Yet for all the luxuriant, Gong-like dreaminess of I Surrender or Imagine An Orchestra, sudden beats and vocal hooks make Delight more unpredictable odyssey than easy float downstream. [May 2024, p.89]

Nonetheless shows the duo pulling themselves up to full songwriting height, not just forging on, but flourishing. [Jun 2024, p.87]

A certain rock'n'roll energy is lacking. .... Think: transitional. [Jun 2024, p.86]

You might assume, given the title, that beam's seventh full-length album as iron & Wine is lightweight and whimsical. Actually it's pretty magnificent. [Jun 2024, p.84]

There's an undeniable zip to these. [Jun 2024, p.82]

Ultimately, this is a work of lush, immersive harmonic beauty and escape. [Jun 2024, p.86]

Octopoidal, Milford Graves-style fee jazz, miraculously achieving a sort of zen clarity. [Jun 2024, p.92]

The saturnine wavs of As Above Perhaps So Below suggest the torpor induced by the titular barbiturate, while We Were Vaporised proffers further subterranean tectonics offset by cosmic keyboard drifts that might have been plucked, like much here, from an art-house sci-fi movie score. [Jun 2024, p.91]

Never overwrought, A La Sala is a cool exercise in the beauty of restraint and understated groove mastery, exploring new vistas without subverting Khruangbin's blueprint. [Jun 2024, p.88]

Y'Y shows his fluid piano technique - a hard to quantify mix of Monk, Ibrahim, Corea and Shipp - let loose on looping patterns that trace ever more surprising arcs and mood variations. [Jun 2024, p.88]

There's taut New Wave (Tiny Moves; Jesus Is Dead), but mainly moody electronic balladry (think Streets Of Philadelphia), with Del Rey turning up to fulfil the intend of her one repeated line ("I'll make it darker") on Alma Mater. [Jun 2024, p.82]

A clearly cathartic album that further proves Annie Clark to be a brilliant and multifaceted musical force. [Jun 2024, p.83]

A few sag under the weight of brooding brass and strings - Lookout For Hope, Doom - but others soar - Beautiful Dreamer, Electricity, We Shall Overcome. Ultimately it's a winner. [Jun 2024, p.91]

The other Side [is] probably the most honest reflection of himself he's ever made. [Jun 2024, p.87]

A suite of songs that are more reflective than self-pitying, and unlike her last, beats-free album, often grounded by solid grooves that allow her bewitching melodies to soar. [May 2024, p.85]

Here they're presented as a crisp, razor-edged groove unit, with not a milligram of flab aboard. either instrumentally or melodically. [May 2024, p.84]

That Dark Matter succeeds so well is due to the and focusing their creative energy, just as Watt's sonic Nutribullet technique condense PJ's core rumble into punchy blasts. [May 2024, p.82]

Fabulously serious work. [May 2024, p.91]

Ramona has a very on-Broadway energy. There are occasional Blue Hotel lapses, but I'm Getting Married To The War or A Precious Thing come across like a rock opera Aldous Harding, while title track - inspired by Bob Dylan's 1964 song To Ramona - is the third curtain-call Patti Smith. The force of her voice alone earths these songs. [May 2024, p.86]

This edge, this acknowledgment of the stakes at play behind her messages of faith, pushes these songs past any risk of empty sentimentalism, and makes Sun Without The Heat truly uplifting. [May 2024, p.87]

They're more straightforward than they've ever been. .... They're not slackening. [May 2024, p.86]

What might be their best yet. All the various elements of Joe's songs are here. [May 2024, p.88]

A delicate, inward-facing set. [May 2024, p.80]

The group takes aim at the deadening effect of copywriting, the need for bands to "have so many things to sell you" and the conspicuous tastefulness of some online music fans. Unsubtle but often archly funny, this commentary goes down easier thanks to a melodically complex tunefulness that consistently serve up gems. [May 2024, p.82]

A masterfully subtle follow-up to 2018's Down The Road Wherever. [May 2024, p.85]

Three albums in, and King is still full of surprises. [May 2024, p.82]

Parr's front porch vocals and mesmerising guitar pickings mingle with mouth harp, backing vocals, piano, electric guitar and fiddle on an album full of wonder and love for the unloved. He really should invite friends round more often. [May 2024, p.91]

What might be a bleak set of songs about fragile ecosystems and unsustainable lives is saved from desperation by the warmth of the instrumentation – strings, synths, piano – and the watchful humanity of the lyrics. [May 2024, p.84]

It's the LP's sparer, outward-looking, more spontaneous-sounding songs which house the best melodies. [May 2024, p.85]

While his mentor and grandfather RL's original form was violent and nihilist, Burnside's is just as fierce. [May 2024, p.88]

