As a whole, it’s winningly Lynchian, and ballsy enough to open with an 11-minute song.

Two properly good moments out of five isn’t a great ratio, but at least it’s telling us that The Men’s wagon is still rollin’ steady.

He flirts with past glories on the throbbing ‘I Am Dust’, but Splinter never sounds ahead of the curve he created.

It’s fun, but not the comeback it could have been.

Turn it off halfway through and it’s brilliant.

New is the sound of an old dog having fun with some old tricks.

There’s something very ‘mopey American teenager’ about Lightning Bolt.

A whiff of unoriginality aside, what this EP offers Parquet Courts addicts is fresh meat to chew on, signs of innovation and further evidence that these New Yorkers are one of the world’s most essential new bands.

It’s minimal without being clinical, catchy without being clichéd and, thanks to the influence of MBV and Neu!, full of sonic left turns.

the promised sense of youth and experimentation rarely surfaces. If anything, Feel Good goes too far the other way, sounding insipid and polished in comparison to The Internet’s debut.

While it doesn’t reach the impossibly high standards of their back catalogue, there’s enough promise to suggest there are good times ahead.

Somewhere beneath the unconvincing sheen of these songs there’s a great band trying to break out. Maybe next time.

Yet as her sounds grow bolder, her lyrics become more intimate. Mesirow is in confident control of an inviting world that’s all her own.

Bitter Rivals is their toughest and most focused work yet. It’s also their poppiest, which is very much a good thing.

There’s new confidence here, and a sense that she’s stretching herself musically and lyrically.

If only the rest of the album was as inventive [as 'Spend Some Money'], instead of a derivative box-ticking exercise that features Dizzee going on about his "willy" a lot.

Tracks like 'Torture' borrow far too liberally from A$AP Rocky's cloud-rap aesthetic to be considered original. But otherwise, Old is a perfect example of why 2013 is a very exciting time for hip-hop.

There is an admirable consistency to the production, and at its best Event II is touched by greatness.

There's a strange disconnect here, one that might be ironed out by facing the past head-on rather than treating it as a concept.

There's little, if any, regard for structure or convention, meaning that Mole City could be five tracks long or 50 and still happily exist in a brilliantly idiosyncratic bubble all of its own.

The Calexico-ish 'The Lady Is Risen' shows he can get close to a folky barnstormer, but on closer inspection the barn appears to be a set prop that might blow down in a stiff wind.

There are a few moments of elegant sensuality--like the tumbling, androgynous voices of 'He She'--but by and large it's like one of Jeff Koons' uber-kitsch sculptures: gleaming, opulent, but kinda hard to love.

For now, Haim are a rock band who've made one of the best pop albums you'll hear all year.

It's a bit of a mess.

An overly soft mid-section ('Center Your Love', 'Vizion') reveals that chillout-esque pleasantness isn't Stewart's forte, but that's not to say this album's only good when the whipcrack snare madness takes hold.

Where Sky Larkin were once winsome and breezy, Motto pounds ahead with heart-punching defiance and desperation to be heard. Listen up.

'Sticks & Stones', 'Memory Room' and, oddly, the title track add slivers of graceful light to this bleak but captivating collection of noirish tales.

This warm, wonderful record is a joyous, head-spinning delight.