It's mostly a thing of pleasing lonesome grooves--but there are moments where it sounds like the Mahavishnu Orchestra tuning up.

Wrecking Ball is as surgical as a ball of pig-iron on a swinging chain.

It's half George Harrison, half Keith West.

In a crowd of loudish country and R&B guitars he tells brief stories of everyday lives with a correspondingly everyday voice, but with a kind of unslung abandonment that goes rather well with the guitars. It's very good.

Sun is an album of polished electronic pop that mostly struggles to distinguish itself from the current slew of female singers.

A natural wonder.

Either way, we get what we always get: the analogue rendition of a stick of Southern yarns, long on observation, short of syllable and rough as your old boots.

As we glide through Post Tropical the tracks steadily grow bigger, with gospel-style harmonies and languid slide guitar lending texture to create a dreamy, if cold, soundscape that may leave some with a sense of frustration, as if we are building towards an ever-shifting point on the horizon.

While the presiding atmosphere is retro, the Avila brothers' production keeps things properly real.

Old Fears is the sound of a quick, keen mind at work and play.

Great tunes, decent voice, scary attitude.

The most vibrant, organic and energy infused African hip-hop debut since K'naan's The Dusty Foot Philosopher.

The most compelling Spanish album I've heard in ages.

Exquisitely poised solo pieces that subtly pay homage to the likes of fellow keyboard masters Abdullah Ibrahim and Erik Satie.

A real gem.

At its best, in the opening “All Will Surely Burn” and in a thrilling closing version of “Rivers of Babylon”, this is mesmerising trance music of great power.

The first really serious contender for album of the year thus far.

There are overworked beatscapes and confounding lyrics, sure--but also multiple sublime, fully formed songs.

The Blue Note debut can be as frustratingly tentative as his first outing for RCA 15 years ago.... Things do heat up, with drummer Eric Harland stoking the fires, but there's no big flame.

Desire Lines lacks the hooks of their best work, with no obvious hits.

Revelation Road proves, though, that form may come and go, but class is permanent.

The internationalist (Scouse-Chinese-Scottish-Bulgarian-Israeli) electro-rock quartet may not have presented a comprehensive summary of their career here, but it's a superb starting point for Ladytron latecomers.

Happily, the North Carolina’s modern hippie’s second album is too ambitious, too fluently fluently surprising and too lovely to appeal to 1970s retro-heads alone.

A delightful indie pop record that’s by turns intense, playful and touching.

[On Bloom] Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand have finessed their vision to perfection.

Tracks such as "The Bay" have enough to get heads nodding, but if you hear this on a dancefloor, it'll be courtesy of a seriously hard-working remixer.

Walker is almost unique among his generation in continuing to provide mind-food instead of cosy nostalgia. If you go into Bish Bosch half-wishing he'd belt out a ballad, you leave it with absolutely no regrets.

His major-label follow-up wisely keeps the retro aesthetic.