As it stands, this is a glorious return from one of our most distinctive artists.

Pavement fans expecting similar lo-fi experimentation may be disappointed with The Real Feel, but anyone who appreciates organically structured rock songs should love this album.

Constant Future represents Parts & Labor's most consistent and exciting work to date.

Pop Tune is in the top handful of records that Shonen Knife have released; a slight update on the rougher sound they pedalled in the first half of their career, but it still sounds DIY-enough to please the faithfuls.

Franz Ferdinand have done what they didn’t quite manage on Tonight, combining their more experimental leanings with their irresistible dance-punk sound to create right thoughts, right words, right action, right album.

Lilys have made a quite marvellous record.

These expertedly crafted songs do deserve a wider hearing, and if this album is to remain a hidden treasure, then it's the general public's loss in all honesty.

Nevertheless, for fans of searing white noise A Place To Bury Strangers will pretty much seem messianic: anyone of a slightly gentler disposition might want to run the other way.

Bad Contestant is full of strange little pop songs that can delight and subvert in equal measure and makes for a pretty startling debut, all in all.

Drokk should not be dismissed as a niche project--it's dark, rich and compelling in its own right.

Wildheart is a beautiful album from one of the most exciting and talented artists in music right now.

They’ll need to be a little more adventurous next time around, but for now, they’re in fine fettle.

It’s warm, delicate; a real feast for the ears.

Joy’All is possibly Lewis’ best solo work to date – the sound of a woman fearlessly grappling with middle-age and dealing with all it has to throw at her.

World Eater thrives on the tension between anxiety and peace, nihilism and love. That’s tough stuff to reconcile, but Power attempts it in muscular yet heartfelt fashion. This is an album that will shake you senseless, eat you up and spit you out. And it’s worth every minute.

Beat Pyramid crosses genres, sticks pins in everything it sees and manages to reference hip-hop, punk, new-wave, dubstep and everything in between. For that alone, These New Puritans should be applauded.

While most folk acts are content to simply keep churning out album after album of tried and tested traditional standards or self-penned campfire sing-alongs, The Unthanks are stretching the parameters of their genre with an ambition that’s rarely been heard before.

They’re certainly a partnership and there’s lots of adventure here. Dizzy Heights is certainly as inspiring as anything Finn has produced for a long time.

With A Monument they have clearly shown that the have the scope and ambition to cross over far beyond that Portland milieu and establish themselves as a fine in their own right.

So the odd mis-step aside, the death of Arctic Monkeys appears to have been greatly exaggerated. Rather, this is another intriguing evolution for one of the country's great bands, and a shot in the arm for Britain's rather moribund 'indie guitar' scene.

It may put people off who were more attracted to Adams' more tortured side, but Ashes & Fire makes for a compelling reboot for a man who could, once more, become a contender.

Together with the slimmed down line-up, Nature Always Wins feels like the start of a new chapter for Maxïmo Park. They’ve always been better than a ‘landfill indie’ punchline, and they prove it in spades on their seventh album.

Like the film it accompanies though, the prevailing sense is that it will be remembered principally as a top-notch tribute to its timeless progenitor; first class entertainment but without those inimitable zeitgeist qualities that made the original Trainspotting so uniquely compelling.

There is a hidden depth to much of 2 which belies the outwardly bright nature of many of the songs and the cheesily trad imagery.

Melt Yourself Down have always had jazz antecedents and connections but they’ve never sounded more like a jazz band than they do here. While this album sometimes struggles to maintain focus in its thematic range, the music never misses a beat as it reaches far and wide.

Even at 54 minutes, Los Angeles never seems to run out of steam, and there more than enough excellent moments to hope that a second volume may be in the offering. Although hopefully with a less cumbersome band name next time around.

Highly engaging and tactfully succinct, Axxa / Abraxas is one to share with your friends and lovers, a soundtrack to your groovy summer.

Adamson mixes genres and sounds, blending and pitch-shifting, looping and deconstructing to create his most focused (though it may not sound that way on first listen) effort to date.