They have directly inspired some truly dire pretenders to the throne in the intervening years, but Dark Matter sees them sweep those bands away, and reset and reclaim their own signature sound. [May 2024, p.72]

It's a complete, rounded work; the 13 tracks dovetail into each other perfectly. [May 2024, p.74]

This eighteenth album, continuing the sophisticated air of their second era with its merger of plush future-rock, graceful gospel folk and organic electro-pop. [May 2024, p.74]

Well worth seeking out. A cracker. [May 2024, p.79]

One Deep River is one of Knopfler's best. These are gorgeous songs, sung in a voice that sounds like it's lived a life that's full. [May 2024, p.74]

This stellar collection of rough, rustic songs will make urbanites cream over its earthly authenticity. [May 2024, p.75]

Bob Vylan have become the loudest, most vital voice of righteous rage in a beaten-down nation. [May 2024, p.78]

Steadily onwards through a flawless second side worth of classic, never-more-accessible Libertines in excelsis, before Songs They Never Play On The Radio causally encapsulates everything The Libertines were and, thankfully, still very much are. [Apr 2024, p.79]

He elects to drag his material through the dirt, and the ramped layers of fuzz and distortion actually improves on the originals. [May 2024, p.75]

[Beautiful People (Stay High) is] a tearaway slice of white-boy soul, so immediate that you'll join the cast-of-thousands vocal by the second chorus. the rest of Ohio Players is almost as good. [May 2024, p.75]

Playing Favorites lacks the career-defining standout that will catapult them into a bigger league, and sometimes the whole is less than the sum of its intriguing parts. They're well on their way, tough. [May 2024, p.73]

This album is the high point of his career, and it could be one of the finest albums you'll hear this year too. [May 2024, p.76]

Alcohol And Cocainemarijuananicotine, is borderline endearing, while Love Thyself reminds us that Taylor-Taylor can still write pop hooks whenever he can be bothered. [May 2024, p.77]

Crow redeems herself somewhat with the useful chorus of the I-love-my-kids closer Waiting In The Wings, but only somewhat. Some good singles, as always, but unfortunately a long way from career highlights Sheryl Crow and The Globe Sessions. [May 2024, p.79]

Heaven is an adrenalin-charged barrage of intelligently crafted, hook-heavy material, enlivened with hairpin tempo twists, and impressively free of punk cliches. As Hell surges into action with Rise Up's thrusting fusion of shout-along punk chorus and metallic riffing, it's clear they're not playing their heavy side for laughs, using it instead to inject their characteristic sound with well-suited darker aspects on It's All Me and You Wanted War. [May 2024, p.79]

The energy and buoyancy never sacrifice Elbow's innate knack for emotional impact, as Garvey sings with poetic accuracy of the abyss, various hallelujahs and the meaning of love. [Apr 2024, p.82]

He enlists a pan-generational wish list and lets them shine. [Apr 2024, p.81]

It may have been a long wait, but The Mandrake Project is easily one of Bruce Dickinson’s boldest projects, and it goes to show there is almost nothing that this band frontman/fencer/pilot/author can’t turn his hand to. [Apr 2024, p.82]

Mesmerises with tales of sobriety and redemption (it says here) that sound more unapologetically stoned and out there than ever. [Apr 2024, p.83]

Marvellous album. .... A rock'n'roll record that's funkier than a tramp's kacks, more soulful than a gospel convention, warmer than a mother's love and groovier than the Grand Canyon. [Apr 2024, p.78]

Halford and the latest incarnation of Judas Priest are still rattling rafters with this new album of pristine and dauntingly powerful heavy metal. [Apr 2024, p.76]

This is Ministry’s best record since we were all young and good-looking. [Apr 2024, p.78]

The results rock with dynamic, dramatic vigour on Put It Right and Rubicon, while Soord’s ability to tug melodically at heart strings remains in emotive evidence when the storm clouds part on Now It’s Yours and To Forget. [Apr 2024, p.80]

Exposes his long-standing flaws: lyrics with the depth and insight of an astrology column, and songwriting that flashes on brilliance. .... Tracks are redeemed, though, by some spectacularly muscular riffing from guitarist Liam Tyson. [Apr 2023, p.83]

This is fine work indeed. [Apr 2024, p.80]

An iron-clad structural damage-inducing delight from start to finish. Early contender for punk album of the year. [Apr 2024, p.79]

Alkaline Trio temper napalm guitars with a keen sense of melody, placed front and centre on Blood, Hair, And Eyeballs by Hot For Preacher's dark, dramatic opening flourish, and continued with impressive consistency throughout its 11 tracks. [Apr 24, p.76]

The record ends with a burst of Velvets fuzz-rock titled Hey Lou Reid - but it's only fitting on a record that burnishes their legend with such sizzling acid. [Apr 2024, p.76]