There’s enough sonic meat here to gain him fans, but not enough depth to build a fanbase that will remember him once he’s off the airwaves.

Pretty, but all too forgettable.

The Betrayed plays to their strengths in that it sounds more like the work of blue-quiffed CGI-animated ninja warriors than real people with wrinkles.

Their debut album is a short, sharp shock to the system. Yeah, they may look like a band that would steal your library books rather than your girlfriend, but that just makes us love them even more.

As an instrumental album it's vaguely impressive, but overall it's incomplete and lacks the pop touch to transform things from cerebral to listenable.

Problem is, there's a dearth of ideas here that means the whole shebang clings to cloying, torturously repetitive pastiche rather than doing anything particularly innovative.

It's not quite pop enough to dance to, and almost shlock-country enough to make you give up listening to music altogether.

It's as dreamy and atmospheric as you might expect, but the truth is that only a handful of Jónsi's 15 tunes here really work without the context of some CGI tigers.

It's a great shame that this album's component parts don't raise the whole above 'nice to know they're still around' status.

The downside is it's a couple of tracks too long--'Just In Case' being a slow jam too far--but a confident strut of a debut nonetheless.

There’s still a sense, at its heart, of a warm, yet slightly neurotic overthinker, sat at a mixing desk in his bedroom, possibly in his big white underpants, and just going wherever the spirit takes him.

All pleasant enough, but makes you wish he’d just let his songs explode into a euphoric mess every once in a while.

Mournful, moving and minor key, Age suggests The Hidden Cameras’ defiant sexual politics are still vital.

While their true believers might not mind the record’s overall lack of variety, for anyone new to the band there’s little on None The Wiser to separate them from the indie-rock chaff.

Equal parts lo-fi sketch-like song structure and buffed-to-a-shine ’80s soft rock, these 12 songs are evidently personal and, at times, thematically obscure.

The music itself, meanwhile, has become more brooding and lugubrious: in keeping with the old clichés Spector seem to live by, you could characterise 'Moth Boys' as their 'difficult' second album, the product of failed relationships, life on the road and more disposable income to spend on synthesizers.

If the band suffer from anything, it’s being too serious for their own good, but the sheer propulsive nature of the majority of the record makes it undeniably attractive.

Risk To Exist is a cracking post-debate disco record, certainly, but no one ever changed the world over cocktails at Club Tropicana.

Songs like ‘Backstroke’ and ‘Pirouette’ show flashes of experimental tendencies, but are bogged down by repetitive melodies that’ll briefly make you wonder why you even bothered moving out here in the first place.

Some may tire of Honne’s romantic lyricism, but it’s undeniably what they do best.

This mixtape is a step away from his usual sunny LA sound, but 03 Greedo knew what he was doing when he enlisted the help of Kenny Beats. This link up has resulted in an entertaining, yet simple record, the concept expertly executed.

While her words don’t always deliver, ‘Petrichor’ stands best when her emotionality and innovative soundscape take hold.

As a whole, though, ‘Swag’ often feels poorly edited, its 21 tracks accumulating into a directionless slog. The production may have its moments, but the lyrics rarely deliver the depth to match.

A mixed bag, sure, but there's signs that they are still fighting the good fight for weirdos everywhere.

Unquestionably, every song has been written to add firepower to the band’s live show, but it’s nonetheless the strongest and most confident Prodigy album since ‘The Fat Of The Land’.

If The Strange Boys were Brits, you get the impression they'd officially be a big deal by now.

Poetic lyrics, tender guitars, tortured synths and Olivier's heavenly vocals. [29 Jan 2005, p.59]

Their attempts to assimilate their record collections often fall between two stools--unlikely to do the business on a dancefloor or spirit you away at home through the power of its sequencing.