Maximum Balloon makes an impressive noise. But it struggles to make one feel anything more than impressed.

A sixth album of exuberant, glammy pop and driving Southern-fried rock.

The tunes, riffs and words might not be as impressive as those from the days of yore, but this is still a very arresting example of sonic art: tense and deranged, savage and serrated.

This is the sound of pigeonhole-free ambition slowly being realised, and it's sounding great.

This delicacy was always the logical progression, and fans growing with Orton will find much to love about Sugaring Season.

Come Down With Me, while never plumbing peculiarly clichéd depths of introspective immersion, does stall its rapid step on occasion to allow both actors and audience a little breather.

Maturity and sonic streamlining hasn't removed the essence of what gave them their cult following.

A rich debut (but brief at seven tracks) that sums up all that is beautiful and base in both music-making and love-making, Native Speaker consumes you like those lost hours spent locked away in a bedroom with a new lover.

Those who cheered as protestors smashed the original windows of the beautiful building of the Supreme Court in December 2010 will find much to like here. But just as importantly, those who winced at such a sight will not be put off The King Blues by stern and outre sentiments, so long as they come expressed in music that is as poised and as palatable as this.

If there is an overall mood, imagine a slightly sozzled, mischievous Leonard Cohen on the front porch having discovered the joys of country music.

A significant step forwards then, and all just a click away.

Jiaolong is an effortless collection that just won't quit.

When To Dust takes flight, you don't have to squint your ears too far to imagine Alice Russell as a worthy successor to that notional throne [of British soul].

Gregg Allman's history lesson may not match his finest recordings, but it's a diverting blues miscellany from an undoubted master.

The true spirit of Christmas is safe in Tracey Thorn's hands.

An impressive and varied second album, but one underpinned by noticeable troubles.

In the end, Watch the Throne is a very noble attempt at cohesion, but its inconsistency ultimately stalls the project, resulting in an uneven recording that buckles under the weight of its own pressure.

Considering No Name... is compiled from several years of writing between kinetic hard touring, the coherency on display is impressive, as is the volume pumped out by a mere brace of noisy souls.

On much of The Old Magic, he's Richard Hawley unplugged.

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.

The Belbury Tales is infused with a deep vein of paranoia, a palpable fear, an attempt to reconcile the imminent unknown (evoking a reimagined or never experienced past).

An hour in the company of Tom Paley and his revue is an hour well spent.

Never ones for stating the obvious, Singing Adams have constructed an album that is as thought-provoking as it is entertaining.

For all of the fine craft on display, there's little obvious emotion. No matter, though, as there's room for everyone, and this makes for ideal driving music and it should sound sensational in a club.

Not everyone is going to want a 12-song cycle about the relationship of an extremely violent fictional farmer (no – come back!), of course, but within Heartland’s grand sweep are some riveting and quite glorious ideas.

Foals were already a mainstream presence; now, they’ve made an album properly reflecting that status.

It's an impressive feat, and a genuine reminder for those bemoaning pop's current state that challenges can still be made as long as you never stop asking questions.

It continues the band's long-running, idiosyncratic and distinctively creative career path.