Reviews

Pixies guitarist raises bar for nerdrocker

Sydney's finest reunited

Another lengthy hiatus, another Blue Nile album. Here Paul Buchanan revisits the same spot on the hillside overlooking the evening city lights, is still filled with the same surging, oblique melancholy and longing that has sustained The Blue Nile since 1984, is still crafting singularly mature MOR in a darker shade of turquoise all his own. This time, however, the overall return feels diminished in effect—"I Would Never", for instance, trespasses dangerously close to U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For".

Songwriting duo who made up the important bit of Crowded House

London-based pop collective's chewy hits in expansive format

Blameless boogie from two distinct golden eras

Much-travelled Carolinian marks return with compelling, grown-up pop record

Electro-pop from the heart of Europe

Nashville power-pop godfather returns

Diminishing returns from Scottish multi-instrumentalist