures. [Mar 2017, p.40]

Sometimes the honesty gets close to discomfiting, but it's always compelling. [Mar 2018, p.47]

Magnificent. [Nov 2011, p.84]

There is sleaze here and funeral swing, and sass to spare. [Jun 2009, p.105]

While Food & Liquor struggles with its own contradictions, it does so over scorching beats and with lyrical flair. [Dec 2006, p.113]

The Wolf You Feed slithers through its dark business with reckless abandon and brute force. [Sep 2012, p.85]

An album of tremendous humour and empathy, less a comeback than a considered continuation of an unprecedented career. [Nov 2018, p.22]

Segarra is skilled at identifying the shifting goalposts that immigrants have to live by, and staring past them. [Apr 2017, p.18]

With strong ensemble backing Escovedo alternates gentle, reflective lullabies with incendiary Mott-styled rockers, to marvellous effect. [Aug 2008, p.93]

There's variety like never before: bludgeoning tech-punk, disco beats and Screamadelica-era Primal Scream eruptions. That it exists is exhausting; that it works is extraordinary. [Nov 2018, p.29]

His guttural, rat-tat flow is raw and unleavened, but it's the way he uses it--in flights of fancy and feats of mischief--that's truly the nub of his appeal. [Dec 2013, p.66]

Richly cinematic and more eclectic than recent efforts. [May 2022, p.25]

Impassioned, sparkling with energy and absurdly bouncy, it's a reminder of everything the North Carolina quartet did well. [Sep 2013, p.95]

Those acquainted with the slow and soulful pace of Griffin's recent work may be surprised by her ability to let rip here. [Dec 2013, p.69]

The septuagenarian reintroduces himself as a lively and supremely compelling singer. [Jun 2017, p.24]

The result is pulsating electronic music that draws from the spontaneity and invention of free jazz. [Apr 2019, p.30]

These blown-out and clanking loops, atmospheric drones and jump-cut textures are more like the product of electronic collage than free-guitar improv, and all the more fascinating for it. [Jun 2020, p.34]

Best is "Sylvia", where Bon Iver's intimacy, Arcade Fire's ambition, Sigur Ros' other-worldly reach and Flaming Lips' psych experimentalism collide. [Dec 2009, p. 98]

Backed by a 15-piece band plus horn section, they delivered a spirited set of classic blues, R&B and gospel that concluded with “The Weight”, which Staples and Helm had first performed together at The Last Waltz in 1976 at the start of their 35-year friendship. [Jun 2022, p.33]

The results are exquisite. [Sep 2019, p.34]

Consolidates the experimentation of 2002's Phrenology and the conscious snap of 1999's Things Fall Apart into a focused, intelligent record. [Oct 2006, p.123]

The repressive weight of the production creates a micro-climate that's compelling to move through. [Feb 2015, p.83]

A remarkable accomplishment. [Jun 2016, p.79]

Tempest is in many respects the most far-reaching, provocative and transfixing album of Dylan's later career.

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]

They have the grit and immediacy of demos, but Whole New Mess sounds just as powerful and just as finished as its more polished predecessor, like we're hearing Olsen work through her ache and confusion in real time. [Oct 2020, p.34]

The Party is definitely worth celebrating. [Jun 2016, p.79]

It's a surly, spiky piece of work, on which the few shafts of sweetness are soon soured with guilt, recrimination and reproach. [May 2012, p.66]

Given that their spectrum of nods and references runs from early Warp techno to bluegrass to Trout Mask Replica - horn-heavy freakouts like the full-bore "May Brigade" also demonstrate a kinship with The Comet Is Coming - the focus and coherence of Comradely Objects is even more impressive. [Dec 2022, p.28]

Frequently appealing. [Nov 2005, p.103]

Songs such as "Golden Days" and "No Woman" combine the fragile longing of indie-pop with the superior songwriting smarts of classic early-70s rock, in a way that should reel in fans of Josh Rouse and Liam Hayes. [Jul 2016, p.82]

