While this doesn't quite hit the heady heights of "A Rush Of Blood To The Heads," it's a huge improvement on the beiger than beige "X&Y," and if their next album (apparently featuring a Kylie Minogue duet!) continues this trajectory, we could have something pretty special on our hands.

Merging the sounds of space rock with an element of trance and a smattering of early Velvet Underground experimentation, the group ends up with an enticing album that holds a fresh mix of sounds.

This is an album rich in ideas, heavy on emotion.

When it does flare up at its brightest though, [despite sounding a little burnt out at times] Weapons is exhilarating, a real call to arms from a band that deserves every bit of their continued prevalence.

Overall The Book Of Traps And Lessons is best with a healthy dose of thoughtfulness and nuance, and while it falters on the occasions when these are disregarded, this album is another example of why Tempest’s spoken-word works now routinely amplify well beyond her poetic beginnings.

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.

However, dark and compelling though MU.ZZ.LE undoubtedly is, there is the niggling sense that this greater focus and narrow tempo range doesn't really suit Gonjasufi.

Combat Sports is their shortest album yet, with none of its 11 tracks straying over four minutes, all in bursts of compact energy. Each song has a short guitar solo, while riffs and hooks abound, in stories of combative love and sex couched in Young’s characteristically wry lyrics.

To that end, and overabundant allusions to The Beatles aside, Dig Out Your Soul is a feat in its own right.

As it is, Divine Providence is very good rather than truly great.

This isn’t a concept, or a wild divergence from his earlier work. Rather it’s a bigger push musically and collaboratively with less emphasis on the politics that have dominated his past.

In the end the record greatly exceeds its perceived strengths, building and out-doing itself over its 40 minutes.

In sum, there’s enough varied, interesting and accessible material here to make Butler’s sonic manifesto worth paying attention to.

Side project, collaboration or fully fledged act, Neon Neon have a Mercury nomination under their belts--and now a follow-up LP that, for better or worse, peddles the same worthy wares.

Certainly there’s something mystical at work here, but, as with the rest of the album, the real fun is to be found when fully immersed in these hypnotic grooves.

This is a solid, if unspectacular, comeback and fans will be crossing their fingers that The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind is a new beginning, rather than a one-off cash-in.

It’s an album full of quiet confidence, and of an artist having the courage to move out of her comfort zone. It may not prove to be Hannah Jadagu’s big commercial breakthrough just yet, but by the sound of much of Describe, that can’t be too far away.

Adventures... is an accomplished album, one which makes the most out of not over-complicating things.

This comeback effort is a huge amount of fun and a reminder that it's great that the Happy Mondays have never completely disappeared.

It makes for interesting listening, sitting sonically as it does between Frahm's minimalism and the rich swathes of A Winged Victory For The Sullen.

The jury will be out for a long time while they argue whether this is dance, classical or jazz but they're sure to deliver a thumbs-up for this far from amateurish collection of tracks.

They are a group that exist solely to make abstruse, dark and head spinning noise. As such, Zeros accomplishes its goals very well.

Silver Tongue is her most consistent album to date.

It could be said that a work as strong as Majesty Shredding cements Superchunk as an important band or a permanent indie fixture, but that's a bit of a misnomer. If anything this record is simply proof that Superchunk are going to make the music they want to make regardless of whether it fits into a modern context or not.

If you relax into it, and not expect the same experience as seeing Steve live, it's pretty good.

Fans of Animal Collective and Panda Bear will obviously love this album; another creative triumph for the boys from Baltimore.

Klinghoffer wisely makes no attempt to mimic Frusciante; the new boy on the block's musical talent is obvious in its own right here, and the musical partnership that has formed between the older members of the band and Klinghoffer is evident. Red Hot Chili Peppers are not quite ready to slope off yet.

All Living Things shows how Jiha is able to navigate the border between the experimental and the accessible with confidence and deftness, its woozy textures and spectral aesthetics making for an engaging listening experience.