As it stands FM! is little more than a placeholder--an interesting but self-indulgent sketch from an artist who could be creating masterpieces.

Throwaway fun, for sure, but throwaway all the same.

Peter Katis’s production can at times strangle the band’s live thrash.

While at times lacking in lyrical insight, Fink’s ability to maintain an atmosphere, to build up gentle, soothing bubbles of sound, is largely unmatched.

Though its DIY production takes some getting used to, it’s an interesting insight into where Smith is as a songwriter today.

Collaboration with Rancid’s Tim Armstrong, huh? Sounds right up plenty of people’s streets. But that “sweet spot” (in the main) seems to boil down to some cheesy scratching in amongst the ska pop (see ‘My Name Is Rat Boy’) and Jamie T-style vocals. But all is not lost. The keys of ‘Follow Your Heart’ are dreamy and unexpected.

'Limbo' is certainly not a representation of his best work, but rather an example of a talented artist not pushing his boundaries.

Tracks still miss on occasions, and Glover writes with such self-awareness that the listener can regard him as a full-of-himself show-off, someone who believes he deserves musical success just because he’s achieved it in television.

Cosmic Wind still manages to set a mood, languorous and lush, perfect on a capital’s rooftop, cocktail in hand, the last sunrays hitting perfectly. But you can all too easily imagine this slotting into some Spotify algorithm, a mood playlist titled “Summer Vibezz”.

‘Come Home The Kids Miss You’ illustrates that he’s not quite there yet, but he’s certainly Justified.

Musically stripped to the basics, the set is engaging with an infectious charm, neatly adding to that capacious back catalogue.

‘Spell My Name’ [boasts] moments of rich maturity, the kind of lyrical openness that has always made her work so intriguing. Yet there’s also an unwillingness to embrace contemporary movements in R&B, in the manner of, say, Brandy’s recent LP.

Across its 10 tracks, the album focuses more on the complete experience than unexpected instances of sidestepping intrigue.

A band mentality may of allowed the material to work some new ground but as a solo project we’ve a dense collection all sticking to one vision. One to dip into when the storm clouds are approaching.

Distortland may not see them return to the genius pop level they had up until 2003's ‘Welcome To The Monkey House’. But it is much closer.

The Golden Age ultimately comes across as try-hard penthouse party than wild warehouse rave.

There’s still plenty to admire here, especially Gracie’s emotionally raw, brittle vocals and despite the record’s shortcomings, this remains a solid, entertaining debut from an exciting new talent.

Multi-Love undoubtedly reveals Unknown Mortal Orchestra's willingness to reinvent and innovate, yet it's still beset by some of the difficulties that have featured in their previous work.

Loma is an interesting concoction, but one that doesn't always necessarily gel. It's undoubtedly a lovingly produced set of tracks, filled with an almost tangible level of texture, but the songs often don't match their treatment.

It remains a fun and enjoyable pop record, even if its creators do seem more reluctant than ever to venture from their well established comfort zones.

‘Driving Just to Drive’ drives safely. Perhaps too safely. We may yearn for Maltese to put his foot down, but it could be argued there is solace in safety. Not everything has to be hell for leather.

There's nothing that innovative or thought-provoking, but that's hardly the point. It’s freaky, it’s naughty, it’ll get your head nodding.

If they’d dared to be a little more vulnerable with their sonic approach, ‘World Below’ could’ve been an immense album. Nonetheless, Baby Strange are back in valiant style.

There are a few points in the album where Lauv begins to take an interesting turn, only to retreat to familiarity.

Pity Sex may have taken few risks to make a breakthrough album and they’re hardly re-inventing the wheel, but White Hot Moon is a solid effort and a worthy follow-up to debut ‘Feast Of Love’.

Production is loud and punchy and even the quiet bits aren't quiet, which makes all sixteen tracks in one sitting a bit like hard work.

The album can become at times feel too self-involved and unsettled, in regards to the fluidity of the tracks and the thorough examination of emotions, which at time has the tendency to sound a little forced.

Even at its worst this hotchpotch collection is pleasant fare.

Bleak as you like, but strangely cathartic in many places, it's absolutely the worst album to soundtrack your Christmas lottery win. For the rest of us dour wageslaves, it's perfect.

Although this album does replicate almost everything they’ve created it has that sense of maturity about it, showing that over the sixteen years they’ve moved on from their rebellious teen stage.

