It does feel [like] a somewhat softer collection than its predecessor. [Feb 2012, p.84]

Slick and seductive. [Nov 2014, p.78]

These are thoroughly modern songs--and very much Harding's own. [Jun 2017, p.30]

The 11 original compositions here are full of warm compassion and ripe wisdom. [Sep 2020, p.27]

It's evolution not revolution, putting its author's sound deeper into her own context. [Aug 2020, p.32]

The whole is a total joy, a triumphant demonstration if the virtues of the music celebrated in the rollicking "It Came From The South." [Sep 2018, p.29]

Transience might just be his late-career peak--a deliciously sour, sarky and occasionally moving study of modern life and his place in it. [Jun 2019, p.37]

Finger-poppin' fantastic. [Jul 2023, p.36]

Plenty of musicians have subsequently tried to channel that weirdness. Rose, though, always seemed to explore ancient territory with vigour and good humour on his records - and Luck In The Valley, his last, is one of the best.

If you lost touch with Cowboy Junkies some time ago, perhaps taking their unhurried grandeur for granted, All That Reckoning presents a brave, beautiful and timely opportunity to pick up the thread. [Sep 2018, p.24]

Though occasionally guilty of easy-listening tastefulness, the Haikus rarely sound less than gorgeous. [Oct 2021, p.28]

It is short--just over 30 minutes--but it feels sprightly and substantial. [Oct 2015, p.84]

Opener "diaphanous" appropriately shimmers, its murmured refrain like a private pep talk as the song builds around it. [Sep 2020, p.31]

Spry, antic and engaging. [Jun 2017, p.34]

An American oddball, for sure, but one to treasure. [Jan 2002, p.146]

With his delivery having reached comfortable cruising altitude, this is an effective reminder of what success is about--leaving the hustle behind. [Jan 2008, p.91]

Severant works better than you'd think, and at its best it is breathtaking. [Jan 2012, p.90]

Off-kilter chamber pop telling ear-pricking tales: worth staying in for. [May 2021, p.31]

Nothing feels remotely ‘phoned-in’ here. [Aug 2021, p.28]

Six albums in and The Icarus Line remain terrifying, riding a tsunami of malevolent noise, sweat and havoc while producing some of the most intense and exceptional rock music around. [Oct 2013, p.70]

There is something about this music that is warming, aqueous, immersive and endlessly engaging. [Mar 2024, p.18]

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

10 songs that glint like shards of glass yet brim with love, grief, courage, existential doubt and all the stuff that makes us human, to a soundtrack of grungy alt.rock cut with torch-song melodrama and Lenker-ish folk. [Sep 2023, p.27]

Huge, head-rushing opener “Happy New Year” and sad banger “Hall Of Mirrors” exemplify the giddy “new” LEG, while the country-folk “Sunday”, powerfully harmonised “Strange Conversations” and Angel Olsen-ish title track are maturations of their earlier sounds. [May 2022, p.30]

We Have Band seldom make things look easy--and sees them achieve a kind of punk-funk perfection, regardless of fashion. [May 2014, p.81]

These 10 tightly wound, mystical mini-epics are underpinned by Jared Tankel's precision horns, and Brian Profilio, whose John Bonham drums bring the black country rock. [May 2019, p.24]

An album of wistful majesty. [Jul 2019, p.30]

In an angry, impatient world it takes real dedication to carve out space for music this blissful. [Oct 2019, p.33]

Any spiritual ecstasy on offer here appears to be of a more private kind, although no doubt offering a glimpse of the divine to believers. On other listeners, particularly those unfamiliar with Sanskrit and either ignorant or dismissive of the belief system of which these songs are an expression, its effects will be less certain. But the longer you listen, the more you’re drawn in and the less aesthetically confining the music’s self-imposed restraints seem. [Aug 2021, p.36]

Admonitions remains a fiery testament to Endless Boogie’s creative rejuvenation. And while this instalment of the saga may end with that imaginary action hero looking like a far cry from his usual condor self, don’t be fooled – he’s just saving it for the sequel. [Dec 2021, p.28]

A lively, impassioned record that proudly eschews convention and celebrates its outsider roots. [Apr 2022, p.31]

If these [tracks] feel like throwbacks, they're no more so than Norah Jones' best work, and there's nonetheless something timeless about the breezy "While You Were Sleeping" and, with its chugging guitars, "Lovesick". [Oct 2023, p.29]

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

For what keeps Field Songs on the right side of unyielding darkness, what keeps it ringing with an affirming note of beauty, is the certain knowledge that however black it gets, "the sun's about to rise."

