It might not always succeed in its style-swapping, but The United Nations of Sound is certainly as bold a record as Ashcroft's ever made.

With placid, feline production, tight harmonies and breezy beats, much of DNA ambles along the well-trodden path of the temperate demi-ballad. But it's the ventures away from this that prove Little Mix function far better either side of mid-tempo.

By calling their album Rough Carpenters, the Pickers are inevitably alluding to their creations as constructs of old timber, offered up with spontaneity and passion rather than precision. But it’s also a misleading moniker, for what is unquestionably the group’s smoothest ride yet.

This is lush, involving music that takes stated influences and sculpts them into something genuinely there.

Provides a vital, authentic taste of the United States, one steeped in history but simultaneously bang up-to-date.

Things remain pared back, but an ambition nurtured by classical training keeps things interesting.

It’s a fine Suede record, a passionate and seductive creature which reminds us of how distinctive and dynamic this most underestimated band can be.

There's still the chance that this album will finally push them into the stratosphere – you wish Interpol were globally huge, you really do – although it's likely that their future won't be written until after Dengler's tour-replacements have helped broaden the band's palette more.

Easy on the ears they are not, yet it’s hard not to get swept along by Iceage’s droll, disaffected but ultimately joyous punk surge.

Bones is a fiery yet melodious modern rock album made by a band who may come to regret their name should they survive to become old hands.

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.

Staff Benda Bilili sing songs of strife and redemption. Yet when the mixture of French and various Congolese languages breaks into sing-along "la la la"s on Ne Me Quitte Pas it becomes as pure a life-affirming rush as the best pop music in any language.

Nostalchic has a certain airiness, a focus on floaty atmospherics, that aligns it with the work of other washed-out boudoir crooners such as The Weeknd and How to Dress Well.

An unexpected but endearing valentine to the 1940s and 50s.

Inside the Ships will assuredly grab hold by the second listen, if not the first.

While his customary playfulness in dissecting matters of the heart and cerebellum is a reassuring hallmark of Love From London, the album also proffers a brooding, politicised, sometimes incensed Hitchcock.

It ["Getting Rest"], like much of this fine and not at all "difficult" second album, is undeniably impressive, but it leaves you with the ineffable impression that the best of Wes Gonzalez is yet to come.

Simultaneously taut and lush jazz-funk-pop.

Anyone who has enjoyed the Crowes' live show will find it a veritable trove of delights.

In Case You Didn't Know doesn't surprise, but it certainly fulfils.

This is a fine album that warrants serious investigation from any and every rock circle.

But it’s not float-away, background material; these songs poke and prod while clasping you close, the embrace warm but never completely comfortable.

Looping State of Mind barely outstays its welcome, and its beatific state of mind may prove to be a welcome refuge for many more than for the musical vanguard, like Seefeel, that inspired it.

As a standalone listen this is an interesting development of the stylistic restlessness that's driven Rose's progress so far.

With so much good here, it's foolish to dwell upon a few relative missteps.

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

Casual Ladysmith fans are unlikely to be won over by these distinctions, although long-term listeners will be pleased to see the group finding fresh water at the bottom of the well.

Too patchy to warrant genuflection just yet, thanks should nevertheless be given for the exquisite moments that Young the Giant serve here.