Their first album for 10 years is more than a purely perfunctory comeback.
An album as fascinating as it is perplexing, and one to be applauded.
Both everymen and angels, The Blue Nile didn’t sound or function like any normal band.
Love or loathe The Doors, this will polish the windows of your perception.
Jeff Lynne successfully freshens up a spread of ELO classics.
Grandaddy frontman’s second solo LP is a set of impressive depth and scale.
Ubiquity may beckon for this rising Nottingham singer-songwriter.
The ELO man covers a selection of the songs that inspired him.
A candid, original voice, causing mighty tremors with tender tiptoes.
Unlikely to woo passers-by, but long-time admirers will adore Carpenter’s latest.
Dexys are back with wisdom and wings. Some of us never doubted.
Ripe for re-evaluation, Ram is far from the disaster some critics painted it as.
Nothing short of a solo masterpiece from The Blue Nile’s frontman.
Keane’s fourth LP is best when it stops trying to do ‘epic’, and gets nostalgic.
A quality array of artists fans the still-smouldering ashes of a legend that yet grows.
They were only reinventing the wheel, but Bandwagonesque keeps on spinning.
The kind of intriguing ‘oddness’ the likes of Florence Welch strain and wheeze for.
Over-produced to a point where what distinguished Cardle from the pack is lost.
A string-driven LP swinging between bravado and bleakness, and always beautiful.
There’s a resilient cheerfulness here, a very British refusal to take things seriously.
Even at 69, Cale is one of today’s music world’s most vital artists.
A mature mix of jaunty and jaundiced music from the north Londoners.
On album six, Mitchell achieved a sky-high marriage of serenity and yearning.
Dev Hynes’ latest guise is better at being Metronomy than Metronomy are.
Stockholm duo’s debut is a nu-gaze collection which both whispers and shouts.
Second-hand Springsteen-echoing sounds, but always delivered with heart and soul.
If Pet Sounds is the critics’ fave, Summer Days is perhaps the people’s day at the beach.
A decent, nostalgic Father’s Day gift, for your dad’s dad
Australian punks’ first three albums, plus live selections: a righteous noise.
An exhilarating, determined effort from the million-selling Swedes.
A cautious release from a songwriter admired by the likes of Elton John.
Chart-toppers in the US, the country-rock duo now look to break the UK.
Talent show winner’s decent voice propels a debut sure to be a big-shifter.
You can’t fake emotion like this, and this odd couple has it in spades.
A splendid showcase for Diamond’s evergreen, emotive voice.
Costello’s Nashville love affair continues, but while enjoyable this is no classic.
Every fan of music which breathes fire needs this record.
The first of three Dexys masterpieces and one of the greatest UK debuts ever.
In the Doobies’ heads, and on this album, it’s forever California 1974.
You’d need a gnarly heart not to be touched by Diamond’s drive here.
Cornball on top, but pulsating with intensity down below.
Diamond’s biggest hit in the States, this soundtrack shifted over six million.
Rarely receives due credit as John’s finest work by a distance.
A crafted, often impassioned work from a pre-pop-chopped Elton and Bernie.
The singer finds the balance between camp pop-rock and gushing ballads.
Winningly grandiose in places, but it’d have been better as a single LP.
Everything here is a guilty pleasure. You know it’s wrong, but it feels so right.
For many their defining album, Gold Mother encapsulates the essence of James.
A confusing release that will appeal little to those beyond Jones’ generation.
Zero 7’s wispy emissions reveal charm and interest value; even the occasional surprise.
