The album is brief, almost EP length, and doesn’t end nearly as well as it begins, but Spell My Name still features some great tunes and is proof that Toni Braxton’s smooth alto can grace a trap instrumental just as well as a Darkchild production or a slow jam.

While there's nothing particularly wrong with looking to the past for influences, Yucca struggles at times beneath the weight of those it seeks to emulate.

It’s the sound of a band dabbling in other areas whilst still maintaining something of their roots, and as long as they don’t stray too far from the path that they have clearly mastered then they’re a band worth sticking with as they make their sonic explorations.

A pretty decent record if by no means a great one. Shiny And So Bright, Vol 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun. neither offers the chance to dent Corgan’s ego or inflate it in any significant way.

y may want that you are always happy, but, while there's much for the listener to enjoy here, they will need to be more concise to achieve their obvious potential.

So it isn’t better than Swift’s album, as that would be a pretty hard album to improve on. What Adams has done though is to look at it through another prism, and created a pure break-up album.

This won’t go down as one of his classic recordings, but nevertheless The Traveller is an enjoyable journey that shows its narrator still has plenty to say.

It also feels like they've become a little too cosy in their favourite slippers, so that while Dive Deep is a pleasant album, it swims in familiar and safe waters.

In essence Superabundance falls short of being either super or abundant.

Skit I Allt is another commendably audacious example of Dungen's commitment and musicality. Yet for all their skill with both melody and with improvisation, Dungen risk ending up being too esoteric to be a pop band and too dreamy and light textured to excite committed psych listeners.

At its best, June 2009 feels like a fuzzy, readymade memory. Yet, problematically, there's the paradox that whilst proceedings are worthy, they're too anaemic for wider public consumption - over half of the songs are under three minutes, most well under.

At times, he runs out of ideas, but that shouldn’t detract from the fact that he is clearly going somewhere--even if that might be more often than not the past.

There may not be enough to lift them above the rather crowded market of similar sounding contemporaries on Weird Sister, but it does hint at a solid enough future.

Ray sounds rather like a lot of other people, but nothing really makes her stand out.

Adulkt Life prove middle aged doesn’t mean middle of the road.

Notably the first half of the album, it cements Nature Noir’s reputation as a genuinely rollicking take on psychedelic garage rock of a bygone era. When it doesn’t work, as on the second half of the album (minus the title track), it begs the question about whether the Stilts should have abandoned their visceral rock in the first place.

What 85% Proof is, above all, is comfortable, with all the pros and cons that entails.

Ultimately, it's an accomplished record that makes all the right noises (in the most literal sense), but it lacks the final wow factor to push it into true greatness.

Legacy+ shows two sides of the Kuti coin that, while inevitably reflecting and respecting the history of Fela, also show his restless quest for the future and what that holds carries on with subsequent generations.

As an exercise in not-so-subtle re-positioning the album is never less than effective and its high-points are more interesting and persuasive than most of JLS' peers.

There are certainly things to enjoy here, but too often Steeple is searching for its soul. It's a soul that will probably forever be caught in a bygone time.

Electra Heart showcases glimpses of a clever, ballsy pop star.

It delivers what you'd expect, but ambition is unfulfilled and the constant pursuit of seemingly random stylistic tangents reveals a lack of focus.

Yuck, however, sadly comes off after several listens as a little flat, the low points seeming all the more so for resting, as they do, in the shadows of the occasional peaks.

The album is far from a lost cause. Sometimes, Two Lucky Magpies, Over And Out and the Bibio-esque titular instrumental are all lovely. But The Boombox Ballads annoys almost as much as it entertains.

So-so is, sadly, exactly the problem with a lot of the rest of the album, which veers from ho-hum to shoulder-shrugging acceptance without any real sense of originality or development.

While his debut album sounded wonderfully effortless, this one feels effortful in the worst possible way.

Wild Divine finds Diane attempting new approaches to production and arrangement and should perhaps be seen as a transitional album. At the moment, the performances from within her comfort zone remain the most effective.