The most unmistakeable sound on Teen Dream is that of a band truly finding its own voice. In so doing, they may just have minted the new decade’s first essential album.

The Foundling isn't a lot of fun, but it tells a very sad story with bleak eloquence.

Option Paralysis stretches its makers' imaginations and abilities superbly. Consider it another singular success.

Substance is favoured over production sheen throughout the album, with every element of each track having a definite function and no sonic fat or filler allowed.

Nine Types of Light finds the band firmly in the grip of a middle age that doesn't particularly suit them. So to put it in the popular parlance, it's a Dull Record for Times that are Anything But.

This is the sound of a band hitting their stride and just running with all of their strengths on show--and there can be no complaints about that.

Paisley's at the top of his game – but he's capable of better than this.

Blood simple and bloody minded, their half-hour self-titled debut is a welcome lurch straight for the jugular.

Her worldly-wise tone can still come over a little smug but give her time – she'll grow younger than this yet.

Despite Testament's commendable attempt to spice their sound with something a little different, one can't help feeling that Dark Roots of Earth is one track short of achieving overall excellence.

The results are both reminiscent of preceding emissions from rap’s fringe-mentality movers and shakers, and compellingly unique in their colourful fusions.

It's nice to hear a female artist singing so much from the belly, even, at times, with a stirring kind of anger – as in the rollicking Peace Signs.

This nearly flawless collection is simply the next step in the Baroness saga, and it's a beautiful one.

It's frequently fantastic, weighty, clever and emotionally involving, but strangely polite, and lacking in a sense of overall purpose and direction.

Glass Swords shows just the right amount of restraint to prevent total disarray.

They continue to make music that sounds like it cares how you are.

Sky at Night simply distils and expands all Kloot's lovely strengths, from his taut, elegant tunes to resolutely bittersweet lyrics.

Watson's ability to create whole worlds, entire lifetimes in the listener's imagination, beyond the moment of recording, comes to the fore.

On one hand, it's raw and stripped down, but on the other it's expertly crafted.

Ultimately, this extremely curious album requires several airings to achieve an improved view, and a confirmation of its secretive charms.

Profoundly thoughtful music that's moved on from drone metal beginnings.

The band have taken Bruce Springsteen's influence, twisted and distorted it and made a quite remarkable album that lives up both to its rebellious, riotous ambition and its rich musical heritage.

Simultaneously taut and lush jazz-funk-pop.

Wonderful stuff.

The real revelation about Fade is that it is the most settled album they've recorded in years.

Parallax being Cox's most coherent record to date, it's harder to spotlight individual tracks, but individual settings stand out.

The initial surprise on this follow-up is discovering that Grant’s songs work as well--if not even better--when paired with a synth-pop backing rooted more in the 1980s than the preceding decade.

This is the stuff of vicious hangovers, unkempt hair being head-banged back and forth furiously, and eyebrow-raising debacles on public transport.