It’s warm, delicate; a real feast for the ears.

It might be damning with faint praise, but Hotel Surrender would suggest that Murphy is at his best in shallow artistic waters, and ventures further out at his peril.

It is impeccably produced and sheened, but it sounds polished to the extent of being soulless.

In Waves is not Trivium's finest moment by any stretch of the imagination but it does point towards the band having found direction and its own voice for the first time in quite a while.

Battle Born is music played in the past tense.

What you do get with Dr Dee is a fleetingly beautiful record that is baffling and bewitching in equal measure, and one that should inspire people to see the accompanying opera as it tours this summer.

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

One hopes that the Austin band takes lessons from both the successes and failures of Fellow Travelers: taking risks here and there often pays off, but don’t mess with a vocal formula that works.

Some thrills and spills, then--like West Ham--and the first fifteen minutes are as good as you could hope for from a band coming back to life after an extended period on the sidelines.

They are a band who want to form a real lasting connection. Diver only sporadically does this, but this is still an album that shows vast promise.

As its title implies, Return To Ommadawn is nothing new of course, but it is a happy reunion that will please Oldfield’s fans greatly. It may not necessarily introduce him to a new audience, but it leads those in the know to a familiar place they know well.

If you love Snow Patrol, Wildness will please. But while it has moments that can be thoroughly enjoyed in increments, if you’re expecting developments--especially given the seven-year gap between released--then you’re out of luck.

Prism gives The Orb a youthful complexion, its heady brew of musical ambience, songwriting substance and sample-based humour bringing a hefty dose of positivity. Strongly recommended.

Naysayers may argue that none of the tracks needs to be as long as they are (at 16 minutes and two seconds, We Dream Free is the shortest) but sounds as subtle as these need room to spread out just as a fine wine needs room to breathe.

Crimes Of Passion finds Crocodiles in scintillating form and is full of the kind of carefree rock that should make them more popular than they are.

It’s hard to believe that The Strypes can make such an old-fashioned style of music cool for a younger generation but they give it their best shot in this fully committed album.

This is an album that, once consumed, lies dormant in the mind of the listener, ingrained but not at the forefront, playing in the subconscious; more demanding than background music, but short of immediacy.

Sisyphus is a compositionally superb production that adeptly mixes the members’ unique styles.

In short, this is another very good album.

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 does seem something a bit rushed and unfinished about No No No though (which is ironic, given its long gestation period).

Shout it from the rooftops though--with this record, Broken Records could well have a contender for album of the year on their hands.

Like any prospective chartbuster, it frontloads its biggest bangers and lets anything more interesting linger in the later stages of the record, when the more passive listeners have tuned out. But those forays are occasional at best, and as an artistic statement this debut album is somewhat limited.

There’s a lack of maturity on Soft that is at odds with the stellar showmanship that Soft so desperately seeks to demonstrate.

It has some great moments but is probably one to listen to when you want to drift off into a peaceful slumber.

Violet Cries isn't an easy album to get into, and it may well prove too impenetrable for the casual listener. They may not signal a Goth revival, but there's enough promise here to justify keeping an eye on this Brighton trio.

Danger In The Club exudes an appealing spontaneity but frustratingly the songwriting still seems a bit haphazard, with the lyrics in particular remaining underwhelming.

Kings Of Leon's newfound pop sensibilities often feel at odds with their southern-rock instincts, and while this may result in fewer immediately recognisable radio hits, it makes for a largely enjoyable batch of surprisingly invigourated tunes from one of American rock's most unlikely mainstays.