If the scale is almost beyond comprehension, Love also represents a sonic Da Vinci Code for Beatles trainspotters. [Dec 2006, p.104]

It is often reminiscent of auntie's work, but with a solid beat underpinning. [Nov 2012, p.73]

Bingham embellishes the arrangements with Exile-style female backing vocals and country-skronk raucousness. ... The reflective moments pack a wallop as well. [Mar 2019, p.24]

Timeless, tender and sparse. [Dec 2019, p.35]

Foil Deer is catchy, exhilarating and smart. [May 2015, p.81]

You won't find it hard to reciprocate Open Your Heart's approach. [May 2012, p.79]

You could call it happy hardcore, even if there's nothing particularly upbeat about its content. [Feb 2012, p.83]

These sketches give a sense of how Reed’s songs would be finessed. The less familiar tunes reverse the telescope, throwing the focus on the way Reed bullworked his writing muscles, toying with novelty and genre. ... What these early sketches show is that by combining novelty and song craft with the soul of a poet, Reed could reach higher. [Sep 2022, p.42]

Skeleton romps along at a joyful gait peppered with breathless harmonies and squalls of noise and subverts some familiar tools along the way. [Nov 2008, p.87]

Palomino is upbeat, glossy country, tending somewhat towards the generic, but redeemed (as usual) by the rich twang in Lambert’s voice and the waspish humour which frequently enlivens her lyrics. [Jun 2022, p.29]

Loaded: Reloaded stands as a lavish sequel. [Nov 2015, p.92]

King Gizzard's most cohesive record to date--a hyper-detailed punk opera that few of their peers have matched for intensity, ambition or sheer derangement. [Jun 2016, p.77]

I kept wishing I'd been there that night, 45 years ago. [Mar 2020, p.42]

This fruitful collaboration between k.d. Lang, Neko Case and Laura Veirs succeeds largely because it makes room for all three distinctive voices and songwriting styles, alongside sublimely blended three-way harmonies. [Jul 2016, p.71]

They're bummed to learn that adulthood breeds more angst than adolescence, which inspires a sharp-edged '70s hard rock, with songs celebrating kink and demanding equal pay and full-body autonomy on "Big Trouble". [Sep 2023, p.23]

[A] darkly compelling new album. [May 2017, p.24]

Wildflower does a robust job of reiterating core skills rather than offering radical reinvention. [Sep 2016, p.66]

The Remote Part is Idlewild Mark II--sleeker, bolder, better. [Oct 2002, p.107]

Another truly wondrous record. [May 2004, p.99]

Like Ill Communication, it's a superbly paced album, its felicitous stylistic juxtapositions the product of judicious cut-and-paste. [Jun 2011, p.89]

Drew's desire to be all things to all 'hoods is the weakness of the soundtrack to his debut movie. [Oct 2012, p.86]

Alternating between acoustic ballads and full-on roots rockers could have created a disjointed feel, but it works splendidly with the salty, blue-collar honesty of his dustbowl voice providing an emotional cohesion on vivid, affecting songs such as "Heart's Too Heavy" and the warmly nostalgic "American Flags In Black & White." [Feb 2016, p.78]

The parade of fretboard styles Cooder brings to the album is masterly. [Jun 2018, p.22]

There's a biting political edge to the off-kilter "In The Desert," which savages Bush and Blair for instigating the Middle East crisis and its attendant horrors. At the same time, this wouldn't be a Mekons record without a fair dollop of humour. [May 2019, p.26]

Add sublime dimensions to James's already impressive canon. [May 2022, p.36]

What most impresses is its warmth, dynamism and unforced difference. [Jun 2015, p.84]

Dreamy, trippy and filled with elegant hooks, it's his best yet. [Apr 2016, p.75]

Black Encyclopedia... is less abrasive but no less urgently meaningful [than 2016's Fetish Bones], a fusion of experimental hip-hop, soul, poetry and jazz-etched beatscapes that ebbs and flows around the concept of an Afrofuturist universe. [Oct 2021, p.29]

This is an excellent album that manages to be both a mature summary of an artist’s career and something completely fresh and new.

