While there’s some quirky songwriting and clever lyrical tales on The Tourist, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah just don’t seem to be hitting the mark that they once did.

Listeners may not like the whole album--but they’ll almost definitely love it in parts.

Prisoner is an album filled with Adams reconciling his doubts and fears about life and love with his faith in music and the power of song. And ultimately--thankfully--music wins out over heartbreak in the end.

Sometimes the electricity is there, and when it is it connects deeply, but when it doesn't it's hard to see past the banality of its structure.

With riffs weighted so they're heavy enough to bludgeon, and vocals that feel like they're being torn straight from the larynx, the album is a tour de force of high octane refrains and filth-driven focus.

Moments of personal darkness are threaded throughout Hard Love, but the clarity and strength that Showalter finds when he shrugs off the gloom gives the songs a restless optimism tempered with a belief that the sun will always come up no matter how long your night has been.

Musically and thematically, everything about Little Fictions’ gestation has conspired to create arguably the most taut and urgent album of Elbow’s career.

Experimental works like this aren’t typically held up for their broad appeal, but the waves of static peace and disorienting swells that wash back and forth over Cruel Optimism communicate on an open plane where specific meaning is obscured but state of mind is apparent to anyone.

That’s why it's a remarkable debut, it doesn’t sound like anyone else, it sounds like Lowly, who on Heba are a band completely on top of their own game.

Musically the album moves in a more organic way from one song into another than if it were just a collection of ten songs.

Fin is a record of intimacy and confidence, a rare and sumptuous combination that Syd has pulled off quite remarkably.

Generous but gradually revealing.

Life is weird and random, the smallest things sometimes having the biggest impacts, and Life Will See You Now celebrates that in glorious style.

Like all good bands, the front man is only as good as his team. And listening back to Cobblestones EP, the congruency and closeness that has matured between the four-piece on Blue is magnetic.

It might not be all we'd hoped for, and could certainly benefit from some variety, but there are just about enough standouts here to keep admirers interested.

Singles "Human" and "Skin" are due their high praise, but there seems little soul to the rest of proceedings.

An album of woozy nuggets of sonic delirium. Step inside.

After The Party showcases the band at their boldest and brightest yet.

Grief and hardship have changed Surfer Blood, there’s no denying that. But they deserve praise for making a record that still has its own joie de vivre and doesn’t completely overhaul the alphabet that has made the band a success in the first place.

T2 doesn’t really incorporate much in terms of dance-friendly music, and it suffers, despite being a relatively strong collection overall.

Migos never try to recreate anything they’ve already done, but simply deliver more music that reflects their contagious, unadulterated flow. Culture is an album where they seize a moment of much-deserved success.

Process is an impressive curtain-raiser to what is sure to be an equally impressive solo career.

It’s a slow-burning beauty and is certainly amongst Cunningham’s best work to date. His next moves will be closely measured against Lines, as this is a soaring debut made to last that will resonate with people for years to come.

More than a curio but not quite essential, Myths 002 will not drastically change perceptions of either artist involved, but is another commendable display of their lack of fear when it comes to exploring new ways of work.

Across Stellular’s twelve tracks we're presented with a strident procession of indie pop that demands attention.

SweetSexySavage is a powerfully optimistic record, and while it glances back to a pop/R&B heyday, Parrish has crafted something entirely of her own, refined by a canny approach to lyricism and unbridled intimacy.

The album digs for transcendence by jackhammering away at the ills and addictions that afflict individuals and hold us back collectively. Uniform’s journey to zen through anger leads to draining music for the morning after.

With its focus on covering most of the canon and the scintillating pace that it moves at, though, Live in Paris won’t just satiate the fans--it could well provide a new access point to one of the great American rock bands for those yet to be converted.