As a whole, The Deep Field nails it. True, the songs are long, it is almost ceaselessly rich, and you're going to want to skip its first 30 seconds every time.

It's not an album for those with short attention spans but, in a world of lightweights, Tabor's a colossus and this is one of her finest hours.

Profoundly thoughtful music that's moved on from drone metal beginnings.

In order to get that these three people from Bordeaux and a drummer from Berlin are the genuine maverick article, one just has to grab a listen. And be confused. And delighted. And frustrated. And appalled. And strangely aroused. And then listen to track two.

True, it is debatable that we need more mixes with Cockney Thug on in late 2010. But Blow Your Head proves the two tribes can still intermingle, and both are still making winning records

Easy-going and mellifluous, songs built on the simplest of patterns.

Hecker's latest seems to ultimately be about making peace with our mortality, and as such is his most powerful album yet.

Malo is busy carving out the new genre of sincere south-of-the-border melodrama. It's all delivered within a classic 40 minute album length. The perfect pop punch.

There isn't the clarity that characterised his lovelorn debut. It's a minor criticism, though, and one that doesn't tarnish an album as equally rich in invention as his first offering.

It's not merely a rehash of the original, but a cohesive, considered masterpiece in its own right.

Rarely does a British debut album forge such a fully formed, genuinely unique direction that attempts to slot it into established scenes prove almost entirely fruitless. But Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam, the full-length bow of late-20s wisdom dispenser/producer Obaro 'Ghostpoet' Ejimiwe, achieves such a feat.

Flash, brash and brimming with an irrepressible anarchic vigour, more than anything, Bring Your Own is a thing of unfettered joy.

A fans-pleasing eighth album from Britain's most consistently brilliant band.

Go-Go Boots is one of the best examples yet of the separate yet complementary skills of the Truckers' three leaders, melding styles and switching moods but retaining an overall feel that's distinctly theirs.

Between the bounce of the lighter numbers and the ache of the sweet ones, there's all manner of winningly realistic insights veiled underneath the music. This debut is a joy from beginning to end.

Unique: rarely meant, but here the only possible description for the sounds these four remarkable players emit.

It may have taken Geldof a while to get here, but as he prepares to collect his bus pass it seems wisdom and reflection have finally overtaken venomous splurge as his choice of artistic cloak. And it's a very good look for him.

This self-contradiction makes him as human and vulnerable as the rest of us, and that is this album's true charm.

The accompanying music is folk-pop with just enough quirky edginess to keep it sounding fresh.

So they might be inserting themselves into a canon known for its critical consensus, but Palace is still a vital addition to the oeuvre, and richly deserving of the inevitable praise.

overall Excerpts is an evocative, sophisticated and charming record, awash with imaginative atmospheres, that looks back to the past for inspiration without ever wallowing in sentiment.

An album to relax into, over weeks and months, this is one many will be coming back to whenever stress levels flit into the red.

Think of it as a solid foundation to build something more unique from and it's a triumph; or, better still, don't think at all and let it tickle several sonic taste-buds in a single sitting.

It's dark but not relentlessly brutal. It's even more introspective and dynamic than the pair's collaborations from the first time around.

Overall this is a shiny penny of a debut, and it would be a terrible shame if Columbia's mishandling of this band resulted in it being forgotten.

Danilova and Stewart are respecting the intended intimacy of the record, but this could have been so much more had they let themselves bring a dash of Zola Jesus and Xiu Xiu, rather than phoning in their parts.

They've also striven to make their soiree as all-are-welcome as possible. If the latest serving of salad days for indie has to start somewhere, it could do a whole lot worse than here.

He may just have produced his best album.