An astonishing debut from an essential new band.

It all feels a bit too calculated at times, though when he ventures into the realms of floral Kinks-y psych pop on 'Mystic Mile' or the slack Beach-Boys-via-Mac-Demarco style surf of 'Never Gonna Hold You Like I Do', there's a promising glimmer of the discrete and intrepid artist he could be.

His incorporation of lo-fi house and cosmic techno uplifts through the smallest dosage, and induces a powerful stupor until you're out the other side, perching on a Balearic mountaintop.

The unconventional twists and turns of My Love Is Cool makes Wolf Alice one of the most exciting new bands around.

Alternative Light Source is a worthy successor to 'Rhythm & Stealth', not as sparse or hard hitting but brimming with energy, ideas and familiar Leftfield diaphragm-rattling bass.

On occasion, it gets a little too pleasant, but, when the songs soar, it’s an infectious listen and, with the prospect of summer sunshine ahead, it will serve to soundtrack hazy days.

While familair touchstones remain in place, they are thouroughly eroded and inverted by Doctor L's production adding subtle,a dn not so subtle, layers of noise and distortion along with a throbbing bass presense and post punk reverb.

A solid debut, then, and one most likely coming to a festival stage near you this summer. Buckle up and be satisfied.

A hugely accomplished debut album.

There is a Big League sheen to much of this record which, mercifully, at no point saps the band's wildly abandoned creativity.

FFS manage to combine all the characteristics of what makes each band appealing but the record never veers too close to Franz Ferdinand territory and neither does the supergroup fully embrace the experimental side of Sparks.

This is savvy, intelligent music.

The album is littered with so many clunky lines and cliched conspiracy talk it almost becomes laughable, but the main problem is with the narrative itself which makes next to no sense at all.... Luckily, a good sizeable chunk of this album is good enough to stand alone, stripped of the high-minded concepts.

Denmark's Kölsch repeats the trick of 2013's '1977', hanging on the coattails of the EDM set with a less extravagant set of fireworks but with plenty of instantly recognisable and effectively crafted signposts and set pieces.

A bold, kaleidoscopic funnel of sound, Valet's rich return is worthy of celebration.

The songs that do aim to be bigger however, simply don't stand-up against their previous work or the mellower parts of the album.

PINS still have a long way to go, but they've essentially done what few bands achieve on their second album: made a record more focused and measured while retaining rawness and negating the use of effusive production.

As a collected body of work At.Long.Last.A$AP is far from dreadful, but taken as a whole it lacks the elements of depth and star quality that--having set the bar incredibly high with his debut--many expect from A$AP Rocky.

There's a wild-eyed energy that pulsates throughout Nozinja Lodge's 45-minute length and, while this may be an acquired taste, it captures shangaan electro's kaleidoscopic nature perfectly.

There's nothing completely new here, but fans are sure to be satisfied, at the very least, until the collective's next album arrives.

Will Young is in fine form and, on this evidence, about 70% great.

An emotive, emphatic and often joyous collection of music that plays equally for the head and the heart.

Derulo has stripped away all of those oddities to focus purely on the music and, in the process, has lost much of what sets him apart from the pack.

The joy is in the ambiguity and Braxton's exemplary manipulation of sound and space.

As dense as it is bare, the aural fog and disorientation of alt-techno he has made his own across four albums has Actress throwing himself headfirst into a heap of wires and making sure every choice earns their right to the tracklist.

Occasionally Jaga Jazzist paint themselves into a corner--the ending of the title track plucks an earlier riff out of nowhere and it feels a little like they took the easy way out--but Starfire is never anything less than thrilling.

Mostly, Before We Forgot How To Dream reads a little like a portrait of Bridie's hero Joni Mitchell as a young artist: irreverent, observational and soulful.

The upped slickness does mean the album offers little in the way of the provocative, though, so you may be disappointed by Breakage's leniency, and a wrath that's merely implied.