There is an amiable and glowing exterior to Warm Blanket that does offers some occasional sustenance--just don't expect anything to really get your teeth in to.

2 of 2, then, is an incredibly frustrating experience.

Despite the harvest festival charm that carries the record, its heart is here, at its starkest, most honest moments.

It's not a perfect record in any sense (the occasional lyrical couplet falls awkwardly), but within such punk atmospheres, flaws perversely become strengths.

Despite the nature of the record it's never a self-indulgent or forlorn listen, jumping from one emotion to the next, all the while held together by some truly excellent musicianship and wry Scottish lyrics.

Much like the youth the record so pointedly evokes, it’s worth going through everything to get to this point.

As with every Au Revoir Simone record, it's so easy to sling your headphones on and find yourself swept up in the music.

This is a proud record that is best played loud, and often.

As was the case with Jinx, Days Are Gone benefits from limiting its affections to a single golden era of its genre. It gives the album a sense of cohesiveness when it would have been so easy to create a tangled mess (cf. Everything Everything), so it’s to the band’s great credit that they’ve made something so pleasantly easy to listen to.

It’s a cohesive experience, solidly held together within itself, spurring re-listening not just as a conscious opportunity for thematic re-evaluation, but through the compelling, primal sense of purgative compressed energy within their sound itself.

It’s a crisp, clear makeover that gives the record a greater definition and focus without piling on the polish, tightening it but toughening it too.

A covers record will probably never pique interest in the way that a fresh batch of new material will. But for those who do take the risk, fans and the curious alike, Imitations is a touching, tasteful and rewarding listen that will not disappoint.

The Diving Board feels like an album made by somebody who’s spent the last few years performing the same set list night after night in Vegas.

In spite of its sweeping musical and thematic ambitions, The Electric Lady emerges as a surprisingly coherent listen.

There may be nothing here that pricks emotion like ‘When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease’ and this may not be the truly brazen, bold Harper of the Seventies but it’s a record of reflection, of experimentation, sometimes of egotism, often of near-mystical sadness.

This is powerful stuff, showing that not only is Anders Trentemøller one of the best in his field but also a master of the album craft. One for the long haul.

Despite Mazzy Star sounding as good as they always have, Seasons Of Your Day only goes to show that the rest of the world has finally caught up with them.

At least there’s a couple of good ones here to stick onto the singles collection that’s inevitably just around the corner.

Overall, Rewind The Film won't be afforded the same reverence as Manic Street Preachers more definitive outings. Nevertheless, in the context of the present, it's the sound of a band growing old gracefully in reminiscent mood yet firmly at ease with their lot.

There’s no denying that the band has released a fully coherent statement.

This is hardly revelatory stuff--the days of Sebadoh blowing minds and claiming hearts are now far behind them, but then maybe they don’t have to do that anymore.

It is a great record, at times. But when the elements don’t quite chime it suffers.

the overall sense is that they [The Roots] have reignited him [Costello], the combination of one of England’s great lyricists and production from arguably America’s most forward-thinking band resulting in a crisp, funky, even dangerous sounding album as political and as relevant as anything this year.

To the casual ear, this could be any of their other albums. But with such a consistent sound, it becomes harder for individual songs to stand out.

There’s a master at work, no doubt about it, but he’s already living in the future writing complex symphonies, letting the rest of us know that everything’s going to be ok.

Weird Sister’s ebbs, flows, peaks and troughs: a shape-shifting, nuanced LP that could be described as derivative, but never formulaic.

It's an assured collection of 11 songs that capture a mixture of exhilaration and heartbreak that is all their own.

This collection provides years of Beach Boys fun and suitably celebrates their 50 years.