False Readings On is a calmer, more pensive, and more inward-looking affair than Cooper’s recent Inventions releases.

In principal this is another finely crafted record in the vein of much that has been released by Neurosis since 2000. The problem is that what sounded so exciting during that vital three album run identified earlier was never going to have the same impact today.

Fading Frontier is another superlative achievement from a band who are, unfailingly, one of life’s great mysteries.

Whilst it would be easy to say that the 136 tracks across five CDs make this boxset a purchase for completists and enthusiasts only, to do so would be reductive.

Niches, of course, tend to hide most of metal's jewels, and Iron Balls Of Steel is the genre's first great album of 2012.

There are no duds here, though Bowie definitely misses the hipster mark on occasion.

A bit of musical beauty, some interesting lyricism and a pinch of hippy bollocks--still distinctly Patti Smith.

Because of its unusual structure, Holy Ghost rarely manages to play to all of its strengths at once. It’s a bold choice, both interesting and admirable in its way, but it’s hard to get past the fact that it undoubtedly lifts towards its conclusion--building towards an energy it never properly inhabits.

Overall then, a triumph for instrumental music that’s more than genre-hopping: it’s genre-reviving.

It's a wonderful record, a colossal achievement, and features some of the most breathtaking, moving and downright beautiful music you'll hear all year.

Condition should come with a label on the front advising "Approach With Caution". However, its creators' intransigent desire to confound and confront should be applauded. Spectres: simply one of a kind.

Though Hiss Spun probably won't end up as the best of her career, it may well be Wolfe's best so far.

If the sign of a good LP is no standout tracks then John Wizards is certifiably brilliant, a collage of brightly-coloured chamber pop where modern synths get a look-in too.

To call it album of the year at this stage wouldn't so much be pre-emption as an actual understatement.

Total Strife Forever is that scarcest of things; a masterly record which walks a unpredictable line musically yet remains entirely consistent in quality.

A little more clarity wouldn't have gone amiss here and there, but there's enough on offer to bring curious listeners back for repeated spins, which is just as well, as More Faithful is definitely a grower.

Yet despite being a busier effort than …To The Beat of a Dead Horse, it's probably on the whole more accessible due to a sharper production job and a new found clarity in the vocals.

This is a confident, electrifying, weirdo-pop stormer of an album that deserves your attention.

What compels here, is Castle’s ability to have created a piece of art so intimately descriptive of her personal fear of death, and how it links to the songwriter process and her thirst for immortality.

An album which starts feeling a bit dense and chewy halfway through.

Stepping away from the noise and taking an evermore artful approach to heartfelt pop is a bold, brilliantly smart move and on Bark Your Head Off, Dog the results are borderline magical.

It's true that guitar-pop is all this is, but it's still bloody good stuff.

Who knows what Knife-man Olof Dreijer will bring back from his (literal) exploration of the Amazon, intended for an electronic opera about "The Origin of Species" (due September 2009); for now, this may be his sister’s most artistically satisfying album.

AM lacks that character empathy: rather than being detached--ie, cool, wry, transverted--Turner is removed (impulsive, anxious, dull) and it is this subtle distinction that shoots AM down in its shiny leather metal-toed boots.

Contra is a solidly entertaining, well-constructed album, and if people take to it, the tendency to mock the band will, I think, fade, simply because it doesn't have obviously unfashionable moments to feel uneasy about.

Justice know when to curtail the industrial strike and dazzle you with some star-skipping pop-chime, or a warble of gloopy future funk, before tossing you back into the unlit mire.

The record could be accused of wearing its influences a bit obviously, but as Wilco, Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev borrowed from Neil Young, progression essentially comes through a degree of regression and, although Avi retreads familiar ground, he still adds his very own unique footprint to his band's debut.

It's undeniable that for her self-titled third album, Marnie Stern has made some canny decisions. This time round, several of the tracks are built around huge, stomping riffs, with the speedier guitar lines mixed further back to create more space, without sacrificing that-which-is-Marnie.