This raucous collection of three-minute knee-tremblers, however, is as close as it gets [to a live show]. Swilling whiskey and spitting gravel, over-driven and over here, this is aural Prozac for the 21st century.

With The Killer, Shed hasn't reinvented the wheel, but he has captivated us with his sonic mottle, daubed onto the classic edifice of techno's irresistible structures.

For those hankering for the lost summer of 2012, solace could well be found in the rays of musical sunlight that burst out of every hook and melody of By Your Side.

The message is, essentially, Times are hard, but let's make things better. As honest and uplifting statements of intent go, it's hard to fault – just like this album.

It's the group's most ambitious offering yet, a collection that bites harder than anything they've previously issued but which is equally eager to kiss everything better.

Ash Workman and James Ford keep the production consistently intriguing, and repeated listens reveal fresh nuances and ideas. This is new music worth hearing.

When a lunar time capsule next needs a musical artefact of almost indeterminable age, Kode9 & The Spaceape are your men.

This is a typically odd, zany album, but that's precisely what makes it so good -- because Wolf Parade's twisted, crazy, surreal world becomes yours, and it feels both absolutely normal and absolutely right.

This is an affecting and intelligent record: neither Folds nor Hornby should be shy about suggesting a sequel.

It's got its faults, but MDNA isn't just a good pop album, it's a good Madonna album too.

Everything is meticulous, not a note out of place--but this studied delivery is successfully supplemented with resounding soul, proving infectious indeed.

Glass Swords shows just the right amount of restraint to prevent total disarray.

These 12 tracks have an irrepressible energy that is all Collins' own, reflecting his twin loves of punk and northern soul; while his lyrics, always wryly self-regarding, have an urgency and bluntness that would make them seem inconsequential were there not so much at stake.

It's easy to hear that they spent upwards of two years putting this album together, because First Serve is all about the joy of sublime musicianship.

The Sea, produced as per the debut by Steve Brown and Steve Chrisanthou, is no self-indulgent lack of tunes-fest. Even at its bleakest--"Closer," say, or "Love's on Its Way," where there is "blood on the streets"--the music and melodies draw you in, and even when they follow their own lushly orchestrated circuitous path, they seem to dare you to drift away.

Outside is a celebration of his recovery--a great album on its own terms, and truly remarkable given how close it presumably came to never being made.

It's definitely a subtle magic TOPS weave here, and like all the best records, Tender Opposites rewards repeated spins.

James Murphy's (of LCD Soundsystem) decision to sign this shape-shifting creature to DFA Records makes perfect sense given her blend of art, electronics and mischievous humour, and while it's an undeniably alien world Rostron inhabits, it's an altogether convincing one.

All in all, it’s a refreshingly varied voyage.

Tremendous stuff.

Beam's songwriting retains a cryptic quality, but the feeling shines through, and however far Iron & Wine travels from its starting point, it still won't feel far from home.

So, despite promising little, Turn Ons proves to be quite the diverting delight, albeit one you're unlikely to return to once a new Supergrass album arrives.

Shields pushes and prods at musical boundaries in a similar way to Talk Talk's 1986 masterpiece, The Colour of Spring.

Here, he exorcises the turmoil with a focused set of sustained brilliance.

The resultant pieces feel so alive that you can almost sense the pressure of Frahm’s fingers alighting on each key as these solemn improvisations begin to weave their magic.

By maintaining a ferocious appetite for streaming across territory few electronic musicians possess even a perception of, Autechre continue to test themselves and listeners alike with stunningly intricate results.

[A] sober, smart and his finest record since 1999's I See a Darkness.

Delivering on that precocious promise, Rose's debut long-player actually reins in her EP's feistier extremes somewhat to deliver 10 tracks of timeless, simply adorned (albeit by some dextrously restrained Music Row stalwarts) song-craft which, while they certainly doff a 10-gallon hat to the country canon, never seem constrained by Nashville tropes, old or new.