Queen’s greatest asset is Nicki’s dual propensity for virtuosic verses and catchy pop elements. She skillfully blends them on the album’s best tracks.

For as indecisive of an album as Tired of Tomorrow seems to be from a conceptual standpoint, the overall musical quality and talent level never wavers.

This album is exactly what you’d expect from Fruit Bats. It’s fairly slim in runtime, very chill, and could conceivably be described as anything from indie pop to country rock without a listener batting an eye. There are songs notably catchy (“Rushin’ River Valley”), affecting (“We Used To Live Here”), and both of those previous descriptors at the same time (the goofily-titled “Jesus Tap Dancing Christ (It’s Good To Be Home)”)

Anti-Icon is a concise offering with plenty to offer both fans of Ghostemane and the industrial genre.

Ctrl is a Facebook-photo album of opinions and behaviours that probably shouldn’t be broadcasted online. It’s also an assembly of tracks that prevail as mantras of self-affirmation, and it balances the two sides of its character with an awareness that feels like an accident, though it's welcomed all the same. But even if we disregard what it all means, these tracks are still jams, tunes, or any other blasé term people attach to music that you can throw away your dignity to.

The result is far from flawless, but Clues sparkles in the rough.

It makes for a surprisingly fun and varied record. Yet, that's not to say that the record is without its foibles. The biggest problem is Die Knowing never comes into its own.

Most of the album is still enjoyable, however, and certainly provides some new ideas for instrumental rock music.

His conception of melody and harmony is well above the average hip-hop artist, but the album as a whole is very flat and boring.

Be it progression or passion for art, it is the key unifying force behind TV On The Radio, and it's not here.

Jama Ko is, for twelve of its thirteen songs, political in the best way, using a deeply focused aesthetic both to engage with and as a momentary escape from the social environment which produced it.

Conquering does nothing genuinely new, and that’s genuinely okay. The basics are the basics for a reason and, as Employed to Serve demonstrate, executing them with passion and precision is sometimes all that you need.

Nas sounds as energized as ever in his current era and he’s dealing some serious bars across the 15 tracks composing Magic 3. At the same time, it sounds as if the Hit-Boy partnership is finally losing steam--something evident in a record that is stretched thin (cough 15 tracks) and inconsistent, capable of reaching commendable heights and consequently worrying depths.

Good for You isn’t a pleasant listen because Amine is so gosh darn happy, it’s because it appears so out of step with a relentlessly negative and dour mood. We could all do with just that much more happiness in our lives.

This is music that plays well in every venue, from the late night hangouts of urban bohemia to the awkward houses of the indie disco.

Átta has enough going for it to warrant an inspection from the rest of us, but it's both fairer and far more flattering to view it as the conclusion to a troubled chapter in the band's history than the enthusiastic heir to any hefty expectations you might otherwise burden it with.

Czarface Meets Ghostface won't shake up any lives, and if we're being perfectly honest not too many of us will be spinning it when the year is out. That's alright, though--it's not designed as some timeless classic statement. Sounding free from the burden of expectation from their storied careers, for the first time in a long time, this is the sound of legends cutting loose a little bit.

13 is primarily a journey into familiar territory, one that yet again focuses on Black Sabbath's acumen for vintage heavy metal.

There are a lot of great ideas, but those ideas don’t necessarily translate into greatness, largely because the album feels a bit drowned in its own creative progression. .... I can say, however, that tThere are a lot of individual moments on Radical Optimism that are lovely to listen to, and—despite my qualms—it’s definitely worth a spin.

An opus that reaffirms Tinashe's place within the pantheon of modern R&B, yet one that also proves that she needs to slightly refine her formula to craft that defining record she's been hinting at here whole career.

An infallibly-down-the-line no-nonsense rather-quite-good-but-not-at-all-groundbreaking psych-rock record.

They have managed to produce their most easily accessible album while still clearly sounding like Fear Factory.

Despite the lack of any real surprises, Awakening easily stands with anything else Sacred Reich has ever done and shouldn’t disappoint any longtime fans that are still out there. For those that were too young to experience Sacred Reich back when they were originally active, just be prepared for some early nineties-style metal with a few songs that move back in time to a point when no-frills thrash ruled the metal landscape.

Re-Mit, while able to hold its own in some quarters, is not the best of The Fall by any stretch. However, some of the strange humour and twisted narratives, sorely lacking from their last release Ersatz G.B., are back.

Return of the Dream Canteen is better overall than the previous effort. It might have a couple of higher sonic peaks, but suffers from similar flaws. Obviously, one hour-long album with the strongest tracks recorded in the past couple of years would have been enough for a stronger comeback.

Flowers of Evil should represent an erasure of the false dichotomy of high art and base pleasures, but it feels like a middle ground strewn with the negative qualities of both, and will likely leave its audience in that chocolate-on-face state of feeling oversatiated and a little cheap.

Some tracks make notable improvements – a subtle lift on "This Love"'s gorgeous arrangement boosts one of Swift's most forgettable ballads to a late tracklist highlight, while the new version of "Clean" emphasises producer Imogen Heap's vocal offerings so resplendently that it's a crime she doesn't receive a feature credit – yet others are misplaced in their adjustments.

This is her best album yet, and great moments abound amidst the fat.