Overall, since their formation in 1997, The Dillinger Escape Plan have seamlessly fused math metal with aspects of pop and jazz, a trend that wholeheartedly continues on One Of Us Is The Killer.

It’s a work that’s beautifully single minded, but may be a little too much of an undertaking for some. What’s inescapable is that it’s the sound of a person bravely questioning her place in the world, often in inspired fashion.

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.

On the whole, Momentum is a solid slice of radio friendly pop-rock, and sadly, it’s truly deserving of that particular set of epithets.

Whilst Boats appear more polished, the energetic ramshackle anthem of Great Skulls seems keen to remind everyone that it’s not precision, but feeling that is important.

This is an album that seeks to explore a shifting in spiritual planes, and the music reflects this by twisting its source material into something entirely other.

Recommended Record may flit between styles but it’s a cohesive and polished third effort from the band.

While Leto's vocals remain as central as ever, there's only so much you can take of his constant overbearing bellowing. Love Lust Faith + Dreams was set up as a new chapter for the band. The end result just feels empty.

This album changes nothing in terms of her previous work; if anything it’s more minimal and darker, but as long as she continues to feel the pain expressed here, her hurt is our gain.

On the whole, the double-album is an impressive and engaging aural expedition.

While catharsis never comes, there are glimpses of light coming through at the edges, and a sense of perfect order among the chaos.

One of the best albums of the year so far.

Kids In LA lays its cards on the table and, whilst at times too polished for its own good, it boasts enough songs to justify a few spins at least.

Their third outing has ironed out the kooks and cracks that made them so endearing.

It’s a record that sees Mikal Cronin finding his way as a songwriter in his own right.

With less excessive production and better songs, this could have been an accomplished return--her voice is still there. As it is, we’re picking up some signals, but it requires some real tuning.

They may have been away for a while, but ADULT. remain as frustratingly unloveable as ever.

Throughout the entire album, you’re left wondering how Smith, who is responsible for some of the most untouchable, spontaneous punk classics of all time, could muster the audacity to purposefully sound like such a parody of his previous self.

It’s a combination [simultaneously sound contemporary and old-time] that has been present in his music from day one and Bright Sunny South proves it’s one that still reaps significant dividends.

Crawling Up The Stairs is a very fine follow up that sees them once again exploring the inner workings of their souls and collective psyche with often beautiful results.

After several listens its subtleties are revealed and things gradually fall into place, demonstrating how it should be heard independently, and judged on its own merits.

When the band does not explore their influences as assertively, their music blends in a little too closely with that of their peers.

For them, you feel, everything else is incidental--by-products of an already winning formula. For at the heart of each of the songs here is a touch of resonance--the kind that all the best pop records have.

You might not be able to play Dungeonesse at a summer party from start to finish, but it can be brilliantly interspersed among other hipster-approved pop.

Amid all this existential and transcendental pondering, there’s the sense that Vampire Weekend have re-imagined themselves as the sort of band who could be doing this well into their 30s.

Black Pudding, like the foodstuff it’s named after, is more of an acquired taste.

On paper these might sound like mad genius, but Daft Punk somehow misplace the wit and the light touch that’s pretty much their trademark. Instead, these long epics become somewhat tedious and there is a strong whiff of egoism and self-indulgence.

What it is, is a fine follow-up to 2009’s Halcyon Digest and another example of what can happen when a brilliant songwriter retreats into his own head and comes out with visions of monsters.

The occasional introductions and interludes niftily splice together some sampled voices that add to the sense of abstract threat and unease, even if their impact feels a little hubristic at times. Yet beneath the tempestuous tensions in this music there are also occasional hints of reflection and consideration.

On a technical level, Wolf People are a competent outfit but, for all its repetition, it doesn’t leave much of a dent in the brain.

Whilst there are occasional high points, it’s best to cherry-pick the highlights from Didn’t It Rain and leave the rest.

As a mini-EP of ‘new’ material, these musically diverse tracks are strong enough to make you yearn for the fifth album which will probably never come.

Overall, Invisible Life is Helado Negro’s best album yet.

