Much like its creator and artwork, it remains unidentifiable, borderline incomprehensible even, but never less than thoroughly enthralling.

Oak Island is an exciting ride with uplifts, lulls and a sporadic note of menace--but the all-round brilliance of Slave Ambient ensures that Nightlands is just a quality aside for now.

It’s hard to judge if the album has simply missed its mark or, as I suspect, he appears to have lost the enthusiasm and imagination with which he approached his first, vastly superior effort.

The melodies are coated in finely woven layers which aren’t as straight-forward as they seem to be. And with dense lines to dismantle in addition to the materials they’re carefully wrapped in, prepare to invest time in this true love of a band.

As great as the album’s opening four songs might be, they hardly break new ground for the Felices.

It would seem that, even forty years on, the quartet is still brimming with dynamism and inventiveness.

Playland then is an enjoyable rock record with occasional dips into complacency that are sometimes matched by its moments of bravado and energy.

Hermits On Holiday is that rarest of treats, a side-project that could be its writers’ day job. Bristling with brio and invention, it sounds as much fun to listen to as its creators evidently had making it.

A wholly strong and fruitful debut album from the scuzz-pop prince, there’s no doubt we’ll see more maturity and critical creations in Lang’s future.

There are some exciting ideas here, but the sophisticated and mature singles like “Spinnin” and “Home To Another One” act as red herrings for an album bogged down by an odd reframing of the past.

when i paint is an intimate record full of poetic and melodic turns, giving you the impression that sometimes Levy herself is surprised by where it takes her.

A combination of new life experiences, that allow Hutchison to weave more vivid tales of mourning, nostalgia and, ultimately, triumph, and the shot in the arm that is Aaron Dessner giving the band that little bit more has helped to create an album that could rival Midnight Organ Fight.

SOPHIE in part radiates extrinsic positivity. The instrumentals, when listened to singly, are often grim and claustrophobic; it is instead the vocal contributions of her dear friends that invoke the lively spirit of collective relief.

Strange Pleasures can indeed take you anywhere if you let it, with a journey of discovery awaiting you anytime you cue it up.

This record utilizes straightforward folk-rock with understated string and brass accompaniments, mostly stripped of the whimsical music box quirks of yesteryear.

Sun Structures is a bold, muscular record.

It showcases a love of jazz and world music, bringing these sounds into their existing sound in an exciting and offbeat fashion. It acts as a bridge to their next full release, something for fans to pour over and get lost in with a huge amount of variety and talent on display.

Sure, the eccentricities of other solo efforts like Eye or I Often Dream of Trains are missing, but to complain about that would be asking for a lack of honesty that The Man Upstairs simply refuses to provide.

Queen includes 19 tracks, which some might consider to be too long for an album. But Minaj avoids boring her listeners by changing up her flow and the atomosphere of each track.

Freed from the spectre of Unicorns' success and freed from the burden of their debut Return To The Sea, Islands offers us the transcendent Islomania, their most convincing album in 15 years.

Interiors is often captivating, always interesting and certainly another confident and assured step forward for Mesirow and Glasser.

More than a curio but not quite essential, Myths 002 will not drastically change perceptions of either artist involved, but is another commendable display of their lack of fear when it comes to exploring new ways of work.

It's All Smiles is an experience that can be appreciated all the more on an end-to-end listening.

Johnston has made and most importantly shared a very good record here, one that stands as a reminder of his immense talent, of his longevity, of his kindness in spreading the benefit of his skill among younger, adoring fan-bands and yes, if you must, his power to overcome those much discussed mental problems.

It retains a surprising amount of individuality for an album almost certainly destined for the top of the charts. And, though it might well feel a little samey in it's early stages, the final half more than makes up for it.

Whether or not Joan of Arc are intentionally pulling back from some of the density of He’s Got the Whole, a bit too much space leaves stretches of 1984 less than solid in the process.

There is not as much variety on Fever Dream as “Alligator” had seemed to indicate, but there is a clear shift – it feels more open, musically, than ever before. There’s a confidence mixed with fragility, like a band born again.

Whether this is a Clyro-esque transformation underway, time will tell, but for now, we can revel in their top notch, A-grade rock cacophony as it is.