Musically, Good Sad Happy Bad is both challenging and engrossing.

By catering to everyone in an effort to uplift, Common doesn’t connect with the listener as much as he could–and as much as he has in the past. Common's big tent might be too spacious for its own good.

A weighty 25 tracks of fresh faces and wrinkled battle-worn ones makes for a push and pull of swaggering persona and modern ideas, but it manages to exclude itself from being an indulgent mess.

Jaga Jazzist's music has never been shy on the intellectual front, and for those willing to take the plunge, Starfire's innate intricacies leave as much to be discovered as the skies themselves.

If The Baby is the audacious younger sibling, then Scout is the more modest elder. ... It is indie rock that is at one moment huge and soaring, the next breathtakingly intimate. Delivering remarkably visceral songs, she is opening the window into a clear view of what will surely be a great and long-lasting career.

Precipice is that rare album that brings together vulnerability, self-reflection, and the trademarks of a mainstream milestone: super earworms, coolly cosmopolitan sonics, and a voice that grows more compelling with each track. Precipice is De Souza’s “arrival” album and a singular addition to the contemporary pop canon.

Green Lanes is rooted in it's own moment, passing without much incident, shining brief, but bright, and remaining charming.

Dungeonesse have brazenly managed to distill the best parts of modern and classic pop radio down to a sweet, everlasting core while creating their own sparkling, sugary sound in the process.

The Unsemble is an album that sounds like it was phoned in from a bunch of guys who clearly think they just have to turn up to the studio and the magic will flow instantly from the fingers of these master craftsmen.

From their dream-pop origins, through their psychedelic sophomore, they have arrived at a spiritual revolution with Emerald Classics. It's a development to be proud of, to feel good about.

It’s a record that feels like a cosy hub of creative minds reminiscing about their memories – unhurried and finely reflective. Sadly, that’s much about it.

Sadly, these tracks don’t have any of the spontaneity and unexpected surprises that the warmer months bring with them, and instead these songs are plagued with familiar strains and arrangements that we’ve heard done far better in the past combined with overly simplistic, lovelorn lyrics that fail to make you think of anything other than bad middle-school poetry.

This isn’t quite that fantastic album we wanted and we know--at least hope we know--Brock and company have in them; however, it’s enough to prompt the hope that the axles are greased well enough now to deliver it next time around.

A Corpse Wired for Sound is still distinctively a Merchandise album, even though it’s a relative departure from their previous work. It definitely sounds a lot lonelier than its predecessors, though, as if Merchandise have become isolated by their own intelligence.

Instead of striving towards a perceived notion of happiness, Soft Landing is simply the crescendoing finale of a journey towards contentment.

The popsmith has never seemed to win over hearts in a big way, for whatever reason. It's A Pleasure is unlikely to change that, sadly. However, those that have stumbled across his ma-a-assive talent will fall deeper in love.

The more you listen, the harder is gets to place this record in a rundown of the overall Warpaint output.

The record is certainly clever but feels stripped back in comparison to their 2017 debut, now relying mostly on pointed lyricism that deftly avoids pretension. It’s a move of maturation as they continue to shift further from their Portobello Road busking days of indie hits “Over and Out” and “Light Me Up”. In a strange way it feels as if Flyte have returned to their roots.

It’s a heavy record for heavy times, but another intriguing example of what the trio can achieve, even when they’re burdened with the weight of the world on their shoulders.

Their second album is ultimately the sound of the band exploring the myriad influences that make up their sonics, in doing so realising who they are and focusing bloody-mindedly on driving the point home.

Whether conjuring aurora borealis through music, “Sound & Light", or crafting pop bangers from vulnerability, she proves that reinvention, when it’s honest, doesn’t need spectacle to dazzle. Think of Flux as an elegant evolution. She’s still dancing, but this time with her heart closer to the surface.

This is neither an essential nor an endlessly replayable record - but what it is, thankfully, is a delightful entry point to the works of Tony Bennett. Nothing else much matters.

Lookout Low is brought to a mellow ending with slow rock song “Sunken II”. The album as a whole has to be Twin Peaks’ most diverse, musically explorative and mature album yet, leaving fans with curiosity and excitement about where the band will go from here.

While the sombre tone of these 15 tracks may result in some listeners skipping through in search of something energetic, what lies at the end of this record for those with patience is a truly beautiful collection of stories built through pensive soliloquy as a means of exploring abrasive subjects.

Ewald’s writing is comprised of a number of observations that often appear fairly minor, collated into something that is at times quite evocative. There are moments however where it feels more uncoordinated, less refined, and unfortunately it is these points that prevent the record becoming the disarming gem it promises at times to be.

His reluctance to be confined to one particular sound (which makes him even more psychedelic), his nonchalant attitude towards genre, his increasing influence in leftfield rock and his skill in piecing together rhythm, chaos and calm makes him one of the most captivating artists indie rock has right now.

It’s a record that’s weird in all the right ways, and signals the emergence of an exciting new experimental force.

The album works best when you bear in mind the turbulent times that inspired it. Ti Amo has a romantic heart, and Phoenix use it to find the bright spots in a tragic world, without losing sight of the tragedy itself.