Unfortunately, none of it's even remotely memorable.

'Quixotic' can't fail to mesmerise even those who thought Tricky too clever for his own good.

This is not an album to listen to casually. It insists on taking over your life for an hour, demands a level of concentration rare in rock, amply repays multiple plays.

Hitting that formula and riding it has drained some of the passion out of this sound.

Sadly for such weighty themes of trust, betrayal, loneliness, living out of a suitcase and long distance relationships, the lack of true darkness amongst the sweetness and light is a little frustrating.

Before descending without hope of return into the treacle swamp of R&B ballad hell that beckons at the halfway point, 'Dangerously In Love' offers a few passable moments.

And though the influences/peers - Stooges, Velvet Underground, Krautrock, Spiritualized, Primal Scream - remain the same, this exceptional collection of visionary psychedelia is more ethereal and somewhat bereft of the cloaked fug of death threats, serial killers or "eggs bearing insects hatching in my mind" that made 'Contino' such a brain-damaged future Goth classic.

Very much Tricky business as usual, the sound of a staggering talent laid-up with the longest case of musical flu in history.

What really makes this record engaging is that the simmering tension often chooses not to explode, yet somehow it works.

It's a record to get lost in, one that constantly surprises with its apparently infinite number of hidden harmonies and wry asides.

It's just not quite as great as some of us dared to hope.

It's startling that a commercial rock band could sound this blood-and-oxygen vital, this meaningful and mighty six albums into their career.

This is the sound of Metallica drawing back into themselves and their history.

[A] nine-minute sprawling, shifting and landing tidal wave.

Busting out of car speakers on hot London streets this summer, 'Ego War' is gonna make you think that, finally, we've got a Brit band worth adoring.

A return to quieter, more familiar Eels territory.

Cannibalising a musical canvas splattered with decades of paint, little here is truly original and the quality veers throughout, as is inevitable from the recordings of one - albeit artistically ferocious - city.

It's a masterclass in why they were, and still are, the greatest rock band to grace the Earth.

And to anyone that contends they don't make them like they did anymore: listen to this. They still do.

'14 Shades of Grey' features no standout moments or highlights, just a formulaic, plodding, sixty plus moribund minutes that make this album about an hour too long. Avoid at all costs, even if you're a member of Staind's family.

Had they imploded in some bizarre gardening accident following the release of 'Danger! High Voltage' all would be forgiven. That single still sounds classic and retains the power to get Aunt Peggy off her seat at the wedding reception..... However, the rest appears to be have been cobbled together in a matter of hours.

It is an important leap forward for one of the few American metal bands left who care about the form's emotional evolution.

Unlike his obvious contemporaries - David Gray and Tom McRae - Harcourt has produced an album that reaches out beyond the boundaries of the traditional songwriter, yet still comes packed with memorable melodies and robust songs.

It's an inferior re-run of the Marilyn Manson hammer horror panto that's been showing since '96.

Squeaky genius.

'What Sound' could easily place Lamb alongside Dido and Zero 7 on this year's coffee tables, but also sets them apart as a unique, ever challenging outfit who'll be worth following long after we've come out of corporate chillout coma.

The best songs on this cunning, efficient, frequently daft and fractionally disappointing album are the ones which sound most like the misty reveries of [their] debut.

A mature and, occasionally beautiful album, possibly the finest of their career.