At its best it's a wonderful homage, at its worst it's a vanity project.

ny quibbles are minor here though, for Devotion is a truly impressive debut album from yet another talented British singer.

Beams is an uncompromising, forceful and darkly beautiful album from a formidable musical talent.

A quite astonishing record then, and one which establishes Chasny as a bona fide guitar god, proves that Comets On Fire are much missed, and knocks the notion of guitar music being dead into a cocked hat.

This is a fun record. Sometimes that really is enough.

[Election Special] is a Texas-sized strikeout.

It's no stinker, more a transition, a typical third LP that just doesn't catch light enough.

I Was A Cat From A Book represents a significant return to form for James Yorkston. His music is more inventive, instrumentally diverse and accessible than ever before, arguably straying outside the realms of pure folk into the outer confines of indie-rock for the first time.

With the recent break up of Girls, there is certainly an opportunity for Jaill to take the mantle of derivative, vintage pop rock, but they are not quite there yet.

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

The album is somewhat redeemed by a duo of commercially viable singles [Broken Brights, Wooden Chair]... As for the remainder of the album, there's little to recommend.

Throughout the Boys do their best to beckon in some Mediterranean temperatures, and because of their easy going nature and reluctance to force things, they comfortably succeed, creating some blissful but effortlessly funky music for sultry summer listening.

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 are moments of brilliance, but it's bogged down by the kind of watery filler an older, more mature artist would have largely filtered out.

It is a modern pop record to be cherished.

The vibe is almost complete but not quite, and it's puzzling.

Covered had the makings of something great, but ends up sounding far more uneven than it should have.

the samples-led, organic electronica here may produce intriguing textures--and Phillips' background as a soundtrack composer is never in doubt--but it is hard work to find anything approaching coherence here.

Coupling the stark lyrical honesty with the understated beauty of the melodies and instrumentation produces an album that that will stay with you for a very long time indeed.

In Time To Voices is an extremely impressive and clever modern rock record.

Despite all the mysticism, religion, tradition and history tied up in Advaitic Songs, this is a surprisingly accessible album, and one that finds OM at their best

For those with an adventurous sensibility, it will be a pure delight.

Despite minor niggles, such as the slight lack of scope in sound, Shrines is a confident debut that justifies the hype.

Channel Orange hasn't so much been crafted into being as grown from the passion of one man, an extension of the Frank Ocean psyche into audible form.

Her debut with The Pond is a commendably excellent example of an established artist making a real step forward.

It has an unnerving, visceral impact--it is fragmentary, destabilising and confounding but all in the best possible way.

While the album is polished, Kassidy rarely take themselves out of their comfort zone. It's a decent album, but much like its predecessor, it's nothing to shout about.

Pop Tune is in the top handful of records that Shonen Knife have released; a slight update on the rougher sound they pedalled in the first half of their career, but it still sounds DIY-enough to please the faithfuls.