The Shepherd's Dog proves that Beam is worthy of the attention that he is given and actually a brilliant musical mind rather than some guy who got lucky enough to make a great album in his bedroom.

It sounds like the work of a band who are simply trying to get their feelings off their chest, rather than one trying to sell records.

It's too empty, too boring, too lifeless, too lazy.

The Weakerthans are still writing pretty, tender music, but they seem to have lost their immediacy and potency.

What's right here is awesome, and I for one have got a lot of joy out of listening to it.

Although it's a little inferior to Stars of CCTV, Once Upon A Time In The West is a good album, make no mistake about that.

Drastic Fantastic achieves success due to its near-perfect composition and construction.

There are no surprises (other than the lyrics about cutting himself) and nothing all that redeeming to take away from the listen.

A cohesive and complete album in the world of Southern rap.

Trees Outside the Academy, as a whole, is not the musician’s best work, but it’s worth the listen for anyone interested.

The brevity of this soundtrack makes for an overall calming effects with a few great moments.

'My Gun' is one of the best tracks Fifty's lent his name to; Adam Deitch and Eric Krasno's skilful production keeps the tension bubbling just below the surface with a muted hard rock guitar riff; 50's rhyme and flow is more varied and expressive than his usual monotone drawl.... The remainder of the album is as inconsistent as Fifty’s career to date.

Animal Collective is a completely different beast on Strawberry Jam, and it’s beautiful at times, it really is.

Graduation is consistent, yes, but it's consistently boring.

It’s also an extremely solid record that comes highly recommended for any fan of its predecessor.

Maybe it doesn't have the relevance as the original album, and doesn't quite live up to the legacy, but it is intelligently composed and often moving.

When contrasted with the tide of other like-minded electronic albums released recently, Simian Mobile Disco’s effort feels fresh and vibrant and with an execution that consistently delivers on simple but fascinating ideas.

Chesnutt has created something earthy and beautiful with North Star Deserter and at this point, its difficult to imagine another singer/songwriter bettering it this year.

As it stands, Liars is an appropriately titled, highly worthwhile piece of work that the band and any of its fans should be extremely proud of.

Ultimately, while there probably isn't anything here truly great enough to draw any more attention to the band, this is a perfectly good album that displays an awful lot of potential.

Harper sounds hardly inspired even in a city like Paris, and his homage to past artists sounds like cheap imitation more than anything.

To their credit, the album is fun in small doses. Still, the musicianship is never great, sometimes dreadful. The "fun" of the album sometimes feels forced, trying to capitalize on the success of "In Case We Die."

Kala is definitely a song-based album, but, that being said, the songs fit together perfectly, and even more surprisingly, they’re all good.

Andorra strikes out further, reaching deeper into Snaith’s box of musical curiosities which are, at once, tasteful and fruitfully tawdry. Phantasmagoric and stunningly organic, another crowd pleaser for fans of Daniel Snaith’s aural hallucinogens.

This Delicate Thing We’ve Made is undone by too much, too much, too much of everything. Too many ideas aren’t allowed to compete with each other, meaning that the bad ideas are given just as much importance as the good ones.

The Historical Conquests is astonishing for its depth of exploration in the folk genre.

It is easily one the band’s best album and possibly the best album of the year.

The Stage Names, despite being dense, is rarely difficult and is probably the band's most accessible effort to date.