If their previous albums sounded like hardcore on steroids and deranged, this is the same for their brand of rock-and-roll. The album’s best moments are when The Armed get brazen with their genre experimentation.

Fans will be thrilled to hear her sounding so playful.

Houghton’s control is masterful, not just in translating her thoughts and confusion so pristinely into cracking tunes, but this record is testament to just how undersung she is as a musician.

Overall Mercer’s songwriting creds are well in tact.

It finds the band more playful, melodic, cinematic and cohesive than they have since ‘Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots’.

It would have been easy for Courting to play it safe on ‘Guitar Music’, but by challenging both themselves and their scene, they’ve guaranteed longevity and arrived with one of the year’s greatest debuts.

Moondagger is a tune-rich excursion into lo-fi romanticism, with 'Parallelogram’s' multitracked vocals harmonizing over a groundswell of glockenspiels sharing DNA with Animal Collective.

Their most intriguing, beautiful and dazzling record to date.

Overflowing with stately songwriting and lyrical craftsmanship, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful makes for a restrained but joyful return, and a collection that will last long after Welch’s broken bones are mended.

BSP are an odd bunch: out of place, out of time, and quite possibly out of their minds. But given time to explore the depths of this record, they're also often out of this world.

With ‘Projector’, the band have escaped their modest confines of a studio where pipes leak onto amps and delivered some of the most compelling new guitar music around.

There is great humanity to And Nothing Hurt, a collection of wistful, wounded observations, the work of a person wearied by the world, but no less in love with it for that. There is hope and joy and naivety here, even as Pierce sounds like he’s been kicked in the groin before recording another cracked vocal.

On solo album number six, the meal is lean and hella spicy.

It’s his masterpiece so far; a staggering collection of unspeakably precious music.

Giggling through the chaos of the past 13 tracks as psychedelic dream-pop fills in the gaps, we can’t help but give in to the cinematic peak of ‘Wor$t Girl In America’, touching us the way all good movies do.

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

Interpol have made a great album.

Ultimately, what makes ‘Heaven Knows’ such a compelling debut is its ability to create British wistfulness. The emotions and sounds are familiar enough to pull you in, and peculiar enough to make you stay.

Whether she’s playing loser or victor, the swathes of frenetic energy that buoy every note are always present.

Watch Me Fall’ finds him with space to show off the full genius of his songwriting, turning the fuzz down, the jangle up and taking the (for him) radical decision to throw in violins and even some pianos.

Despite the surreal subject matter Johnston's soundtrack for his own comic book is romantic and deeply human.

Comparatively, ‘iiii’ feels much softer, drenched in futuristic hues of pink and peppered with a handful of well-matched guest appearances.

Irrespective of the permanently changed world it’s now entering, Park Hye Jin’s second solo release demonstrates her confidence to create free from the confines of categorisation.

The entire thing is an absolute, unerring joy.

Their jaunty Americana morphs from something lovely into something utterly essential.

Plaid's digitally inspired genius is to make electronic noises and the odd sample sound sad and celebratory, while occupying a spot on the dancefloor several galaxies away from Ibiza's gonzo techno

This is the most engaging record Green has released since 2010’s ‘Black Sands’ – it is light, airy and remarkably well pieced together.

All of this unique oddness would not, of course, mean a thing without the music, and this is an album without a single duff track. More than that, it has plenty of exceptional ones. [2 Apr 2005, p.46]