Yet it's too comfortable, old ideas diluted to homeopathic proportions, results half-hearted and strangely spiritless, songs feeling overly long.

Shields is full of both genuine surprises and moments of transcendent beauty.

The band's formula is nowhere near broke, and while this tenth album might not necessarily expand on that greatly, it doesn't mean that anything about the band's music is in need of fixing.

Despite the groovy intentions and the unmissable smell of too many cooks in the kitchen, their album often proves to be pretty damn tasty, indeed.

Tempest is a flawed but mostly fascinating album.

The record drags when it should soar.

Be it the sawing blasts of guitar that rushes you through the poignant Lose My Way, the spiralling vortex of Dead & Gone, upon which you helplessly bob along in or the careering momentum of Kopter, it's never anything other than intoxicating and brilliantly realised.

Maybe it's familiarity, maybe it's contempt, maybe it's something to do with both, but there's nothing on True which marks itself out distinctly enough for it to warrant more than a passing glance.

Jens sticks to what he knows, combining his spry guitar playing and razor sharp pop sensibility.

The faithful will lap up every eccentric note, of course, but there's much here for the uninitiated to delight in as well.

The lasting impression remains one of an unruly middle child, difficult to love, but unmistakably bearing choice hallmarks of its older siblings.

The largest problem with Coexist is something shared with the debut. A lot of it just washes over you without leaving a trace. It's always high quality, assembled with a craftsman's eye for gorgeously unfussy detail, but it can leave you unengaged. It's soporific, far from unpleasantly, but in a way that means you can come out the other side unmoved.

More often than not, most of the songs feel like they're only 75% there; so close to really coalescing into something special.

What is provided here [is] superb playing and a peerless collective spirit, along with a clear and nuanced production that is never intrusive.

My Head Is An Animal deserves the attention it is getting, because it is a well-crafted, spirited debut album with soaring choruses and delicious harmonies.

Unfortunately, just like The Vaccines debut, there is very little to really make you stand up and take notice.

It is, all in, a fantastic first effort.

For large parts of this record, perhaps for the first time since the group's inception, Animal Collective sounds like a band doing little more than going through the motions.

Sun is an album that conveys the full spectrum of emotions, but at the same time it manages to never sound convoluted or patched together.

Endlessly listenable and beautifully performed, Algiers is another fine entry into this dependably excellent band's catalogue.

Mature Themes is simple self-indulgence and that's rarely worth listening to.

There are a number of misfires, and no amount of positivity can hide them.

A largely attractive album, then, but one that by its finish may well have you yearning for an injection of the funk we know Gonzales can provide.

The resulting wash of sound makes for an escapist experience par excellence.

This is an extremely fine piece of work, another auspicious addition to the already impressive Border Community canon.

If Deacon wasn't a force to be reckoned with before, then by gum, he is now.

They've once again made a brilliantly over the top record.

Whilst it is certainly unlikely that Key To The Kuffs will do much to alter prevailing opinion towards his work, the record will serve as a worthy addition to Dumile's increasingly fascinating discography.

Anastasis is certainly an accomplished record and one that fits well within Dead Can Dance's output, but it is a hard listen.

It turns out to be the best thing they've ever done--yes, even better than Silent Alarm.

At its best it's a wonderful homage, at its worst it's a vanity project.

ny quibbles are minor here though, for Devotion is a truly impressive debut album from yet another talented British singer.

Beams is an uncompromising, forceful and darkly beautiful album from a formidable musical talent.

A quite astonishing record then, and one which establishes Chasny as a bona fide guitar god, proves that Comets On Fire are much missed, and knocks the notion of guitar music being dead into a cocked hat.

This is a fun record. Sometimes that really is enough.

[Election Special] is a Texas-sized strikeout.

It's no stinker, more a transition, a typical third LP that just doesn't catch light enough.

I Was A Cat From A Book represents a significant return to form for James Yorkston. His music is more inventive, instrumentally diverse and accessible than ever before, arguably straying outside the realms of pure folk into the outer confines of indie-rock for the first time.

With the recent break up of Girls, there is certainly an opportunity for Jaill to take the mantle of derivative, vintage pop rock, but they are not quite there yet.

Forget the furore around Fifty Shades Of Grey; this is Tellier's Fifty Shades Of Blue, and it is a whole lot sexier.

The album is somewhat redeemed by a duo of commercially viable singles [Broken Brights, Wooden Chair]... As for the remainder of the album, there's little to recommend.

Throughout the Boys do their best to beckon in some Mediterranean temperatures, and because of their easy going nature and reluctance to force things, they comfortably succeed, creating some blissful but effortlessly funky music for sultry summer listening.

Brian Eno famously stated that "ambient music must be as ignorable as it is interesting". The problem is that, whilst Regional Surrealism certainly succeeds in providing a pleasant musical backdrop, it is rather more the former than it is the latter.

There are moments of brilliance, but it's bogged down by the kind of watery filler an older, more mature artist would have largely filtered out.

It is a modern pop record to be cherished.

The vibe is almost complete but not quite, and it's puzzling.

Covered had the makings of something great, but ends up sounding far more uneven than it should have.

the samples-led, organic electronica here may produce intriguing textures--and Phillips' background as a soundtrack composer is never in doubt--but it is hard work to find anything approaching coherence here.

