Any decent music? We review the reviews. You get the final word

Sparks  MAD!

Pop classicists with a heart of gold, Sparks are busy out-pacing the copyists, and reminding us all exactly why they remain so beloved Clash

Tune-Yards  Better Dreaming

After the introspection of recent records, Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner’s sixth LP sounds refreshingly unburdened, with a newfound focus on jubilant vocals and danceable beats Pitchfork

Stereolab  Instant Holograms On Metal Film

In an era when so much politically aware music feels either performative or joyless, Stereolab have made something far more valuable: a record of moral seriousness and emotional openness, a reminder that the world we want is already stirring in us Under The Radar

Sparks  MAD!

With almost 30 albums under their complementary but not quite matching belts, Ron and Russell Mael show no sign of slowing down or stagnating. MAD! doesn’t surpass their recent works but neither does it repeat them; a plateau of sorts, perhaps, but an extraordinary one Spectrum Culture

Sports Team  Boys These Days

The London indie cult heroes swap the mosh pit for old school pop and country-tinged rock on a typically satirical third album NME

Sparks  MAD!

MAD! is ‘just another’ adroit, bold, clever, distinctive, epigrammatic, fascinating, groundbreaking, highbrow, inventive, jocund, kaleidoscopic, lowbrow, maverick, nonconformist, observational, piquant, quizzical, ravishing, smart, tough, unconventional, versatile, witty, xenodochial, youthful, zeitgeisty Sparks album Record Collector

Sports Team  Boys These Days

A sharp, funny, and sometimes sobering soundtrack to young adulthood in freefall XS Noize

Stereolab  Instant Holograms On Metal Film

With the advantage of time and progressions in the scene, as well as the reassurance that their identity will never be forgotten, it is strange and ultimately disappointing Stereolab wrote such a tame record Northern Transmissions

Car Seat Headrest  The Scholars

The Scholars is less a statement than a constellation. And somehow, it ends not with despair – but with a small, persistent light. A door not just cracked open, but propped wide Beats Per Minute

Sparks  MAD!

This is an album full of Mael-isms, so really, if you like that, then you’ll like it. But they’re Mael-isms weakened by time, lacking the bite and thrill of the band at their very best, as cruel as that feels to point out when it comes to Sparks Far Out

Stereolab  Instant Holograms On Metal Film

This is highbrow music for lowbrow times, and it dances interestingly on the precipice of that interplay in a manner you can’t even begin to understand Far Out

Stereolab  Instant Holograms On Metal Film

Stereolab return with their first album in 15 years and bring a political fury beneath their sophisticated pop grooves Evening Standard

Stereolab  Instant Holograms On Metal Film

Motorik grooves, Marxist critique and vintage synths – in their first album since 2010, Lætitia Sadier et al pick up where they left off yet sound more timely than ever The Guardian

These New Puritans  Crooked Wing

All in all, it underlines that These New Puritans remains a band apart. Print edition only Mojo

These New Puritans  Crooked Wing

Five albums in, These New Puritans are still finding new ways to startle and surprise. Print edition only Record Collector