Occasionally, the lyrics veer into fuzzy abstraction, but the music never does. [May 2021, p.82]

The first half rifles through their familiar bag of production tricks. .. The weirder and more diverse second side is where stuff gets interesting. [May 2021, p.81]

The music still mainly tilts around their Coil-Anohni Axis. ... As always with Xiu Xiu, though, it's a lot, two heads just as intense as one. [May 2021, p.85]

The London singer's stark acoustic covers album works best when furthest removed from the original. [Mar 2021, p.91]

While showcasing a further surfeit of talents - Zongo Brigade's K.O.G., Ghanaian singer Pat Thomas, a rap-happy Soweto Kinch - could make Freedom Fables feel like a compilation, a wide streak of jazz connects the dots. [Mar 2021, p.90]

The Pet Parade is calmer, folkier, and more accommodating to Johnson's pinched nasal tones. [Apr 2021, p.84]

Adrian Younge's ambitious album splices all-analogue blaxploitation sounds with psychedelia. It's a volatile mix for songs. [Apr 2021, p.83]

Strawbs are clearly not intent on coasting. [Apr 2021, p.81]

Indie-pop sung in French and English; Interrailing-inspired The Foreigner is full of Greek, Finnish and Italian. [Apr 2021, p.88]

Echo mostly plays safe, but signs of where Sparke can stands alone include Dog Bark Echo's red-desert heat, Everything Everything's jabbered vocal and dissonant piano, and a particularly devastated Bad Dreams. [Apr 2021, p.81]

This album works best when it gives its ideas and sounds space. [Feb 2021, p.86]

It can be vague on the details, but Baker's songwriting is smart and serious enough to keep Little Oblivions from burning out entirely. [Apr 2021, p.86]

These are wonderfully built earworms here, but callow writing sometimes morphs them into mere infections. [Apr 2021, p.82]

Recorded remotely, Distractions is febrile and modern but cries out for a through-line. [Mar 2021, p.88]

Has a first-person directness and grunge-schooled contrasting of melody with clamour. [Feb 2021, p.90]

He's never met a supernatural entity he can't pair with thumping darktronica and stalking rock guitar - weeping Ghost, Vampire's Touch, Skeleton - but it's done with a fabulously cold touch. [Mar 2021, p.89]

Collection of angular electro, cavernous soundscapes and delightfully off-kilter rhythms from Depeche Mode's creative hub. [Mar 2021, p.89]

Feels out of reach, as if shrouded in gauze. ... This may coalesce in a live setting. [Mar 2021, p.85]

2015's Tape Hiss, Rats On Rafts were as unrelenting. Now they've added impenetrability to the armoury. [Mar 2021, p.86]

Medicine At Midnight is strangely impersonal, with little to declare beyond its maker skill at the form. The lyrics, meanwhile, are often undercooked. [Mar 2021, p.82]

Comes with the smart lightness of touch that's the Vampire Weekend birthright. [Mar 2021, p.89]

Home is as challenging as it is comforting. [Mar 2021, p.85]

Welfare Jazz finds them dropping through the gears and settling on a sound that often resembles the frazzled nocturnal grooves magicked up during Josh Homme's Desert Sessions. [Mar 2021, p.90]

It mostly works but can be breathless. [Dec 2020, p.82]

While Khruangbin's own cover of Kool & The Gang's Summer Madness is a technical knock-out, the two-punch combination of Maxwell Udoh's inaptly titled Nigerian disco landmark I Like It (Don't Stop) and David Marez's florid Ensename is distinctly below the belt. [Jan 2021, p.100]

A playful digital makeover for some vintage noir vibes. [Oct 2020, p.94]

It's exactly what you'd expect, but in a good way. [Feb 2021, p.83]

The LP is a little crammed. [Nov 2020, p.82]

It makes for some oddly sublime listening. [Jan 2021, p.85]

With Tek on growly vocals, Two To One feels closer to Birdman's hypermelodic chug than any Stooges explosion. [Nov 2020, p.88]

Many of these 12 songs, eight of them originals, tend towards the reflective. [Jan 2021, p.90]

It occasionally drifts away but with a subtle pillowy beat or piano, Brun holds it together beautifully. [Jan 2021, p.85]

