Dom Ganderton and Ryan Malcolm are a deft hand at bringing colour out of the mundane in their honest, and often nostalgic lyrics.

If it sounds close to daft on paper, Merchandise have the ingenuity to make it work, and so it is with this fine album.

The result is an album teeming with hooks and melodies butting up against countermelodies, and a crisp, vibrant pop production.

This album is a quiet triumph, the understated work of an artist honouring herself and her creativity.

It’s an album that tries not to shout ‘old school Franz are back’, even though it unmistakably signals that old school Franz are back.

Only a smidgeon less euphoric than ‘EP-1’, EP-2 is another brief broadside that further justifies Pixies’ drip-drip release plan, keeping their ten-year-tour on the road and the intrigue of their new material relentlessly fresh.

At first it’s completely overwhelming--you’ll be trying to connect the scattered dots on this initially impenetrable listen, and maybe even despairing when it doesn’t all come together. But when the constellations show through, you’ll realise that it’s a product of searingly intelligent design.

The guitar-led epic soundscapes, choral chanting, woeful strings and portent keys on their debut ‘A Love Of Shared Disasters’ are still present.

This is arguably Cocker’s best work since Pulp’s 1998 comedown record ‘This Is Hardcore’ and certainly a greatly promising start to his new chapter. Cocker remains in an entirely different class.

Perhaps the highest compliment you could pay this EP is that if you didn't know who it was and had no preconceived notions about what it should--or shouldn't--sound like, you'd think you had stumbled across something very special indeed.

Girls are a band who release their intoxicating mist over time, making this mini-album a bit unsatisfying in quantity rather than quality.

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.

The tunes, too, are as lush and anthemic as ever.

The result is a record that cloaks Gengahr’s inherent weirdness in peaceful melodies you’ll want to wallow in for hours.

‘I Am Jordan’ is a portrait of this artist’s personal growth, with tracks that could shine on any mood-boosting playlist. Ultimately, Jordan’s innovative and uplifting debut gifts us a question: could this be what trans euphoria sounds like?

And it makes the right choices, that much is indisputable; almost everything here is a monumental Underworld moment.

Now they've reinforced their position as the credible elder statesmen of metal, with a tightly focused, self-referential effort.

Pure indie-pop to hold close to your heart.

From its cover in, there's a knowing, bustling swagger to The Streets' finale, if only in its relishing of a quick dart for the exit.

In ditching the artifice, Annie Clark has made her most generous and open statement yet.

Biffy Clyro have delivered one of their most personal and definitive records to date.

It all makes for a moving look at people who changed, transformed, disappeared and faded, but are immortalised on a beautiful record.

For young fans just now learning the joys of heavy rock – perhaps lured in by the appearance of this band’s 1986 classic ‘Master of Puppets’ on Netflix megahit Stranger Things last year – this new record will be a fitting gateway drug. For everyone else there’s simply the reassuring thrill that, after so many decades on stage, Metallica are still capable of delivering sharp, spiky metal – and sticking it where the sun doesn’t shine.

Like Sabbath in a washing machine during a power surge. [16 Jul 2005, p.50]

For the most part, though, Styles’ second album is a total joy. It’s an elegant combination of the ex-boybander’s influences, slick modern pop and his own roguish charm.

This warm, wonderful record is a joyous, head-spinning delight.

And yet for all the disparate elements, we haven't heard a record all year so secure in its own vision, or a collection of songs that sound so much like they need to be together. The only downside of this is it kind of smothers the potential for standout Oh. My. God. moments.

Tracks like 'Torture' borrow far too liberally from A$AP Rocky's cloud-rap aesthetic to be considered original. But otherwise, Old is a perfect example of why 2013 is a very exciting time for hip-hop.