A whirling dervish of an album, and a culmination of all their previous hard work, Nonagon Infinity is the sound of a band at their wigged out best.

Something cleansing, refreshing and captivating, much like a dip in the sea. Once again, they’ve managed it here.

For those with an adventurous sensibility, it will be a pure delight.

FLOTUS is most successful when it marries the influences from hip-hop productions with the pop-rock template that has essentially underpinned most of Lambchop’s previous work.

It’s not the sort of record you look to for big surprises or revolutionary moments, but if you’re looking for an excellent pop-soul record from an artist who’s going to be around for years to come, you can’t go wrong.

There's no 'difficult second album' syndrome here - Show Your Bones is the sound of a bang irretrievably, irresistibly and deservedly hurtling towards the big time.

The Weightless Hour feels a natural successor to the sadness and grief of Snapshot, but with an added sense of hope and rebirth. It also has all the elements that made Howling Bells such a satisfying listen, while being a sufficiently different experience.

A true work of genius by a true eccentric.

Outlandish and of infinite humour, Octopus is an LP to die for.

Producing it must’ve been a huge job, the result is more than worth it. Higgledy Piggledy is brilliantly weird, packed full of ideas and sounds. It is a record you could spend a lifetime dissecting, yet still never get bored of.

That this glorious album will be remembered long after this week's hyped offerings are forgotten is a testament to its power.

It shows more strings to his bow, with full on reckless hedonism mixing freely with cool electro. It's a heady, intoxicating brew.

For in spite of the occasional loss of focus this is a sonic melting pot, welcoming all styles and colours that interact with the legendary producer’s instincts. If only life itself were so inclusive.

Here Comes The Bombs is an impossibly refreshing new direction - the sound of a man revitalised and back on form.

Simply put, no one does electronic music quite like Autechre.

Monument is a record that you’d wish didn’t need to exist. But its staggering, sobering beauty will linger in your mind long after its 55-minute running time elapses.

A highly listenable collection which will be seen as one of her finest albums to date.

There are so many wonderful things happening throughout the album but one minor issue is that it’s 13 tracks long, where 10 or 11 would have done. Simply put, there are a couple too many songs to maintain the momentum of the first half of the album. That said, U Should Not Be Doing That is the best song here.

Crocodiles are a talented rock band with a strong sense of songwriting, for sure, but they're also very happy to be playing music, and that joy shines through any amount of fuzz Sleep Forever might throw at you.

Huge swathes of uplifting, chest beating, and grandiose magnificence populate this album, and it is almost impossible not to get swept up in the sheer pomp of the performance.

Even at 16 tracks (including the little spoken word interludes that scatter the album), it never seems too long or self-indulgent.

Gedge and Albini is a match made in heaven, and El Rey is an excellent follow-up to one of their finest works together.

There may not be too many of the pop hooks that Lush were so good at delivering, but this is a more textured, layered sound. Anybody yearning for the glory days of shoegaze will find a lot to enjoy here, and Tripla is the start of an exciting new chapter for one of indie music’s great survivors.

The use of the light, nimble calabash instead of drums helps craft a subtle, hypnotic sound that eschews the rock dynamics recently incorporated by the likes of Tinariwen or Tamikrest. This approach creates music that is somehow simultaneously vibrant and contemplative.

Travelling beyond the accepted norms of the swarm of post punk girl groups operating at the same time, this Technicolor tinged album somehow melds droning krautrock sections and psychedelic experimentalism into its jaunty street hoodlum doo-wop core.

A quiet, easy confidence in their abilities and a collection of productions straddling just about every dance music touch-point from the past 25 years.

The results are not quite Tasty, but they're pretty damn close.

[An] understated but epic album.

Lithics have made what is surely one of the most sincerely bracing albums of the year.

This is an album to sit with, to take in, and to fully appreciate its subtle and quiet beauty. It may not be her commercial breakthrough--someone as esoteric as Pratt could be waiting a while for that--but it’s certainly her best album to date.

Kanye being Kanye, there are occasional moments of quirky craftsmanship scattered around. The mood perks up substantially when the rhythms take centre stage.

There’s a majestic soulfulness here too that makes The Invisible Way one of their strongest, most coherent works.

A big, gorgeous old hug of an album.

His legacy already assured in his field (or fields, perhaps) with no apparent signs of slowing down, this is further evidence of the enduring, glitchy charm of Prefuse 73, and another compelling reason to seek him out.

By the time we reach the end, Doyle has nailed his musical remedy for the pace and relentless demand on the senses this digital life can make. Ironically he does so with a pleasing amount of analogue input, the music spring-like in the upward looking way it saunters down the street.

