It's true that Love at the Bottom of the Sea does oscillate sharply in terms of quality, though the stature of its finer moments comfortably overshadow the lesser offspring.

There really is very little out there like this, and Demdike is a very acquired taste. If you've got the stomach for it then Elemental is their banquet - 18 nightmares you'll want to revisit.

A sprawling debut which is as rich in its influences as it is in its sonic make-up. It is by no means an instant record – unless you happen to find yourself amongst some dynamic scenery or situation – but what it does is unravel, slowly and surely.

Centred on trippy improvisations, this is a record which moves whilst going nowhere.

Ultimately, despite the odd moment of off piste brilliance (ie 'Death to My Hometown'), Wrecking Ball is at its best when Bruce sounds the most like Bruce.

It's too precise, too ordered to fully lift, and, unlike the band's live shows, too damn earnest.

It might not rocket them out of their obscurity but Disappears have created a record that can appease fans happy with how they sounded anyway and those that are searching for something new.

Toward The Low Sun finds Dirty Three functioning at a consistently (and characteristically) high level--offering nine varied and concise pieces showcasing the gauntlet of their past successes, performed with a vitality which decimates any accusation of retread.

By playing it straight and singing it even straighter, he's created an intensely listenable and emotional album that's impossible not to relate to.

While Ternion doesn't have the class, flair or essential brilliance of The English Riveria, it often shows the same gift for understatement and ability to embrace the spaces in between the sounds.

Another Happy Day creeps you out, sucks you in and gracefully spits you back again, with a renewed sense of comfortable discontent.

Whilst Hanne's music has evolved since her debut Little Things in 2004, Featherbrain is an album that pulls various strands of that development together to make something new.

After multiple listens, the desire to rip apart Martin-McCormick's stitched together freak is assuaged by a desire to submit to it and play it on repeat, to revel in its drive, energy and emotion.

Though harder, happier and a little more direct, Animal Joy is above all a Shearwater record: swooping, eloquent, concerned with nature.

There are some minor criticisms with Underrated Silence, the most obvious being the similarity between most of its ten pieces.

They're a strong band musically, and The Slideshow Effect is a good, well put together piece of work which creeps up on you slowly.

You eventually wish they'd give the stadium anthems a rest and be more of that small band from High Wycombe.

Nils Frahm is clearly a prestigious talent and this is a remarkable tumble through the sounds and shapes of his imagination.

Sometimes Screws Get Loose becomes a little samey and repetitious, but overall, its a pleasant antidote to those cold mid-winter blues while providing Those Darlins a steady platform with which to reach a wider audience.

Whereas Treats was chopped and spat,Reign Of Terror galumphs like the proverbial leviathan it is.

The Megaphonic Thrift marks a well-crafted progression for the Norwegian four-piece.

What Xiu Xiu demonstrate throughout Always, is the way in which they can lay down so starkly how terrible life can be and how fucked up one can feel and create something amazing, angry, political, fierce and defiant out of all of it.

A most wonderful storm of a record indeed.

It's not exactly love at first sight with Rooms Filled with Light. But like all the best love affair it endures, and reveals new sides of itself with each listen.

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.

Will Bevan's done the unthinkable in managing to both appease and pull the rug out from under his fans.

What isn't in any doubt is that these compositions, from Hadreas' distinctive, fragile vocal through to the orchestration behind the compositions themselves represents a significant progression from the bolt-from-the-blue that was Learning.

Through the heartache, there is a sophisticated definition of sound; this is no guts-on-the-floor album of raw country blues.