Perhaps ‘Shatter’ is almost too powerful. Once it’s over, the rest of the album feels much more muted – still pretty, still pleasant, still thought-provoking, but like the energy that came before has been spent.

Anxious instrumentals echo the album’s uneasy outlook and fear of the future, and when they combine forces it often makes for an astonishing listen.

Her most outward-looking work to date.

'Icky Thump' is brilliant, there's no way around that.

Trilling’s lyrics are the glue that holds together this powerful but vulnerable album.

With The Crying Light Antony And The Johnsons continue to explore the creative boundaries of pop while covering all emotional bases. For that, they should be celebrated.

In some ways ‘Traditional Tools’ is a welcome return to form, but the album isn’t nearly as innovative or as introspective as it makes itself out to be.

This is a no-flab 20-song cinematic suite in four movements, featuring Hart’s weather-beaten Bowie-like semi-falsetto in all of its majesty.

Bloodsports finally provides the send-off Suede’s legacy deserved 10 years ago. And, fittingly, it’s due to them thumbing their noses at the notion of growing old gracefully, and making brilliantly daft pop music instead.

For all its feats of brinkmanship, the patently magnificent construct called 'Kid A' betrays a band playing one-handed just to prove they can, scared to commit itself emotionally.

Vocodered, stretched, distorted, warped, deliberately upstaged by beats so showy they belong in a strip joint - quite simply, she's almost managed to make herself disappear. That bluntly explicit title isn't just pointless irony. This record is about the music, not Madonna; about the sounds, not the image.

The result is a markedly retro-futurist sound, from the OMD-ish ‘Kinda Dark’ to ‘It Just Doesn’t Happen’, the synth line on which sounds suspiciously similar to a new wave rendition of Salt-N-Pepa’s ‘Push It’. At times, the music veers so close to kitsch that it may very well alienate some listeners from the get-go. Bejar’s songwriting remains as deft, cryptic and mosaic as ever though.

This combination of pop and disco makes Ratchet the perfect summer soundtrack.

A one-way ticket to the outer limits of the solar system. [8 Apr 2006, p.39]

Eschewing the slacker blueprint he practically invented for off-kilter pop tracks, Malkmus has shown that he's not defined by his past.

There’s a playfulness in the way Gojira approach ‘Fortitude’. There are bursts of melody across the album – perfect for a stadium show of their own – and the likes of ‘New Found’ and ‘Born For One Thing’ flirt with crushing industrial breakdowns. There’s even a couple of soaring guitar solos in ‘Hold On’. The whole record feels agile, despite the weight.

Album three is CHAI’s smoothest record to date.

At times, it’s truly gorgeous; but at others: it’s bloody hard work.

Band Of Joy is an essential purchase... if your dad is having a birthday this month.

‘American Head’ is a soft, reflective moment of taking in and appreciating the vista once the trip has worn off – when king’s heads and evil pink robots have melted away – and the dust has settled.

At 18 tracks, ‘In the Meantime’ meanders a bit towards the finish, though there are no real duds here.

Where Sky Larkin were once winsome and breezy, Motto pounds ahead with heart-punching defiance and desperation to be heard. Listen up.

Of course, the whole venture has about as much cultural currency now as an octopus's garden, but it's a lovely timewarp to slip into.

Sixth album Bleeds is often weighty, but sounds consistently alive, and inimitably Roots Manuva.

That’s Your Lot isn’t the instant-classic debut they might have hoped for, but it delivers on their early promise, and offers tantalising hints at where they might go from here.

‘For Those That Wish To Exist’ isn’t exactly the kind of sonic reinvention one-time scene mates Bring Me The Horizon pulled off with 2019’s ‘Amo’, but it pushes Architects into unexplored territory and a bold new future where even bigger venues and audiences surely await.

As the new face of drill music, “from Bush to Beverley Hills”, ‘23’ shows that Cench repeatedly proves his worth and as his talent continues to blossom.

[The lyrics] can also be so formulaic that you’ll almost wonder whether you’re listening to M3GAN. ... But at the same time, it’s hard to shake the suspicion that Max has fully understood the assignment. ‘Diamonds & Dancefloors’ lives up to its escapist title with a non-stop onslaught of sharp and shiny pop hooks.