There’s nothing particularly new here, nothing cutting edge, but there is beautiful, considered, genuine songwriting, and to greet such art with any kind of disdain would be nothing short of a travesty.

On Mediation of Ecstatic Energy he is able to give that virtuosity a form that makes for a coherent, beautiful album.

A soundtrack for life’s glorious heights and crumbling nadirs.

Once more, Nightmares On Wax provide the backing music to the party; once more, your enjoyment is only limited by your own imagination.

It’s worth a spin for sure, and there’s some spangly gems on offer, but if you were looking for a reinvention of the wheel, Blouse are going to make you wait a bit longer.

Spreading Rumours has enough charm to keep you busy, but not enough (bar ‘Ways To Go’) to keep you mesmerised in the long-term.

It’s a glorious return from one of 2010s most talked about bands that deserve to be talked about all over again.

In all though, Kiss Land succeeds on not only being an album in the assumed sense of the word, with big singles, tasty hooks and singalong phrases, but as a concept record too, one that takes you hostage.

As much as this is a horrific and challenging listen at times, Coming Apart is also an utterly captivating and thrilling record and...whisper it...could end up being the best music she’s ever put her name to.

Imitations is another strong entry to the diverse repertoire of a singer who seems to be gaining an increasing grasp of his vast expressive potential with age.

This isn’t mere dilettantism, and while it’s likely to net both acts new fans from the other side of the great genre divide, it holds up more than capably on its own terms.

Smilewound’s gleeful, weird-pop eclecticism builds up the goodwill to cover any lull.

Three out of the four songs are at least enjoyable.

Rewind the Film seems immediately poised for lost-classic status-- for all its clumsiness and flaws, it’s the kind of album that wants you to let it sink in, or even gather dust, until you remember it’s there.

While there’s a bit of a formula to be spotted, it’s one that works for them--given that it’s new to us, it’s easy to appreciate and doesn’t wear too thin over Weird Sister's duration.

Dense, uneasy psychedelia dominates, and although this isn’t a product of wilfully inaccessible experimentation, neither does it contain much in the way of instant melodies and conventional song structures.

It glistens like a pop album should, shimmering like a blue lagoon under midday sun..

Made In California does a great job of confirming just how much more there was to The Beach Boys than sunshine and girls.

It’s a charming record, but one likely to be appreciated to its fullest only in the dingiest times of the year, those days when you find yourself in need of a reminder of sunnier months just to keep going.

All in all, it is one of the most exceptionally realised albums to enter the world since her last release, and confirms that both as an artist and a role-model Monáe really ought to be celebrated as Electric Lady number one.

Equally far from disappointment or ascendency, it tacks about its ashen existence, perfectly fine and perfectly listenable and perfectly suffering for it.

While it might not be the masterpiece some people are looking for from this band, it is nevertheless a more than worthy addition to their canon.

This album opens up the treasure chest and allows you to marvel. His disposable notions turn out to be consistently worthy of such regard.

Back to Forever is a fully-realised pop album and grandiose to a fault. It’s got a fair share of cheesy moments, but they’re endearing.

It’s an overwhelmingly dark album.

Law and Order attempts to restore some sort of musical faith, but comes across as sounding like a narscisstic debut that only Jonathan Rado really understands.

The songs themselves don’t shine through the production.

Factory Floor’s music is distilled down into three elements. Rhythm. Synths. Vocals. That they make something so evocatively alienated, so compulsively unknowable and so bleakly irresistible from simply this is a sharp, uncompromising, emphatic victory.