The result is a brilliant and warped collection of sinister lullabies and dreamlike ballads in which Funk’s gravelly timbre jars against Pollock’s dreamy vocals in a beautifully nightmare-infused collision.

The travelling folk shows of Michel Cleis and Die Vögel, healing dancefloors and faiths while handing out daisy chains, head the electronic curiosities helping join the dots of a compilation that poses as much might as it does magic.

For all the gruff exteriors and black-clad poses, if metalheads agree on one thing, it’s this: a touch of theatricality—especially when served with fireworks and a scream—always hits the spot.

Moving further than ever from the sound of those initial solo albums, he seems to constantly reach out to new definitions. It doesn’t always land, but it’s incredibly brave; it also needs more than a few listens to truly absorb, and accept – on first listen, this writer couldn’t understand it at all.

A more than worthy gesture from a distinctive, engrossing voice.

Wizard Bloody Wizard proves that the music Black Sabbath birthed can still hit hard without much in the way of embellishment nearly fifty years later.

Nubiyan Twist’s latest project offers this joyful escape. ‘Freedom Fables’ is a blissful mix of latin, soul, jazz and highlife – a fusion of musical styles that provides a timely reminder for us all to unify.

Fun, lean, and concise, ‘The Human Fear’ finds Franz Ferdinand looking to the future without any need to panic.

With their modest personas and its subtle production, it could be easy to disregard dvsn’s third record as more of the same, but repeat listens reveal a warm and unpretentious record, from an act confidently starting to evolve.

The Sun seems to have come out over The Album Leaf’s glacial landscape with some songs here edging towards a kind of elegant, and very pretty, pop.

‘Late Developers’ is a fine piece of pop whimsy, delivered with self-deprecating panache.

Between the caustic riffs and searing lyrics there’s some damned beauty in Parquet Courts.

Goon is not perfect, but it's the imperfections and the straight honesty that bleeds through it that make it so appealing.

Not so much Teenage Fanclub as 'Loveless'-era MBV meets classic Cure at their poppiest.

Any aspect of their music that might have felt lightweight before, at least off the stage, has been eradicated.

‘SMILE! :D’ is a personal album with nostalgic sounds and is more chaotic than cohesive, which seems intentional in order to reflect Porter’s ranging emotions. This cathartic album is some of his best work yet.

While stepping away from the intimate vulnerability of ‘Snow Angel’, Rapp embraces a bolder pop-star persona, showcasing her Broadway-trained vocals with confident flair.

As the songs start to slow in the second half of the album, the focus starts to wander. The songs aren’t bad, The Drums have put out a lot worse, they just drop the thrilling momentum of the earlier half.

Despite being the result of creative restlessness, After The Disco never really takes us anywhere new. By playing it safe, however, Mercer and Burton have also made it pretty difficult for fans to feel disappointed by it.

This is an album of genuine intent, full of poignant reflections on romance, hope, fear, the past, the present, and the future. It’s got heart. And that’s enough for starters.

Joy is like a rickety wooden rollercoaster--there are a few nice inclines with some mildly disappointing drops between some pulsating flats, and you end up getting off slightly begrudgingly.

If you don't like vocal dance music, if you're going off funky or you don't like a bloke playing live behind a faux-Polynesian tribal mask then avoid. Otherwise SBTRKT will delight the droves of bass fanatics that want something a little more sophisticated.

For first-time listeners the distinctly compilation nature of the record could prove disorientating and less rewarding a listen than any of Olsen’s singular, more complete albums. But that’s generally the case in any rarities album. For fans of Olsen's work this is a treasure trove of lesser known recordings that capture the artist in a period in which her sound was ever-evolving and progressing.

This is a musician who has simply absorbed a broad set of musical styles through a massively eclectic listening palette, and who sees no issue in crunching that together in one tidy little album. Embrace the chaos. You'll feel better for it.

The balance between a distilled identity and a streaming-era leviathan is difficult to find. ‘LYFESTYLE’ is a huge in scope, but that can mean it becomes repetitive – in particular, the record’s mid-arc falls flat, with songs like ‘ON 1’ feeling as though they’ve been constructed to fulfil aesthetic obligation. That said, Yeat clearly isn’t making music for critics. ‘LYFESTYLE’ is for the fans.

Rarely does it feel extraneous. Instead, it’s quite homogeneous, with certain timbres popping up again and again, underpinned by George Barnett’s commanding drumwork. This single-mindedness coincides with the group becoming a duo again.

There’s plenty to commend it, but with such high expectations, it’s perhaps inevitable that this album could never live up to them.

Every entertaining diversion the band tries their hand at is balanced out by a nondescript jingle-jangler.