The problem with Blueberry Boat is that, while it's a musical marvel, it's not an album that I'll keep listening to.

Solid, if unspectacular.

Sparta earn points for thinking big and penning deeply-felt songs that break the five-minute mark, but ambition alone isn't enough.

What the act does offer - chunky dance music with icy vocals that recall Debbie Harry when Dykes is on the mic - sounds great in terms of dance production.

As a hip-hop record, Headset's Space Settings fails to hit the mark of its influences, but it is successful in its own right.

While Waves is not quite a knockout, it delivers some undeniable pleasures nonetheless.

Little Heart's Ease is a respectable effort - just not by Royal City standards.

With more room to breathe, the textured synthesizers come to the fore, and it is their melodic decoration that ultimately provides the saving grace. But without the electronic textures, Love and Distance is just Bryan Adams with a hip producer and a great drummer.

As a bridge over the analog/digital divide, Chapel's a bit behind the curve. But, when they hit their marks, Weatherall and Tenniswood's versatility shines through.

Bumblebeez brings loose, frenetic energy to a mash-up of likely and unlikely sources.

The Catheters do little to distinguish themselves, instead offering formulaic rock rebelliousness in a nicely packaged, repetitive form.

There's a very good record in this band. This isn't it.

Emblems is numbingly repetitive.

There is little personality amid the speed and distortion, and no tricks or treats to keep fingers off the fast-forward button.

The band plays a raucous, shifting rock heavy on drama, but light on reasons to keep listening.

Labeling Again as entirely derivative would be inaccurate, as Tan folds flourishes of dub and krautrock into a lascivious mix of after-hours cool.

Because every note is perfectly placed, and the contemplative mood sustained throughout, it's hard to notice the lack of originality and occasionally pedestrian songwriting.

Though the dark atmosphere can weigh Cavelight down on extended listening, it is the record's most lush, emotional moments, like the operatic "Sunday Séance," that are most suggestive of Blockhead's potential.

The disc's highlight, "TV Pro," ably blends the band's two moods and adds some promise to an otherwise bland and vacant offering.

Ten turns out a few good songs, but there are better solo records by each of its members.

Battery is an album of diminishing returns that sputters out of steam halfway through.

It's not that Kannberg has somehow "sold out" with Preston School of Industry, but for the time being, he's clearly lost the urge to take good risks.

The result is a tad muddled, with the valleys unfortunately outnumbering the peaks.

Classical guitars, mellow piano chords and brushed drums lope across the proceedings like yawning animals still awaiting their first caffeinated jolt of the day.

An interesting, if flawed work.

The mish-mash of moods and modes leaves little from which to gather a theme.

Unfortunately, Pole contains no revelations beyond what was revealed in the prior EPs. With this release, Betke calls his own bluff and loses.

And though the album is full of promising leads and sharp-witted initiative, it's hard to shake the feeling that this album is a collection of unfinished ideas, presented with no pretensions to the contrary.