Full of heart and introspective, candid lyricism, ‘Hope Handwritten’ is an overall uplifting offering, an ode to navigating the joys and messiness of falling in and out of love, and finding one’s inner strength through the chaos.

It’s all hips, handclaps and riffs, lots and lots of riffs. It isn’t perfect, but you’d be hard pressed to find a record as fun as Devour You.

[The album is] a reminder of musically, just what a great band the Flips themselves actually are.

You’ll come across both seemingly self-explanatory clues and more esoteric ones, which taunt you with their mysteries, and you will lose sense of time and reality as you wade through the debris. This album will absolutely floor you if given the chance.

Save for a couple of filler tracks--especially the trashy, throwaway 'Staying Home'--I Hate Music is an earnestly constructed album of melodic alt-rock.

Fantastically glossy and mystical.

It might take more than one or two listens to really appreciate it, but it's worth your time.

Baths’ second album is dark and distressing but ultimately compelling.

None of this is bad - in fact, it’s a collection of classic pop/rock songwriting - but when introduced with the kind of fanfare it is (and yes, compounded by the band’s past work), it feels safe.

There will be those who will listen to Indians and not get swept along with their world-weary tidings but for those who feel the same or just want to escape, this LP is perfection.

The record is not quite so relentless that it needs a pause, and at points feels as if it should move up a pace, decibel or pitch instead of the opposite way.

The decision for Brown and collaborator Jonah Swiller to finally make a record together in the same room, after two remotely composed past releases, has largely paid dividends.

It's easy to see from this record just why Hugo Manuel is in such demand and his debut, as Chad Valley will provide a significant springboard to ever more exciting climbs.

‘How To Let Go’ is an album of two halves, where at times she seamlessly slides back into the laid-back persona of old.

While ‘What’s Your Pleasure’ doesn’t quite hit the heady heights of classic disco its soft-focus imagery might suggest, it’s both a more exciting - and natural - fit for the singer than we’ve heard in some time.

It’s eerie, it’s weird, and maybe a tad too long (it could still perhaps work as a three-minute interlude or similar) but regardless, it still somehow manages to feel like Pigs x7 while offering a welcome change. By its last quarter, ‘Land of Sleeper’ feels like it’s said all it can.

By wrestling with the implications of their carefree early years on this final release, Japandroids have ensured they’ll be remembered not just as party starters, but as thoughtful songwriters, too.

‘Into The Blue’ comes across like the pair swapping mixtapes; a little ‘60s psych here, some ‘70s soul there, with a smidge of ‘80s R&B between. ... In lesser hands, this may have presented a mish-mash of confused homage, but here, it’s just a pleasant, nostalgic listen.

As stirring as some of the material is, there are a number of tracks where the weighty lyrical themes are coupled with languid and ponderous melodies which drag the pace right down to a deathly crawl.

This is an irresistibly likeable album, very much in the mould of its creator’s affable, mellow personality.

A promising album that should make the next journey with them all the more exciting.

Backed up by powerful guitars and soaring vocals, their brand of intense but atmospheric rock feels rejuvenating - and is perhaps even a tonic.

The music is complex, but not in a Phillip Glass orchestral kind of way.

In a similar context many other bands might have run dry by now. Not Calexico though, and 'Algiers' serves as a fitting reminder why they haven't.

Maps & Atlases have carved for themselves a neat little niche in the indie rock world. And we should be grateful for that, rather than having another generic album, and be interested to see where the band goes next.

There’s palpable relief when ‘Sugar’ gets proceedings underway and the thinking is all; 'Yes, Shout Out Louds, yes, this is how you start a record'--no dilly, precious little dally, instead wham-bam-slam straight into this behemoth of a pop tune.

(Almost) never not accomplished, albeit - as a whole - a little confusing, this second time around.

If you are a pre-existing fan then you will find much to enjoy here, but more importantly if you are a sceptic who thinks pop punk is a baser pleasure reserved exclusively for the under 16s, you could do a lot worse than check this album out.