Justine Keating, Journalist

Wire have not only reinvented themselves, but have transcended beyond their 2011 album Red Barked Tree and raised the bar even higher.

They’ve managed to extract a poppy essence from songs shrouded in static.

What Would Christ Do?? is noisy and messy as all hell, but it’s the kind of noise that has been meticulously thought out and the kind of mess that still retains an inexplicable kind of structure

If there was a fault to Hex.Lover.Killer, it would be the lack of variety – but with a sound that has been so cautiously perfected, it can hardly be considered a flaw to perpetuate such quality.

The promise of an encore wasn’t enough to keep fans around, with a number of walkouts occurring long before the house lights were switched back on; a clear sign that both performances had dragged on a little too long.

The production on Pillow Talk is incredibly well-crafted, but it doesn’t take long before the album wears thin.

Catchy and palatable enough, there’s nothing new brought to the plate and there’s certainly nothing particularly gripping about the album.

Alkaline Trio have extracted some of the emotive energy of their earlier releases and carried it off with much less angst in a package that’s catchy and more refined.

Crosswords is a brilliant follow-up to their debut and bears witness to the duo’s growth as musicians.

Williams, Jeremy Davis and Taylor York have taken all their hardships on the chin and come out better for it with an album that exhibits just how versatile a band they can be.