‘Let Her Burn’ is worth the wait.

These vipers may be tiny, but there’s a bite to Fortino’s harrowing vocal that’s sure to leave its mark.

It’s flawed, it’s imperfect and it’s downright odd at points, but it is packed with belting tunes. Most of all, it’s fun.

Gorgeous.

Most of the time, though, Be Your Own King is so chipper and catchy it comes over like an indie version of Alphabeat.

Taking common inspiration and twisting it into their own shape, Childhood have concocted a debut that’s more than capable of standing up to the rougher approach of their geographical peers. In doing so, they've uncovered a diamond.

Songwriting low on insight, high on moaning.

Imagine if your diary was published in a national newspaper two years after writing it. Now consider what dull and repetitive reading it would make, and welcome to 'Return To Saturn'.

Despite the mutant promise of the title, 'Eve-Olution' is hardly startling. Yet as proof that mainstream hip-hop can still learn new tricks, it's a success.

‘On To Better Things’ bottles up that teenage angst as perfectly as the golden age of pop-punk music.

Each song feels fully formed yet tells a unique and important chapter in this period of Owens' life.

This isn’t an album you can dip into; instead dive in and sink to the bottom and let it all gloriously wash over you.

For all their fitful moments of greatness, these albums remain too cluttered with filler to measure up against the best of the band's stuff, though ¡Dos! is a tentative step in the right direction.

It's the unflashy moments that really linger, though, with "Taco Delay's" measured minimalism providing some grounding to an otherwise heady trip.

These songs feel like the bratty little brothers of the likes of ‘Castaway’ and ‘Blood, Sex And Booze’ from 2000’s ‘Warning’, but with more of a snarl and a need for speed.

The shortcomings of Bainbridge’s own vocals, which sometimes lack soul and are rarely memorable.

The AM radio pulse of the title track, the San Franciscan sway of ‘Old Friends’ and the loveliness of ‘Country Queen’, with its sweet acoustic fade into ‘In The Rounds’, is overshadowed by a nagging lack of imagination.

The tunes offer a smooth enough ride, but The Vaselines aren’t really stretching themselves here.

There are ballsy moments--they just happen to be coated in the trio’s signature icy cool.

An album that’s rich musically, thematically and above all, emotionally. Sam Smith has never sounded better because they’ve never been more themselves.

It’s nothing new, but it is fun.

Mixing the exotic sounds of Laibach, Sparks and forgotten camp Euro-disco heroes Army Of Lovers, he's on to a winner even if he feels he's losing the corporate fight.

All 13 of the tracks here sound nothing like their much parodied clip. It’s just that sadly, branching out isn’t a good thing for them.

By the mirrorball moment that heralds the lengthy coda to the closing ‘It Girl’, you’re left giddy and breathless, applauding a 20-year veteran who’s finally found his voice.

The sound has clearly dated, and John Cooper Clarke’s guest vocal on ‘Let You Down’ feels phoned in, but uptempo limbshakers ‘You’re So Good For Me’ and ‘Changes’ are as solid as anything they did 20 years ago.


If there’s a problem here, it’s the obvious 2016 one: length.

Original it is not--there's little here that couldn't have come straight off a Shara Nelson album--but she does write some fine tunes