Mattie aims to start conversations, change minds and make a difference, and with a collection of tracks that are as catchy as they are provocative, he’s on his way.

The way they put together their country-rock is rarely less than tasteful with some nice moments, like the sinuous guitar riff of 'Calamity Song'. Only on 'January Hymn', though, where they capture the stillness and melancholy of winter beautifully, do you forget to check the joinery.

While the band set themselves up well on songs such as 'I Like Drugs' and 'Just Like Tiger Woods', the record does rely a little too much on no-brainer jokes about girls.

Their fizzy keyboards and Bob Mould-y vocals remain intact, but essentially this is conventional indie-rock.

Furiosity is crass, it’s rowdy, and it’s totally unoriginal but in the best kind of way.

It'd be a far easier listen if it was a proper studio release.

It has highlights, certainly, the beautiful ‘The Vampyre Of Time And Memory’ and epic single ‘My God Is The Sun’ being cases in point, but this a largely disappointing return to record for QOTSA.

While it doesn’t quite compete with the very best their genre has produced this year, There Used To Be A Place For Us slots comfortably into the folder marked Perfectly Acceptable 2013 Pop-Punk.

Half-panicked, half-anthemic ‘Runnin’ Scared’ aside, this is all a little meek, but that’s kind of the idea.

Though Makes Me Sick is still a fun listen--complete with some brilliant lyrical put-downs, genuinely touching moments and echoes of past glories--it doesn’t quite capture NFG at their life-affirming best.

Overall, it’s a decent summer barbecue soundtrack, but hardly vintage Sublime.

Reign Of Terror will filter into the middle ground of obscurity amid countless other albums from bands of a similar ilk.

Murdered Love is a perfectly enjoyable and easily digestible slice of rap-metal.

For those unfamiliar with the band’s at times world-class back catalogue, this disc is a fine--if fleeting--new entry point.

Amoral proves that Violens will stand proud knowing they can give a name to their organized mess, even if they don't know what it is yet.

Expect polished fare awash with slick harmonies, clean guitars, heavy drumbeats, giant hooks and an unadulterated wall of gleaming pop.

Earworms are decidedly less abundant than normal, though, sad to say.

Wade through the filler, and the New York stalwarts haven’t sounded this fun in ages.

Admittedly, it’s easy to sneer at this album for its lack of diversity, but it’s a tried and tested formula. And, for Airbourne it’s one that works.

At times, the quintet deliver the solid grooves and renowned, catchy singalong choruses that have engaged their adoring fan base, but for too much of the time Ungrateful sounds a bit flat and tired.

It’s nowhere near as hot as the real prime stuff the early ’80s gave us (Poison Idea, Void, Tar Babies, that sort of thing) and still lags behind the young ‘uns who’re keeping the genre fresh and vital.

Motionless In White’s third full-length sees them firming up the sound they settled on with last album ‘Infamous’, but with varying degrees of success.

A poppier polish, especially vocally, coats this album as they move into catchier, crowd-pleasing metalcore territory with mixed results.

For an album that led the charge in early-’00s pop-punk, it’s worth a spin or two, if only for the memories it’ll bring back.

The frontman sounds great as ever, as on the powerful ‘Fabuless’ and ‘The Witness Trees’, but his usual conviction isn’t as present and the album feels largely colourless.

There's nothing immediately wrong with Perch Patchwork--'Living Decorations' and 'Israeli Caves' are serviceable indie rock tunes, and 'Was' is a teasingly low-key ditty--but the core of the album is eminently forgettable.

Unfocused and indistinct, this is an awkward transition that skews towards by-numbers radio-rock.

Not good, not bad, just is.