The result is something abrasive but controlled. [Jul 2013, p.83]

Rose said she wanted to make an album that reflects the oscillating extremes of her personality--Loner is that and much more. [Jul 2018, p.34]

Elegiac and otherworldly. [Jan 2022. p.25]

Skying, The Horrors' third, again brilliantly confounds expectations. [Aug 2011, p.76]

Bristles with the unruly energies that enlivened their younger incarnations. [Mar 2021, p.32]

It's a decidedly sparser backdrop for his erudite, torch-like confessionals. [Dec 2012, p.76]

The knotty, punky, Squarepusher-style edges of its predecessor have been smoothed down, with a little too much perfumed whimsy in the mix. [Aug 2013, p.77]

Lisbon instead makes defiant virtues of under-ambition and overindulgence. Short on hooks but long on atmosphere, the songs suit Hamilton Leithauser's Dylan drawl. [Nov 2010, p.110]

The Ghosts Of Highway 20 is vast, thoughtful and profound. [Feb 2016, p.81]

A strong set of big band compositions. [Nov 2017, p.23]

A complete rethink has resulted in the most uninhibited and visceral album of her career. [Jun 2014, p.78]

A bold re-statement of artistic identity. [Sep 2022, p.25]

Presley's righteous fury and mordant wit burn even brighter on this follow-up. [May 2017, p.28]

Bock’s solo work takes a subtler but no less arresting approach, weaving in melodic passages for strings, organ and woodwind and rhythmic calls to her Brazilian heritage in ways that only fully reveal themselves with repeated listens. [Aug 2022, p.25]

Menneskekollektivet's foibles – and the sense that it’s incomplete – are what make it so compelling. [May 2021, p.34]

Eye Contact works because its bolshie drum patterns and metallic synth stabs, influenced by Jamaican dancehall and UK bass music, anchor it firmly in the near future, while Lizzie Bougastsos' strong and inventive melodies help make light work of what could come across like a pretentious muddle. [Jun 2011, p.85]

Pick Me Up Off The Floor hangs together wonderfully. [Jun 2020, p.33]

Haunting songs rooted in old-time country, Southern Gothic and humming electric ambience. [Mar 2016, p.72]

The band's newfound eagerness for moodier tempos and treatments allows frontman Elias Bender Ronnenfelt to dig deeper into his Gun Club fetish on "under The sun" and make like he's stumbling out of a Kurt Weill musical on "Showtime," a stunning piece of punked-up cabaret. [Jun 2018, p.28]

These cuts are glorious on their own merits. [Jun 2012, p.92]

This arrestingly adventurous debut is a densely layered mash-up of shudders and drones, narcotically twisted beats, gospel-infused vocals and surreal wordplay. [Mar 2014, p.85]

In a field of her own. [Feb 2016, p.79]

An amazing album. [Mar 2007, p.75]

The blues remain a touchstone--the album's first line is "Woke up this Morning"--but Grinderman 2 prefers to prowl rock's perimeter with Amon Duul II, Suicide and contemporary drone practitioners like Wooden Shjips. [Oct 2010, p.86]

Occasionally, N*E*R*D edge a little closer to staccato nu-metal than fans fo their inventive music might appreciate. [May 2002, p.105]

Another relaxed but enigmatic foray into modernist roots territory to stand alongside records by Gillian Welch, Laura Veirs, Sparklehorse and Bonnie "Prince" Billy. [Jun 2004, p.98]

At a time when all things punky or funky with an NY zip code are the peak of chic, Talking Heads ought to be lauded as authentic pioneers. [Jan 2004, p.118]

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

There are some pleasantly elaborate, wayward songs here... Forays into funk and Tom Waits' scrapyard are cringe-inducing, though. [Sep 2004, p.110]

She's far bolder, singing in a strange, little girl's voice over a solitary Chet Baker-style trumpet or chanting mantra-like over a bubbling African rhythm. [May 2008, p.87]

Difficult to pin down, Hidden is even harder to forget. [Feb 2010, p.104]