Los Campesinos! continue to compose intelligent, well thought out songs, endearingly so, and eschew any trends other than the one they're setting for themselves.

His first solo album in six years, The Work is a comfortable record, accomplished and at times even gleeful in its kitchen-sink approach to sound design.

While the music he creates on Universes is not quite from another planet, there’s definitely a spirit of exploration that makes it a joyous listen throughout.

There’s too much spirit in this cocktail for the mixer to spoil it.

Young Guns may have pushed themselves to the edge to create Bones, but the end result confirms the hard work was more than worth it.

Django Django’s style is well-worn by now, and a little more stylistic or structural invention wouldn’t go amiss, but Glowing In The Dark still delivers the goods with ease.

Breaking Kaytabe is without a doubt one of the most impressive releases you'll hear all year, regardless of genre.

Whilst each of these tracks was created to serve pre-existing imagery, the beauty of presenting Hecker’s compositions in this way allows the listener to create their own interpretations and visualisations. Shards is far more cohesive and affecting than its formation suggests it should be.

Make no mistake; there is a lot more quality to come from this source.

Childs doesn’t always find the music industry an easy place to be, but when the end results are as likeable and appealing as those found on Situation Comedy, you hope his restless creativity never truly goes away.

It’s one of the most immediate and accessible albums The Coral have released to date.

White's second fling with The Raconteurs is quite the party, and perhaps one that may leave Meg a bit jealous.

This first outing is subtle, but somehow it packs in drama and poetry in a way that’s tender yet fascinating. It’s been well worth the wait.

The result is her most satisfying and unified album to date.

The next obstacle for Wavves will be deciding whether to ditch the bedroom and work in an actual studio, but for now these lo-fi pop gems are more than enough to be getting on with.

Its gentleness is affecting and transporting and the whole album is carefully constructed and beautifully performed. It is also brilliantly sequenced--a work that very much needs to be digested as a whole.

Mostly, though, it is the unusual, the artificially-generated and the unexpected that characterise this music. Where this works best--as, indeed, it does on most of this compelling album--the band manage to corral the diverse elements together into something that is more than simply cohesive.

Foot-stompingly perfect pop, achieved without sacrificing the folky feel... [However] while there isn't a weak track on the album, they don't always seem particularly well stitched together.

For a first solo work, Serpentine Prison is an excellent sidestep from Berninger’s vitally important and highly respected day job.

It feels like a Sheff solo album in all but name, yet the change in approach has breathed new life into his work and helped him deliver an album that is both impressively bold in scope and magically intimate.

It may not be quite up there with the band’s classic ’90s releases, but there’s enough quality on display to reassess Dando’s ‘poster boy of grunge turned heroin casualty’ reputation.

Although there are a couple of songs on this album which don’t set up camp in your memory, the vocals always astonish, from the sound of Jeff Buckley floating on a soul bisque on It Must Change to the greasy gospel crescendo of Rest.

Grails have been many things over the last 15 years, but with Chalice Hymnal, they seem to have found an identity that fits them perfectly.

The album, like their live set, is shot through with fun, infectious wit and a desire to create perfect pop while not taking themselves too seriously.

We've all heard soundscapes before, certainly, but rarely has there been anyone that fuses two genres so perfectly that they compliment each other to such a degree.

It’s the variety, vigour and conviction that makes this new record by Night Beats so impressive and engaging.

Like so much of this vibrant, engrossing album, [Flesh And Blood is] full of the childlike joy and wonder that Orton has spoken about; a delightful return.

This is a record built on the dependable building blocks of guitar, bass and drums, albeit arranged and (presumably) Pro-Tooled into exciting, original new formations.