Amok is a tenaciously rich and strong album that is certainly the work of gifted musicians.

Through its eleven songs Komba is exactly what we all need from time to time: a hopeful rejoicing in life itself.

Heaven is Whenever is not just a vast improvement from their last effort but it's also a fifth album from a band that still sounds surprisingly awesome and it's just another album for a detractor to listen to and hopefully, fall in love with--it's only a matter of time.

Answers is a document of how good instrumentals can be written without walls clearly delineating where the verse ends and the chorus begins.

It's this robust fervor and subject matter that fire up and lift up many of the songs on Ceremonials, but the constant exhortation comes at a price. Listener fatigue sets in as the relentless, up-tempo pace and sharply exclamatory vocal tone overwhelms over the course of the album.

Them Crooked Vultures is a wonderful introduction to this all-star band.

The remarkably focused and eclectic The Possum In The Driveway.

While Daisy does have its share of issues, it is by no means a bad album. The fact is that it falls beneath Brand New’s lofty standards.

There's no denying that Departing is miles ahead of where the band was a year ago and while die-hards will love Hometowns for a long time to come, Departing is absolutely the band's strongest work to date.

These supposed table scraps left off their previous two albums, Good News… and We Were… respectively, run a gauntlet that finds the band revitalized, lively and tremendously wonderful.

Come Home to Mama is lyrically stiff on top of instrumental complexity. The lyrics need to be pulled way back. What does work are the opening beats and rhythms awash in a mix of sonic, ambient environments.

Focusing on the music and what's happening within and around it – enables Hive Mind to deliver a truly excellent aural experience.

Each song is impactful and memorable, with a fantastic approach to songcraft that focuses on minimal gestures, mixed with tremendous layers and layers of sounds.

All of this exceptionally solid music is a remarkably beautiful thing to witness.

With Humbug, they have an album that can be fully enjoyed by anyone willing to give it a fair chance.

The fuzz and drone of Today is the Day is a refreshing look back at the band’s mid-90s, Painful/Electropura era.

Black Lips are able to both faithfully emulate some annoyingly nearly-recognisable sixties and seventies styles while using the one-take demo approach to give their own 3 chord song structures an air of immediacy that prevents the album from sliding too quickly into the pit marked “slavish recreation.”

Everything about Midnight Boom is impeccably executed.

The Moonlight Butterfly won't allow The Sea And Cake to set the world on fire but with its reviving studio craftsmanship and exploratory attitude, it should happily smoulder in the ears of those who needed the band to deliver something just a little to the left of a self-defined centre.

One of the most interesting and rewarding things about hearing the tracks as they appear on this release, is knowing that they are presented here in their earliest incarnations, Earth's chrysalis stage, if you will.

Lost in most of the noise and clutter was Jenn Wasner’s fantastic voice and Andy Stack’s ability as a “wall of sound” creator. On their new album, The Knot, these skills are not only refined but they showcase a wider, more advanced decadence and a band that sounds that much better, because of it.

Trying to isolate moments on PUMPS! proves fairly fruitless, though. It’s a totally immersive experience, best approached with trust and surrender.

There's a definite new feel to an album by Bibio in 2011; while many of the singular trademarks remain, there are choice additions that make for another triumph of a release for the British producer.

This album includes boasts a brilliant storyteller, amazing music, and, most important, beautifully delivered lyrics.

These songs are painfully uneventful.

It’s not prog rock. It’s not punk rock. It’s not emo. It’s not indie. It’s just music, and it will incinerate your mind if you let it.

Write About Love may not be remembered as a seminal Belle & Sebastian long-player but its uncomplicated charms still make it an effective ephemeral pleasure.

This album is a feast for the uninitiated.