For a dance music album, Swim sounds not only refreshingly organic, but also remarkably downbeat. Most remarkable of all, perhaps, is the way that Caribou have succeeded in marrying up these two things and still managed to make an album that is infused with a rhythm, a groove and a watery loveliness all of its own.

All Days Are Nights is the sound of the man doing what he does best: bruised, tender, emotional and, at times, quite brilliant music.

My Best Friend Is You hasn't got the immediate freshness of Made Of Bricks, and it can make for a disorientating, uneven listen at times. Yet it's never anything other than compelling and demonstrates that, despite what a lot of people thought when she first appeared, that Kate Nash could well be around for a good few years yet.

While he's certainly earned his right to experiment with genres - really, to do whatever the hell he wants - he's never so affecting or engaging as when he's reduced to his quivering roots.

It delivers what you'd expect, but ambition is unfulfilled and the constant pursuit of seemingly random stylistic tangents reveals a lack of focus.

Emerging at the end, the listener has a real sense of having been immersed in something coherent and whole over the course of the 10 tracks; even if at the same time--dreamlike--there may well be no such clear sense of what it all might have meant.

It is full of sadness and hope, but ultimately it is a celebration of human spirit and the unique talent of Roky Erickson. This indeed is special and magical music.

It's disappointing that even with all this potential that you'd be hard pressed to remember most of the album once it's finished. You'll remember that it sounded good, but you won't remember how it sounded and even several plays fail to bestow "grower" status on this disc.

Plants And Animals can write good songs, but because they tend to be quite long and full of melodic meandering, they were better suited to their old acoustic style were the electric guitar was used sparsely to take the song elsewhere and captivate the listener. You can have too much of the good thing. But at times on La La Land, the guitar work is undeniably brilliant.

It's a brave, sometimes successful, but ultimately flawed attempt to evolve and grow the band's sound. The one crime is a distinct lack of any memorable tunes, but it will certainly stand as one of 2010's more interesting releases.

In his second album, The Wild Hunt, Matsson has made a stunningly genuine folk record that compares favourably to staples of the genre dating back to Bob Dylan's The Times They Are A-Changin'.

The vibe is overwhelmingly positive, not to mention a bit woozy - ideal to take the edge off a hard day and turn it into a good evening.

As a whole, Weathervanes is a largely successful and ambitious trip into uncharted territory for the band, and despite its somewhat saccharine sheen, the album wears well with multiple listens and creates a spooky, dreamlike economy of its own.

With Everybody Wants To Be On TV, they've given those masses what they want. But there's nothing for the discerning music fan.

The result is a real evolution for Tunng, producing their most consistent and fully rounded album yet.

I Speak Because I Can is, without doubt, an album to really delve into, and one to lose yourself in for hours. Added to that, it asserts Marling as one of this country's most talented young songwriters; our Conor Oberst or our David Berman.

Go is a phenomenal record with almost every bar bursting with beauty. It is soulful, fun, naive and sad in its own fantastical world; if only life really were this good.

This fourth album shows Sharon and The Dap Kings at their most polished, funky and soulful. Mrs Jones sure has got a thing goin' on.

This is music to come home to, to guide you back through the darkness at the end of the evening and deliver you to the doorstep of a nice semi somewhere in Middle England.

Women + Country is something of a concept album, providing a necessary and unflinching look at a people who are often too proud to admit they're dying slowly of the lonesome blues.

The music on Hippies is formulaic, but in their ability to work so perfectly within a rigid aesthetic, Harlem hint at real songwriting ability.

The top hat-wearing guitar hero has gingerly handpicked a diverse palette of vocalists to accompany each of the 16 tracks and contribute to the lyrics, while he takes care of the riffs....Yet the iconoclastic guitarist is careful to never upstage his guests.

Apparently, No Más is completely sample free, with every sound painstakingly worked on to make it sound like it came from an old sample. It's this kind of logic that makes No Más an oddly compelling listen, in the sense that you're never quite sure whether what you're hearing is amazing or awful.

On the title track, Steve asks, "Don't you got nothin' better to do than listen to a man from another time?" The album presents itself as a fitting answer to that question, and an appeal to anyone wanting to look into the distant delta past.

The summery feel and gloriously messy pop sensibility are at times great fun, but with something that is so derivative, it is hard to get too carried away without getting an urge to switch this album off and dig out the originals.

Badu remains a singular, refreshingly unpolished talent.

Without wishing to unduly gloss over the intermitting albums, Outbursts captures and builds upon the intangible beauty of their debut effort. Turin Brakes are, once again, a must-hear.

It's a slight album, but by the standards he himself set, and patchy Black Francis is better than no Black Francis at all.