From its intro--a carefully crafted hip-hop instrumental by legendary producer Alchemist that creates the tone so astutely, to it’s end--a track guested by both Ratking crew-member Wiki and King Krule, it’s hard not to get swept up in this record.

The pacing of the album is questionable, and silly lines like “we got motherfucking internet” and proclamations of Southern living do get old by the record’s end. But these are nitpicking complaints of an otherwise fine rock record straight from Alabama.

It’s the product of a band that’s clearly thinking on their feet, engaging with the conflicting styles of those around them and assimilating new behaviors without sacrificing their own, changing with the world around them to create something refreshingly distinct and beautifully engaging.

Are We There will make sure to conjure it up and hold you rapt as you trundle through it together.

Not all of it sounds like a string quartet pulling itself apart, or a piano chewing up its own keys. Polished, radio friendly pop hooks snag on the acute, serrated edges of Black Thought’s gloomy verses.

It’s impossible to consider this release outside of its original context. With no other albums to compare this to at the time, it sounded life affirming, with its promise of white lines, gin and tonics and taking us away.

Another reason to count Murphy among the best of ‘em is his ability to take a mood and encapsulate it so perfectly in the formal structure of dance track.

On this Deluxe Edition, remixes fill out the majority of the extra material.... Yet in a way, it points to the downside of the album, and the fact that sometimes the Compass Point All Stars can steer away from Jones’ dynamic connection between an audience and herself.

Ultimately, they bolster each other on Do It Again. For the two artists, it’s not groundbreaking--it is a nice dollop of sideways expansion, revealing new areas that neither can quite achieve separately.

His concerns are consistent and consistently bizarre, his delivery as unsettling as ever, the atmosphere he creates both bleak and battered--yet he’s still a man armed with tunes as well as wit, brilliance to match the bitterness; a new album that digs into the past, chokes it down and regurgitates it with a sly smile.

Zoetrope manages to ably explore both shades of contemporary electronic music; the house-tinged, ecstasy laden cracks of one school and the strokey beard experimentations of the other.

It’s not until Meteorites broadens its scope a little that it begins to offer up genuine highlights.

On In Conflict the Canadian composer has managed to translate that energy into his recordings ,making his music as invigorating as it is soothing, as exciting as it is impressive and as complex as it is accessible.

Butler has sculpted a complete, resolute collection of high-grade dance music.

Thirteen albums in, and the Brian Jonestown Massacre may have just delivered their most impressive album yet. Clear heads prevail.

Upside Down Mountain establishes the songwriter as a career-musician, one who probably won’t be forgotten for a while yet.

Friendly Bacteria is the sound of artist easing back into his chair refusing to play the fool to get people’s attention and, unfortunately, the majority of it just passes by like a breath of wind.

Rousing, downtempo pop to soothe a troubled soul.

Thumpers maintain a vertigo-high quality on Galore, and provide us with another option in the hotly-contested battle for ‘album of the summer’.

For existing fans this is a tonally varied addition to his substantial oeuvre, but the record will likely prove too oblique, even passé, for more virgin ears.

Hardly euphoric but with some real mastery in the guitar, not dissimilar to Body/Head, this is dark swell of analog experimentation will no doubt intrigue guitar geeks globally.

He’s produced his finest work to date.

Tempest is an epic talent, definitely, but this doesn’t quite nail it down.

While it might not appeal to name-checked acts Phil Collins (dead, apparently) or Sting (“Lose the fucking yoga”) those who seek solitude in the British weather, putting the world to rights in the local and who see the beauty in Motorway services and high-vis jackets will be thrilled with a collection that’s Blighty-themed, from a duo whose output is still beautiful.

Whilst lyrically, there’s a strong thread of longing and the past, musically, it’s constantly moving forwards, and after MatA’s somewhat leisurely start, it’s nice to see this promising progression.

It’s yet another release from one of Sweden’s many stunning exports that make us want more of their “less”.

On Wild Crush, Archie Bronson Outfit deliver a record which feels as organic and honest as all of their previous releases, but it has a little something extra about it.

Comebacks are often ego trips, but never quite as brazenly as this.