The good news is that despite the excess verbiage (which at least is hardly a shock), this is a Good Album.

All too often the guitar-led tracks expose their limitations.

Minimal and huge at the same time, desperately sad in places, thought-provoking and ethereal in others, this is an incredible milestone of a record.

An album which feels like a hand-me-down from a ghost.

Too much of 'Geogaddi' just rests on the Boards' well established tricks.

More often than not displays a penchant for melody and tension which would shame many of the new millennium's pop pups.

'Gotham!' is an infinitely danceable and certainly insightful record that gets better with each listen, on every frequency.

'Come With Us' sounds immediately familiar, but this is often problematic, redolent of prior work by both themselves and others.

Admittedly, this time round he's prone to touch on more comfortable territory than before... but often there's a delicious sense of him going back to basics without sacrificing the benefits of modern technology.

The results are almost painfully fashionable, f'sure, but utterly essential nonetheless.

Elbow have made the most passionate, beautiful and downright special record you'll hear this year.

They still sound as spunky and powerful as they were nearly two decades ago when they kicked off this long-term assault on American culture.

'Love Is Here' actually manages to deliver on all that early promise and, more than any of the singles that preceded it, completely conjures up the giant-hearted beauty they're capable of live.

It doesn't strictly feel like a No Doubt album at all.

Gone are the hippy, dippy platitudes of their do-good daisy age; replaced by the most bullish beats, the snakiest rhymes and the overwhelming sensation that you're listening to the undiluted thoughts of the three most intelligent men in hip-hop.

It's crude, certainly, but Ludacris has enough wit and chutzpah to elevate this above the dross.

There's way too much power balladry, rawk guitar, Steven Tyler and MTV-by-numbers to make a genuinely stand-out record.

Lyrically, he's got one thing to say: Kid Rock is back, Kid Rock has lots of money, Kid Rock has the dames licked down, Kid Rock is hard. Which is all good when done properly, with wit, but Kid Rock is not clever, and he's not funny.

The warmth of her debut is still there but now overlaid with something fearsome, forceful and almost overbearing at times.

Tender melodies, modern scrapes and traditional beauty merge into a gently unfolded whole that touches the soul with its silky aesthetics.

Not even the added muscle of playaz like Kid Koala, Afrika Bambaataa, Plug 3, Prince Paul and Mike Patton manage to lift this album above the low level pastiche it seems happy to be.

It does at least manage to include several of the things we hold dearest about Michael Jackson the singer, and it also steers clear of anything as laugh-out-loud as 'Earth Song'.

A much more brutal and vicious record than its predecessor.

Sandoval has a voice quite unlike almost any other and perfectly suited to stark, narcoleptic laments, which is what this, with a couple of curious-if-brief instrumental diversions, delivers on a regular basis.

Everything sounds more accomplished, more intentional than previous efforts. Most important of all, though, 'Drukqs' is an unpredictable (yet compelling) listen.

With 'The Argument' arriving awash in the unmistakably sinewy and elliptic post-hardcore sound Fugazi have made their own (sonically at least) this is more or less business as usual.

New Order are one of the best bands in the world again.

This album is jaunty, scruffy, carefree and accomplished.