Musically, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is a nice blend of Kanye's older and newer styles.

Stornoway have boldly struck out and in doing so have navigated the often choppy waters of the second album with panache.

Minus boasts a melding of styles and influences, underlining that Blumberg is at his best when he’s most experimental. This is a recalibrating album that sets him up well for even more leftfield musical forays ahead.

It’s been one hell of a journey for Sleater-Kinney, but Little Rope is a fierce demonstration of a band back on track.

A thoroughly decent album from start to finish.

Best listened to in one sitting, the story draws you in with its characterisation and humour, at times outdated but always tuneful. As is the way with Squeeze, there are fistfuls of memorable lyrical vignettes.

The trip-hop stylings have been toned down to a murmur as traditional Latino structures and devices come waltzing gloriously to the fore.

Vulnicura Strings probably isn’t an album you’d want to listen to much on a regular basis, despite its undeniable excellence. It does, however, make for a beautiful and fascinating companion album to one of the year’s very best records.

With Carnage, Cave and Ellis have successfully balanced introspection and self reflection with the tumult and confusion of the wider world. It’s a hugely powerful statement.

Palomino isn’t a perfect album by any means. A few tracks feel a little rock by numbers, and for all the excellence on show Treetop Flyers do lack that streak of originality and cosmic weirdness that elevate American contemporaries such as Father John Misty or My Morning Jacket. Yet these are small criticisms of a band who have built upon the promise of their début very impressively indeed.

Pay no attention to the hype--after all, it didn't do Vampire Weekend any harm--and sit back and listen to one of the most purely enjoyable albums of this year.

Gwenno is doing important work here, and for those willing to open their minds and step into the mythical land of Le Kov will find that they may not want to leave.

Clocking in at 41 minutes, Speak Your Mind is a slick, well-produced offering that delivers on Anne-Marie’s potential without overstaying its welcome, the best British pop debut in a while.

The Cribs have always been a cut above their Yorkshire contemporaries, and Ignore The Ignorant demonstrates exactly why.

The entire album was recorded in just five days flat. It may have been knocked off in a spare moment between Guillemots albums, but in Fly Yellow Moon Fyfe Dangerfield has made a very early contender for one of the best albums of 2010.

Jehnny Beth and Johnny Hostile have crafted a great record, which is more than capable of carrying the Savages legacy on its shoulders.

The joyfully unabashed massiveness of it all is what makes Big Black Delta such a promising prospect.

One Day I'm Going To Soar still feels like a triumph, in spite of its transparent flaws.

It is refreshing to hear Sandoval’s stunning vocals once again coupled with Roback’s guitars. The world is a better place for it.

Avid listeners have known all long just how funky, playful and revolutionary she’s been, a genuine musical magpie, but sat barefoot on the cover in the centre of a tenement of abstract coloured birdhouses, her eyes closed, on this record this Liver bird’s calling any stragglers back to the roost.

With Blackbirds poignantly beautiful in many places, it may just be the one to do so.

On paper the sound palette on Scramblers is bracingly limited, drum machines pushed to their limits and bare-bones accompaniment, and in the hands of a lesser producer the record could well become irritating and tedious. But the sound design, sparse and abrasive though it is, is playful enough to keep energy and verve pulsating through the album’s brief run-time.

As such, those looking for an eerily familiar--and often brilliant--throwback to the sounds of 1972, please enquire within.

Overall, this is a highly enjoyable work packed with infectious licks and proves to be an easy album to get along with from the get-go.

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.

The Love Invention wades into territory more mainstream than even Supernature, slotting merrily between Murphy’s recent output and Kylie Minogue‘s return to her Disco best, and succeeds very well in creating stylish, louche, mature bops. In so doing, it unquestionably establishes Alison Goldfrapp as a solo force.

Where Do You Start is, in addition to being a superb showcase of these musicians' technical flair and expressive confidence, a typically thoughtful, informed and intuitive statement.

When We Stay Alive is an illusion of a record but, once explored, an apparently endless labyrinth unfurls.