MMorningside, the debut album from Auckland’s Fazerdaze, is a dream-pop record with both of its feet on the ground.

If you come to Safe Trip Home without expecting the big hits or a surprise collaboration with a rapper, you’ll be disappointed. If you’re a Dido faithful who’s just endured five years of hell, you’ll find she’s is still the perfect soundtrack to your life.

Warpaint are nothing if not ambitious, which is doubly proved on Heads Up.

It’s a messy record, in the best possible way: organic and live sounding, with few overdubs and little complication, tipping its hat constantly to its retro inspirationg.

Just when you thought Reznor and his obscenely large biceps had been plugging away far too long on what was essentially a Nine Inch Nails tribute act, he sets things straight again with an original, well-produced, no-bullshit record. More of this please, and less of that other stuff.

Like any covers album that translates between genres, there’s an occasional sense of frustration or compromise...but that's "occasional" within tracks--there are no duds here.

The song quality is set on an upward trajectory from start to end, with the last two tracks also distinguished by their fleshed out arrangements.

With rave reviews in Venice, The Master will undoubtedly earn its share of awards, and, if this soundtrack is anything to go by, it deserves to.

Tender but bold and with an array of melodies that strike straight at the heart, it has all the ingredients of a classic Swedish pop album.

Smaldone’s rattling, tumbling, ragtime ballads are engaging rather than just pretty; plus, the narratives are consistently well-realized, albeit that the interpretations are largely closed.

This is how the covers album should be done, with tight technique and loving affection blending together to give the new versions life and bite.

Comparing Homesongs to Love and Other Planets, as is sadly unavoidable with a debut and its follow up, reveals the former to be the more immediate, the more melodic and the more understandable. However, Love and Other Planets, despite a glossier overtone, is the detailed, developing record.

The potential and promise that was spoken of so fervently when Minus The Bear arrived is slowly being fulfilled.

Iris is that very rare thing: a soundtrack that can make a superb stand-alone listen.

Versions isn't a triumph but it does highlight just what a striking talent Danilova is.

Patience is an album made by a band reaching the pinnacle of its powers. Their ability to merge indie, soul, electronica, gospel and give it a sheer pop sets them apart from their peers.

Despite its lengthiness, predecessor The Fool always felt structurally mighty. Warpaint, while a gentler, more complex thing, leans hard on atmosphere and collapses, elegantly.

It is a ‘safe’ record, one that plays to its makers’ long-established strengths without really stretching them--but fans of all the aforementioned predecessors are certain to find much to love across these 13 tracks.

It's predominantly a reflection, a look at things moving slowly and a stirring listen.

A wise, personal and vigorously ambitious album of the year.

When the mood is right, Trust sounds like one of the purest doses of emotion you can experience.

Granted, there are a couple of by-numbers moments that elongate Pure Mood by a couple of songs too many but such instances of self-indulgence are kept to a minimum, and ultimately the album becomes much more rewarding as a result.

Perhaps pushing their relentless extremity of the music is not the best way forward: there’s a more nuanced, skilled band lurking in here and it will be interesting to see to what extent they are allowed to emerge.

This is ultimately an unremarkable--and frankly forgettable--third album from a notably gifted songwriter.

If you only buy one album this year, make it Finelines.

It’s an album that’s playing it far too safe: melodies rise and fall, soaring and curving with painful predictability.

Black Moth Super Rainbow is unable to even meld the far out periphery around a dreamy passive sound.

The best record Orbital have made in the past 15 years and up there with their very best.