One of the year's early musical highlights.

Shake Shook Shaken may not be an unqualified success, but it certainly does what its predecessors couldn’t--it marks out The Dø as real contenders to keep your eye on.

Skeletal Lamping flicks across channels like a man with an itchy trigger finger who trigger finger is actually itchy, but it excels in making a brilliant kind of sense.

Soft Will marks a further refinement of Smith Westerns’ sound, resulting in one of the year’s most straightforwardly enjoyable indie-rock records.

Convenanza is essentially a good time record, a celebration that looks back, but doesn’t forget to put its best foot forward too.

Islands will take a little longer to hit the spot. When it does though, it could well challenge some of their best efforts, even if their diehard fans fail to agree on first listen.

Earth To Dora finds him in a relatively peaceful place – and it will have a similarly calming effect on Eels fans too. More than 20 years on, this band are still very good at what they do.

Cunningham is skilled in sustaining uncomfortable moments right up to a breaking point but he's also brilliant at making this self-contained, insular music sound sleek, modern and somehow appetising.

Collapse Into Now is a fine album, and one that's far better than any band together for three decades has any right to be. What a pity, then, that they're not going to tour it.

They know their way around a captivating (if not subtle) hook, so whilst it sounds bigger than the sum of its parts, there are enough great songs to justify this super-stylised and fearless approach to pop.

As enjoyable as it all is though, it’s hard to escape the lingering feeling that Lidell is best when balancing his desire to mine the rich seam of electronic music’s past with a more innovative perspective.

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

An album that keeps pace with modern pop trends while remaining true to Aguilera’s past.

The pace is so chilled it would make a trip-hopper give up valium, and once past Vaporise it's hard to take much notice. You suddenly find yourself at track seven, and don't remember what's come before. Things do pick up again towards the end, although by now the debt owed to other artists is piling up.

A Coliseum Complex Museum, despite sporting yet another bonkers title, is a top effort that bolsters their burgeoning reputation, even if it doesn’t quite reach the highs of their very best.

Wonder Where We Land sounds like an album of great moments, rather than a consistently great record.

Apart from the nice flourishes and an undoubtedly authentic-sounding replication of mid- to late-'60s underground psychedelia, this album seems to have been something of a misfire, lacking a convincing emotional undertow, or sufficient clarity in its musical presentation to engage or entrance the listener.

It's certainly a promising debut, just one hampered by a songwriting scope that strips it of its own vitality rather than informing it.

Social Distortion still hit as hard as they ever did - barring the obvious newfound musical influences. Anyone not yet convinced by Social Distortion probably won't find new evidence for greatness here, but for longtime fans, the six-year wait is more than worth it.

Gallagher is never going to win awards for originality, but he has definitely progressed musically with this solo debut.

For those people who still think Lily Allen is the epitome of nepotistic celebrity culture, her second album won't change many minds. For the rest of us, It's Not Me It's You cements her position as one of this country's most interesting pop stars and proves that she's not some one-hit wonder.

It will surely be remembered as perhaps the greatest Frank Black LP (to date, at least) and perhaps even as the record that made it cool to like country again.

Napa Asylum graces us with moments of understated beauty, and when it's not terrifying us with bad trips, leaves a feeling of contentment and fuzzy warmth with the world. However, 22 tracks is gratuitous and excessive, and the repetitiveness inherent in some of the tracks shows that quantity, and not always quality, swayed the making of the final cut.

With this album and its predecessor, he has achieved a genuine gravitas and, more importantly, a believable honesty.

It’ll never go down as a classic of the Crosby canon, yet it is quite unlike anything else he’s ever done. Perhaps it’s best summed up in four simple words--one for the purists.

As Passion Pit albums go, it may not sound drastically different to what has gone before, but, nevertheless, it feels like a fresh start.

Even with the missteps, there is plenty to love about The Wombats’ fourth effort.

The stronger of the two records by a clear mile, it breaks away from Sword’s definition of drone to incorporate clear distinctions in its abrasive mise-en-scène.