An entrancing, accomplished, and often uplifting record that will be heralded by the time the semi-tropics of a British summer arrive. A triumphant return.

Soul Journey takes off in more than one new direction.

This is some of the most mature and eloquent music I've heard in quite a while.

The album sways and moves in ways we haven't seen since 1998′s 1965. Dynamite Steps sits comfortably in his canon, and that is perhaps the perfect compliment.

Quarantine The Past: The Best of Pavement comes after a decade of constant re-releases, bonus discs and live albums, so it shouldn’t surprise that it comes off as a final, all-encompassing victory lap. Luckily the tracks chosen reach deep enough to make it at the very least a respectable ‘best of’ compilation.

The Guided By Voices record making machine is in finely-tuned condition for the vast bulk of the Motivational Jumpsuit, keeping the gang of veterans on the reunion road without any embarrassment.

An Imaginary Country suffers nothing for these decisions [to ease back on the heavier, noisier aspects of his work] and in fact nearly stands as a perfect counterpoint to the acidic blasts of white noise on "Harmony in Ultraviolet."

there is an impressive and ambitious sense of craftsmanship across the record that captures Blank Realm on the cusp of something truly special.

Chthonic offer up an exceptional album that is worthy of praise and closer inspection.

Home is an overall softer, lighter affair and one that deserves attention.

Wilco (The Album) is just another wonderful and special reason to know that Wilco, as a band, are an astounding band for all to love-or at least as much as they say they love us.

These supposed table scraps left off their previous two albums, Good News… and We Were… respectively, run a gauntlet that finds the band revitalized, lively and tremendously wonderful.

Taken as whole though, The Singles is a strangely satisfyingly testament to the belief that most great musical ideas--even those delivered with such wilfully uncommercial and unconventional intent--can still be boiled-down to fit on one side of a 7” slice of plastic.

Simplistic, yet imaginative, Similes provides a hypnotic and surreal soundscape suitable for both daydreaming and nightdreaming.

It's clear that he and his band took a lot of time to nurture and develop each song, and the result is superb collection of affective and elegant pop songs.

Whilst Trees Outside The Academy isn't quite as breathtaking as it could/should be, especially given the niggling-feeling that Moore didn't give the album 100% of his attention, even when he had a fresher formula at his disposal, it does contain some consistently strong material that complements as well as outshines his best latter-day Sonic Youth wares.

This is definitely a solid album from a band that is surely to get better.

On the whole, it's a winner, and you can take the singles and run with them--the play be damned.

Salon des Amateurs is much more than striking the iron while it's hot, not just because of its singular attributes and styles but, frankly, it's yet another fantastic album in the span of a few months.

Not a career-changing collection as such but a quietly redemptive revelation that satisfyingly sustains its author’s veteran status.

More religious text and tapestry than commercial pop folk, The Smell of Our Own charts its own territory through the heart and head and holes of celebratory love. Truly unique.

Whilst occasionally the wistful gossamer elegance of Luck Or Magic comes close to being a touch too understated, its sophistication and warmth--much like Britta Phillips’s latter-day career as a whole--is revealed gradually and invitingly with repeated encounters. A fragrantly intoxicating and slow-burning new beginning all told.

Fall Back Open is a well-constructed modern pop record that displays some neat influences and also contributes a good deal of its own.

Dig Lazarus Dig!!! delivers a platter that is both powerfully-arcane and invigoratingly-fresh, that serves as possibly Nick Cave’s best ‘main-course’ studio release with The Bad Seeds for quite some time.

Although it dodges near-perfection almost deliberately, it confirms that Gelb’s maverick creativity has an astute methodology in its benevolent madness.

The Crying Light may not be as directly moving or as astounding as its predecessor, it’s a fine album on its own.

Rouse’s ambiguity and storytelling, so strong on Under the Cold, coupled with the quirky pop pastiche that found it’s backbone on 1972, is what his latest effort is all about.

Whilst Illegals In Heaven may not propel Blank Realm into dramatic new terrain, it does re-fortify existing ramparts with a scrupulous conviction.