Boxed In is an album that's hard to pin down, but it hits hard enough in places to get the party started and holds just enough back to make you want to return to it again and again.

The intensity may curtail towards the end, but the band more than make up for it with an album that has a core of bulldozer guitar lines and assaulting drums, all of which carry with them the promise of the best house party you’ve ever been to.

If nothing else, Messier Objects is a proper reminder of the beneath-the-surface merits of The Notwist's compositional talents.

It's the strange mix of disconnection, anxiety and gender trouble that makes this album a record made by Gen Y, for Gen Y.

Richard D James still manages to be one of electronic music’s most captivating producers, and even if this does not have quite the same effect on the listener as much of his other work, it still feels far more engaging and accomplished than a simple genre exercise.

A messy, extravagant, astonishing, beguiling and honest experience: that’s love, and that’s also what I Love You, Honeybear is. Just magnificent.

Another Billy Childish record--freewheelin', unhinged, intellectual, intense, mustachioed. It was ever thus.

Modern Nature likely won’t ripple the upper reaches of the album charts or critic lists, nor will it rouse any new fans, but it’s an undeniable a pleasure to those who already are and proof The Charlatans tank is plenty full.

There are some dazzling moments here.

Superficially, Sauna is possibly the easiest, most accessible way into Elverum’s world he has released since he ditched The Microphones moniker, yet the concepts and themes explored remain undiluted, and the album’s complexities have as much to give as you are willing to work to take away.

Twerps couch enough of a dark streak beneath their mostly sunny exterior to promise future explorations outside their current box.

It feels like a debut record in the sense that they’re trying to do so many new things without 100% confidence, but also like a good debut record, it makes you massively excited for the future.

Individ is deeply nestled in The Dodos' shadow, gathering patterns of the past to construct their future without shying away from tried and true habits.

Vulnicura is humanity at its most volatilely sublime.

Despite strong results in the past, this time these elements have ultimately combined to make a sort of erratic psychedelic porridge; boring in more than a few places, and a bit much for anyone other than the genre's keenest fans.

It’s dreamy without being a sonic sedative; vaguely psychedelic and hypnotic without zapping energy levels.

It’s nice to hear the pair experimenting with their sound and trying to do something new, but it’s unfortunate that the quality of the song writing has seemed to suffer as a result.

By dispensing with score and allowing the musicians of Bamako to interpret de Ridder’s violin notations as they saw fit, Africa Express’ In C Mali retains the spirit of minimalism but imbues it with a heart and soul that’s rare in the compositional world.

You, Whom I Have Always Hated is a remarkably coherent and singular piece of work, which, due to its economy and pacing, never stumbles across an ill-fitting moment in which you can hear the seam that joins two different creative forces.

Between the dated indie dance and the ballads and the auto-crooned, electronic pop, there are promising, soulful, twinkling instances of intelligent sampling and singing and interesting instrumental interludes.

The most wonderful, positive ending, a paean to the power of song and the song that closes this modern classic of an album.

The four tracks that make up S are infectious and delivered with a well placed tongue-in-cheek, and each one certainly feels like an exercise in Moss' own musical exploration.

Minor misstep aside this is a kaleidoscopic album, dazzling in it’s detail, impressive in it’s intricacies and, best of all, one drawn from so many disparate styles, forms and functions that you could spend months digging through the cultural and musical references to satisfy the kind of musical curiosity it sparks.

The best albums allow us to ruminate on life’s big questions, giving insight not only into the mind of the artist but reflecting the sentiments of the beholder, and Viet Cong does exactly that.

Matador is a great record, the sound of an artist following his own singular path--an artist who becomes more interesting with each release.

Pratt sings of trying to trust in love once more, and with On Your Own Love Again we need not look far for proof that her music is a sign of a wonderful, maturing talent that we can believe in.

No Cities to Love confirms that whatever alchemy seems to occur whenever the three sit down to make music together remains untouched by the passage of time. To put it simply, Sleater-Kinney have now made eight records, and they are all very, very good

In Restriction, Archive have created an album that does a fine job of representing their eclectic ethos, but this eclecticism also leads the album to occasionally touch on the edge of incoherence.