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The Good, The Bad & The Queen  Merrie Land

Damon Albarn’s supergroup returns to explore a changing Britain The FT

Mumford & Sons  Delta

This ambitious failure is swollen with stadium-sized musical bluster The FT

The Smashing Pumpkins  Shiny And Oh So Bright, Vol. 1: No Past. No Future. No Sun

Picking up where Billy left off with ‘Ogilala’ DIY

Mumford & Sons  Delta

They’re back flogging another set of empty epics DIY

Charles Bradley  Black Velvet

A year after the soul singer’s death, the label that gave him a third chance collects his stray tracks, shaping a showcase for his incredible versatility Pitchfork

boygenius  boygenius

widens the horizons of each artist while simultaneously nailing down what makes each one of them unique. The Skinny

The Good, The Bad & The Queen  Merrie Land

On this near-perfect second album, Albarn yet again proves to be streets ahead of the pack The Irish Times

The Good, The Bad & The Queen  Merrie Land

The combined presence of Albarn’s organ and flattened voice, Paul Simonon’s dubby bass, and occasional horns gives songs such as Nineteen Seventeen and The Truce of Twilight something of the mood of the Specials’ Ghost Town, but without that song’s almost hallucinatory clarity The Guardian

Mumford & Sons  Delta

There is emotion, but it's been intentionally encased in a digital cocoon, one that flattens the group's bold accents (such as an embrace of vocoders) and turns Delta into soft, shimmering background music, ideal for any soothing setting you'd like All Music

The Smashing Pumpkins  Shiny And Oh So Bright, Vol. 1: No Past. No Future. No Sun

Corgan delivers something unexpected: music that's rich but settled, music that plays to his strengths, music where he seems happy in his own skin All Music

The Smashing Pumpkins  Shiny And Oh So Bright, Vol. 1: No Past. No Future. No Sun

Deliciously accessible yet acerbically Pumpkins-esque, Shiny is unexpectedly bright The Music

The Smashing Pumpkins  Shiny And Oh So Bright, Vol. 1: No Past. No Future. No Sun

Even with the limited tracklist, there’s still enough room for ‘Alienation’ to reach ‘November Rain’ levels of pomp, though, like a bad pre-game rendition of a national anthem. We’ll call this a slight return, then Loud And Quiet

The Good, The Bad & The Queen  Merrie Land

The humble supergroup offer a groove-happy message of fear, love, and measured hope Consequence Of Sound

Mumford & Sons  Delta

The band return with radio-ready earworms that still challenge expectations Consequence Of Sound

The Smashing Pumpkins  Shiny And Oh So Bright, Vol. 1: No Past. No Future. No Sun

Save the few fire-breathing dragon moments of Lollapalooza-era churn, it’s the Smashing Pumpkins in name only, and that ice cream truck has long left the gas station Rolling Stone