What's on the Evening Times' playlist this week? Here are Stef Lach's latest album reviews...

The View - Seven Year Setlist (Cooking Vinyl) ****

It hardly seems possible that The View have been around long enough to release this retrospective, but in their seven years in the spotlight, the pride of Dundee have already put out four albums.

Their cheeky young faces have been ever so slightly aged by life on the road, but they'd gathered enough goodwill to be handed a support slot with The Stone Roses in Glasgow last weekend.

Long time fans will have little need to buy Seven Year Setlist, other than perhaps for the sake of completing their collection. But if you've ever thought "I really need to buy some of their music", then look no further.

Wasted Little DJs, Superstar Tradesman, Same Jeans and Grace are the obvious standouts, but pretty much each of the record's 17 tracks are guaranteed dancefloor fillers.

Empire of the Sun - Ice on the Dune (Astralwerks) ****

Bands don't come much more flamboyant than Australian duo Empire of the Sun.

And no word better sums up their second album, which oozes flair and glamour from start to finish.

The single Alive was a stunning introduction to the brand of rousing, synth-driven pop that Ice on the Dune offers in abundance.

Tracks like Lux and DNA are sure to have festival crowds in raptures this summer, and will brighten up your morning commute no end.

If debut album Walking on a Dream did it for you, you're going to love this accomplished follow up.

Sigur Ros - Kveikur (XL Recordings) ***

You know what you're going to get with Sigur Ros - inoffensive yet ambitious pop landscapes that tell a story worth hearing.

The problem with some of their previous six albums has been whether it's a story worth telling again. It has been said that if you've heard one Sigur Ros album, you've heard them all.

But Kveikur is a definite departure - at least as much of a departure as a band with such an unmistakeable sound is ever likely to make.

This still sounds very much like Sigur Ros, you're not going to mistake it for anyone else. But there's a noticeable harder edge to this record, which in places brings to mind bands like Mew and The Knife.

Opener Brennisteinn and title track Kveikur are standouts, with the latter threatening to explode into a Nine Inch Nails industrial epic before reigning itself in rather beautifully.

Kelly Rowland - Talk a Good Game (Republic) ***

She's not shy, our Kelly. The subject matter for her fourth album's lead single, Kisses Down Low, doesn't require much in the way of explanation.

There's not too many risque subjects left for artists to sing about these days, which is another way of saying this is nothing we haven't heard before.

Sadly, the same goes for the music itself. Silly backing vocals give the song an air of cheapness that you wouldn't expect of a star as big as the former Destiny's Child singer.

Dirty Laundry is a much better single, showcasing a darker side to Rowland and requiring no need for an irritating guest appearance.

But it's on album opener Freak that she really shines. A hypnotic synth loop carries it through a laid back Rowland rap, which she pulls off with ease.

Old pals Beyonce and Michelle Williams appear on You Changed, which not surprisingly is the closest this album comes to sounding anything like the girl band which made the three such megastars.