This is an album that asks for patience, and only on occasion is it duly rewarded.

It's never boring, the dynamism of the tracks means they all have a sense of motion. It's just, after a while, there doesn't seem to be a destination in mind.

Chunky, neatly devised and deeply satisfying--this is the sound of staring into a black winter puddle while a nearby bird squirts a veneer of soothing melody onto proceedings.

An album, according to Dev, about “black depression, black existence and the ongoing anxieties of queer / people of colour”, Negro Swan is a record that radiates these tensions; subtle and amorphous, it’s not the most immediate listen, but it’s undoubtedly one with real weight.

While not wholly consistent, Teleman’s third LP contains some of their best work yet.

American Utopia isn’t a complete paradise. Yet, there’s enough upbeat vibes on offer here to perhaps make you feel a little more optimistic about the future.

This is a good start but, after losing half of their line up, you get the feeling Jonquil need to add a bit more character, and a bit more bite, into their new pop noise.

While Dance on the Blacktop won’t mean everything to everyone, its considered construction, intriguing philosophising and plain old barbed-wire hooks mean it’s certain to mean everything to someone.

We Come From The Same Place, then, is a delightful record, catchy enough to keep the listener’s attention, and with enough substance for them to return to it time and time again.

While debut ‘Beams’ was a bubbling, unpredictable electronic masterpiece, second album ‘Apocalypso’ was a dancefloor smashing, out-Fischerspoonering affair, Pacifica stands as a wildly temperamental compromise between those two drunk on a peculiar addiction to mainstream action.

This is the sound of an artist who has allowed himself to take a break and record eleven tracks he would like to rele

It's a fine debut.

The album is a mismatch of styles, moods and tempos. There is little cohesion and each song feels like a thought or idea alone on the record--like a collection of B-sides or rarities.

Granted, his sixth effort is as bonkers and creative as ever, but it could be that less really is more.

So far, so great. But when the use of vocals is taken into overdrive on final track ‘Go On Without Me’, where Jacob Bannon from hardcore punks Converge offers up his jarring scream, it’s almost on the borderline of becoming too much.

Each track is a musical sketch that assembles fragments of thoughts and shadows of daily pursuits. Escaping the urgency of old, this Ultimate Painting is a picture of a disquiet melancholy.

American Football meanders a lot less than its predecessor, and it’s a much more focused record, every move carried out with precision.

Intersections can, at times, feel a little blinkered and mopey.

After a difficult few years, Snowdonia proves that a steady hand and a playful surf-rock riff has seen Surfer Blood through the darkness and out the other side.

Thieving like a magpie from his own box of tricks, there’s no denying that Gallagher is a songwriter from the very top of his class.

There’s undeniably magical moments here, and taken in small doses it can be a cosmic voyage. All in one go though, its sheer scale can be as daunting as the vastness of what lies beyond the stratosphere.

An album that’s sometimes a little too abstract to truly connect with.

An enigma made by a puzzle, ESTOILE NAIANT is as compelling and as unusual as the musician who refuses to tell you his name or show you his face.

Unusual yet distinctive, Aviary may alienate some but you can’t fault the depth of Julia’s grand vision for her work.

Cameron may drench his songs in luscious, sweeping strings, but this is more akin to a gritty neo-noir thriller with numerous femme fatales haunting him at every turn.

They don’t often get the time to build a song from nothingness to explosion quite as well as they mastered on their debut. It’s a powerplay that largely works, yet still takes enough rests to showcase a frantically beating heart and a definite intelligence underneath.

It presents itself as an almost impossible follow-up, but Goodness more than holds its weight, and shows its beauty in time.

Though ‘Mama’s Boy’ won’t exactly be changing the alt-pop game, it certainly might convince you to text your ex after one too many glasses of wine.