Although his mission proves futile, he approaches it with a curiosity of spirit that makes ‘Along The Way’ a captivating and nourishing listen, less noodly than his early solo releases and more in the vein of the composerly streak exhibited on 2011’s ‘Get Lost’.

Nine of the ten songs are named after friends, and they’re samey and indulgent.

It wouldn’t be a Deerhoof album if there wasn’t a barrage of unexpected riffs, squeals and feedback littered across most tracks, as well as a few madcap lyrical excursions.

She’s made an album that sounds consistently inviting and sometimes exciting.

This is The Cribs’ best album to date.

It's nothing if not infectious.

Throughout she offers up rich, swirling instrumentals and intricate musical landscapes, crunchy chord progressions and twinkling chromaticism complemented by her confident, warm vocals.

Though the emotional details can get swept up in the wall of sound, ‘If Not Winter’ is still a triumphant debut – and more than anything, the sound of a young artist who’s still growing into herself.

Not a bad record then, but one that's debased by the disappointment of one of the UK's bright hip-hop hopes selling soul rather than surprises.

There are enough dreamlike melodies to sustain your attention rather than zoning out completely, but in reality it's all just very comfortable.

Sylvan Esso’s fourth offering doesn’t dwell in solitude, despair, or desire for escape. Instead, it resides in what is left after the darkness clears: tighter connections to the surrounding world and the people who populate it. To borrow Meath and Sanborn’s own words, the album is a bold and defiant example of what could happen when you walk back into the world, “wilder and stranger” than before.

Unadulterated genius--we're practically drooling.

Lynne’s melodic sparkle, as ever, acts as ELO’s warp drive. He expertly gives tired old genres shots of refreshing stardust.

There are some total gems on ‘Late Night Feelings’, which are occasionally marred by a handful of sleepy filler tracks. But in general Mark Ronson’s immense talent as both a producer and songwriter shines through. It’s bold, brilliant and genuinely interesting pop music.

A few good lyrics (“You’re in love with the future / I don’t know why”) and some bad (“Why don’t you listen to your momma? / She’s old”) stick out, but the narrative hook is stronger in theory than in practice. ... The music on ‘Raw Data Feel’ is the band’s best, catchiest and most focused to date.

Surf City spend the first third of Kudos hanging out with that same apathetic throng, but then surprise with a handful of genuinely exciting moments.

Like its cover, the Jean-Michel Basquiat artwork ‘Bird On Money’, it’s spiky but quite stunning. This is a cool album, the kind you begrudgingly grow to love, even if it never cared about you.

In August 2014, Los Angeles trio Wand released debut ‘Ganglion Reef’, a psychedelic record inspired by a make-believe island. They’ve maintained that imaginative approach for follow-up Golem, which is full of brain-bending riffs, effects and abstract lyrics.

It's a third album that avoids all the pitfalls of third albums: introspective without being self-pitying, expansive in scope without being pompous, exploring new directions without disappearing up its own arse.

They have returned hungry and wired to shake us out of our digital comas.

The assembled talent takes This Is The Kit’s traditional folk to the edge of the avant-garde.

When he tells us that “fame is a disease” on ‘Drive’ or laments being trapped in a “penthouse prison” on ‘Cry For Me’, these are hardly original ideas. But they do feel like authentic expressions of anguish from The Weeknd.

As ever, The Hold Steady achieve their best work when their playing is loose. When the songs are filtered through the bottom of a shot glass. When they sound like the best bar band in the best bar you didn’t know about until the moment that you found yourself in it at 3am in the morning. On the basis of ‘Thrashing Thru The Passion’, that band are back.

Mourn exhibits a young band fully aware of their own qualities: fierceness, confidence and brutally simple songwriting.

Frenzied excitement still prevails.

Weezer have delivered an album that’s intimate, thoughtful and resolutely human.

The resounding verdict is that it’s a surprising, but bold and brave progression from last year’s confused "Graduation."

There’s no jolting shock-of-the-new: there’s just reassuringly here, refining what they they do best.