For an overwhelming portion of this Ryan Adams-produced record, La Sera just sound a bit too polite, and lacking in the smirking mischief of previous releases.

With a stark lyrical dexterity and deliciously noodling guitar riffs, the album is torn between crippling sentiment and stark detachment.

They don’t often get the time to build a song from nothingness to explosion quite as well as they mastered on their debut. It’s a powerplay that largely works, yet still takes enough rests to showcase a frantically beating heart and a definite intelligence underneath.

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

Falling somewhere in between the sophistication of Everything Everything and the flamboyancy of Maroon Five, it isn’t until the halfway point, and ‘I Feel the Weight’ that the familiar chill of previous releases is restored.

Throughout, United Crushers teases with an array of complex stick-work and trickling synths. Everything suggests that Poliça have finally drawn straws and found something to stick with--and they definitely haven’t picked the shortest.

On Long Way Home, she delivers these in spades.

Essentially, what each track on At Hope’s Ravine has in common, is the blistering intensity with which it’s delivered, culminating in the ever-intensifying title track and the cathartic sonic explosion with which it bows out. A staggering debut album.

It’s hard to ignore the inconsistency and feeling that something’s lacking from its second half. That said, the rough-around-the-edges charm and guitar-packed indie give DMA’s a great starting point on this album.

A bright, well constructed and boldly vivid first outing, showing a first rate ear for instantly osmosing melody, this debut is written for the Christine in everyone.

As impressively considered as the group are when it comes to their compositions, they evoke a cold feeling of invulnerability within their music that’s hard to avoid.

Unexplored avenues, Nutriblended genre combinations, and left-field pop gold have always been Santigold’s bag, and though the price tag here may be 99¢, she’s never sounded freer.

In boldly delving into their pop sensibilities, the group have created an album that encompasses their intriguing convictions for different genres and refined it into a record of high quality.

Trim the fat and you’d wind up with a special record, but with those bizarre moments gone, The 1975 would also lose some of their bombastic charm.

From the shifting tempos of ‘Copper Mines’ to the serene beginning and raucous math-y crescendo of closer ‘Hold Your Own Hand’ When You Walk A Long Distance And You Are Tired is never settled, and never should be.

It’s all too nice, too safe, and ultimately, too predictable.

They didn’t rush into Operator, and the compelling finished article is proof that patience pays dividends in the album game. Other rock debuts this year may well prove more immediately accessible, but few are likely to be as thrillingly original.

Though the London band don’t exactly attack in a fist-raised blaze of mega-riffs, they hit hard all the same with quick, sharp, and consistently executed blows of effortless songwriting.

Come the curtain call closer of ‘Push’, it’s evident to see Love Yes serves as the most iridescent article of TEEN’s discography--a crowning jewel that’s wildly flamboyant on first impression yet deeply personal upon closer inspection.

There’s no doubt that the record’s production is second to none and Garratt’s talent is as obvious as an Uber driver’s Sat Nav, but his USP is somewhat dimmed by hours and hours of carefully chosen layers, vocals and everything else in between.

Taking an unmistakable euphoria and driving it home, with Life Of Pause Wild Nothing might have planted their feet firmly on the ground, but that hasn’t stopped Jack Tatum from creating a soundscape straight from your wooziest daydream.

Following two discouraging albums, Need Your Light represents another stumble in the New Yorkers’ career. A disappointment.

With every sound shoved forward in the mix, oodles of white space floats inbetween the sound-splats. Every moment is for the taking. Painting With marks an immediate, and physical new direction, and anything seems possible.

A genius--and yes, perhaps a little bit crazy--with an attention to detail like no other, no matter what might slip from his grasp ($53 million for one, if recent statements are to be believed), Kanye West is in full control of every atom of The Life Of Pablo.

Whenever debut LP neo swerves close to normality, these formula-shunners tear things to shreds.

Packed with brilliance, ambition and warmth, SVIIB may be the full stop on the band’s work together, but it’s an album that will stand as the perfect goodbye.

Human Ceremony isn’t anywhere near fault-free, but its charm arrives when the trio get ahead of themselves.

For the most part it works--a few repeated listens and the melodies and hooks bury themselves in the brain. But on tracks like ‘Car’ and ‘Be Apart’, Maine’s determination to retain that sense of despair can overshadow everything and cause some slight desensitivity.