As much as everybody appreciates a good reunion, 10 isn’t really worth getting excited about unless you’re a diehard fan.

At times this recording is compelling, entrancing even with its sheer beauty; occasionally though it drags.

With all the ingredients for success laid bare, Sempiternal comes as the lightbulb moment--the clicking into place of every cog and spring, Bring Me The Horizon more than ready to accept the gauntlet thrown to them.

Overall, this is a highly enjoyable work packed with infectious licks and proves to be an easy album to get along with from the get-go.

The liberated, enlivened music on You Have Already Gone To The Other World proves they are still one of the genre’s indispensable players.

The punkier title track stands out, as does the ferocious No Surrender, both featuring in their breakdowns the standout riffs from the album. But too much of the rest is lost in a barrage of blast beats, bluster, and bludgeon.

The past is somehow devoured, processed and regurgitated to form a completely refreshing and new substance; this is heavenly stuff that marks a departure from the modern sound.

He’s lived it long and hard, and with this album Bradley continues to lay out all the goodness and badness of life and love, with soul to spare.

An album that could just see Hemming and company add some more fans in addition to their celebrity admirers.

While The Terror feels at first glance like an exercise in noise and disintegration, repeated listens reveal it to be a dark, challenging, and ultimately rewarding work of genius. It may be their best yet.

While debuts can often be bold and brash, Vondelpark’s alternative, understated approach is to be commended.

There’s a distinct absence of envelope-pushing on Until In Excess… – but frankly, when the result is this beautiful, who can really bring themselves to care?

While the album does lose some of its focus and direction towards the end, Dear Miss Lonelyhearts is undoubtedly a much better album than Mine Is Yours.

While British Sea Power do occasionally revert back to the anthemic formula that worked so well on previous albums, on the whole, Machineries Of Joy is a more considered and composed effort.

What sets Bleached apart is their palpable energy, consistent catchiness, and the sheer effortlessness of their sound.

The reality that Vanishing Point is such a vibrant and quintessential Mudhoney album makes it a real triumph.

As an album @Reverend_Makers provides infectiously good spirits, a good bit of Sheffield steel and a nice dash of humour here and there too, delivered with a dose of urban grit.

The result is not, unlike many of his peers, a symphony of interlinking tracks, but a collection of individuals that, together, tell a unified story of emotion.

Despite the 22-year hiatus, Crime & The City Solution sound as if they’ve never been away, and with such a strong comeback there’s no reason why they can’t finally make an attempt of gaining the recognition they deserve.

While Tedder can on occasion craft lyrics that strike the perfect balance between simplicity and grandiosity, he flounders a bit too often on Native.

A big, gorgeous old hug of an album.

In parts, it’s just as absorbing as anything they’ve released.

Not quite buoyant but still enthusiastic, Via should encourage listeners to start paying attention.

New album Delta Machine is about more than simple fulfillment--going one further to actively excite, as it lays the template for some of the band’s most vigorous, energetic material in 15 years.

If you get past the fact that CBV aren’t trying to be radical or cutting edge, or even particularly contemporary, you’ll find a pleasantly undemanding, chilled-out record that’s the perfect soundtrack for all those warm summer evenings we’re crossing our fingers for at the moment.

This record is fun, it’s exuberant, and it’s diverse--and yet nothing sounds unnatural or feels crowbarred in.

For Howard it’s important to not just make music that sounds interesting; it’s vital to make music that exists in its own little world, unknowable and distinctly alluring. Nostalchic is an album that certainly achieves those aims.

Taken strictly as an aural experience, it’s a brave and sometimes moving work that nonetheless falls well short of success.

Division Street finds Simon in the midst of finding his own voice.

Island Universe is a reassuringly confident and energetic album, and suggests a band with enough promise to make even stronger bodies of work in the future.

The Happiness Waltz may not be the most exciting record you’ll hear this year, but it does exactly what it says on the tin.

Hobba’s songwriting is simply not up to par: melody, lyric, and arrangement come off like caricatures of their desired styles; it seems often that in an attempt to replicate the feel of a classic rock song, all of the fun is lost.

