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