Corgan's floatier tunes and chocolate-box lyrics actually suit this sound palette well, but, as so often in pop - and Corgan's - history, a 10-track single LP would've nailed it better. [Jan 2021, p.86]

A useful document of Crazy Horse in rare, relatively subtle trio form (no Poncho). [Jan 2021, p. 101]

A rare sustained tension between sex and spirituality bristles throughout. [Jan 2021, p.88]

Their contrasting flows clip together surprisingly well. [Jan 2021, p.88]

The overall effect is usually on the right side of too much, the listener lifted up by Castle's wings. [Jan 2021, p.87]

Naturally, it's a disjointed exercise, but consumed at one sitting, 5EPs also makes perfect sense, showcasing how each part contributes to the whole. [Jan 2021, p.83]

Three long, meditative ideals of 49-note microtonal singing. [Dec 2020, p.89]

It's Kuroda's interplay with singer/trombonist Corey King, sharp riffs and lithe, streetwise solos that hold sway. [Nov 2020, p.85]

It feels doubly elegiac, a mood best caught by Nick Cave's tremendous Cosmic Dancer. Even so, there's fun to be had. [Oct 2020, p.86]

An intense, trip-hoppy and orchestral examination of love in all its forms. [Dec 2020, p.88]

Some of its best moments, including Savannah's rolling, tumbling Lynard Skynyrd-style grooves, are steeped in '70s Americana. Others, though, are distinctly so-so. [Dec 2020, p.86]

Across a double album, Clarke's songwriting landscape can start to feel featureless, his big-sky country demanding tighter focus, more interesting rock formations. [Dec 2020, p.88]

Posse-laden re-workings of deathless anthems Public Enemy Number Won and Fight The Power are suitably superfly; rehashing four tracks from 2017's Nothing IS Quick In The Desert less so. A welcome blast if righteous funky wisdom nonetheless. [Dec 2020, p.83]

Several songs here feel swamped. [Nov 2020, p.88]

Songs draws itself into clearer focus through Lenker's sweet, freshly-cut voice. [Nov 2020, p.83]

There's a Paul Simon acuity to Up With The Jones, a look at living beyond your means, going bust and being free. Wisdom Of The World steps right out of line, a feedbacky Hendrix-style howl that resolves into mellow catharsis. [Nov 2020, p.89]

Despite no huge leaps forward sonically, there are some fantastic scenes set to song. [Nov 2020, p.83]

Pare things back to an insistent Banshees-like boom and groove. [Nov 2020, p.90]

Prolonged exposure to this scattershot approach can be exhausting. In smaller chunks, however, Free Humans is exhilarating, and unpredictably so. [Nov 2020, p.89]

In all, more a series of disconnected building blocks than a cohesive album. [Nov 20, p.89]

An immersive trip, if not one to take that often. Smith, though, is in her element. [Oct 2020, p.89]

A confidently tuneful if nostalgic set. [Aug 2020, p.87]

ACR Loco lives up to its title. [Nov 2020, p.83]

Melodic snap and guileless sentiments. [Nov 2020, p.90]

Both beguiling and frustrating, The Ascension is complex, bold and oddly lovable. [Nov 2020, p.89]

We Are Chaos thrives when Manson ditches his horrorcore shtick and actually emotes. [Nov 2020, p.80]

There may be a couple too many mid-tempo chugs among Phantom Birds' 13 tracks, but Berry has a knack for lyrics that pick away at self-doubt and brave public faces. [Nov 2020, p.86]

The ragtime version of Wild World is perhaps a re-imagining too far. ... Father And Son remains monumental and intensely moving, however. [Oct 2020, p.93]

It doesn't work when she wails and chants her way through the closing Sun, but she's absolutely fearless, as rigorous as The Moody Blues circa Days Of Future Passed and as adventurous as Can circa Future Days. [Jul 2020, p.82]

Hectically enjoyable LP. [Oct 2020, p.87]

She walks us through iconic and barely known songs from her repertoire, inspired by the city. [Jun 2020, p.93]

The odd sappy lyric is mediated by a resonant Jim James-ish baritone. [Oct 2020, p.94]

She ensures these songs keep it together. [Sep 2020, p.88]

While the guitarist's chops are impeccable and his tone as fiery as ever, the stiff, unyielding charts tend to stifle him, hindering his spontaneity and that of his fellow fine musicians. [Jun 2020, p.95]