The band crafts incredibly tight arrangements of complex, space-age country rock songs that require patience, vision, and time to create. Often, this approach is impressive. And, frankly, it is not always successful.

Admittedly there’s no new ground being discovered here in a wider sense (fans of Foals and Battles will be particularly unsurprised) but this sheer enthusiasm that runs throughout the album is really pretty infectious.

There’s a definite ambiguity in these songs that means that it is possible to find both the beauty and the beast depending upon how they are approached.

While many of those who fell in love with The Virgins the first time around may be put off by the absence of addictive indie-disco hits, Strike Gently is a quite remarkable, and effortlessly crafted, reinvention.

At just over half an hour, it’s a short, sharp shock to the system which contains some of Stern’s best songs to date.

JT has again done a fine job here. The 20/20 Experience shows the pop album isn’t dead.

They have made a patchy record that’s very much intended for loyal followers who have completely bought into their long established aesthetic.

Water On Mars is a very impressive rock LP that easily takes Polizze and Purling Hiss to another level and bears comparison to the best of the nation’s numerous indie rock luminaries.

Heavy it most certainly is, but Daughter succeed simply by creating phenomenally beautiful music and heart-rending songs.

The density of its production and the slipperiness of its song structures ensures that this album isn’t for everyone. But for those with a high tolerance for psychedelic whimsy and the time to invest in repeated listens, Wondrous Bughouse offers ample pleasures.

As a stand-alone piece, it is unremarkable, and even A Violent Sky--the beautiful and wistful closing track--can’t redeem it entirely.

An often spectacular document of pain, no doubt, but it remains a record to admire rather than invest in, turning you away with its bleakness when it promises comfort

It’s to their huge credit that they have made such an assured and immersive album on their own terms.

Ultimately, Fiction have all the ingredients to work, but they don’t click together as much as they should on The Big Other.

Miami frustrates and falls well short in terms of capturing hearts as readily as it will minds.

There’s a majestic soulfulness here too that makes The Invisible Way one of their strongest, most coherent works.

Much of it feels like pastiche, albeit of an often very entertaining sort.

Life After Defo is both complex and accessible, intricate and immediate.

Houck’s sixth full-length album takes the mournful country-rock seemingly perfected on Here’s To Taking Things Easy and runs with it, creating his most realised record yet.

Monkey Minds In The Devil’s Time is a rich and literate album, which inspires conversation and debate.

It features some undeniably strong songs but is lacking a vitality which would make it a convincing listen. Nonetheless, it’s fascinating in its own way.

Sometimes the sound can appear overly clean, but on the whole Arnalds makes intelligent, informed decisions on the musical options available to him.

The release of The Next Day would have been one of the biggest stories of the year no matter what its quality--the fact that it also happens to be one of the best records of Bowie’s career to date just makes the comeback that much more triumphant.

While the highs aren’t quite as high and the lows are quite a bit lower than they have been previously in his career, Mala might just be the grown-up album Devendra Banhart has been waiting a decade to make.

While the album is described as a myriad of styles, there’s nothing to really demonstrate this: only the reggae and reggae-related genres are consistently and tiresomely reflected.

Exile is found wanting when they try too much to be the stadium band rather than allowing the drama to play out.

The riffs are crushing rather than classic, and Andrew Drury’s vocals are full of conviction and spirit but perhaps a little one-dimensional. But for anyone with their toe already dipped in the metal bath, and in danger of selling their soul to the preeners and posers, Baptists might just be their saviour.

Stornoway have boldly struck out and in doing so have navigated the often choppy waters of the second album with panache.

It’s a towering achievement, building on what has come before while expanding it in astonishing ways. This is undoubtedly one of the best albums of the year.

Love From London is by no means an Earth-shaking or life-changing record, but its virtues are plentiful, and so well balanced that its title is by equal measures sarcastic and sincere.

Eerie, melancholy and yet strangely soothing, The Deserters is an album to treasure, whatever the season.

Sudden Elevation is yet another solid display of Arnalds’ talents and is arguably the LP that most newcomers to the singer-songwriter should arrive at first.

They are truly captivating when they take the best of their talents and translate them as they feel and, frankly, it matters little whether the product bears sonic points of reference to others or not.

