It's deceptively powerful stuff.

It's the sheer intensity of the whole package that seduces.

It's not simply a retrospective affair, but a calling card illustrating why this beat-maker wears a crown on his album cover.

Polished and dependable, despite its safety there are some show-stopping pop anthems present.

On El Camino, mariachi, C&W, gospel, psych rock, blues and soul all mash together into a warm and occasionally dazzling torrent; their appeal is less in fresh sounds as fresh composites of old ones, wrapped around classically dusty tales of errant womenfolk and addiction to love.

There's plenty of care taken with these covers, the players evidently keen to not tarnish their own memories of the songs in question.

If their debut sounded like they listened to nothing but the sounds in their heads and tried to recreate them, this sounds like all they've listened to over the past two years is their own records, and subsequently tried to better them. They've succeeded.

This is as good a debut album from a British metal band as you're likely to hear in 2011.

While the EP is not a complete overhaul of the band's sound – Falkous' semi-comprehensible mini-stories are alternately spoken and yelled, with frequent backing vocals; the bouncy New Adventures could have slotted comfortably onto either of their first two albums – there's an evident effort by FOTL here to avoid simply returning to what they know.

Ultimately, this extremely curious album requires several airings to achieve an improved view, and a confirmation of its secretive charms.

With O, Markus Pop has reinvented Oval using new techniques to produce a challenging sound world that's simultaneously exhausting and fascinating.

Mirror Mirror is not obvious instant success. But given time, as with the best records, it reveals a wonderfully stark energy; all sinewy shadowplay, stripped-back space and a compelling sexuality.

It is both a captivating listen and a terrifying one: Powers was 22 this year, but his voice carries all the experience of a man thrice his age.

One of the most rewarding albums he has made in recent years.

Yes, it's a ridiculous, sometimes patchy affair, but that feels entirely apposite.

With these perfect nuggets of hormonal pop, Pete & The Pirates may not be courageous or sophisticated but they will make you want to jump around the room --even when you're empathising with Sanders' woes.

Straddling the line between art and commerce, between arena rock and cult devotion, for the first time in quite a while Billy Corgan and The Smashing Pumpkins sound energised and alive.

Remarkably, across its length the virtuosity and excitement levels never dip. After repeated hearings, the music sounds as fresh as ever.

Lyrically deep and musically adventurous, Michaelson has it all.

This is the stuff of vicious hangovers, unkempt hair being head-banged back and forth furiously, and eyebrow-raising debacles on public transport.

This is probably Foxx’s most superior post-Ultravox! LP to date, and definitely his best in a very long time.

On the first few listens, the album is less immediate than the debut, but patience reveals it to be richer, more eclectic and far more satisfying.

Unexpectedly, these star-sailors are tripping the light, fantastically.

It is instead, pure-and-simple party music, make-out music and get-down-and-shake-it music, harbouring the sort of simple riffs and hooks that easily hop across the decades.

A timeless, anachronistic record, Barton Hollow could be from 30 years ago, or it could be from 30 years hence.

In The Music Scene, Blockhead has made both pretty melancholic tracks and straight-up thump-the-desk bangers bedfellows, and for that the new decade should be eternally thankful.

It's really that entertaining. He's found his voice now and he's coasting. A winner.

A fierce, melodic affirmation of sadness and grief, love and lust, attachments formed both strong and precarious, Young Man in America is a marvel of a record from start to finish.