The Olympians don't break the mould here, but they deliver robust soul with tight compositions, florid instrumentation and that trademark Daptone sound that feels authentic and earned.

Need Your Light is certainly a step up from Beta Love, but Ra Ra Riot are missing the orchestral edge that originally set them apart from other groups in their genre, making it feel inessential despite being quite likeable.

Having more songs available to stream results in more royalties, though it doesn't equate to a flawless full-length.

With this album, Superheaven have outdone themselves, writing a tight set of perfectly balanced songs that create a refreshing, unified whole.

Full Circle as a whole feels anti-climactic. It's a rough start for Haelos, aren't exactly short on potential--here's hoping they branch out and find themselves on future releases.

There isn't much here for serious followers of modern electronic music. It will bore you mostly, which--not to be dismissive here--appears to be the point entirely.

Above all, Cynic's New Year sounds incredible; its production quality alone is worth several listens.

Golden Grrrls is an entertaining enough way to spend 30 minutes, although there's little below the surface.

Moments of souled-out bliss are only temporary, pushed aside by jarring, more aggressive fare reportedly stemming from his interest in the music of Death Grips.... These louder tracks are done no favours by the process by which they were engineered: compressed and distorted in a fashion that leaves Tyler's vocals largely inaudible.

It's all very un-Explosions-like, but it works to not only create diversity in their discography, but also as a moody album that can provide moments of levity.

He masterfully delivers a snapshot of a disjointed, vibrant and inherently flawed system as seen through one of electronic music's longstanding visionaries.

A record that prefers to build up intensity before letting it ebb away, doling out flashes of propulsive rhythm in snatches and grasps rather than in the four-on-the-floor anthemic grooves favoured by so many bands these days, Sleeping Operator feels out of time, apart, distinct.

On Nights in the Dark, California X are comfortable in their own skin and playing at the peak of their powers, but the album would have fared best as a pared down EP nonetheless.

It's a slow album, but through multiple listens, we're treated to the same complexities, but personal and musical, that have made him such a fascinating figure throughout the past decade.

Maine's ability to draw out peculiar emotions and thoughtfully pairing them with euphoric sounds in a deliberate way makes The House a natural and more than satisfying sequel to Pool.

Despite a greater variance in beat drops and textural flourishes (that way the drum machine fades into the post-chorus saxophone is the only redeemable thing about "Honey"), the middling mid-tempo The Life of a Showgirl strays even further from the magic Swift's pen once wielded.

The album is frustrating, with no middle ground, and the strengths don't quite make up for the weaknesses.

Though a touch disjointed, at times, The Search Engine is a trip.

These are supremely creative songs ― violently sexy, humorous and malformed extractions from some of experimental music's most delightfully twisted minds.

Much of it is too unremarkable for it to be anything but a decent starting point for Quarrell to build upon.

Although the quality of the album tends to range drastically, it does offer a few glimpses as to why his music is so strongly followed. In the end, though, Dwell winds up being somewhat lukewarm.

United by Madlib's crackly, jazzy samples, messy scratched hooks and bizarre sense of humour, Yessir Whatever is a gleeful trip down the rabbit hole of psychedelic rap.

Calico Review may leave the listener feeling a little parched, too, as it doesn't paint as bright and stirring a picture as either of its predecessors.

Forced Witness is perhaps too heavily grounded in the sounds of the decade [early '80s], to the point that a "heard it before" spectre hangs over the album.

Thomas Arsenault manages to convincingly combine his penchant for heart-on-your-sleeve lyricism and dance floor oriented-beats to craft an almost-perfect collection of nostalgia-tinged pop songs.

The diversity of Future Brown never once feels overwhelming, making the trip through these sounds from a futuristic dance floor satisfying throughout.

On News from Nowhere, Darkstar have completed their transformation from playing in an overexposed genre to being in an irresolute one.

The result is a sprawling, warm and idiosyncratic album that doesn't sound as much like collaboration as it probably could have.