The 13 tracks of this marathon double-album offer surprising rewards. [Oct 2020, p.86]

Occasionally, you yearn for Disclosure to take a rasp to Energy and roughen its edges, but their knack for canny hooks guarantees they won't be retiring back to Surrey any time soon. [Oct 2020, p.84]

Simple, homespun arrangements shift between folk pop and folk rock with an emphasis on bittersweet. [Sep 2020, p.85]

The Caribbean funk that results, however, sounds unpredictable, i,possibly human and imperfect. Oh, and fun. [Sep 2020, p.89]

A meditative, inward-looking affair, Freeze, Melt is best heard after a big night in. [Sep 2020, p.91]

These are precarious songs, Oberst's voice as fragile as an egg, yet when it comes to songwriting, Bright Eyes remain a safe pair of hands. [Oct 2020, p.84]

Brandon Flowers' commercial appeal holds steady on Imploding The Mirage under producers 13 and 14 Shawn Everett and Jonathan Rado, who lather fidgety single Caution and When The Dreams Run Dry in fine '80s studio-wash. [Oct 2020, p.84]

For the most part Swift doesn't stray far from The Great Dylan Songbook. [Oct 2020, p.86]

Easy chemistry. ... Glasper and Washington fans may rue their idols merely playing in the back. [Oct 2020, p.94]

Strong mastery of mood and era, but the overcast ennui palls before the album's close. [Aug 2020, p.94]

It's certainly brave. Whoosh! is superior when guitarist Steve Morse and keyboard player Don Airey slip their leashes. [Sep 2020, p.85]

Refining rather than redefining. [Jun 2020, p.91]

Often you wonder exactly what you're hearing; you just know you haven't heard it before. [Aug 2020, p.87]

Creating a feel that blissfully reminiscent of Bruce Langhorne's instrumental score for Peter Fonda's 1971 western, The Hired Hand. [Aug 2020, p.89]

Much of Hum has a brooding, measured Nick Drake-ish intensity, driven by fast, intricate folky picking. [Sep 2020, p.92]

Seasick's latest is unshakeably him. [Sep 2020, p.91]

Howl is most powerful on the aptly titled Everything Is Happening At The Same Time and the Yearning Strange Beauty. Seeing him play these songs live might flesh-out Howl's sometimes too-deliberate feel. [Jun 2020, p.94]

Although the listener doesn't expect dynamics in this kind of music, there is little variation in either its colour and timbre. [Aug 2020, p.89]

Gleeful scattershot collision between genres and theatrical drama, explored through such epistles as DIE! DIE! DIE!, barked by Pixies' Black Francis. [Aug 2020, p.92]

Minimalist of palette it may be, but Laraaji's characteristic approach to melody, harmony and rhythm, at once both charmingly childlike and spiritually ecstatic, is present throughout. [Aug 2020, p.87]

While the lilting melodies suggest south-east Asia - as do, explicitly, a couple of spoken word passages - a wandering, spidery guitar generates an off-balance flavour. [Jul 2020, p.81]

Laidback, dreamy third album. [Jul 2020, p.84]

The best moments involve stranger juddering textures, as on Flowers or Wishing Well. Beauty is always better with an edge. [Aug 2020, p.87]

This second album build on the same template [as 2016's Cradle With Humanity]. [Jul 2020, p.82]

A subversion of new age, but still oddly soothing in its own way. [Aug 2020, p.94]

Go some way to subverting stodgy blues-rock gender cliche on an LP that takes off on the Tom Petty-ish title track. [Aug 2020, p.94]

Their naked intimacy can be hard to bear. [Aug 2020, p.94]

Synths sway like palm trees, grooves come sun-baked, and nifying message songs flow. [Jul 2020, p.88]

There is a grab-bag of variety. [May 2020, p.93]

Lyrics are vital, and here they often clunk where they should pierce, deadening some of her undeniable power. [Jun 2020, p.86]

Gene is not restful, but it displays impressive commitment to following the whorls and helixes of its inner logic. [May 2020, p.86]

There are a lot of moments when - sleeves rolled up, top button undone - it sounds as if they're pouring out their hearts to the same bartender as The National. When they get the detailing right, though, it flies. [Jul 2020, p.78]