The lack of introspective revelation is part of the whole mystique, and this debut album offers a striking first glimpse into The Child Of Lov’s bewitching melting pot of sounds.

As long as you come in solely expecting to be treated to top-notch instrumentation and heartened by the (sometimes-vague) familiarity of your favorite tunes, Walking Shadows will prove to be one of the year’s most satisfying jazz listens.

The shifting contours of Stetson’s music make for unpredictable and challenging but frequently awe-inspiring terrain.

As it develops, it shows off a new side to them once again, one which wants to make records which draw on their experience rather than trying to do something completely new, and that in itself puts More Light up their with their best.

There have been some excellent debut albums out this year already, and Love In Arms stands comparison with them.

Harvey’s talent on Four is to mix impressive arrangements with obtuse lyrics yet still add something to the debate on a well worn topic.

In spite of his reputation as a collaborator, Parks remains the very definition of a musical auteur.

This isn’t a concept, or a wild divergence from his earlier work. Rather it’s a bigger push musically and collaboratively with less emphasis on the politics that have dominated his past.

It’s fun, but accomplished too, and shows how Hesketh has taken her knocks, used them and come back bolder, brighter and better.

If much of this is catchy, however, you can’t help but miss the Noah And The Whale who could be emotionally devastating.

This record probably won’t change the world in the manner that Van Gogh’s art did, but fans of quiet, unfussy acoustic music will find much to enjoy.

While this is a solid effort--and a more solid one than anything they’ve put together before--it’s not likely to set the world, or the charts, on fire.

While Ghostpoet will never be considered an easily accessible artist, this is the enigmatic follow up we’d hardly dared hope for.

The blues boogie tunes aren’t quite up to par, but it’s still a goody bag filled with enough treats to please fans.

Silence Yourself may not invent a genre. Silence Yourself may not give you something you didn’t have already. But it is so stark, so bold and delivered with such utter belief that you wonder why anyone would possibly care.

For those who have enjoyed Grubbs’ wide-ranging career and don’t mind taking a 45-minute detour into the mind of a clearly talented guitarist and singer (complete with painful violin), The Plain Where The Palace Stood is good enough to demonstrate how great Grubbs can be when he hits the mark.

Long and short, it’s hit and miss.

As the ever revolving wheel of influence spins to bring each individual ingredient to the fore, The Computers are not afraid to wear these influences unashamedly on their sleeves and in doing so have managed to produce a highly infectious piece of rock ‘n’ roll.

While Mvula has a great voice and is a skilled musician, she plays it far too safe on her debut LP.

Rudimental have already shown on their tremendously successful singles that they have that special knack for making exciting and diverse pop. Sadly on Home it is a knack that we hear too little of.

Sub Verses may be genre hopping, but it’s not a particularly challenging listen as compared to its predecessors, albums that were both challenging and fun.

THR!!!ER has plenty of moments that live up to its self-hyped billing, but it’s the love of the gimmick, that old friend Shtick Shtick Shtick, that will always be the thing that both endears and estranges.

It is much stronger than their previous disappointing album The Weirdness (2007), and at times even recalls their creative heyday in the late ’60s and early ’70s.

With the band straying very little from the original templates, the main surprises come when they have to change styles to fit the songs.

Unfortunately Night Visions is so safe and middle of the road that it leaves you with the same hollow feeling that Las Vegas can, without the dizzying high and sensual assault that got you there in the first place.

Side project, collaboration or fully fledged act, Neon Neon have a Mercury nomination under their belts--and now a follow-up LP that, for better or worse, peddles the same worthy wares.

Fandango quickly plateaus into an exercise that is pleasant rather than provocative; an effort that, despite occasional highs, is relentlessly...acceptable.

Impossible Truth is among the year’s most vivid and evocative albums so far, revealing new and absorbing details with every listen.

Miller has done a decent job here; there’s nothing particularly striking or eye-opening about the album or its songs, but their simplicity and Miller’s all-round talent suggest some real promise.

Flashes here and there suggest that The Neighbourhood are capable of writing good pop music. It’s just that they miss the target far too much.

At its best, this album is nothing more than a passable appropriation of pop reggae in 2013.

