As an album in its own right it is terrifically tedious, 40-something minutes of mindless, meandering muso-muscle flexing with a never-more-limp ineffectiveness.

[Seeds is] not up there with its makers’ very best releases, but a welcome indication that they still absolutely mean business.

This is enduring evidence that the purest, most interesting music inevitably comes without hefty production or marketing budgets.

Not quite as developed or controlled as its parent album, ‘Vapor City Archives’ underlines the sheer creative nous running through Machinedrum right now.

Imperfect, but still as absolutely bloody essential as the best of Fugazi always was.

Eight songs, many of which feel too long; recorded in eight cities that don’t really leave their unique mark on the sonic side of the experience; each with a guest who is, at best, an apparition dancing in the shadows of the spot-lit stars; yielding eight largely forgettable arrangements that won’t make a dent on any fan’s all-time top 10.

The songs are largely beautiful, the vocal performance is mostly impeccable and the recording generally captivating, but so was its predecessor.... not quite as good live album.

It’s schizophrenic and really quite silly in places, Broke is never less than entirely entertaining.

It’d be interesting to hear what this band comes up with if they stepped away from a doomy signature sound, but right now this is an assured album and a satisfying follow-up.

In The Seams is the most intricately beautiful auditory to coexist with. Just let it in.

Content Nausea sees the band’s Andrew Savage and Austin Brown bashing out a short, pithy not-quite-an-LP while their fellow bandmates variously become parents and math graduates.

A captivating, at times unexplainable reaching of pained highs and battered lows.

Hookworms have a huge, infectious energy, best evidenced on the wild organ grooves and ridiculously weighty drumming of ‘Radio Tokyo’, but some of the finest moments come when they adopt a more considered, less-immediate approach.

From ‘cover art’ to core, it might seem the listener is last on his list, but this is just classic reverse psychology. The less Dean Blunt cares, the more we do.

It won’t be for the faint-hearted, but if the primal throb of Neneh Cherry’s ‘Blank Project’ ensnared you in the early months of 2014--and it’s hard to imagine how it wouldn’t have--then there is similar pleasure to be found in the utterly absorbing company of Rhythm.

Swift’s vocals are triumphant, soaring, wild throughout--she is a fantastic singer, and 1989 does showcase her ability to attack a track of any style and claim it as her own, even if the ultimate results feel like a compromise had to be found to make the final cut.

This is hardly music to quicken the pulse and there’s no escaping the sense of sameyness over the album’s 40 minutes.

The lyrics can spill into the realm of over-earnestness at points, but overall this is slick and dancefloor-ready.

He returns in possession of a gloriously direct set of songs that feel instantly familiar.

Power drifting through the gears and with cutting-edge in hand, this is a shoe-in contender for house album of the year--clear and distinct, all the way through.

For most of its running time, you won’t want to move anywhere, either. Maybe don’t stay that way forever, but frequent returns to Ruins in the coming years are guaranteed.

If you can cope with the extreme twee, Heartleap is a diamond.

The mask of the brooding troubadour doesn’t quite fit: the LP is marred by below-par, uninspired vocals and rudimentary lyrics.

Interspersed among the cheerful speed anthems are pretty, delicate moments that highlight the enduring songwriting bond that prevails between Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee.

Her very personal, almost rapper-like approach to writing and melody is at its best on the LP’s most emotional cuts.

Run The Jewels has again pushed rap away from regular rhythms and rhymes and into territories that they’re still calculating the dimensions of. May they never reach the sum of such remarkable parts and continue to exclusively Run Them Jewels fast.

A four-track EP that runs for the best part of 25 minutes and possesses more depth, more intrigue, than most full-lengths running to twice as long.

A marvellous new set, then, that only develops its makers’ already enviable reputation.