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.

It’s fun, but accomplished too, and shows how Hesketh has taken her knocks, used them and come back bolder, brighter and better.

If much of this is catchy, however, you can’t help but miss the Noah And The Whale who could be emotionally devastating.

This record probably won’t change the world in the manner that Van Gogh’s art did, but fans of quiet, unfussy acoustic music will find much to enjoy.

While this is a solid effort--and a more solid one than anything they’ve put together before--it’s not likely to set the world, or the charts, on fire.

While Ghostpoet will never be considered an easily accessible artist, this is the enigmatic follow up we’d hardly dared hope for.

The blues boogie tunes aren’t quite up to par, but it’s still a goody bag filled with enough treats to please fans.

Silence Yourself may not invent a genre. Silence Yourself may not give you something you didn’t have already. But it is so stark, so bold and delivered with such utter belief that you wonder why anyone would possibly care.

For those who have enjoyed Grubbs’ wide-ranging career and don’t mind taking a 45-minute detour into the mind of a clearly talented guitarist and singer (complete with painful violin), The Plain Where The Palace Stood is good enough to demonstrate how great Grubbs can be when he hits the mark.

Long and short, it’s hit and miss.

As the ever revolving wheel of influence spins to bring each individual ingredient to the fore, The Computers are not afraid to wear these influences unashamedly on their sleeves and in doing so have managed to produce a highly infectious piece of rock ‘n’ roll.

While Mvula has a great voice and is a skilled musician, she plays it far too safe on her debut LP.

Rudimental have already shown on their tremendously successful singles that they have that special knack for making exciting and diverse pop. Sadly on Home it is a knack that we hear too little of.

Sub Verses may be genre hopping, but it’s not a particularly challenging listen as compared to its predecessors, albums that were both challenging and fun.

THR!!!ER has plenty of moments that live up to its self-hyped billing, but it’s the love of the gimmick, that old friend Shtick Shtick Shtick, that will always be the thing that both endears and estranges.

It is much stronger than their previous disappointing album The Weirdness (2007), and at times even recalls their creative heyday in the late ’60s and early ’70s.

With the band straying very little from the original templates, the main surprises come when they have to change styles to fit the songs.

Unfortunately Night Visions is so safe and middle of the road that it leaves you with the same hollow feeling that Las Vegas can, without the dizzying high and sensual assault that got you there in the first place.

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.

Fandango quickly plateaus into an exercise that is pleasant rather than provocative; an effort that, despite occasional highs, is relentlessly...acceptable.

Impossible Truth is among the year’s most vivid and evocative albums so far, revealing new and absorbing details with every listen.

Miller has done a decent job here; there’s nothing particularly striking or eye-opening about the album or its songs, but their simplicity and Miller’s all-round talent suggest some real promise.

Flashes here and there suggest that The Neighbourhood are capable of writing good pop music. It’s just that they miss the target far too much.

At its best, this album is nothing more than a passable appropriation of pop reggae in 2013.

Lovely stuff.

Overall, this is much more than a chill-out album; there’s a level of depth here which showcases Hyde’s musical maturity and sensibility.

Rather than make-up/break-up album, this here is a glacial evolution of sentiment, reflective of his maturity of mind and songwriting.

An album full of off-kilter, strange pop songs, the sort that Phoenix do so well. It may have been four years in the making, but it’s certainly been well worth waiting for.