Deap Vally were always turned to eleven, Femejism has them reaching for twelve.

It just falls short of completely engulfing your interest and really exposing itself as anything completely fresh and inspiring. It’s pretty in places, but you’re left wishing that it was truly beautiful.

With Schmilco, Wilco are getting funnier, more surprising and more interesting, two decades after forming.

Here joins the rest of the group’s catalogue in being consistently enjoyable, yet on this occasion not without flaw.

Allah-Las’ third album rambles as it soars, and with a distinct disregard for convention, it paints a picture of life at its most freewheeling.

ures might underplay institutional factors, Local Natives deliver these ideas knowingly. The beauty of Sunlit Youth is in its optimism rather than its pragmatism--a record that cements their status as one of our most special proponents of emotionally-charged guitar music.

With this second album, they’re still offering an exciting, engaging alternative to pure chart pop, and they do it so bloody well.

Producing a mixture of satisfaction and exhaustion, A Moment of Madness offers bawdy, top-of-the-room choruses on each of the first six track

A bleak and wilfully impenetrable album.

A a good, clean indie-pop record, it’s a solid foot in the door for an act with a prosperous future ahead of them.

As to be expected in this setting, the collaborations are occasionally guilty of overindulgence.

Trick is a record that feels like a trip back into what he once was, only with all his senses heightened. ‘Grudge’ was polished; this is as rough and ready as it gets.

Contradictory, complex, and worthy of endless re-listens, Angel Olsen has crafted her most compelling record to date.

This is the sound of a songwriter in transition.

It’s only in the moments with somebody else in the driving seat that The Anonymous Nobody shines.

Los Niños Sin Miedo is a richly enjoyable exploration of the weird and wonderful, and a big two fingers up to all those who ever doubted them.

The sound of two artists pushing each other forward makes for a fascinating listen. This isn’t just the sound of two polar opposites coming together and hoping something sticks. This is a group that have earned their right to be heard. They should be taken seriously.

Their new record showcases inner madness, characters you’d cross the street to avoid, and some of the band’s smartest pop songs to date.

Frank’s rich sense of storytelling is still here, it’s just fragmented. But once Blonde’s ambiguity begins to piece together, it becomes something remarkable.

Despite hiding behind the veil of electronic experimentation, Thom Sonny Green has taken a brave step forwards.

Cold Pumas peddle a kind of post-punk that’s long since been done to death by this point; it takes real ingenuity to find a way to imbue this particular template with genuinely new energy, and on this evidence, they haven’t found that yet.

Steeped in decade-spanning traditions of pop, rock and folk, it’s an ambitious record marred only by early and apparent nonchalance.

25 25 sounds as great in a bedroom as it would do in any sweaty nightclub, and for that reason, it’s a triumph.

The record doesn’t achieve a great deal in saying anything new. It’s far from a disaster, though. ... The main issue with Amnesty (I) is that Crystal Castles needed to say something different.

Basic rhythms, simple synth melodies and the occasional burst of fuzz guitar provide a primitive vehicle for Cameron’s idiosyncratic lyrics, where the record’s real pleasures reside.

From gut-wrenching lows to stratospheric heights, A Weird Exits is an adrenaline-fuelled ride of epic proportions.

Unfortunately, this slightly more mainstream vision is consistently obscured, making Innocence Reaches a frustrating listen.

Spend the Night With is rough around the edges, but it thrives under this approach.