Despite initial concerns, Moyet’s presence gains stature and confidence as the minutes progresses, with Sigsworth’s production and her vocal eventually working together ever so well.

An invigorating album, then, and one that says a great deal despite being instrumental the whole way through.

It’s just 13 killer tracks hovering around the three and four minute mark originally designed for maximum 12” impact rather than a living room listen. But popping on headphones helps appreciate just how much Boo manages to squeeze into his tracks.

Luck and Strange is an elusive album, gradually revealing its secrets with repeated listens.

A record to cling onto in the darkest of times, until the inevitable light starts to breach through again. Those TV montage soundtrackers may well have just found a new source of music.

For all its flaws--it’s overlong, and sometimes seems too keen to be meta and self-referencing--it’s full of energy and often makes for an exhilarating listen. It may not quite measure up to the heights of 1989, but whether she’s Old Taylor or New Taylor, there’s enough here to demonstrate why she’s still one of pop’s brightest pop stars.

This is one of the most exciting debut albums for sometime.

It's a refined, seasoned effort, alternating between country-tinged folk and leisurely paced rock.

On the surface, The New Eve Is Rising may seem simplistic and derivative. Yet spend some time with it, and its complexity and originality soon surface.

But what comes through now is the strength of the songwriting, and his willingness to try out new things.

Valtari is a complex album and time is required for these songs to become truly effective. Once their beauty becomes apparent however, it becomes clear that Valtari is up there with Sigur Rós' best work.

The results may on occasion be fraught with discomfort, and feel like a caffeine overdose, but in that respect Get To Heaven is an accurate reflection of life today, with its overwhelming tags, mentions, likes, unread messages, stimulants and stress relievers.

If there’s a weakness that prevents this record from reaching the heights of his previous works, it’s that Danny doesn’t always know what to do over these pumping, otherworldly productions (particularly the lesser underscores collaboration Baby) but it’s hugely encouraging to see the rapper engaging with younger generations, sounding lively and charismatic 15 years in.

This is now their third consecutive release with the same line-up, after a period of instability threatened to sink the band. It’s also their most focused album since Tomorrow’s Hits, and it might be their best since then too.

Though it adds no innovation to the genre, Lay It Down's tried-and-true approach should appease longtime soul fans

Los Campesinos! continue to compose intelligent, well thought out songs, endearingly so, and eschew any trends other than the one they're setting for themselves.

His first solo album in six years, The Work is a comfortable record, accomplished and at times even gleeful in its kitchen-sink approach to sound design.

While the music he creates on Universes is not quite from another planet, there’s definitely a spirit of exploration that makes it a joyous listen throughout.

There’s too much spirit in this cocktail for the mixer to spoil it.

Young Guns may have pushed themselves to the edge to create Bones, but the end result confirms the hard work was more than worth it.

Django Django’s style is well-worn by now, and a little more stylistic or structural invention wouldn’t go amiss, but Glowing In The Dark still delivers the goods with ease.

Breaking Kaytabe is without a doubt one of the most impressive releases you'll hear all year, regardless of genre.

Whilst each of these tracks was created to serve pre-existing imagery, the beauty of presenting Hecker’s compositions in this way allows the listener to create their own interpretations and visualisations. Shards is far more cohesive and affecting than its formation suggests it should be.

Make no mistake; there is a lot more quality to come from this source.

Childs doesn’t always find the music industry an easy place to be, but when the end results are as likeable and appealing as those found on Situation Comedy, you hope his restless creativity never truly goes away.

White's second fling with The Raconteurs is quite the party, and perhaps one that may leave Meg a bit jealous.

This first outing is subtle, but somehow it packs in drama and poetry in a way that’s tender yet fascinating. It’s been well worth the wait.

The result is her most satisfying and unified album to date.

The next obstacle for Wavves will be deciding whether to ditch the bedroom and work in an actual studio, but for now these lo-fi pop gems are more than enough to be getting on with.

Its gentleness is affecting and transporting and the whole album is carefully constructed and beautifully performed. It is also brilliantly sequenced--a work that very much needs to be digested as a whole.

Mostly, though, it is the unusual, the artificially-generated and the unexpected that characterise this music. Where this works best--as, indeed, it does on most of this compelling album--the band manage to corral the diverse elements together into something that is more than simply cohesive.

Foot-stompingly perfect pop, achieved without sacrificing the folky feel... [However] while there isn't a weak track on the album, they don't always seem particularly well stitched together.

