This album may declare itself a painting--and an intense one, at that--but there’s a much bigger picture to see here.

Yet again, Deftones have created a real beast of a record while still showing glimpses of its heart.

A tightrope walk between impulse and laser-point precision, Human Performance is Parquet Courts at their most knotted.

Silent Earthling is far from an reinvention: it’s simply Three Trapped Tigers adapting and tinkering with everything that made ‘Route One Or Die’ such an exciting debut, to end up here with a leaner, more focused, brilliant second album.

There are no answers, no solutions to any problems, and no gateway doors through escapism, but for half an hour the record shines a light through confusion, and just for a while, it doesn’t have to feel like such a loss to be lost.

All too often Welcome The Worms lacks the bite that’d make it Very Good Indeed

Super is confirmation of their position at the head of the pop pantheon with an album brimming with excitement and fizzing with energy.

It packs a ferocious punch without compromising subtlety, operating with coiled concealed restraint. With their offering, Mogwai prove once more that, after more than twenty years, they’re a constantly evolving beast of a band.

Ultimately, this is the strongest Bird has sounded in some time, but it’s not quite the monumental breakthrough that’s going to find him new fans.

Yeasayer’s album is a brilliant, breathless, great big bundle of weird. It’s also their most innovative record to date.

The Wilderness, though, is Explosions hitting autopilot when they enter uncharted airspace, rather than exploring the potentially limitless universe beyond.

Teen Suicide’s final act is nigh-on impossible to categorise or fully digest, and its nature and length makes it at the same time a difficult listen, but one that brings rewards of all different kinds across its running length.

Phoned-in and simplistic, it’s hard to decipher when one track ends and another begins.

Life-changing? Perhaps not. Life-affirming, on the other hand? You betcha.

As usual, it features some reliably masterful beat work and production, but, at the same time, falls somewhat short in becoming the grand defining statement that its creator was intending it to be.

If the songwriting on Hitch is, to coin an old music hack turn-of-phrase, ‘mature’, it’s also concise--in a good way.

On all fronts, this is a stirring return to form.

Placing air guitar and hairbrush karaoke moments alongside twirling, hands-on-heart emotion, with Stiff, White Denim place all their capabilities on show.

It’s a creative, deeply introspective record that makes up for in depth what it doesn’t quite reach in soaring heights.

The lack of time taken for ii to form itself--no weeks off to go back and reconsider minor changes, no reigning in the level of experimentation--gives the album the feel of a jam, but without falling into an undefinable mess.

Unusually consistent while still admirably varied, Chaosmosis is one of the early delights of the year.

With room for refinement this isn’t LFY’s crowning glory by any stretch, but it’s a purposeful record that shows a trio holding on to the makings of something quite special.

It’s comfortable, casual and--as is Iggy--a little bit weird at times. It’s catchy and has some great stories nestling in there--Post Pop Depression gets its hooks into you gradually with each listen.

HÆLOS are clearly intent on shunning tradition. With that in mind, this is a promising start.

The more you listen, the more you start to learn this is not an album of ‘Eleanor Rigby’s; it’s an album of ‘A Day in the Life’s.

If it could be more dynamic, there’s no doubting the precision of the songwriting, as each track digs its way into your brain, lodging itself in the shadows.

It’s simply the mark of a record that’s captured them exactly as they are at this moment in time. Although it’s tempting to call Instructions a ‘fascinating document’, it’s probably more accurate to settle for ‘rad record’.

Know It All isn’t perfect, but it’d be a challenge not to fall for even just some its charms.