Audioxide

An album caught in no-man’s land, its dozy stadium rock tunes neither advancing Kings of Leon’s sound nor recapturing the glory of their past.

The shift away from skeletal guitars is welcome, but Baker’s strength does not lie in expansive arrangements. The songs sound like they’ve been developed for arenas, which is a strange paradox.

Drawing from a melting pot of influences, Parks delivers ice cool nonchalance and honest intimacy in a debut record as exciting as it is impressive.

Part dramatic dream, part sun-soaked soliloquy, part love letter to mid-century pop rock, Midnight Sister have sewn together a wistful, woozy record.

Provided you're in the right mood, The Moon & Antarctica is one of the standout indie rock releases of the 2000s.

Despite extended musical passages and eccentric lyrics, The Sophtware Slump is remarkably accessible. It's pop music for art students.

Country music with a modern edge. To witness these songs being played live in a chapel would be quite the experience. Someone should work on that.

Catchy and sterile. The majority of these songs wouldn't feel out of place in an advert for Google, such is the clinical nature of their formation.

Foals’ experimentation with synths and funky instrumentals is bold, often promising, but the pieces never quite fall together.

The Manchester musician talks about his most recent project (Moon), the merits of working alone, and the wisdom of Roger Ebert.

In a time where singer-songwriters are ten a penny, Julia Jacklin has created an album that stands out from the crowd. She's one to watch.

The whole record has an easiness of manner, content to be the sonic backdrop for a wanderer with no particular destination in mind.

Foals leaned into their restless, agitated, math-rock roots and carved out a niche in the mainstream indie rock of the time.

There's nothing mind-blowing here and no pretence that there should be. A solid, albeit unassuming, indie rock record that makes for an enjoyable listen.

Mr. E’s found fresh form. Only he could write something like “Sweet Scorched Earth”, which is the closest we’ve come to an Eels ‘classic’ in quite some time.

Neither immersive nor memorable. Any time the group stumbles onto a passable bass line or melody they run it into the ground in a slow-motion indie panic.

Dylan Seeger is a musician and designer living in New York, as is tradition. We talk Claye, the pressures of recording solo, and (sound) circumcision.

Deerhoof cram dozens of ideas into a 40-minute album, which is not only technically impressive, but thoroughly amusing. This is a defiant and joyous listen.

Channeling the sounds of Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, and more, Elliott Smith's words still cut deep, as darkly precious now as they've ever been.

Music written by a composer of Ellis Ludwig-Leone's class should never feel formulaic, but it does. It makes for a mildly enjoyable, yet rather hollow experience.

Some artists have a hard time returning after a lengthy hiatus, but Grandaddy has done it with aplomb. Last Place is all you could want from a comeback.

There are a handful of stellar pop tracks, and a mammoth mid-album climax that will go down as one of the group's finest moments. A lovely indie-pop record.

How To Be A Human Being is a great indie pop album in a year that hasn’t had many. So far, the band hasn’t made a misstep

Daisies of the Galaxy comes to terms with the torment that constructed the deeply bleak and reflective Electro-Shock Blues, and injects a taste of happiness.

Though there remains a sizeable fanbase, The Strokes don’t have many chances left to convince the rest of us they actually know what they’re doing.

A model misunderstood album; flawed, overdrawn, deserving of a good deal of its harsh reviews, and yet still host to a unique and worthwhile character.