Audioxide

The album dusky psychedelic pop is covered in so much haze that, despite serious musical detours, tracks tend to blend together. It’s a good blend, though.

Bristol band Goan Dogs have been going strong for ten years, and the work they've put in during that time has come to captivating fruition in their debut.

It seems that a template was drawn up and filled in ten times over, such that every track sounds like the last, only wearing a different hat.

Parachutes is nice-feeling music written by nice-seeming blokes. As is the case with all things Coldplay, it’s easy to mock, but it’s easy to like as well.

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

The album's all a bit clean cut, a perfectly pleasant smorgasbord of gothy synth pop which goes in one ear and out the other.

Classic Gorillaz. Buoyant and aspirational, the project feels like a release of tension after the comparative harshness of Demon Days.

The Desert Sessions project has always been a lot of fun. Returning from an absence of 16 (!!!) years, nothing has really changed on that front.

The songwriting is unbelievably good, to the point where it sounds effortless. Bowie shows sensitivity, humour, and even a little arrogance.

Pulp nail the pop/rock formula to near perfection. The themes aren’t necessarily cheerful, yet the album sounds like a celebration from beginning to end.

Inconsistent, but there's a lot to dig. The songwriting is hard to knock, and Damon Albarn leads the pack well with his social satires and cutting commentary.

Murphy's not merely indulging his influences or recreating the past here. He delves into the past to forge a new, heady, indelible blend of electronica and rock.

An ambitious, splintered record. Glammy schizoid pop rubs shoulders with tightly wound, rather despairing cud chewing, but the two styles never truly mesh.

"Looks like Oaysis have competition." André and Fred's first impressions of 'As You Were', the debut solo album by professional manc Liam Gallagher.

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.

Mark Ronson’s production is pristine, which while technically impressive feels inappropriate. The music sounds kitschy, like a gigantic quiff’s greatest hits.

It took Michael Jackson five years to follow up the greatest selling album of all time, and despite showing signs of age, Bad gave it a damn good go.

It’s hard to believe everyone involved in Everything Now was on the same page. The music seldom seems comfortable in its own skin, and for good reason.

An album of inoffensive and enjoyable pop music. With strong instrumentals that step above the norm, the shiny production is actually surplus to requirements.

There isn't much substance here. The album gives a far clearer impression of who Royal Blood want to sound like than it does what their actual vibe is.

Little Fictions is the sound of contentedness. It’s pleasant, it’s gentle, it’s unassuming... sometimes it even threatens to be gorgeous, yet it's barely there at all.

The album functions best as a fantastical journey of curious thoughts and emotions. It’s clumsy, yet very loveable, and there’s nothing else quite like it.

An endearing record of mystery and wonder, deftly inheriting elements from a wide selection of genres that amalgamate to create a category of its own.

This is pop music for the mature listener; easy to consume, enjoyable enough, but flimsy and a little watered down compared to Cocker's work with Pulp.

Capturing the middle ground between passion and precision, Annie Clark’s sound here can only be described as some sort of melodic computer malfunction.

A record that’s unabashed and vibrant and full of potential. Wolf Alice show glimpses of what's to come, straddling genres with almost childlike enthusiasm.

The opening third is nothing to write home about, the middle section is terrific, and the last twenty minutes are ludicrous. Drones is the full Muse package.

A cartoonish odyssey bristling with creative energy. The whimsy of the band's debut album is replaced by a biting sombreness very much of the 21st century.