If you found Sleaford Mods too thuggish or laddish for your tastes, Key Markets won’t change your mind.

On this record they have taken a bold step forward. It shows them as a band with greater vision and ambition than they first seemed and one who want to lead conversations rather than follow them.

Room remains Ought’s most beautiful--yes, beautiful--album to date.

Boca Negra isn’t an album that’s easy to get acquainted with — this is music designed to induce a fundamental paradigm shift in our expectations of what a band can be and how they should operate, with two accomplished players bringing agitation and affection together at an uneasy meeting point.

The risks that Damien Jurado and producer Richard Swift take on Maraqopa are small and subtle adjustments to those already made on Saint Bartlett, but they are small steps which reap exquisite rewards for the listener.

Boldness, you realise, is not the same thing as greatness, and James Blake is not a great album. It has great moments, some of which hint at possible directions after the dust has settled around this release.

Guidance is a masterpiece in the art of emotional communication through musicianship, an album which ultimately, despite its darkness, serves to inspire and uplift--a true reflection of the human experience.

Basinski is a true master in the way he can overlay true emotion onto his subject matter, and there’s a sense of sadness for these black holes in their destruction and rebirth and the fabric of spacetime they tear apart within that. To close out with that sense of wonder and discovery relieves the weight of his material.

Outspoken and even prone to some fairly loony conspiracy theorising, The Ecstatic thankfully does not become such a platform, and is a refined selection of strong tracks, which skilfully tread the balance between tight beats and forthright exclamations.

It’s not rocket science, that’s for sure, but there are tunes here that most million-selling bands would give away all of their mansions for.

In the classic sense this is yet another worthy piece from an undeniable master.

World Eater contains some of Power’s most serene work to date.

The brisk bout of choral sighing that rounds off ‘I’ll Be Glad’ provides an effective grace note for this hugely likeable record, if underlining slightly the notion of Lie Down In The Light as a worthy, somewhat minor addition to Oldham’s formidable oeuvre.

Shadows illustrates the band's strong points - simple yet effective melodies coupled with sumptuous vocal harmonies courtesy of Blake, McGinley and Love while lyrically scaling a fine line between happy-go-lucky romanticism and solemn melancholy.

An honest, forthright and accomplished LP.

Highly Deadly Black Tarantula is, then, not quite the beast that its title suggests. It’s more elusive than that.

Inevitably, critics will place Devils & Dust in a trio with Springsteen's other quiet albums Nebraska and The Ghost Of Tom Joad, but be aware that there’s significantly more production polish on Devils & Dust, as well as a wider palette of moods.

Despite her numerous contemporaries, Torres stands out as a distinct and compelling performer.

Despite their new compositional brief, A Winged Victory for the Sullen’s music is still, at its core, just a beautiful example of orchestral ambient music, in the most Eno-est sense of the word: music that you simply join and leave, not music that starts and stops.

Kannon, like Terrestrials, says its three-section piece in under 40 minutes, but is a more intense, punishing affair.

The record is almost as seamless as it is engaging, and it subtly commands your attention from start to finish.

Waiting For You is hardly the kind of record that grabs and demands your undivided attention. Instead it offers gems buried deep amongst its cityscape’s gently fluorescing streetlamps and slow-moving traffic, crafting a distinctive, defiantly twenty-first century urban soul music that, given due care and attention, leaves an afterglow simmering long after the CD spins to a halt.

These songs rest quite naturally between the forlorn, heartbroken ballads, making this an album of exceptional and understated maturity and beauty. Sadness has rarely felt this good.

The Money Store thrills like no other set heard this year.

They might borrow from forefathers to lay solid foundations, but Late Of The Pier have proven, with Fantasy Black Channel, that they’re a band with ability well beyond the simple sum of influential parts.

Set Yourself On Fire could become your favourite record, and Stars should justifiably be many people's favourite band.

The instrumental and compositional mastery on show is staggering. Whether it will make a dent in the consciousness of those who don't spend their time watching at the edges of the prog-rock firmament is another question entirely.

Damaged... rises to the same dizzying heights achieved by their last few long-players.