Love In Constant Spectacle is watchful rather than showy, its songs not boxing up one simple mood at a time but sitting with their uncertainty. Nuance might be going out of fashion in the world outside, but in here, Weaver speaks it fluently. [May 2024, p.83]

Only God Was Above Us feels like a record made by a band once more comfortable in their skins. [May 2024, p.86]

Doherty's songwriting rises to the occasion. [Apr 2024, p.88]

Overall, it's the sound of a band rejuvenated. [May 2024, p.84]

Overall: troubled, unflinching, but tuneful and triumphant. [May 2024, p.82]

The seven-minute title track best reflects the fluid magic of the quartet as they travel from deep soul to deep space. [May 2024, p.89]

Hey Panda may seem whimsical at first, but its depth is all the grander for the work it takes to mine its many gems. [May 2024, p.84]

Overall this record is a heady, expansive treat. [May 2024, p.90]

They're still sparkling. [May 2024, p.91]

Musically, the spectral sound lies between Fever Ray at their least forbidding and the shadows cast by David Lynch soundtracks. [Mar 2024, p.90]

What began as a benefit for Swami Satchidananda and evolved into a summoning of John Coltrane’s spirit now stands as a tribute to the liberating force of Alice Coltrane herself. It’s a communion. Drink deep. [May 2024, p.101]

The centrifugal force is Rosali's calm, deep voice, belying her lyric's nervous energy and drama, balancing vulnerability with resilience. [May 2024, p.88]

His best (if worst-titled) work so far. Sometimes JPEGRAW's 12 tracks feel like they're ticking boxes: a flurry of lounge piano blues here, a blast of jazz trumpet there... But there's a clarity to the writing, with his vaulting ambition accompanied by strong hooks and an even stronger pop sensibility. [Apr 2024, p.84]

Sung with his steamrollered Mancunian vowels intact, Garvey's allusive, playful lyrics are as golden as those of your Bermans and Caves here, drawing on Wordsworth, but also name-checking Leo Sayer and The Jungle Book's affable bear, Baloo. [Apr 2024, p.82]

Beautifully elusive. [Apr 2024., p.85]

Early contender for pop album of the year? Definitely. [Apr 2024, p.85]

songdreaming is by no means perfect; Lee’s version of Black Dog And Sheep Crook comes on a little too much like Dave Brubeck’s Take Five, and his Anglicisation of Robert Burns ballad Aye Walking Oh feels a bit unnecessary. However, Lee does unaffected loveliness very well (case in point: the closing Sweet Girl McRee), and his intense empathy – for the bees, the trees, the birdies and his fellow man – shines through. [Apr 2024, p.80]

It's the tracks that mix it up a bit that appeal most. [Apr 2024, p.90]

With its measured banjo pecks and perfect shadow bv's, courtesy of rising Southern rock talent MJ Lenderman, Right Back to It's simple classicism seem to explore over sensitivity, while Crowbar, possessed of a lovely, Peter Buck-ish jangle, also stands out. [Apr 2024, p.91]

The results have the in-the-room intimacy of Lenker's best work. [Apr 2024, p.91]

Tapping myriad trusted influences yet distilling something uniquely corvine, it's a thrilling return. [Apr 2024, p.82]

Jones has rediscovered her mojo. [Apr 2024, p.82]

The Great Bailout is a grand, artistic and political statement in an age when such vision is too rarely attempted. [Apr 2024, p.87]

The songwriting's uniformly exceptional, the messaging on-the-nose and inspiring - and boy, can he still play guitar. [Apr 2024, p.82]

Despite one-time Rudimental leader Amir Amor's rather flat production and the dearth of all-out tub-thumpers beyond the wry The Lads, they've transformed themselves inti a differently beguiling proposition. [Mar 2024, p.88]

It really shouldn't work, but like much of It Leads To This, it does. [Mar 2024, p.91]

Throughout, Power's vocals retain their lovable keen and Youth's production is uncluttered and crisp. [Apr 2024, p.88]

The veteran 4AD band bring a depth and worldliness to these songs that sets them apart. [Apr 1024, p.92]

Glasgow Eyes' liberal use of electronics is a renewing force, and a kind of homecoming too. .... Glasgow Eyes is a positive twist in the sage of these negaholics synonymous. [Apr 2024, p.86]

The Candy House's garbled distress flare or the My Bloody Neubauten of I Don't Miss My Mond confirm she is still picking up signals nobody else can, [Apr 2024, p.88]

Don't be deceived: these songs have the substance to become - unlike those eBay purchases - an obsession that sticks. [Apr 2024, p.83]

Pissed Jeans' fist-pumping tunes, thrilling noise and acidic wit ensure their permanent bummer is always a good time. [Apr 2024, p.87]

