This record is crawling with too many hooks and good-time jams to quibble over guitar tone.

Their self-titled debut LP packs a mighty wallop, matching a brutish, derisive attitude with whip-smart songwriting and compelling hooks.

That's Why God Made the Radio is the dad-rock album of the year.

Mission of Burma continue to create inspired, groove-laden post-rock that threatens to overshadow the acts they've influenced at every turn.

[The guitars are] the most interesting thing about Broken Water and when they aren't around things plod along uneventfully.

While Bell boasted that The Industrialist is "Demanufacture-plus," it's not quite. However, at certain times, it does come pretty close.

When Royal Thunder pull things in and keep them snappy, they're heading more towards Rival Sons turf, and that's a good place to be.

As an album, >> is twice as great as its predecessor.

Skelethon is funky, freaky and heavy on the drums.

The Moritz Von Oswald Trio deliver their most impressive and spatially alluring album to date with Fetch.

The EP is good but not great. Diplo missed an opportunity to explore a variety of emerging EDM genres, instead releasing a slew of tracks that bang hard but fail to resonate.

Musically, this might not be post-anything, but it is a postscript to an already impressive musical résumé.

Musostics isn't an unpleasant listen by any means, but it doesn't have the same kind of warmth and charm as his pals' music.

In tone and approach it suggests the populism of a lost Cat Stevens classic ("High Hopes," in particular) but with enough interesting detours.

The results surge with the crackling, raw power of their notorious live performances.

Oshin is remarkably consistent, both in terms of style and quality, and there isn't a dud amongst these 13 tracks.

Wild Peace is a transcendental album that shows a band reaching for new heights, and achieving blissful music that many of their peers can only dream of making.

Think Burial operating on a slower, divergence-filled soundscape.

It's a flawed yet noteworthy project that whets the appetite for Sandé's sophomore effort.

Daybreaker sounds stripped down, not a step up.

Despite its heavy subject matter, Rispah remains an eminently listenable release; it's proof of that somewhat clichéd adage that pain fuels great art.

The album's blend of country, pop and soul is both classic and classy.

Apple's most ingenious collection of songs to date.

With crisp, concise songwriting, slick production and subverted historical rock references, Oceania is more the addition of a new tower to the alternative palace Corgan helped build than the foundations for something strange and new.

This thing may not have a commercial sound, but it is unequivocally memorable.

This is the closest thing you'll get to an aural Scandinavian spa.

There is more introspection on display than usual, especially in the lyrics, but Hallelujah The Hills have simply grown into the band they always threatened to become.

Whitechapel have reinvigorated themselves without reinventing the sound they became known for and, in the process, produced an appropriate follow-up to their sophomore success.