Longtime fans will be pleased to hear that not all of Exai is a mature, intellectual exploration of the possibilities of electronic music.

There are moments of warped magic--haunting melodies, neat instrumental hooks, surprising turns of key and mood--but there are also times when you suspect it might have been more interesting to hear what Yorke and his collaborators came up with in the studio before it got eaten by ProTools.

Despite the eclectic background material, it feels like a consolidation rather than a development.

The results are simple, subtle arrangements that highlight their song craft.

Across the album as a whole he works towards a sort of mid-world territory, between air and water, dream and reality.

With a warmth uncommonly found in Weber’s work, Elements Of Light emerges as a real triumph.

The songs on Electric are given more opportunity to breathe and worm their way into our hearts.

What remains a constant is the warm murmur of the voice delivering tales from the heart with a literary confidence few in his field can match.

Sounding classic on arrival, Lonesome Dreams is certainly the best album of its kind since Damien Jurado’s Maraqopa.

Selected Studies Vol 1 is an entirely successful undertaking on its own terms, enriched by the quiet absorption of congruent confederates who intuitively understand that all manner of gods and devils are in the detail.

Trouble is, the songs themselves are instantly forgettable, devoid of alluring melody or interesting lyrical content, and sung by a limited vanilla voice lacking in character.

A pulsing electro cover of Floyd’s Have A Cigar might be an unexpected (though warming) surprise, but the closing quartet of Shadow Memory, Walk, Myriads and Only Lovers Left Alive sees Foxx and Benge simmering in exquisite fashion.

Occasionally, this approach doesn’t match the heartfelt sentiment (see the lyrics to both You’re My Friend and A True Original) but, on the whole, this is the sound of a man reinvigorated, happy to be recording and with a dependable, more involved backing band than ever.

Kouyate has recorded more consistent albums than this but, as a statement of defiance, Jama Ko could be his most important work.

There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with the Lemonheads-style chug of the remainder, though it plants its flag firmly in the same sonic terrain they occupied during 2010’s The Dissent Of Man.

Into The Diamond Sun fully captures their kaleidoscopic vision over 11 songs bookended with the terrific The Garden (full of warped guitars, nursery rhyme harmonies and Blakian innocence) and Bear Tracks, a haunting, mesmeric sound mosiac.

The CDs don’t sit properly in their sleeves, and the booklet, which was once speculated to include photography from Shadow’s visual cohort B+, delivers only the scantest imagery and discographical detail.... Still, as far as the music’s concerned it’s a thrilling journey sizeable enough to make an impression on your shelf.

He may have been too pure for widespread appeal at the time of the album’s original release, but an arguably more open and receptive 21st Century country fanbase should delight in this reissue.

While certainly not all things to all comers, this deluxe edition makes a good fist of it.

It’s when Villagers are at their most pure--be it on the brilliant chamber pop of Northing Arrived or the pure, instrumental pastoral of the title track--that {Awayland} is strongest; as opposed to when it’s trying to outsource itself to stylistic whimsy or fad.

It can’t ever realistically hold a candle to The Modern Dance or its seismic follow-up Dub Housing, but it regularly flirts with inspiration.