A confident and substantial evolution of their sound. [Apr 2024, p.89]

This is too much fun to be a one-off. [Apr 2024, p.82]

In just any universe, Playing Favorites would dominate the world's FM stations for two years straight. [Apr 2024, p.84]

This cool and stylish record should make the jazz best-of-year lists. [Apr 2024, p.90]

Classic songwriting creatively re-imagined in pulsating, droning, rackety new environs. [Apr 2024, p.89]

An alleviating statement from an artist whose curiosity and striving fir development have remained a driving force. [Apr 2024, p.85]

The melancholy feels more goth than hippy and, ultimately, both the sounds and lyrics feel unresolved. [Apr 2024, p.90]

A gently breath-taking wonder. [Apr 2024, p.91]

Walls is an essential slice of art-punk history. It's also a blistering good time. [Apr 2024, p.97]

An elegant, thought-provoking record. [Mar 2024, p.86]

Brilliantly executed with Shirley Bassey-like surety in an arresting, always distinctive, lyrical voice. [Mar 2024, p.89]

Daniel conveys an expert melancholy. its ups always just on the brink of an elegant down. [Mar 2024, p.88]

Heavy though it is, the songwriting remains remarkably light and agile. [Mar 2024, p.88]

A mesmerising return. [Mar 2024, p.90]

For all its filigree detail, Spring Eternal is a big philosophically questing record, a velvet glove hiding a death-like grip. [Mar 2024, p.90]

For all the heartache, Blu Wav is surprisingly uplifting, transcendent, even.[Feb 2024, p.85]

There are 808s and sensory synths galore, but it's the powerful message and those voices - tough soulful leads and contrastingly sweet gospel harmonies - that hold sway here. [Mar 2024, p.87]

Allied to keening, reedy vocals and sophisticated hooks, these songs deliver a truly impressive debut. [Mar 2024, p.88]

It's over in a flash, an exhilarating fairground ride you won't want to disembark. [Mar 2024, p.88]

Its aim is true, uplifting and yes, mighty persuasive. [Mar 2024, p.80]

The works-in-progress disc of this handsome reissue package gives an even starker impression of a man rummaging joyfully through the studio toy box, now slapping down an instinctively lively drum beat, now jumping on a synth he’s only just plugged in, and rolling with it.

Her ability to dominate a room with minimal musical movement is astonishing; this record lowers the temperature, heightens the sense, slows down life, frame by frame. [Mar 2024, p.85]

She's still drawn to the edges like a death's-head moth to an inferno, but once you are in Wolfe's distinctive headspace, it's easy to believe they are her comfort zone, and maybe even yours. [Mar 2025, p.85]

Rendered with a delicate, impressionistic touch, Phasor's dreamlike entreaties cut far deeper than predecessor Far In's lockdown ruminations. [Mar 2024, p.90]

What Now is no less discursive, plundering so many styles that it might instead be called What Next. But working with co-producer Shawn Everett in a series of top-tier Nashville hubs, Howard makes it cohere not only through the prayer bowls that clang and drone between tracks but also through the way she captures the wild vacillations of falling in and out of something that’s possibly good and potentially terrible. [Mar 2024, p.84]

But, for all the technical proficiency, there's a sense of nobody ushing themselves too hard. [Mar 2024, p.91]

Tapir!'s considerable world-building skills impress, even if seven-minute closer Mountain Song seems a little directionless. [Feb 2024, p.88]

[Producer Daniel Boyle] strikes a crisp specious groove somewhere between dubstep and '90s digi-dub, for Perry to voice croakily alongside co-vocalists. [Mar 2024, p.82]

There's a full band, a string section Swarmatron and brass. Reassuringly, the songs are strong enough to carry the new load. [Mar 2024, p.85]

It's an LP of insight and empathy. [Mar 2024, p.82]

It may make for a rollercoaster musical ride, but it's utterly thrilling. [Mar 2024, p.88]

After the initial shock, the pair's songwriting smarts cuts through persuasively, alongside strong messaging about acknowledging your needs and vulnerabilities. [Feb 2024, p.88]

This double LP has sonic coherence across 65 minutes of taut, sinewy but ever-unpredictable compositions, with a subtly altered sound palette. [Feb 2024, p.86]

Rhys’s melodies stay with you, and his wordplay is as pleasingly idiosyncratic as ever. [Feb 2024, p.89]

The resulting sound is high-contrast, with graceful melodic resolutions, slippery pitch-bends and experiments with form. Curios that hit at once, but can also withstand lengthy unravelling. [Mar 2024, p.91]

Lurching guitar, chiming piano and stabs of overdubbed choral harmony are combined with vocals that swing from sweetly intimate to dry and flippant. [Mar 2024, p.89]