Where 'Parklife' was exuberant and almost knowingly callow, 'The Good, The Bad & The Queen' is weary, confused, almost mourning for what once was.

The effect of the new bleak mood lurking beneath the glimmering pop is to pare away the occasional over-cutesiness that has marred Of Montreal's work in the past and enhance the freaky psychedelic sublime of Barne's best moments.

The music on the album sounds muscular, more confident than before.

It's a more oblique successor to 1999's self-explanatory 'Tune In, Turn On, Free Tibet', and, paradoxically, their most focused effort yet.

Sonically, there's no radical steps forward here, but then standing still for Kristin Hersh is pretty much the equivalent of most people's sprinting: we could do with a few more of her.

This album oozes wackiness.

People who hate the venality and misogyny of modern mainstream rap will find this a particularly joyless experience, but this unwavering and energising disc at least has the courage of its convictions and makes the immediate competition look like the mealy mouthed twats they are.

It's terribly important that you don't give up on this record too easily. Given just a little bit of your precious time, the album will grow into something you never expected.

A colourful, incomparable colossus, a work of breathtaking, staggering genius and no mistake.

This isn't really a party record, more of a reflective, late night curled up on the couch with a loved one record.

She has issued a treasure. She has floored us again.

'Milkwhite Sheets' will come to you offering kisses, but beware the knife behind its back

For the first time in what seems like a long time, here is an album that is going to be deservedly huge.

There's little that sounds really new here.

A curious, klezmer-infested charm.

'Young Machetes' is both a magnificent and important album.

They entwine eastern canticles and fuzzy finger picking and electronic trickery like no other.

There are enough pinnacles of musical achievement married with subtle storytelling to justify the scale of this album.

Intelligent, melodic, poetic and funny, so this is what Now sounds like eh?

Although more full-blooded and more rhythmically experimental in places, '...Planets' isn't a giant stylistic leap from ''Homseongs', but then, why would you want it to be?

There simply aren't enough superlatives to describe the genius of his music.

This is a densely structured journey through intense pummelling and dervishes of electronic noise.

Aside from track sequencing issues... and dodgy indie geezers, 'The Outsider' is a great album and well worth the wait.

A quite beautifully realised album.

It's not quite the second coming or even the first for that matter, but 'Food & Liquor' should leave you feeling sated and occasionally elated.

Fascinatingly dense, soulful and utterly divine.

A lesson in understatement, 'Into The Blue Again' reminds us that LaValle is the undisputed master of emitting emotion without embellishing it with perverse orchestration or all manner of multi-tracked trickery.

Put simply: there isn't a bad track on 'Blood Mountain', which will be seen as the metal release of this year, on whichever level you care to mention.