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

Some may listen to Songs From A&E and dub Jason Pierce a one-trick pony. Which may be true, but what a trick he's managed to perfect.

Undoubtedly it's a very effective dance record, and in a club everything here would sound great. As an album, though, HEALTH//DISCO is encumbered by the very tracks that have birthed it.

The record could perhaps do with more of these vocal interjections, as it's packed with mostly instrumental grooves. However what there is comes extremely well layered and with a careful structure, well thought through but also retaining the potential for improvisation and a chance to cut loose.

What impresses most of all about this album, however, is the accomplishment and confidence with which it's constructed, and the economical way Merziger and Kammermeier make use of the huge array of colours and sounds at their disposal.

The Lucky Ones is unlikely to garner any new fans for Mudhoney, which is a shame because this is one of the best albums of their career.

Arm's Way is a masterful and intricate offering progressing from their debut to create a new vision mixing a banquet of sounds and tempos to create an accomplished peace of musical craftsmanship.

Autobiographical, hopeful, working through different genres, one can't help but feel that if she had stretched herself while remaining focused just on quality dance-pop that the record would have been fantastic and not such a sad sunset on the legendary Summer.

Lie Down In The Light is the sound of a musician at ease, quietly and calming experimenting with his sound and subsequently coming up with his finest work to date.

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

For a debut album it's remarkably consistent and confident, and promises great things to come for the future.

None of it stops you longing after the energy and charm of their debut.

More than anything else, there's a sense of contentment and pleasure that purveys the Things Of The Past that could have been lifted from the Summer of Love itself.

There's a distance to their music, as if they're floating away on the horizon, just out of reach. It's worth savouring them that way.

This sense of being aware of our own impending death leading to a heightened sense of life sums up perfectly The Airing of Grievances, an album that bemoans the past, shrugs it's shoulders and raises a glass to the future.

Eloquent, glamorous, spirited and now more sonically innovative than ever, the quintet have affirmed their place as one of Britain's most exciting bands with this release.

It's remarkable that what started as a drunken joke between two musicians in their early 20s can sound so polished and professional.

The result is sublime, lost somewhere between a 3.00am Ibiza beach party, the Royal Festival Hall and the best soundtracked bedroom in the whole damn world.

With songs that face the pain and torment of neurotic fears, John & Jehn have crafted an absolutely stunning album of beautiful and noisy sounds placed atop slow, steady tempos and invigorating dance beats alike.

Their seeming insanity only adds to the magic.

Compared to the admittedly prodigious vocals of Duffy and Adele, this feels like the real deal.

Yet far from being miserable, this is a record substantially more alive than its eponymous predecessor.

So while a cautious welcome is given to this near-flawless interpretation of soul music, it is done with the observation that another record of such polish will be ultimately empty, and more than a little disappointing.

Robyn has assured her contemporaries that pop life does not end as a tweenie, that pop music can be for adults, and that adults can be Do It Yourself indie artists, so long as one thing is in place: talent.

Overall, Hard Candy lacks subtlety and is overworked and overproduced.

You could equally say the album was allowed to peak too soon, but either way let it take nothing from the fact that this is a refreshing and extremely promising debut effort.

Even with an unfocused album like The Colourful Life as a debut, Cajun Dance Party are doing much, much better than some of their young contemporaries (Miley Cyrus and The Jonas Brothers Band, for staters) in terms of crafting genuine, soulful art.

The Seldom Seen Kid keeps the band on this upward trajectory.