Its DOOM quota is surprisingly small. ... But is the record good? Unquestionably. Is it fun? Very.

Ultimately, from start to finish, you know what you've ordered: proficient, precision-executed blues-rock with few genuine surprises.

Some bars are simple to a fault – a continuous problem throughout the record. Luckily, ‘Formula OneDa’ shows a lot of promise. Other songs represent her strong storytelling better as she seamlessly shifts between grime, dance, and hip-hop, delving into a wide array of themes.

All those years in Audioslave have smoothed Cornell's appealingly rough edges, and as grand as King Animal occasionally sounds, it lumbers when it should roar.

Dre and Snoop forgot the legacy they created for the West Coast with ‘Doggystyle’ and – although there are flashes of fun – the forgettable collection barely scratches the surface of their legendary status.

‘Meet The Woo 2’ does feature some slightly lacklustre – take the disappointing ‘Foreigner’, featuring fellow New York rapper A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie. A Boogie’s sloppy delivery might have been scraped entirely from the mixtape. Yet Pop Smoke’s latest is one for the mosh-pitting party goers. He definitely proves that – in his own words – “you can’t say pop and forget the smoke”.

It often feels like an in-joke that we’re allowed in on.

Sadly, towards the close the balance is lost and the fine-but-inessential ‘Summer Moon’, ‘Weeds Through The Rind’ and ‘Schlager’ end things on a weak note.

The issue is, however, that it’s perhaps lacking in variety. Although the rocket-fueled, lightning-paced ‘More Than You Know’ and the gently atmospheric closer ‘Childhood’ do offer changes in pace, there’s only really subtle things differentiating many of these songs from each other. Sometimes, the hooks aren’t as strong as they could be.

For all the music's cagey intelligence, Drake sounds like the kind of guy who comes sauntering out the traps in a 100m race and immediately breaks out into a victory lap, pausing only to remonstrate with hecklers.

Viewed in isolation, ‘Heaven’ is a pretty sublime pop-punk record. Its little brother, ‘Hell’, yields more mixed results, continuing the metal-infused sound Sum 41 have veered towards in recent years.

‘Trip At Knight’, like many of the rapper’s other projects, is an uneven affair that suggests a lack of quality control.

It’s all accomplished and well-produced--as an introduction to these sounds, it’s absolutely on the money--but perhaps too scattershot to really gel.

Fans of their debut won’t be surprised by anything on here, but Kllo’s dexterous variations on a theme should win them over regardless.

The result disturbs something of the original's gauzy ambience, but there are some fine refigurings.

Yet cringingly vibed-up first words aside – where we're also leaving the Eurovision cheese of 2 Hearts--the follow-up to 2007's debut, Idealism, is not all bad.

The problem for Athlete is that Coldplay are returning in a matter of weeks to show how it's really done. [29 Jan 2005, p.59]

Despite its five or six great tracks, Graduation feels more and more like the work of a follower, not a leader.

he may toy with everything from Detroit techno to dubstep, but Harvest Festival hangs cohesive.

This experimental concoction Redd delivered is a hit-or-miss.

It might not kill the Mumford and Butler clones, but The Hunting Party is an energetic effort at least.

Tinashe flips so aggressively between genres that the record becomes unfocused and sporadic. Of course there’s nothing wrong with Tinashe showing emotional duality, but in transitioning so sharply from R&B to rap to stadium pop to EDM, ‘Songs For You’ makes you feel a little dizzy.

Though ‘Send A Prayer My Way’ doesn’t always grip you with the immediacy of either Baker or Scott’s respective solo careers, it’s still refreshing to hear two very well-established songwriters exploring such distinct new territory together.

It’s a shame the editing isn’t as tight all the way through, but these grooves sure are deep.

Individual tracks can feel forced rather than organically nurtured. It all means that by the time they hit ‘Making Up Numbers’ and ‘Everybody Wants Me’, there are no longer enough new tricks in their bag to hold our attention, and ‘Emergency’ bleeds away without a climax.

Taking cues from ’60s free jazz, dub and disco and combining it with the punk-rock sensibilities of their former outfit, Watersports is a delirious fever-dream of an album.

For the most part, his rasping punk is a sexy but grotty treat.

The star’s hubris is no more apparent than in its sheer breadth and lack of quality control. At 25 tracks in total, Scorpion is way too long--even by Drake’s own standards--and simply doesn’t need to be.