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

Mostly this is just a bit Bastille by numbers. If you’re looking for a photocopy of their previous albums, faded and off-colour, Doom Days will satisfy.

As M83 Anthony Gonzalez makes you want to turn the volume up as loud as possible, filling the room with music and reaching for those other worlds and creatures. Fantasy, then, fuels our imagination – just at the time when musical escapism is sorely needed.

While unlikely to change anyone’s life, The Head And The Heart have produced a record that’s richly enjoyable and well performed throughout, establishing themselves as a worthy addition to their home town’s roll of honour.

Musically, lyrically and emotionally, it works.

The End Of Silence is a tasteful look at the butterfly effect that is smart not to get caught up in the consequences of a moment, instead exploring that moment to the fullest and leaving you to wonder.

The Magic Numbers’ latest LP may not be perfect, but it is a big step in the right direction.

In a scene saturated with predictable guitar bands Clinic are a refreshing alternative, pleasingly unhinged and resolutely refusing to conform to type.

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.

There are numerous disparate elements at play, reflecting the different backgrounds of the contributors, and while sometimes it all comes together beautifully, at others it feels either strangely flat or rather a chaotic, over-egged mess, with the clash of influences jarring rather than blooming.

As an example of Boris at their best, it’s hard to top, but this is an album that finds the band in particularly rude health. Noise never sounded so good.

The quality, depth, and otherworldliness that Halstead has achieved here elevates it above being just another folk album.

Sometimes it feels a little one-paced and, on the first few listens, disinterest is but a stone's throw away. Luckily for Secret Cities though, the more listens the album gets, the more enjoyable it becomes.

10 Futures may sound like a collection of individual tracks on the surface, but the more you listen the more it all begins to make sense.

A fairly straight-up radio friendly rock album.

Free is not as lyrically emotionally resonating as Blackstar but it evokes similar feelings. The reason that it doesn’t fully pack the same punch is that there is a sense that he cannot fully commit. It is a solid album, but just leaves you wondering slightly what could have been.

It sees Vernon moving things on a touch, artistically, while still retaining much of what made his debut such a delight to so many.

It’s the perfect break-up album as there’s no wallowing--rather, there’s a steely defiance running through these songs that make Tall Tall Shadow a surprisingly uplifting experience.

As musically un-diverse as it may be, how cynical and jaded you would have to be to take against it. Tennis’ music is not intended to push at vanguards, but to make you happy.

Described as bittersweet feel-good music, The Stoop does pop music with a capital P--in wolf's clothing.

Although Voyage is mostly geared towards giving audiences the vintage time capsule they desire, we are still being invited to imagine other possibilities.

There's little in the way of fire or grit here.

Women + Country is something of a concept album, providing a necessary and unflinching look at a people who are often too proud to admit they're dying slowly of the lonesome blues.

The tracks are well made and good stuff, but on the whole Urban Turban feels a little too all over the shop to pack the wallop it deserves.

It's comparable to Late Of The Pier's debut Fantasy Black Channel; a lot on show but with hints of greater achievement. But Man Alive is a step up from that. It could well be their masterpiece; their scatterbrained work of art.

Smoking In Heaven is a great achievement, to be enjoyed again and again.

If its purpose is to celebrate the traditional Irish music that The Chieftains have played for half a century, note their influence and even open them up to new audiences, it does exactly that.

MCIII might fail to live up to its billing as concept album, but it absolutely doesn’t fail to provide a steady stream of big-hearted guitar-pop songs.