Its persistent gloominess makes it a challenge to get through, but it was never intended to be just a simple alt-country album.

The majority of this record meanders along like a fuel-starved express train whose driver has taken an extended lunchbreak; experimental noise follows more experimental noise.

The Neptunes' pitch-perfect production allied with Pusha-T and Malice's vicious, witty rhymes make Hell Hath No Fury one of the records of the year.

Breaking Kayfabe is a record that demands and deserves undivided attention, its creator fashioning a brain-searing patchwork of ragged rap, electronic flourishes and truncated rhythms.

Beast Moans suffers from one weakness: the three members apparently forgot to stop and listen to each other before forging ahead with their own ideas.

You know those radio jingles in which they stick a bunch of current tunes into a big-beat mess? This has the same effect – a whizzbang confectionary, serving more to advertise the band’s back catalogue than to be any kind of durable document.

This is a superb album, and each time you listen to it you’ll find something new to like.

Songs for Christmas is beautiful.

Over twenty years later their music continues to connect.

It’s a vivid and beautiful painting that you can walk into; a magic window into another world that I'd be happy to get lost in, and never come back.

While the instrumental augmentation in most of the songs is impressive, the setlist feels less immediate than the band's past work.

Not only are these not the greatest songs in the world, they're not even a tribute to them.

Blink-182 aficionados will find plenty to enjoy here, but for those who grew wearisome of the stale pop-punk formula years ago, +44’s debut album is an unnecessary purchase.

Ethereal, meandering vocals over finger-picked guitar and very soft, low-pitched strings! With slight hints of the mediaeval in the harmonies! Can my heart take the pace?

It fits and works together perfectly despite the fact that the songs showcase the development of a thirteen-year career.

With solid production throughout, there’s little to slight Public Warning besides Sov’s hang-up with her diminutive physical stature.

If you’ve even the slightest interest in ‘heavy’ music, you simply must make Saturday Night Wrist an integral part of your record collection.

They’ve pushed themselves on this album, striving to achieve something honestly different to what was released before it. Occasionally they’ve fallen short of perfection, but for the most part this album is a certifiable success.

On the whole, Noise Floor is a fascinating concoction of delights that documents the rise of one of underground USA's most prestigious talents.

[An] inventive, if uneven collection.

Diane’s strength lies in her assured voice and preternatural affinity for placing the perfect melody in the perfect place.

While the album’s steady pace makes for few edge-of-the-seat thrills, World Waits is a success of consistency and coherency.

This... might just be too scatterbrained for its own good.

If you liked Beirut, you’ll love this.

This is Crimes refined, sculpted so that its edges aren’t as jagged as many sound-clashes past have proved to be; it exhibits managed eccentricity enough to stoke the furnaces of intelligent, demand-more punks worldwide.

At times much like a soundtrack to life’s sombre and reflective moments, Roots And Crowns’ clutter-free design is a nice reminder that good music needs no window dressing.

It is, in a word, magnificent.

They are a less irreverent and more melodic Art Brut, swapping that band’s caustic wit for a far nicer type of honesty.