Bitter Rivals is their toughest and most focused work yet. It’s also their poppiest, which is very much a good thing.

Band moniker-related developments of recent years (see also: Ducktails, Peak Twins) mean this now implies gormless nostalgia, smarmy irony and, in a nutshell, chillwave. Happily, Lowtalker--five songs, 14 minutes--is a bit smarter, and better, than that.

Owens remains a naturally intuitive pop songwriter, and ultimately Chrissybaby Forever is a fresh slice of Californian good vibrations that arrives just in time for summer.

The emotions might not be quite as strong on this record but Sea Of Bees still manages to wrap you up in her words.

Beneath The Eyrie is still arguably their most consistent body of work since their 2004 reformation and certainly their most inventive in 28 years. What a spooky surprise – that this incarnation of Pixies would turn out to be such a dark, dark horse.

Sure, there is some inevitable fan service – the title, after all, is an anagram of ‘Clancy is dead’ – but this album sees one of the most fearless bands of their generation continue to take risks.

Effortlessly weaving elements of his hardcore upbringing in the West Coast DIY scene with more classic and fragile approaches to songwriting, this is an open introduction with all the hallmarks of America’s next unlikely star.

Pretty. Odd. is a victory for artistic ambition over cynical careerism, and we should all rejoice in their decision to follow their instincts as opposed to their instructions and actually do something different.

Dismiss his second album, Songs, only at your peril.

Ultimately Anything In Return suggests a tendency to follow the musical trends du jour rather than defining a true Toro Y Moi sound.

McRae is evidently still wrestling with her ambitions. ‘Think Later’, however, contains enough intrigue to suggest that this is the work of an artist finally honing their identity, dancing and sparkling all the way.

Hippies is an uncomplicated, brilliant LP about what it's like to be young, stoned and having A REALLY GOOD TIME while not coming across like you're a complete tool.

Cranes is strong on ‘Honeymoon’ and ‘Easy’, but there’s also nigh-on-sprightly, post-Jessie Ware trip-pop on ‘I Only’ and ‘Feather Tongue’. It's just not enough, though, to struggle above years of similarly tasteful, slight efforts.

Soft and slipper-shod as it may seem, there's a complex coldness to Sandoval's lyrical persona.

A buoyant record that should widen his audience, up to now largely confined to his Bandcamp page--a trove of gently weird psychedelia.

Fractured techno, torch song balladry, oilsmoke rock'n'roll and soulful synth pop merge sublimely, all rooted in tales of romantic dislocation and repair.

There’s a reason that the London-via-Kendall four-piece, centred around siblings Fiona and Will Burgess, have been attracting such attention. In fact, there are 11 of them on this debut full-length. Much of it’s down to Fiona Burgess’ sad yet sultry vocals and the way they stretch across these dreamy, largely synth-based songs.

‘Pink Friday 2’ feels like a consolidation and refinement of everything Minaj can do – including dropping pop culture references that no other artist would think of.

A hundred miles off, and they might as well be a thousand. [16 Sep 2006, p.37]

Get Awkward is relentless, riotous and raw.

Yet although much of it coasts along on autopilot, it can be outrageously good fun.

Disappointingly, given his previous sterling output, this is a pretty boneless pastiche of the genre.

A 60-minute torrent of positivity, an open-ended love letter to his wife -

Perhaps Oberst finds it tough to bring his brilliant bile to bear upon a synth the way he attacks an acoustic; a shame, as The People's Key is otherwise synthetic perfection.

They may never recapture their ‘Dirt’-era majesty, but AiC’s second act is turning out very nicely indeed.

It'll do for a fleeting one-night stand, but Mechanical Bull isn't the rekindling of a romance that we'd hoped for.

The expansive arrangements feel like unnecessary decoration. But on the billowing ‘You Got Me Time Keeping’ and sweet single 'Sometimes' Black's experiment works, injecting new flamboyance into his introverted songcraft.

Despite its glimpses of greatness, though, this album revisits too many of the rapper’s trademark themes to truly make good on his jubilant pre-release promises.