V For Vaselines has been released a few months too late, for V For Vaselines is a summer album.

Though a long time coming, it seems that not rushing a follow-up has allowed London Grammar to craft a record that’s hauntingly stark, yet staggeringly beautiful, possessing a rich musicality that even now, is mature beyond the band’s young years.

Sam’s latest finds them exploring self-acceptance and self-growth across their now-classic style of soul-tinged pop. ... While ’Unholy’’s catchy melodies may be elsewhere untouchable, it breaks down the boundaries of topics to explore throughout the rest of ‘Gloria’.

It's a 'take it or leave it' kind of record, but invest in Cut Copy's deranged aims and it'll feel like being part of a free-spirited cult.

Unfortunately, this slightly more mainstream vision is consistently obscured, making Innocence Reaches a frustrating listen.

But like a fine pastiche, the presented elements are enjoyable, but there's a detached lack of soul and ardor.

In a rush to grow up they seem to have left behind some of what made them so excellent in the first place.

The frustration comes from Stains on Silence's propensity for a feeling little bit too rough around the edges, unfinished almost, despite it’s reworking.

A brilliant and unexpected ride from start to finish.

It’s hard to overstate how aggravating it is to hear somebody who once stood as the dictionary definition of “less is more” fly so flagrantly in the face of the mantra that made him.

Ultimately, as beautiful as it is in its more subdued moments, the album feels fully realised when her alternative and mainstream instincts find each other.

It's oddly accomplished, and Winston's classical background shines through.

It's fair to say that there are no real surprises here but what we do get is a solid collection of retro tinged songs that will appeal to fans of their previous work.

The duo have well established their trademark sound, and sonically ‘Ceremony’ pushes this to new extremes - the synths are darker, the drums are heavier, the vocals more melancholic than anything fans would have previously heard from them, yet still catchy as hell.

Though ‘Mama’s Boy’ won’t exactly be changing the alt-pop game, it certainly might convince you to text your ex after one too many glasses of wine.

There ‘One Foot In Front Of The Other’ saw her present a distilled version of herself, the 14-track ‘vertigo’ is at times spread a little thin. .... The sum of ‘vertigo’’s parts is triumphant in quality.

Real Lies’ debut effort instead puts forward a group who’ve clearly agonised over every detail of their early ‘90s aesthetic, and forgotten about the songs in the process.

While their hooks are huge, there are moments within Limitless that seem too polished.

A a good, clean indie-pop record, it’s a solid foot in the door for an act with a prosperous future ahead of them.

The refocusing of his songwriting has led to undoubted growth in SOHN’s work, but that stunted sense of adventure leaves moments that fall between the cracks.

It may be easy to enjoy at the time, but this third full-length leaves no lasting impression.

Genres fall by the wayside as krautrock melts into a studied and dense electronica, and pulls either towards the tenseness of post-punk or the hazy surrealism of shoegaze.

Adam’s still the pied piper of indie, with a skip in his step and charm for days.

Lauv’s second record certainly provides an array of sweet pop highs, but still doesn’t quite show us who the writer behind it all really is.

They do truly make a beautiful noise together. That said, vocals can't account for everything and, in an album so marked by its makers' laryngeal input, it seems as though the rest got a little neglected.

Purposefully lo-fi, it would be easy to dismiss as self-indulgent nostalgia, yet its quirky charms and understated directness more often than not outweigh its faults.

Intentionally overwrought, brash, and totally different to anything she’s ever done before, Lady Gaga’s Joanne doesn’t quite nail the artistic frankness she’s aiming for.

Blame Confusion is great.... It spends its whole ten tracks threatening to break out in to full-blown epic--but remains able to stop short every time.