Things grow richer and stranger as the album develops. [May 2007, p.87]

Primrose Green is disorientating, casting new light on modes you thought you knew well. [Apr 2015, p.65]

The 20-year-old punctuates beautifully languid, trip-hoppy vignettes with a voice redolent of Martina Topley-Bird and a neat line in spoken word poetic musings. [Feb 2021, p.32]

Cheat Codes finds Danger Mouse rolling with a new lyrical foil and this one feels like it could run and run. [Sep 2022, p.22]

Funny, and--beneath the psych flourishes--quietly devastating. [Jun 2012, p.93]

Ambarchi and O'Rourke bed their extended compositions down in richer tones, with glassing electronic hums and roiling organs moving on shifting sands. [Apr 2015, p.71]

Debris is an astonishing debut, not just for the power of the songs, but for the journey that they trace. [Feb 2020, p.34]

His spacious and captivating 2020 LP Alexandra felt like a breakthrough in this respect; Fleeting Adventure is even better.

Impressively, in a nod to Avery's crowd-pleasing and circuit-bending skills, this is a techno album that seldom sags. [Nov 2013, p.65]

Utterly addictive and reality-shifting. [Jan 2017, p.21]

Delivers intimately detailed tales set to hushed arrangements. [Sep 2023, p.37]

Despite his melancholy rep, Lekman's rarely sounded sunnier. [Mar 2017, p.32]

Jara's story gives a dramatic, yearning quality to the libretto that suits Bradfield's epic style, and allows a sense of unity to emerge through individual songs. [Sep 2020, p.27]

There's an earworm-like lure in every track. [Aug 2011, p.98]

A subtle, unshowy set it may be, but Toumani & Sidiki shows that this particular family affair will endure... perhaps for another 70 generations. [May 2014, p.75]

His style is scraggly yet sophisticated, ranging boldly from country drones to rambunctious rural ragas. [Oct 2016, p.26]

The underlying sense given off by the LP's inventive chord changes, soaring melodies, eloquent language and silky vocals--notably on the rhapsodic "Semaphore" and "Flight"--is that of a 21st century Joni Mitchell. [Oct 2016, p.31]

There's a sharper focus this time round. [Apr 2022, p.31]

Live At Goose Lake is messy, thrilling and utterly unhinged. In other words, it's The Stooges at their best. [Sep 2020, p.44]

These songs often sound like Broadway-style miniatures tilted at strange angles. [Feb 2021, p.30]

Understated and underestimated. [Nov 2004, p.113]

Bowles' music is rarely less than seductive, the product of both a gifted multi-instrumentalist and restless cultural forager. [Nov 2018, p.26]

Jain often subverts the placid mood with playful details, like the fractalised vocals that fill "Our Touching Tongues" or the synth arpeggios that add a sprightly energy throughout. [Apr 2024, p.35]

As the LP continues, you are progressively engrossed. [Oct 2015, p.84]

Sombre but spellbindingly ethereal nostalgia. [Jun 2017, p.28]

A lovely record. [Jan 2018, p.22]

Cray's oft-overlooked voice croons with rare tenderness over the Bobby "Blue" Bland cut "You're The One," and there's a spiky funk to Don Gardner's "My Baby Likes To Boogaloo." But Cray's own compositions are just as striking. [Apr 2020, p.26]

Touched by sadness but tinged with hope, this is a masterful album on which the sound of tradition is rendered vital and visceral in a very present sense. [Oct 2020, p.33]

