Lust For Life deals with themes that’ll be familiar to Lana devotees; faded Hollywood glamour, skewed Americana and terrible love. But this time around, Lana is even more grandiose than usual, with lush, sweeping orchestration draped elegantly over each of the album’s 16 tracks.

The album’s about accepting that joy often stands side by side with pain. No, it’s not a wild departure from its predecessors, though it’s no less powerful for that.

Much more than a remix album, then, the sheer invention and thirst to push things forward demands that I<3UQTINVU’ must be considered as an entirely separate, and brilliant, full-length Jockstrap album on its own terms.

Along with his collaborators (including David Byrne and Damon Albarn), he has neatly stitched a tapestry of musical cultures into a cohesive, convincing whole.

Just another mind-bendingly great, often dazzling SFA record. [20 Aug 2005, p.57]

Whatever way you look at Kingdom Of Rust it’s a magnificent rock record, one which will delight the faithful and also surely see them pick up new devotees.

It’s a late resolution; like their debut, Crystal Castles feels long; not too long for comfort but too long for coherence.

‘Temporary Highs In The Violet Skies’ doesn’t broaden Aalegra’s sound or lyrical content greatly, and there are certainly points where she could push things further forward. But in continuing to be so open and expressive about love, hope, and loss, she makes it feel possible for the rest of us.

‘The Melodic Blue’ offers a confident and fully-realised project, one that shows that he continues to be difficult to pigeonhole.

[A] ladyfolk wonder. [30 Jul 2005, p.49]

Lyrically, Beach House 3 is a step away from the musician’s satin-sheeted comfort zone, but we may have to wait for ‘Beach House 4’ to see him truly come of age.

Kelis. Genius. Pop auteur. Credible diva. Welcome back.

Cheery yet punk-as-fuck attitude is studded through their rattling second LP.

As they prove across ‘Isles’’ 10 intricately-crafted tracks (which were whittled down from more than 150 demos), few other artists can conjure up these much-missed moments of patiently rapturous rave ecstasy quite so artfully.

There are few smiles cracked on an album that’s shot through with the loneliness of the night bus home. But this is a record in the true sense of the word: a document of a certain time and place, an emotional account of a cruel, Krule world.

Ruminations on a post-Brexit nation from a bunch of middle-aged musicians is, perhaps, less essential than it seems to deem itself, but there are probing thoughts and moments to make it worth sticking with.

They’ve certainly lost none of the delicious oddball energy that comfortably pitches their carefree electronic and romance-heavy tunes as the work of a lounge Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

‘The Main Thing’ experiments well without alienating die hard fans expecting more of the same. It’s a more mature and ambitious record; the sound of a band finally out of a rut.

12 years after the tracks ‘Obsessions’ and ‘Mowgli’s Road’ introduced us to a singular musical talent, Marina’s melodies and vocal hooks still don’t sound like anybody else’s.

It’s the sound of the man inside the ball feeling an unknowable fear and trying to accept it. The rest of us should join him in his strife, if only to enjoy that psychedelic drone groove. It’s an anxious riot.

As well as the miasma of Lush and MBV, the likes of 'Heedless' have a skewed Breeders-ish growl that keeps lines satisfyingly defined amid the sun-bleached, soft-focus beauty.

There's no possible way of having this much fun without getting the chorus of Handel's 'Messiah' drunk on peach schnapps. [4 Feb 2006, p.29]

Mason falls a touch short of the mark. [27 May 2006, p.33]

Mug Museum, her third full-length, is as wonderfully weird as any of its predecessors. And there’s now sparseness in her music, plus a cool, controlled confidence that showcases her knack for the surreal more than ever.

Fans of Women’s challenging melodies will appreciate the songcraft here, but Viet Cong are very much their own animal; with deep forays into demonic white noise ('Continental Shelf'), clanging post-punk ('Silhouettes') and psychedelic/prog-rock on sprawling closer 'Death', they're expanding into adventurous new directions.

Repeated listens unmask 'Ryan Adams' as a great record, and a sleek departure from 2011's 'Ashes & Fire.'

...a spontaneity here that replaces the formality of tradition with something more vital. Like a snapshot's moment captured, the gap between composition and recording seems to have been reduced to nothing, and it's here that the group hit their mark.

Diasporic dancehall reggae, spruced up and polished around the edges, but essentially retaining the artist's signature style.