Coupling the stark lyrical honesty with the understated beauty of the melodies and instrumentation produces an album that that will stay with you for a very long time indeed.

In Time To Voices is an extremely impressive and clever modern rock record.

Despite all the mysticism, religion, tradition and history tied up in Advaitic Songs, this is a surprisingly accessible album, and one that finds OM at their best

For those with an adventurous sensibility, it will be a pure delight.

Despite minor niggles, such as the slight lack of scope in sound, Shrines is a confident debut that justifies the hype.

Channel Orange hasn't so much been crafted into being as grown from the passion of one man, an extension of the Frank Ocean psyche into audible form.

Her debut with The Pond is a commendably excellent example of an established artist making a real step forward.

It has an unnerving, visceral impact--it is fragmentary, destabilising and confounding but all in the best possible way.

While the album is polished, Kassidy rarely take themselves out of their comfort zone. It's a decent album, but much like its predecessor, it's nothing to shout about.

Pop Tune is in the top handful of records that Shonen Knife have released; a slight update on the rougher sound they pedalled in the first half of their career, but it still sounds DIY-enough to please the faithfuls.

This is then a collision of musical styles that is totally appropriate and which reflects well on both parties.

Creative and fascinating.

The album is solid from start to finish

A mostly harmless exercise in selling records.

While the debut was clouded in hazy and understated dreamy melodies, Confess is far more direct and intense.

There are, of course, echoes of the past, but there is also something pleasingly fresh in the way DIIV take an age old sound and turn it into something magical that's at times deeply beautiful.

Mostly No [is] an album with good intentions but one that's flawed in its execution.

The potential is undoubtedly there, but Reptar's debut album suffers badly from the band's chaotic approach, as well as Ulicny's occasionally grating vocals.

Unsound is a smile-inducing slab of post-punk awesome.

Swing Lo Magellan affords generous breathing space to Dirty Projectors' music: a context in which new levels of unpretentious eloquence positively flourish.

The album can be quite a handful at times, but if in search for a post-rock record that makes so much of an impression in so little time, one need not look any further than this.

This is a perfectly OK record: no more, no less.

It's not perfect and there are two or three tracks that don't really work, but it's hard not to be won over by the LP as a whole.

Overall this disc is a well-made breeze of strong songs and great playing, but the moments of fence-sitting hold it back.

Despite some bland detours into the middle of the road, there are still enough good moments here to remind of her talent.

There are moments of raw beauty in some of this music.

Overexposed is rather patchy and its highs are countered by some fairly wretched lows.

Fortune is the kind of record that will please Brown's many deluded female fans, but we cannot with good conscience give it a single star.

So there are a couple of silly tracks - but then there were two silly Bennett sisters [in Austen's Pride and Prejudice]. Sadly, the remainder of the album is all Mary and no Elizabeth; devoid of life, wit, or energy.

>> is the humble, unpretentious sound of an artist pursuing a very personal and refreshingly unspectacular vision.

Rispah is a brilliantly sustained meditation that offers a full, enriching experience.

Write Me Back won't totally please R Kelly fans who crave the silly pleasures of Trapped In The Closet, but it is without doubt an excellent record.

While it is ever-so-slightly patchy, it would be unkind to suggest that Wild Peace is anything other than an impressive debut.

While it lacks the finesse of the band's previous work, somewhere in amongst all the bluster, soul-searching, adrenaline and anger, the record carves out a space where everything seems to fit together.

As it stands, Dub Egg is merely promising.

The Tarnished Gold sees them return sounding fresh and revitalised, delivering an album that more than matches their earlier output.

Witty and blessed with deftness Citizens! may well be, but we're still a bit bilious from our musical diet during the noughties to thoroughly appreciate it.

While it lacks the initial rush of Hunting My Dress, The House That Jack Built throws in surprises and twists and turns that are evidence of a satisfying progression.

There is enough control behind all the madness to ensure that the result remains just the right side of uncompromising.

The demos here may be cheaply recorded and lacking in sound quality but there is nothing lacking in the quality of the songs, which are seen in a new and very welcome light.

Digital Native is an album that is fragile and elusive. Its main weakness is that are too few moments to really catch onto amid fleeting moments of beauty and invention.

Their debut LP Mutual Friends, despite getting bogged down in the middle stretch, is as an album undeniably catchy and, somewhat surprisingly, experimental.

None of this could be called pushing boundaries, but each production is a striking piece of craftsmanship.

This record is essentially a minor curiosity, akin to the publication of the band members' childhood drawings--occasionally interesting within context but unsatisfactory and fruitless in itself.

In among these sporadic highlights, however, are numerous slices of tossed-off nonsense.

At various times uplifting, rocking, refreshing, and sweet, Oceania makes a return to the live arena a suddenly desirable prospect.

It's unclear whether Pop Etc have branded themselves as an out and out dance pop band, or if they remain an alternative, slightly niche group, masquerading as a clichéd pop group.

Peaking Lights' music is slow to reveal itself and unfolds gracefully, at its own pace.

Listening to The Cherry Thing is often a jarring and confusing experience, but just like the uncompromising individual pursuits of Neneh Cherry and The Thing, that's the whole point.

The Idler Wheel… is a really incredible album, where Apple has quite cleverly developed musically in just the right way, creating something utterly distinct and different to her earlier work whilst still retaining all the characteristics that won fans over to begin with.