The project doesn’t really find the band moving outside their comfort zone – indeed, ‘Candid’ is defined almost by how resolutely ‘Whitney’ it feels.

This is an auspicious start, but it too often seems that Samaris lack the inherent ability to fully realise their ambitions.

All this does is reassert the effortless, enduring power of those original pieces; find the originals and save your pennies for the forthcoming Carpenter tour.

It is impossible to deny the craftsmanship with which the trio have sculpted the opening salvo of 'This Is It' and 'Loveless'. ... Sadly his talent for building epic, emotive crescendos does not overshadow his shortcomings as a lyricist.

Asymmetrical and pitched up and down at any given moment, Miscontinuum is an unwavering data stream whose moments of relative clarity still press on your temples like a tightening vice.

For all its lack of idiosyncrasies, however, there’s a credibly unashamed attitude to creating perfectly fine pop songs.

While end-of relationship heartache churns throughout You & I, there is enough twisted darkness to suggest these sisters are here for the long haul.

Most of these tunes are neither dog turd nor diamond. They're decent-ish disco-punk stompers sold by the vocal.

An honorable effort in what they do best.

Azari and III are good clean honest fun, but not the future of music.

There’s a lingering feeling, though, that 2 Chainz hasn’t quite distilled exactly what to do with the opportunities being presented to him.

Repent Replenish Repeat is their most mixed work to date.

The hallmarks of Simian Mobile Disco are present - huge beats and house loops take centre-stage - but many of the tracks just feel like they're missing a vital component.

The whole set comes off like a collection of Future songs--with some Drake verses clumsily tacked on as an afterthought.

BDL Bipolar will give Narstie’s fanbase plenty to enjoy, and while the juxtaposition of staid instrumentals with subversive lyrics is jarring, he remains a gifted MC, worth hearing out.

Their interpretation of Barrett Strong’s ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’ and the mysterious sounding ‘Fever’ brings a different dimension to these classic songs and breathes new life into these and other legendary songs.

CCCLX is fantastic as a momentary escape from the lights and sounds of the mad world we’re living in, but once you’ve holstered the pastel pink desert eagle and left the booth, you’re left with only a handful of killer moments that might entice you to return.

The ’80s sci-fi pastiche meets early-’00s girl power wears thin over 11 tracks, but there are still moments for the dancefloor.

A work of typically broad imagination, not everything on American Interior fully clicks into place. Yet when it does, there’s more than enough to suggest that Rhys need not cease his eternal voyaging.

Sadly there are too many beats and samples that it can be hard to keep up with the ferocious pace, despite the obvious talent and flashes of genius on this record.

At times the effects are superb.... However, there are wobbles with the quality control.

We’re submitting this one for further clinical studies.

Spread across 18 tracks, Meek Mill's creative contouring isn't fully consistent, leading to some awkward moments; 'Love Train' and 'Love Money' feel insubstantial, while the mid-section loses its punch.

This is hardly music to quicken the pulse and there’s no escaping the sense of sameyness over the album’s 40 minutes.

Diamandis is using her music to discover who she really is. That said, by the end of Froot, we're still none the wiser.

Nothing here transcends either songwriter's back catalogue, but Jonny is a welcome blast of warmth that shows the fires still burn bright.

An album that could be the soundtrack to the most fucked-up cowboy movie yet to be made.

GINGER is new ground for Brockhampton, and a gentle nudge to others, urging them to go on their own paths of rediscovery and explore their roots. Thing is, we might need a bit more than a gentle nudge.

This album is a black-belt in terms of song writing and instrumentation... but when McCombs’ lyrics can’t match up, Tip Of The Sphere sounds like it’s limping.

This album works best when those ideas are allowed to flourish and persist. When the arrangements get too embellished and full, they veer too far away from what makes Carpenter’s economical gestures so enduring, relying too heavily on virtuosity for comfort.

It's a bold and stark opus worthy of attention, if your attention span is long enough.

A pleasant, occasionally saccharine listen.

It’s a jarring listen from start to finish, but worth sifting.

An honest and admirable collection that merits some attention.

No, No, No is as sweet but as filling as an after dinner mint, and sadly it's probably dinner this album should accompany.

Some good, many passable, a few questionable, to say the least. There's plenty here to pick out and enjoy, and that's all that will matter when the single songs are playing in your pocket, but after all the gems the label has given us over the years, 4AD deserved something better.

