While some tracks could stand to have their ideas explored more fully – in particular “Default” which ends suddenly right as things start to swell – this is still a satisfying listen from start to finish.

The record pleasantly showcases Kesha’s impressive vocal range, emotive delivery and riff performance, but the final song is a spark that serves to highlight the unevenness of the album.

From A Birds Eye View ups the stakes in every imaginable way from his rookie outing, The Lost Boy. Still, it lacks a true it-factor, suffering from questionable songs and moments. Luckily, the emcee’s ever-growing ambitions as an artist are put on full display here—even if they haven’t been fully realized quite yet.

There’s no denying the trio put on a dedicated show on Providence, but it’s easy to argue that producer Dave McCracken puts too heavy a coat of gloss over the whole thing, leaving a gaudy, saturated aftertaste on the album.

Balancing stately pop ornamentation with more bombastically orchestrated moments, the album allows Meiburg to both indulge and scale back his dramaturgical impulses.

The good news is that The Strokes have delivered a good album. The bad news is that for all its throwback production, it doesn't really sound much like The Strokes, and many of their longtime fans are probably going to be disappointed in an album that doesn't retreat to the sound of the band's glory days with its tail between its legs.

While One Second of Love contains this personal touch of sound, it isn't used to potential.

There's a lot of kinda clichéd and heavy-handed stuff.

Thematically, Born This Way dances between fantasy and fiction and plays out like an autobiography; every track and moment weaved from the DNA and life of Gaga.

The experimental mindset is evident in moments of Right Thoughts, but only a select few, and like Tonight, it’s most prominent on the last few tracks.

Sticking to a playbook can be a great approach, but Diet Cig seem to be always aiming for “proficient”, while the “exemplary” boxes languish unchecked.

Any who listen to this record will enjoy it, there’s no reason not to. However, with more run time than ideas, the album runs the risk of having both too much and not enough to make listeners keep coming back.

Rainbows may well be the best thing Kweli has done since Quality.

Without any stylistic or conceptual thread tying these songs together (other than the generic tag of lo-fi pop) this album leaves just a bit wanting. It's a great album, but it's kept from being one for the ages based on that disjointedness.

There's nothing bad about it--at all--but considering how much work seems to have gone into it, it should feel that bit more captivating.

Coming up with interesting sounds isn't an issue for these guys, it's putting them together that is.

The music never gets in the way, and works pretty much perfectly to help the songs ebb and flow, and to heighten the best moments.

Total Nite comes less than a year on from Children of Desire and feels like a natural continuation of their sound.

At this point, for better or worse, this is what we can expect from the band: shades of what came before, a glint of the glory days, and a workmanlike determination to soldier on. Kapranos admitting he’s got the fear, it seems, doesn’t change too much.

In the end, there’s a pure, unadulterated joy on display here; a spiritual likeness closer to the early new wave of Killing Joke and The Cure – or aforementioned 90s alternative rock – than to the poetic nostalgia of the indie generation.

Despite leaning into a slightly different, more openly bold anthemic sound, the album is consistent with what may be expected to come from the band. Per usual, each lyric is written with clear intentionality. Where the band has gone astray and allowed themselves to drift is in the instrumentation.

The songs are mostly good enough to sustain interest through multiple listens.

Zoo is a well-produced record that captures a band on its way up the ladder.

Though Ulven sounds in a better place, she’s still not free from the worry and anxiety that also comes with elation and joy. It colours her music as much as the kitschy stuff does here.

Sometimes you can't ask for groundbreaking. Holograms is far more than good enough without such a label.

It sounds like fun; precisely what the Odd Future discography has been lacking lately.

It avoids sounding too similar to their debut, but retains the likeable elements of that record with added gusto.

Saab Stories is the least appealing of those [albums], but that has less to do with the rapper and more to do with the production which doesn’t allow this extra-large personality to conflate alongside it. Action Bronson is a big man; he just needs room to breathe.