Beck proves once again here that he’s a tremendously versatile artist, capable of excelling throughout the musical spectrum.

It is an album by a band at the very peak of their powers--one that will make you want to throw your hands up and surrender to its magnificent beauty.

It’s an album that manages to remain accessible while still sounding challenging and unconventional, an album that can sound heart-stoppingly beautiful one minute and scratchily acerbic the next and, ultimately, an album that’s impossible to grow bored of.

Kozelek is a songwriter operating with audacity and confidence, composing wry and forthright confessionals that investigate areas of everyday darkness and despair too rarely explored in popular song.

There’s a sprightliness and a captivating agility present throughout this album, even in its more reflective and graceful moments.

Although The Brink does sound more assured and accomplished than their debut, The Jezabels’ return poses a number of problems, the most central of which being that it is just far too pedestrian.

They’re experimental while making for a cohesive whole, exemplary of a band which has been slowly but clearly refining its sound for 15 years, all to the benefit of listeners who prefer to listen with the lights off.

Each listen reveals moments easily missed the first time around, and they become the moments where Pollard’s underappreciated genius shines brightest.

It’s Olsen’s willingness to develop her sound that is really the most gratifying aspect of Burn Your Fire For No Witness, enticingly hinting at much more to come in the future.

Rostrum is probably destined to stay a cult interest for now, but if you’re looking for dance music with a pulse and a brain, then she’s guaranteed to be your new jam.

Poemss is very much a new venture for its makers that has precious little, if any, resemblance to their previous work. Instead, it’s something of a musical reinvention, and the possible beginning of a very fruitful partnership.

It provides evidence the Persson is capable of some breathtaking moments. And indeed there are a few such moments on Animal Heart, if not as many as might have been hoped for.

While her debut On A Mission was a bold hashing-together of genres, equal parts R&B-feels and electro bombast, Little Red rides a comparatively low tidal ebb. But there’s more than enough here to suggest Katy B will be bringing the tunes a while yet.

What could just be another run through a well-worn genre becomes an album that is worth a place in any serious library.

While Innocence might be easily lost in the pool of “alternative,” despite its flaws it is a strong addition to the band’s already prolific catalogue.

They’re certainly a partnership and there’s lots of adventure here. Dizzy Heights is certainly as inspiring as anything Finn has produced for a long time.

It hangs together well and the songs are decently written. But most listeners need something more, an undeniable quality that is completely unique to a band. A Unique Selling Point, if you will. Hospitality have not found theirs yet.

Xiu Xiu fans get exactly what they want from Angel Guts, while new listeners will either become diehard devotees or be turned off by the lack of originality.

It may not be entirely successful, but it could well be looked back on as the acorn from which a bigger tree grew.

The record is undoubtedly an enjoyable, comforting listen, one that provides an interesting trawl through Band Of Horses’ back catalogue. It is, however, unlikely to appeal to anyone who is not already a fan.

It’s a truly absorbing listen, almost effortless. For a band that have been through so much turmoil, they convey so much beauty.

There’s an effortlessness to their interpretation that stops them from sounding too calculated, though--you get the sense that these are four blokes whose enthusiasm for the grungey alt-rock bands of 20 or so years ago is so great that they can’t stop the influence bleeding into their own music.

It’s not a pretty world to live in all the time, but for a while the twilight tones are the perfect place to rest a broken or bruised heart, or just take some comfort from Marissa Nadler’s exquisite craft.

Augustines has always been capable of creating rousing songs, but this is an album full of them, and it never once feels too much or overstated.

They’ve stopped acting the comedian, and with this album they’re practically demanding that the world at large takes notice.

Sun Structures is a compelling listen throughout its 55 minutes, holding together perfectly as a whole with strong tracks dotted throughout.

There may not be anything new or massively revolutionary to attract new disciples to the Vega cause, but Tales From The Realm Of The Queen Of Pentacles is another reliably excellent Suzanne Vega album.

Unfortunately, while on Dunes’ better songs Gardens & Villa have succeeded at claiming their own sound, the issue that they currently face is that their sound simply isn’t very memorable.