Latest from Album reviews

Album review: She's So Rad, Tango

She's So Rad are a duo with wonderful musicality.

Review: Doggfather uses up another life on Bush

He's been a rapper, an actor, a porn movie mogul and, most recently, a terrible reggae singer called Snoop Lion. How many lives has this Dogg used up already? Six? Seven?

Review: Sufjan Stevens, Carrie & Lowell

This exceptional album is named for Stevens' schizophrenic and drug-addicted mother who died in 2012 and the stepfather (married to Carrie for five years when the singer was a young boy) who was his stability and currently runs Stephens' record label.

Review: Mumford & Sons, Wilder Mind

On the surface, one might say that Wilder Mind, the third album from the London quartet, has seen Mumford & Sons change from waistcoats and plaid to leather and denim. But that's a bit misleading really, a hokey oversimplification.

Review: Blur, Magic Whip

I always thought Blur got more interesting towards the end of their time.

Review: Diaz Grimm, Osiris

Diaz Grimm doesn't muck around. With just a handful of singles to his name, the Cambridge MC kicks off his debut album with his best song yet, a walloping combination of futuristic thuds and cascading choirs that would make Kanye West cry out in envy.

Review: Don McGlashan, Lucky Stars

This is McGlashan's third solo album and though the previous two had plenty of terrific songs, they had a grab-bag kind of feel about them.

Album review: Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Chasing Yesterday

The Mint Chicks go vinyl

Review: Big Sean, Dark Sky Paradise

Album review: Public Service Broadcasting, The Race for Space

The 2013 debut album Inform-Educate-Entertain by this British duo married sometimes driving rock or evocative soundscapes with spoken word samples from old British and American docos and films.

Madonna's new album all mixed-up

Ah Madonna. Despite that rare moment of vulnerability when she fell down the stairs at the Brit Awards last week, these days she mostly seems like an indestructible creation.

Album review: Steve Earle and the Dukes, Terraplane

The only surprising thing about Earle making a blues album - given he's done rock, country, folk and bluegrass - is that it took him so long.

Album review: Purity Ring, Another Eternity

Passion Pit making out with The xx while Ellie Goulding films things quietly in the corner.

Album review: Songhoy Blues, Music In Exile

It's hard to fully explain this album without setting it in context.

Album review: Kiasmos, Kiasmos

One of the most interesting, if not visually engaging, artists at Laneway was electronica boffin Jon Hopkins, who added edge and scratchy beats to elevate his sound above the quasi-ambience of his albums.

Album review: Kodaline, Coming Up For Air

Irish band Kodaline move away from indie folk-fuelled first album In A Perfect World with the release of their sophomore album, Coming Up For Air.

Album review: Ryan Bingham, Fear and Saturday Night

This 33-year old Americana/alt. country singer who played the Tuning Fork last year with his new band has a road-hardened, bourbon'n'catarrh voice which belies his years.