Ghost Stories is overall a confessional and, as such, you definitely won’t find many anthems a la Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall or Viva La Vida. But you do get a short and sweet nine-track exorcism of demons and one crushed dude who knows how to pen some beautiful, infectious ballads.

Soft Control is an album of neatly constructed soulful pop songs that anyone who likes the artists it references would enjoy.

When you're at Rihanna's level you can afford the best songwriters and producers in the business and sonically the album is generally far ahead of her peers. Yet if Sia's Diamonds is a sultry triumph, its character and uniqueness highlights the ultimately hollow pleasures of much around it.

It doesn't match its predecessor but it's a banquet of sound well worth feasting on.

All too often, overly simplistic melodies meander repetitively as Moffat struggles mightily to stay on key.

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.

They've produced a solid second album that is sure to succeed for them as long as they can maintain a good level of exposure.

Mars has quite remarkably extracted themes from every one of those shows [The X-Factor], incorporating each into his debut, from glossy, over-sentimental ballads (Talking To The Moon) to an all-out, shameless dispatching of joy (Marry Song).

All in all though, Meteorites is a decent, if hardly vital, album from one of this country’s true national treasures.

There may be a general lack of aggression or grit this time round, but this is more than countered by an impressive selection of songs.

Taken for what it is, Primus & The Chocolate Factory is a fantastically ridiculous release that should please fans of either [Primus or Willy Wonka].

It’s not the worst album in the world, but it certainly doesn’t live up to the acres of hype that have led up to it. It’s just rather average.

Right at the end, they redeem themselves with a romantic little pop ditty that strays into Colourfield territory, with Clarke's scowling, angry young man tones wrapping themselves as well as they can around gentler, less confrontational sentiments. It's the most interesting thing on the album and if they can harness this flexibility a bit more in the future, they might just find themselves lasting the course.

A monumental, spectacular achievement.

Like its predecessor, the Kaisers' second album is patchy, but does have moments of brilliance.

While it sometimes does become a bit too overwrought, those people who found Tori Amos' vignettes so compelling will find much to love here. It helps as well that there's a light pop touch on many of the tracks.

Moby has already said he doesn’t expect anybody to buy this album. Yet it’s likely it will shift a few units due to its high energy and low filler count, though the shouting does get wearing near the end. Once again he has confounded expectations, and the result is an album fiercely relevant to its time.

Living Room Songs may not exceed 25 minutes in length but this is still an album to luxuriate in and one that fans of traditional classical composers such as Arvo Pärt and Henryk Górecki will find to their satisfaction.

Sleep Mountain, the second long-player from The Kissaway Trail, finds the Danish quintet embracing the more sweeping aspects of rock 'n' roll emotional grandeur. And, in large part, they succeed marvellously.

Push And Shove is a decent, solid pop album, but it lacks the sense of occasion and excitement that you'd expect from a band's first album in 12 years.

Futuristicaly Speaking is by no means a perfect album, at times it seems overlong and in places too similar in tone, but it is a solid album that should see Yo Majesty making quite an impression.

Ultimately it’s likely to work best on a cold winter’s night in a remote cottage with just the wind, a raging log fire, a glass of the strong stuff and sad memories for company.

Nelly's latest offering is hopefully the beginning of the renaissance of an artist who most definitely was starting to look guilty of selling out.

It's obvious that they've spent a while cultivating a specific look, but they seem to have only spent half of that time on the album.

It's certainly not a bad album, but for those of us who have followed Truille's career from the start, and have been waiting for this album for so long, it's a disappointing one.

This is the debut record of the year so far, which has effectively raised the bar by which other bands will be judged in the future.

Hurts can do--and have done--better than this.

The Orb and Lee "Scratch" Perry recording in Berlin could have been a disaster but this is anything but.