It’s a story as old as Pet Sounds, but one that bears repeated re-telling. [Jul 2021, p.31]

There's no revolutionary do-over taking place here, just solid, reliable indie rock from a songwriter who knocks it out with what's bordering on flippant ease. [Apr 2022, p.28]

Great-uh. [Jun 2023, p.31]

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

While the album is packed with inventive moments, there's no more lacerating skronk, for a very good reason: the emotions the band is mirroring don't call for it. [Oct 2011, p.82]

He's a poet of the everyday, finding outsized emotions within these life-sized tableaux. [Dec 2018, p.28]

Sexsmith's soulful voice, mixed with simple guitar strums and sweet harmonies, especially in the delicate yet incredibly intense closer, "Ever Wonder", pushes style, composition and existence into a timeless adventure. [Mar 2023, p.35]

Even when they slow up, the quality doesn't let up. [Sep 2008, p.100]

Weathervanes is another imperious demonstration of Isbell's signature ability to simultaneously project confidence and vulnerability, both musically and lyrically. [Jul 2023, p.32]

Mastodon mostly veer clear of the slick atmospherics that turn other technical metal bands into post-rock wallpaper. [Oct 2006, p.117]

Blue & Lonesome feels like a major reassessment from a band, returning to the source and in doing so reminding us why they mattered in the first place. [Jan 2017, p.26]

More subdued yet equally captivating follow-up. [Oct 2019, p.24]

Across this record, you could spend days unravelling the songwriting. [Nov 2019, p.22]

Teen Dream finds the duo resolving to present their songs in somewhat firmer strokes. Nothing rocks, exactly, but organs coo in sharper focus, drum machines bear with added vigour, and an eerie disquiet occasionally linger. [Feb 2009, p.79]

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]

Nashville is clearly a home away from home, though, as this set from September 2008 proves. [Jul 2011, p.92]

The music here is intimate yet remote. [Dec 2002, p.140]

Head Above The Water is a triumph of sensitivity, as Power's exquisite voice gives shape and contour to folk-centric songs that assimilates elements of country, jazz and experimental drone. [Jul 2020, p.33]

Nine Types Of Light suggest they're settling in nicely. [May 2011, p.78]

While somewhat novelty, it's hard not to appreciate Daniel's conceptual moxie. [Aug 2014, p.79]

Her most orthodox album, perhaps, and by some distance her best. [Dec 2013, p.68]

Warm, uplifting and fizzing with both passion and virtuosity, Rejoice is not only a fitting last will and testament from Masekela, but a glorious affirmation of music at its most potent and universal. [May 2020, p.22]

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]

The result is a delight. [Nov 2007, p.115]

The results are gorgeous. [Oct 2009, p.112]

Lennox and Kember create breezy sonic collages of sunshine melody, fluidly chugging rhythms and fizzing analogue synths without succumbing to full retro-jukebox pastiche. [Sep 2022, p.29]

[A] stunningly assured fifth studio album. [Aug 2014, p.80]

It finds its sound in glowing electric waltzes, piled high with massed guitars and sawing fiddles, that take up a riff and grind it into extinction. Not to be missed, though, is their skill for softer atmospheres. [Jun 2021, p.27]

An LP of spooked delicacy and wheezy, wayward charm. [Jun 2003, p.104]

An album that is as poignant as it is over the top. [Oct 2003, p.118]

Unsurprisingly, American V is the most desolate of the series, bereft of the moments of playfulness that leavened its predecessors. [Aug 2006, p.92]

Growls and blast-beats come decorated with guitar work that explores scale after scale of diabolical pleasures. [Aug 2008, p.101]

For now, we should simply savour the sound of an artist setting herself new targets and hitting each one with real panache. [Oct 2011, p.78]

A gorgeous confection. [Mar 2015, p.77]

All told, it's an awful a lot to listen to, but the scope is majestic, the ambition outrageous and the music magnificent. [Jun 2015, p.72]

Stamey is at his most persuasive when he keeps its simple. [Jul 2015, p.83]