The perfect companion piece for black-lit nights at home. [No. 144, p.61]

Nothing truly "new" but still revealing surprises and delights for the initiated. [No. 144, p.61]

Gangster Star features a much stronger single (the idyllic "Shine A Light"), while Jealous Machines waders a bit further into the narrative forest. [No. 144, p.59]

Earle sounds invigorated and relaxed, and these are some of his best songs in years. [No. 144, p.58]

Cheap Trick sticks to its strengths. [No. 144, p.56]

Dirty Pictures (Part 1) is the perfect appetizer to the boozy, bluesy world of Low cut Connie. [No. 144, p.55]

Revolution is not a political screed, as the band scorches and eases its way through a fair number of life/love reflection. [No. 144, p.55]

The music's effortless grace contradicts the experiences f temporal and cultural unease that Elkington sings about in ways that'll keep the listener guessing and the record spinning. [No. 144, p.55]

The Singles is as good a starting point as any, as it highlights the diversity that spanned the band's entire career. All the classics are present and accounted for. [No. 144, p.54]

It makes music that tips its hat to the past without sounding derivative. [No. 144, p.53]

The overwhelming success of this unexpected Mac mashup is clear evidence that it's more than a one-off idea. [No. 144, p.52]

This shining-up of the Sgt. Pepper grail is gorgeous. [No. 144, p.51]

While Prayer For Peace is the duo's seventh studio album, their rootsy sound remains more or less unchanged and identified. [No. 143, p.59]

This new one sounds happily like a distillation of the best of Slowdive. The effects--and the effects pedals--are still dreamy. [No. 143, p.61]

These existential sonic sketches are minimalist in nature but come together as an electroacoustic whole far greater than its composite parts. [No. 143, p.61]

The mixed-bag effect of White Knight reaches its best moments on Runt's partnership with R&B shouter Bettye LaVette on the salty soul of "Naked & Afraid," and his teaming with Nine Inch Nails' film composition team Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross on the crushing, cinematic "Deaf Ears." [No. 143, p.61]

The rhythm section kept the sleazy blues and gutter grunge on track and moving forward with bass locked into a pocket provided by some seriously pounding battery while still allowing for a loose feel that gives you the sense you're peaking in on a cathartic discharge of energy. [No. 143, p.61]

Weller has always created a fine present out of traces of the past; A Kind Revolution is a funkier present. [No. 143, p.60]

At 30 years of age, it's only better than it was... It gets zero help from unnecessary remixes and wee heft from an era-appropriate Madison Square Garden concert recording. [No. 143, p.58]

Despite lyrics contending with crippling anxiety, suicide and relationship strife, what ultimately emerges in a celebration of the defiant act of loving and living fully in the face of a world gone mad. [No. 143, p.59]

Whether juxtaposed with string sections, dark electronics or thumping beats, Moyet's deeply sonorous voice is still the dramatic center. [No. 143, p.59]

When's it on, which is most of the time, it's deep and beyond category. [No. 143, p.57]

Even as he points out life's injustices and unpleasantries, there's an ease and comfort with which he accesses his long list of Americana influences. [No. 143, p.57]

A record that easily ranks among the heaviest, most remarkable releases in Constellation's recent catalog. [No. 143, p.57]

This is an album squarely in the spirit of the band's underrated mid-period venture Carnival Of Light, a classic-rock record with none of the baggage that phrase might imply. [No. 143, p.56]

Goofy and awkward, yet mature and sincere, this album showcases a band making magic from the mudpies of millennial angst. [No. 143, p.55]

Like his labelmates in Alabama Shakes, Booker takes inspiration from the past to make huge artistic leaps forward. [No. 143, p.55]

With two exceptions, he avoids the obvious hits, choosing to shine a light on Haggard's often downhearted love songs with arrangements that avoid country-music conventions. [No. 143, p.55]