It’s not perfect, but it does point towards promising a future.

The chants, pipes and Afrobeat guitars might be facades, just like the masks and robes, but it doesn’t matter because the music underneath has real heart and soul.

It may be lacking in genuine standout moments--the infectious choruses from tracks like Come Save Me, Man I Need and Uncertainty are noticeably absent--but as an overall listening experience, it is a fascinating journey.

She’s come a long way from those more quirky days, but Remember Us To Life is a good reminder that Spektor is still more than capable of conjuring up moments of magic.

There is nothing groundbreaking among these 12 new tracks and it never reaches the heights of American Idiot--which remains the trio’s high-water mark--but there is much to be admired in the simplicity of Green Day’s return.

Happily The Early Years’ renaissance has been well worth the wait, their second coming blossoming through music that frequently dazzles.

The more ‘ambient’ tracks (entitled Hent I-VIII) are scattered throughout the album and simply consist of Tiersen tinkling around on his piano over the sound of birds chirping away. ... Yet this can’t distract from the beauty of the main piano tracks on Eusa.

This latest Toy of theirs is a lot of fun, even if it could have been better still had Meier had been given a bigger part.

Like its predecessor, every single element on The Midnight Sun appears to have been carefully and painstakingly thought out, but serene closer Window is a perfect demonstration of just how effortless it all sounds.

Fires Within Fires once again proves Neurosis to be a strong and inventive creative force.

The whole of Atrocity Exhibition takes Brown’s craft to a new level, even if his delivery occasionally grates. It’s by far the best thing he’s released and confirms his arrival among the rap elite.

It’s not that it’s terrible--and credit should go to them for being so adventurous--but this might just be a makeover too far.

Whether there’s a concept behind it all or not, he again demonstrates a knack for writing in a variety of styles while sounding uniquely himself.

There’s no pure pop moments like Losing You and she may never generate the same amount of press inches as her elder sister does on a regular basis, but this third album is an endlessly compelling one.

Unfortunately, overall the record is unable to match the consistency of its predecessor. That the trio started work on Friends without a label is certainly telling, as the overriding impression is one of a band in transition.

It’s a vital record that’s a blast of clarity in a muddy, chaotic world.

A startlingly honest and sprawling debut entry from Blanco, one which challenges the listener at every turn.

it. At times, this is probably easier to admire than to actually sit down and enjoy, but it’s an impressive achievement nonetheless.

Head Carrier is a far more coherent album than Indie Cindy though (hardly surprising, as the latter was effectively a group of EPs welded together) and while it may not be a record to inspire the generations as their previous work did, there’s enough evidence that some of that old spark is still flickering.

When it hits, as on the wistful Fionn Regan sample on the closing 00000 Million or the breathtaking piano introduction to 33 “GOD” you know that this strange, beautiful, willfully obtuse album is one that you’ll want to live with for a very long time.

The end result is a record that frustrates more often than it thrills. In other words, it is essentially the same again.

A 1000 Times is an opening track as startling as it is oddly timeless, and if, when it debuted in July, it promised great things of this pairing, the resulting album certainly delivers.

Once again, this is the sound of Wrekmeister Harmonies reporting back from the edges of existence and experience where, on this evidence, it’s both terrifying and beautiful.

These are songs recorded tens, if not hundreds, of times before, and are by no means definitive versions, but in the attempt to capture something of the historical importance of the railroad, Shine A Light’s songs tell their own story; one which will prove excellent company on any similar expeditions, whether across the plains or the 08.16 to Euston.

Some people may find the intensity a bit too much, and it’s fair to say that this is an album that you can only listen to if you’re in a particular mood. Yet the beauty to be found in Henson’s bleakness is undeniable, and in Kindly Now he’s created what could well stand as one of the best albums of 2016.

The only problem is that, at 20 tracks, it’s far too long, and while there’s nothing particularly bad here, the weaker tracks seem a bit like filler.

Finishing with the title track, The Small Hours finally becomes as strange and otherworldly as perhaps the entire album should have been. The whole work is not a disaster by any means, but it’s when Berry’s focus seems to wane and things seem more spontaneous that his music becomes more alive.

The second half of the album is less special than the first with just Drinking Song and the excellent two-note undulations of I Warned You perhaps worthy of a higher placing amongst the band’s fully loaded cannon.