Even though everything that Ultimate Painting have to offer has been heard before, the richness of their chosen source material- so utterly packed with hooks- puts them onto a winner.

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.

It at least proves that Trail of Dead are by no means a spent creative force, but they’re going to have to try harder to recapture the genuinely visceral energy of their classic records if they’re ever going to reach beyond their own fanbase again.

It’s a shame then that much of Wait ’til Night lacks the depth of narrative that made the imposing tales of urban romance on Playin’ Me so engrossing.... There’s still much to embrace here though.

Tyranny is a fantastically interesting idea, which doesn’t always work as an album, but could make one hell of an installation

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

This is Sunn O))) at their most playful, and Scott at his most enjoyable.

The Best Day doesn’t offer much in the way of compelling us to venture forth; that is, even if we were inclined to in the first place.

Something On High could definitely do with just a pinch more of life at times.... But regardless of this, it is still an incredibly powerful debut from Sivu.

Carry On The Grudge could so easily buckle under the weight of expectation. As it is, it feels like the most natural of follow-ups.

Add a tad more polish--if they so choose--and it’s surely only a matter of time before they’re razing the main stages to the ground.

Charged with Warren Ellis’s plaintive violin, the cracked world-weariness of Marianne Faithfull’s voice imbues the song with real life and contemporary meaning and affirms that Give My Love To London is the album with which she is able to finally reconcile her past and present.

Death is inevitable and we don’t know what’s on the other side, so while we’re here just put everything into it. Bestial Burden is the sound of Pharmakon doing exactly that.

As the album plays, even now, it’s clear why so many people got involved, it may not be something you head towards when putting a record on these days but as a long player, like all the best albums, it plays like a greatest hits collection.

Bazaar achieves what it goes out to do well, but could do with a few more of the mind-benders they are fully capable of achieving.

He's had a reputation for being guarded in the past, but on Trick, we see him wear his heart on his sleeve.

Rips is that album; there’s nary an ounce of artiness or innovation here, and it sounds almost hopelessly out of time in 2014, yet you can’t help but grin and love it just the same.

Whilst with Sakura they haven’t quite achieved that elusive balance between the raw emotion and intimacy that made Big Deal so enticing in the first place and the intensity and power of a full band, all the signs suggest they will soon.

Across a mere 20 tracks, In the Orbit of Ra acts as a receptacle for everything that was exciting about Sun Ra whilst somehow managing to be neither wilfully impenetrable nor disingenuously accessible.

There still feels like the same ratio of hit and miss that you might find in a twenty track White release. But when there's half as many tracks at twice an instrumental's length, it means those tracks you don't get on with rather overstay their welcome.

Iceage are therefore seemingly unafraid of experimentation and to play with sounds and instrumentation they discover in the process of creation. And Plowing Into The Field Of Love, acts as an extraordinary documentation of this process, where influence and intuition have come together in perfect union, allowing Iceage to expand without losing their core. In turn, they have matured to find catharsis in texture, dynamics and control rather than fast-paced adolescent aggression.

The beauty of this record lies primarily in its poise and composure; that it sounds fantastic, at times, just feels like an added bonus.

It’s a tried and tested formula, but no one really does it in a manner as unfailingly, beautifully hilarious as The Vaselines.

It's an emphatic 42 minutes of contentment, of genuine happiness that is so rare within music.

There are plenty of great ideas here, and if you really listen, they’re not particularly hard to find. But it would be nice to be able to let an album like this simply wash over you, rather than be forced to pan for gold in its still, murky waters.

As the concluding part of that elongated trilogy, Heartleap is the most magnificent and worthy of valedictions.

If Cosmogramma signalled Stephen Ellison's ambition to be more than a beatmaker, then this record is the accomplishment of that ambition. You're Dead! might be the most immortal Flying Lotus album to date.

Way Out Weather mixes various musical styles--folk, classic rock, psychedelia, space rock, dub hues, West African grooves, open-tuned raga drones--to arrive at a genre-defying, expansive sound that's simultaneously tight and totally, winningly loose, sparsely uncluttered yet richly textured in a way that rewards repeated spins.