As ever with Miley Cyrus, there’s a lot going on with Something Beautiful, and sometimes it doesn’t quite work. Yet it’s definitely another pleasingly unpredictable swing from one of our more intriguing and exciting pop stars.

Black Hole Superette also has some surprisingly pretty instrumentation, such as the shimmering synth leads that open Checkers and the descending chord sequence of Black Plums, subtly embellished by harmonies as the track progresses. It’s elements like this, along with Aesop’s wordplay, which make a lengthy album consistently engaging.

We Were Made Of Prey is an intense, haunting listen – it may not be the place to come to if you want an album of singalong tunes, but the raw emotion that Joseph and Campbell can conjure up is something to behold.

It may not be up there with the best of The National, but Get Sunk is definitely a new avenue for Berninger to explore. That closing choral shout of “Get sunk! Get drunk!” on the final track Times Of Difficulty feels both playful and emotional, as the best of Berninger’s work can do.

Ignore the occasionally terrible lyrics (rhyming artist with “fartist” for example) and The Painful Truth contains some of their most heartfelt work.

By the time the closing track, the swaying, communal singalong of Lord Have Mercy, comes around, you’ll be mentally reordering your list of top 10 all-time Sparks albums. MAD! is the sound of the Mael Brothers defying age and still doing things their own way.

Crooked Wing is another accomplished, thought-provoking instalment from a duo operating from a highly distinctive position.

The overwhelming impression is of a band looking forward, seizing opportunities and further boosting their reputation. The second half of the album feels like it has even more to dig into, even greater depth to explore.

Better Dreaming feels not so much like a reset, but as if they’ve rediscovered what made them such an exciting prospect in the first place. It’s resulted in the best Tune-Yards album for some time.

It’s Billy Nomates’ best album to date, and testimony to the fact that whatever doesn’t kill you does indeed make you stronger.

By the time Dislocated’s restless drums drop out he has also demonstrated a level of originality comparable to Madvillainy or Vaudeville Villain – a true artist.

It may not have the single-minded focus of All Of Us Flames, or the striking ambition of Transangelic Exodus, but it’s another startling record from one of the most exciting songwriters around right now.

The ambition of Home? is admirable, and Wretch 32 delivers his best album yet by centring the music around these weighty themes.

All in, Tall Tales captures these two veterans in great form, locking into a sound that plays to their strengths while differing from anything they’ve done before – moody, enveloping, surreal in effect, but emotionally potent.

While this never quite touches the highs that Erasure can produce, there’s enough moments on Ten Crowns to convince that Bell and Aude make a good partnership for when Vince Clarke wants a rest.

From the minute Unpopular Parts Of A Pig kicks into gear, there is no doubt that this is Mclusky. With its scratchy guitar riffs, thunderous bass, all driven by Egglestone’s pounding drums, it’s as if the last 20 years have just disappeared in a puff of smoke.

There is a lot of depth to be found in If You Asked For A Picture, and at times it is hidden behind the fairly pedestrian “indie” approach. Yet given time, it’s an album that gradually unfurls and draws you in, even if a little extra punch and bite would not have gone amiss.

Like all of Hval’s work, this isn’t an album to listen to as background music, or pick and choose what tracks to listen to. It’s an album to immerse yourself in (a real ‘headphones listen’) and just surrender to for 42 minutes.

It picks the world apart in a way that evokes both horror at our present and an underlying optimism for our future, expressed in a way only music can. Here is confirmation that Suzanne Vega remains one of our musical treasures.

This is not retro. This is not homage. This is borderline heresy. The past is there, yes, but only so it can be restructured, reprogrammed, reversed. They remember the old rites – Silver Apples, United States of America, Amon Düül II – but not to copy them.

Towards the end, it does seem to run out of steam a little bit (although only really Sunshine Song seems to be filler) but overall this is a remarkably accomplished debut that, excitingly, hints at even better to come.

You wouldn’t wish the circumstances that brought about Weirdo on anyone, but it’s resulted in an album unafraid to take risks and one which only underlines Thackray’s huge talent.

A suave album full of competently executed ideas imbued throughout with a distinctive mood.

With A Vengeance maintains its intensity throughout, and by the time Thru The Nite’s hammering rimshots have died down we’re left with a promising collection of songs from this genre-bending artist.

The third Self Esteem album that takes the best parts of Prioritise Pleasure and her debut Compliments Please, and turns it all up to 10.

Highly accomplished, elegantly performed, wonderfully sung, this is an album by a master craftsman using his keen ear to create something beautiful. The man has never missed.

A showcase for Keita’s skills as a musician beyond his lauded voice they present.

As with many posthumous albums, Anxious is a deeply bittersweet listen – the knowledge of what might have been casts a poignant hue over the whole experience. However, as a tribute to Smith’s talent, it works beautifully: a fitting memorial to a woman who would have, no doubt, gone onto even better and brighter things.