Overall, though, the music is worth wading through everything else for.

It goes beyond technically supreme homages into the realms of risk-taking and unpredictability. The vibe is nevertheless still every bit as cool, relaxed and controlled as might be expected from Elling. Not everything pays off, but Elling is branching out in courageous style.

While Where The Heaven Are We isn’t a perfect debut album, it’s a solid effort, and there’s enough talent on display to hint at even better things to come.

SweetSexySavage, despite its gung-ho title, turns out to be a fine album, albeit a couple of songs too long.

Give Oh Ohio time--there's more than enough here to breath life back into a resurgent band.

Novelist Guy remains a very promising debut from a young artist who has already placed himself at the forefront of grime’s equally promising future.

An electronic album that manages to sound intimate, late-summer warmth turning to autumnal melancholy, and a cartoon band that suddenly seems a little fragile.

Nite Jewel has blossomed into a something not too far removed from a genuine pop star. Yet you feel One Second Of Love is a promising step forward rather than the finished article.

Alabama 3 are at their best when they let go, embrace the fact that they’ve successfully sustained their eclectic sound and bizarre personas for over 20 years, and lose themselves to their own warped version of the blues.

At its best, Psychedelic Pill is an invigorating, ramshackle, heavy beast. At its worst, it's enjoyably daft.

Forget The Night Ahead is the reassertion of The Twilight Sad's brutal art. But reassertion can so easily slide into repetition, as is occasionally the case here.

Tempest is a flawed but mostly fascinating album.

It probably won’t be to everyone’s tastes – at times, it all becomes a bit too doomy and inaccessible, such as on Theme From Muddy Time – and newcomers to his music may be best pointed towards Your Wilderness Revisited instead. Nevertheless, this is another fine example of Doyle’s talent – and, considering he only turned 30 earlier this year, indicates a lot more to come in the years ahead.

There are a couple of fillers on the album, but Girl At The End Of The World is a strong, distinctive addition to the band’s work.

The album, in general, is much more relaxed than anything Reed created (post-Nico, that is), and while the whole thing has a vaguely hazed-out feel, the effect created is more stoner chill than frenetic heroin-induced madness

Essentially this is an album about escapism, whether it's from a city (as in Tonight's The Kind Of Night) or the place in life that these characters find themselves.

There is nothing here that is dramatically different to what he offered on his debut solo album, but the end result is charming and beautifully comforting nonetheless.

Static isn’t a perfect album, but it contains enough promising signs of evolution to predict a long career for Cults.

As a whole, Weathervanes is a largely successful and ambitious trip into uncharted territory for the band, and despite its somewhat saccharine sheen, the album wears well with multiple listens and creates a spooky, dreamlike economy of its own.

While there’s nothing that tugs at the heartstrings as much as Metarie did all those years ago, Dear Life is a reminder that Brendan Benson remains a terrific songwriter. He’s still too much of a quirky proposition to make it big, but Dear Life is a great big burst of sunshine in an all too dark world.

This is another very good, solid album from the Swedish siblings with a fair bit of typical brilliance scattered throughout.

At 55 minutes, it’s arguably too long, and some of the less memorable tracks could probably be filed away without taking too much away from the album. Yet only dEUS could end an album with Le Blues Polaire, a six minute song sung entirely in French that switches from dirty, grimy guitar rock to hypnotic drone several times.

At almost 55 minutes, some of the 12 tracks could have done with a bit of trimming, while some songs work better than others. But overall World Peace Is None Of Your Business is a distinctive contribution to Morrissey’s oeuvre.

Cerebral listening.

Not only do the sparse arrangements allow Eastburn to enchant with her siren like singing, but also, they allow the listener to become ensnared in the song.

Fans who have been frustrated with recent output will be able to find a lot to like here.

From beginning to end Circular Sounds feels familiar. And with only one track (just) over four minutes, Stoltz holds true to pop convention in length as well as arrangements.

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.