There are moments where Dior shows his undoubted potential and those moments save this album from being completely mediocre, unfortunately, those moments don’t come anywhere near often enough.

Overall, whilst Semicircle does contain obvious flaws, this chapter of The Go! Team is here to have a good time and hopes you are too. And who can knock them for that?

A new chapter for the band perhaps, which may lead to some great results in the future. But whittle away the highlights and you realise Grasque perhaps works better as a great EP.

Who cares if Stoltz listens to the Kinks and Beatles too much when he sings like an angel?

Major Lazer stands for firing on an all cylinders but doesn’t warn against the oomph taking leave of absence, though it does play off the shoulder of the first LP just lovely.

It’s by no means a bad record, but won’t be the trap pioneer’s most memorable either.

The best moments remain the songs where the band moves as a unit, conjuring a sense of hope and elation, rather than falling back on tired, shouty punk cliches.

French’s flow and character may be the same as his previous works, but his stature within the rap world has rocketed.

Useful, thrown-back fun, comfortable off the cutting edge.

Overall The Secret History (Volume 1) is a well constructed and complete portrait of an early Pavement, but with the release's main audience being the avid fan (and with all these tracks available on 2002's 'Luxe and Redux' reissue of 'Slanted...') this leaves only the mad and the keen with a turntable who'll truly want it.

With a sound centred around a tunable percussion instrument called a hang (think mellow steel drum), skittering jazz drums, saxophone and loops, the quartet, who live Monkees-like in a shared house in East London, serve up a fresh vision of jazz, drawing sounds from across the globe.

Things are prone to occasional lulls with three tracks exceeding ten minutes. However, Johansson is capable of some beautifully stirring music, and when this album soars, it is a treat.

The songs that do aim to be bigger however, simply don't stand-up against their previous work or the mellower parts of the album.

MNEK absolutely knows his way around a pop banger, and it’s his expansive, polished production on more upbeat moments that saves Language from falling flat with cliché lyrics and the dreary lament of slower tracks.

It’s not expressly about anything. This is music that performs confidence, that uses confidence as a genre rather than embodying it in any convincing sense.

Dear River is an interesting collection but, while pretty, these songs sometimes sound a little too slick or obvious.

It's a band comfortable with the idea of growing up but like kids trying on their parent's clothes, the ideas behind Aabenbaringen Over Aaskammen are a little oversized but not by much.

For such a young talent, his lyrics are strong, but give him a few more years of life experience and they could be in a different league.

THE S.L.P is safe. It’s the untainted evidence of a missed opportunity. Frankly, someone of Serge’s caliber could have plunged deeper into the void of sonic exploration. There’s always a next time.

While A Moment Apart has the foundations of a great album, ODESZA fall slightly short of the mark.

As attempts at storming the mainstream go, this looks like a surefire winner, but musically it feels like a lesser take on Outkast's The Love Below.

The lush arrangements highlight his sophistication as a songwriter--‘Impossible’ comes on like ABBA gone synthwave--if sometimes verging towards the saccharine with repeated exposure. Yet this latest collection finds C Duncan in rude health.

It's got a sweet, easy intimacy.

This album is, to be clear, an ambitious, stylish, coherent work of fine art. ‘Tranquility Base…’ grew on me, this may too. But I can’t help but feel that with ‘The Car’, Arctic Monkeys have taken a wrong turn.

With clean production and virtuoisitic precision, imagine a Latin, metal, jazz inspired mellow mele, on acoustic instruments.

Everyone involved on this slab of hertz has brought far too much to the table over the years to dismiss this and the record really works.

Ideas are left unexplored, while 2Chainz innate abilities – on his day, one of the best MCs around – is clouded by a willingness to pack the tracklisting with guests. If this truly is his last trap project, then perhaps a change is overdue.

Flawed but unbowed, it is a fascinating but frustrating listen.

Overall, a pleasantly harmless album with some clear highlights. However, it will be interesting to see how the US singer varies her work as she begins her solo career.

Overall it's a robust, respectable detour but will leave some fans pining for the smoky chanteuse of old.

It's all very "nice" but only sporadically truly vital.

While the album is undeniably well produced and generally well performed, unfortunately Woods' fails in his first attempt to stand out from the crowd.