Lovely stuff.

Overall, this is much more than a chill-out album; there’s a level of depth here which showcases Hyde’s musical maturity and sensibility.

Rather than make-up/break-up album, this here is a glacial evolution of sentiment, reflective of his maturity of mind and songwriting.

An album full of off-kilter, strange pop songs, the sort that Phoenix do so well. It may have been four years in the making, but it’s certainly been well worth waiting for.

In total, The Still Life is a spry and rewarding sonic balm that doesn’t outstay its welcome.

The problem with Birthmarks is twofold: a lack of originality and a lack of hooks.

Supermigration may lack some of the euphoric moments of their debut album but these have been supplanted by a more rewarding, substantial set of attributes.

A debut album of soaring highs and some affecting melancholic soundscapes tempered slightly by just a few forgettable lulls.

While there is a satisfying absence of polish, there is a feeling of substantial professionalism to the whole of One Track Mind.

Save Rock And Roll is not only Fall Out Boy’s softest album yet, it is also their least memorable.

It combines such a variety of disparate styles that it really should not work, but Yeah Yeah Yeahs manage to tie everything together seamlessly into what is possibly their most assured and unique record to date.

Though undeniably powerful, Desperate Ground does become a bit monotonous due to the lack of variety of mood and change in pace.

The resulting amalgam never seems forced or affected, and with Curt Kirkwood’s mastery of the guitar the band can skip effortlessly across styles.

There’s much to enjoy on True Romance, although it’s probably best sampled in small doses as it doesn’t hang together that successfully over the course of an album.

The tracks don’t excite particularly: it’s all rather pedestrian, with the album occasionally struggling to hold attention. This is a shame, because the album’s closer and standout track, The Stars, shows they can manage it.

As the title of the opening song goes, Parquet Courts are swiftly becoming masters of their craft on an assured debut album brimming with unimpeachably great songs.

At 46 minutes, Recurring Dream isn’t an especially long album. But on the wrong day, at the wrong time and in the wrong frame of mind, it can feel like the longest 46 minutes in the history of all time.

There are the seeds of two worthwhile projects here, but no chance of them ever uniting under the Major Lazer banner.

Ghost On Ghost is a relaxed, unburdened work that should please most fans and generally be viewed positively elsewhere.

They are sketches--nothing more, nothing less. But it all changes on the final, aptly-named, track Opulent Decline.

It makes for a palliative record, to put on loop after an hour of Top 40.

There’s more than enough here to establish Ryder-Jones as a serious solo artist--all it needs is one more notch on the self-confidence dial, and that potential could translate into astounding results.

Admittedly there are a few misses (Changing All Those Changes for example), and it is sometimes a little too languid, but generally Peyroux’s homage to a masterful musician finds the right tones.

It might not be new any more, but it’s still formidably potent.

We already knew he was a talented composer and producer, but Wolf suggests he now may just be the finished article.

Generationals are far from the only band making chirpy, world-influenced indie-pop at the moment--but it has so much genuine charm, so expertly executed, that it’s impossible not to fall for.

English Electric--both melodically and artistically--stands as a rich, dignified entry in OMD’s catalogue.

The influence of new blood mixed with Paramore’s own distinct sound has created a vibrant, melodic record with sing-along choruses, and although it flirts with the softer side of the rock spectrum it’s still one ballsy album.

If you admire The Knife’s music for its incredible unpredictability and off-the-scale inventiveness, you are likely to consider this to be at least amongst their best work yet.

Here’s Willy Moon is an exciting debut from someone who’s trying to break the pop mould, several genres at a time.

What is perhaps most impressive about Beautiful Africa is its sheer number of thrilling twists and turns.

The 11 songs collected here are all among the very best of his career, enlivened with a vividness and warmth that offers something new with every repeated listen.

All in, Overgrown is a triumph. It is evidence of James Blake forging his own singular musical path, free from hype and expectation, and blossoming into both a producer of real compositional skill and a songwriter of great depth.

This is a splendid and rather accomplished debut album: one senses we haven’t heard the last from Louise, Sophie and Gemma.