Draped in synths and bouncy, Top 40 bass lines, Offering turns out to be a lacklustre effort from a group once smothered in critical praise and year-end listings.

Musically, it is not quite extraordinary, yet this could all change in a live setting, and it remains a more than worthy return for a group who are experts in their craft.

Destroyer’s new album, ken, is Bejar’s best work since his masterpiece.

Beck’s Colors is a musical invitation to a soiree that ultimately lacks both substance and staying power, and is crucially missing the self-awareness that something more important is at stake than merely having a good time.

It’s this invitation into her most confidential thoughts that makes the album equal parts sensual as it is unflinchingly confident, and it’s the ability to inhabit so many subtleties of the emotional turmoil of relationships that makes Take Me Apart such a memorable album.

Occasionally the electronic sounds can seem too familiar and overused.

20 Years in a Montana Missile Silo sits comfortably at the Pere Ubu table as the main course of an illustrious career. Gorge yourself.

As You Were is practically all comfortable, predictable, Oasis-without-Noel comfort food.

This is a collection that displays consistently and rigorously the undervalued, underexposed talent of one of the country’s best post-Ray Davies songwriters and one that, despite its length and sometimes haphazard nature is a fitting milestone to this prolific, profound and playful master of the songwriting form.

The Ooz is a meandering, disorientating trip through punk, ska, jazz and hip hop--held together by Marshall’s menacing vocal sneer.

The truth is that they are both thoughtful, sometimes sentimental musicians, with voices that can sing of love and hurt just as much as eating croissants (“Continental Breakfast”) or friendly girls who insist on touching your face (“Untogether”)--and this is delightful.

The Weather Station is a model example of expanding an act’s sound without losing sight of what made them great to begin with.

Ultimately, MASSEDUCTION defies explanation and critique, rendering the critic a dead weight in the dust of its ever-accelerating sucker-punch of ideas.

It certainly sounds very much like the record he wanted to make, and nothing like anything he's done previously.

Interestingly the relationship described in Tenderness is between Standell and a new lover, which you would expect to be a difficult topic for Blue Hawaii to collaborate on, but they are alarmingly mature in the way they support each other on this musical project.

[2015’s The Pale Emperor] was the most revitalised he had sounded in years. That energy hasn’t flagged an inch on Heaven Upside Down.

The band’s strongest set of songs to date. Between the increased production, the reaching-slightly-too-far aspiration, and sharper focus, AYP comes closest to fulfilling the promise shown since Citizen’s inception.

The sense of place that Yumi Zouma finally seems to have found on Willowbank brings an album that’s bristling with energy, albeit one that does feel overstuffed. And yet, even in the face of that, it’s hard not to be swept away by Willowbank.

This weepy and emotive record will probably be glued to many turntables; the ideal soundtrack to a morning coffee.

Acetone may have preferred to follow the silent way, but they were the strong, silent types, which makes the contents of 1992 – 2001 resonate so strongly now.

V isn’t a huge reinvention, more a subtle reboot, and a move which has worked out perfectly. The Horrors are hardly new to making brilliant albums--they did that with their previous three--but V is better than them all.

For ultimately, in true Almond fashion, this musical nod to 1960’s Italian cinema is as much tragedy as comedy. The real tragedy however would be not to check it out.

By its end, Thrice Woven not only serves as one of this year’s most promising metal releases, but it also stands as something purely monolithic and even transcendental--a collection of songs, showcasing a band’s evolution that leaves you in full levitation, locked in paralysis, and at a moment’s notice, you dissipate completely wondering how you made it home.

They feel more effective now that they’ve found a way to write as a focused beam rather than a eclectic lineup of individual musicians, and long-term followers will be thrilled by the album’s back half, which retains their well-established experimental bent.

Desire is the sound of a group who have thoroughly found themselves and sees them standing supremely confident, whilst retaining elements of older material including “Wonderful Life” and “Miracle”. Seemingly, 2017 is the year of the upbeat indie dance record, and it belongs to Hurts.

Each sophisticated melody and harmony may seem jarring and sometimes uncomfortable--as is the way with jazz music--but underneath the spiritual solos and out-there notes, there is a simple, familiar sound--and here lies the beauty of the Harmony Of Difference.

This message of positivity, strength and optimism is one that is weaved throughout each track on their new album Ash.

While it satisfies the need to move around and proclomate, the end result of V proves hapless as well as frustrating to see because the Bronx have an immeasurable amount of talent--it’s just too bad that this far in, they haven’t managed to harness it entirely and create something more monumental.