For a first solo work, Serpentine Prison is an excellent sidestep from Berninger’s vitally important and highly respected day job.

It feels like a Sheff solo album in all but name, yet the change in approach has breathed new life into his work and helped him deliver an album that is both impressively bold in scope and magically intimate.

It may not be quite up there with the band’s classic ’90s releases, but there’s enough quality on display to reassess Dando’s ‘poster boy of grunge turned heroin casualty’ reputation.

Although there are a couple of songs on this album which don’t set up camp in your memory, the vocals always astonish, from the sound of Jeff Buckley floating on a soul bisque on It Must Change to the greasy gospel crescendo of Rest.

Grails have been many things over the last 15 years, but with Chalice Hymnal, they seem to have found an identity that fits them perfectly.

The album, like their live set, is shot through with fun, infectious wit and a desire to create perfect pop while not taking themselves too seriously.

We've all heard soundscapes before, certainly, but rarely has there been anyone that fuses two genres so perfectly that they compliment each other to such a degree.

It’s the variety, vigour and conviction that makes this new record by Night Beats so impressive and engaging.

Like so much of this vibrant, engrossing album, [Flesh And Blood is] full of the childlike joy and wonder that Orton has spoken about; a delightful return.

This is a record built on the dependable building blocks of guitar, bass and drums, albeit arranged and (presumably) Pro-Tooled into exciting, original new formations.

Years & Years offer a blueprint for UK pop that carries on the lineage of Pet Shop Boys and George Michael but is also forward-thinking and connected to the broader scene. And that really is something to be proud of.

Over three tracks in under an hour, the microtonal performer traces a luminous and defiant path against the historic threat of religious tyranny, delivering a provocative expression of devotional purity.

Their strengths lie within rocky, repetitive grooves and guitar wizardry, with Johnson’s own appearance aptly resembling that of a wizard. Tellingly, the band only once surpass a running time of six minutes on Back To Land. In this case, less is more.

They provide a helpful and--mostly--enjoyable overview of the scope of Ashworth's work.

The result is not, unlike many of his peers, a symphony of interlinking tracks, but a collection of individuals that, together, tell a unified story of emotion.

Leading The Raconteurs, the restlessly inventive maverick White and the sunnier, more straightforward tunesmith Benson really do complement each other well, mixing thrilling aggression with focused sweetness. White may have a much higher profile, but Benson brings a positive, restraining influence to some of his partner’s self-indulgent tendencies.

The Triad edges ever closer to the purely experimental, with another tentative step rather than a bold foray into the electronica wilds, but for now it’s a worthy diversion from the well-trodden paths of other techno producers.

The attention to detail where texture and colour is concerned is the crowning glory with the Engineers.

Musically, it’s more ambitious and further reaching than any of Brun’s previous records.

If Deacon wasn't a force to be reckoned with before, then by gum, he is now.

Whitelands has created an immersive work that explores complex human experiences and proves that it is possible to come through challenges and grow from them. That they can do so whilst sounding so positive is testament to the band’s approach to even the harshest of life’s pitfalls.

Peer between the lines and Eitzel has lifted off some of the weight to create his most redemptive, mature work yet.

Messy has been given time to come to fruition, and that shows through every note. It’s a fine demonstration of Olivia Dean’s talent, and sounds every inch a marker of a long and successful career.

No longer clogged with the skyrocketing phosphorescent noise of yore, Growing’s agile and insular sound has permeated into a fugitive multidimensional fog, more muted than clamorous and constantly adrift on the faintest of prayers.

Clara is a supremely accomplished record, and deserves to sit with previous career highlights like Submers and Monument Builders as a masterclass in abstract electronica.

It’s a vivacious, impactful beginning which appeals both to the heart and the body. Yet, there’s also plenty of evidence of skilful management of sounds, elements being introduced and withdrawn at the opportune moment.

Holter is arguably at her best when exploring texture.

Carousel One exists as an album on which “meticulous” is the watchword; on which Sexsmith’s mastery of his craft is more readily apparent than ever; and on which a decades-long career has taken a turn for the cheerful.

By exposing his sensitive underbelly on album number two, Tiga builds up some impressive strength in depth, while pushing the electro-house intersection for all he's worth. It's a winning ploy.

So far 2009 belongs to La Roux, the rest are just playing catch-up.

In many respects, Green’s music feels like it belongs to an era much earlier than the 21st century. Yet in a modern industry that can often seem to be dominated by formulaic performers, Liz Green remains highly relevant as that rare exception. A true original.