A very odd and somewhat unpredictable partnership, but one that is pleasantly surprising in its own way.

Overdriven, overblown and utterly exciting, it might be nothing new, but it’s a thunderous reminder as to why rock is so enduring.

there are occasions on Girl Talk when we get glimpses of what another, better Kate Nash indie rock album would have sounded like.... Unfortunately, moments such as these are the exception, not the rule, on Girl Talk.

On Hymnal, Benoît Pioulard has succeeded in creating something rich and rewarding.

Not without fault, the album is a solid, cohesive work--and sign of The Cave Singers’ electrifying potential.

While Ashin is clearly a major talent, he just needs to dial it down from time to time if he’s to deliver a wholly satisfying record.

A missed opportunity, then, but also perhaps the beginnings of a creative resurgence.

As an album, it doesn’t break any new ground--it doesn’t try to. What it does do though is sweep itself up in a groundswell of beautiful, heart-tugging nostalgia so strong it’s as if 2003 lies just beyond the window again, shimmering in the haze of the morning dew.

The record is overweight with memorable tunes, epic and intimate at the same time.

The album’s initial momentum is not quite there by the three quarter distance, but Woman is an album that more than merits time.

This is an album that demands attention. An album that is experiential--at once lo-fi and richly textured--where the listener is a fly on the wall, mesmerised by minor-chord introspections that come in waves – some lap gently; others overwhelm.

Exai shows they still occupy a special position in the current generation of forward-thinkers, producing music that couldn’t have been made at any other time other than now, unostentatiously trailblazing a path for others to follow in.

The Raven That Refused To Sing (And Other Stories) is certainly an intense listen, but it is ultimately a rewarding one, despite its ability to frustrate or confound.

The album does not quite have the same frisson of avant weirdness that the best Sonic Youth records have, but there is more than enough quality here to once again establish the eternally youthful Thurston Moore as one of alternative rock’s most vital voices.

Nevertheless, like British Sea Power have recently done with Man of Aran and From the Land to the Sea Beyond, Mogwai have again produced a soundtrack that stands up as an album in its own right.

It’s true that General Dome won’t be for everyone, but Dyer and Sanchez have certainly assembled an interesting creation.

No Compass Will Find Home is yet another curious listen from Merz.

There are plenty of great moments, but at times, it is almost too experimental.

It’s a beautifully produced album with a consistent sound which they can finally call shot gun on.

It’s a strong start to the record, which becomes even stronger when Wandering Eye is taken into consideration.

All things considered, Hamilton needs to focus less on blending parts together, and more on growing his own food from scratch.

Those who were endeared by Rose’s debut may be surprised, hopefully pleasantly, by the change in tone and attitude shown on The Stand-In. Nevertheless, it is a delightful record.

While Palma Violets have certainly got talent, their debut falls just short of the expectations that’s been ladled on it.

This album shows that simple can indeed be effective. Regan simultaneously covers a lot of topical ground whilst using a finite number of musical resources.

It is apparent from the start that the album is a valuable piece of work in its own right however and its reclaimed origins should not bring any negative preconceptions.

Despite their heavy reliance on the past, in Somewhere Else there are more hits than misses.

It is a subtle work that may not blow you away but provides lovely succour if you care to wallow in a soulfully translucent daze.

Mazes are forging a distinct path from their peers and their second record offers rich rewards for like minds who wish to join them.

Somerset may be a little detached and introverted, but Waves Of Fury certainly are not and on this evidence, they can stand proudly with the county’s finest exports.

The album just sounds like the same guitar riffs recycled, with the distortion merging them all into one.

While Atoms For Peace inevitably doesn’t display that unique chemistry which is evident in spades when Mssrs Selway, Greenwood et al join the party, it remains an intriguing, if at times uneasy listen.

In ramping up their scope--a laudable and understandable idea really for a second LP--Widowspeak instead often lose sight of their strengths, too often not seeing the wood for the trees. Indeed, it’s when they’re seemingly less sure of where they are that Almanac excels.

As a homage to all the good things about ’60s easy listening this ticks all the boxes even if it feels too much like a re-hash of times gone by.