Frenzied excitement still prevails.

A classic, if often over-familiar Cribs album then, but the door is open for the forthcoming Steve Albini-produced ‘punk one’ to be the death-or-glory game-changer.

She might not want a pedestal, but there aren’t many songwriters who’d make better use of it.

Drummer/vocalist Brian Chippendale’s delirious sing-song brings notes of fancy to tracks like ‘Dream Genie’, but Lightning Bolt’s aim remains simple: to batter you into ecstatic submission.

It's an impressively unpredictable record that veers down wildly different paths, in ways no previous Modest Mouse album has dared.

Throughout, singer Bid's smooth baritone paints intriguing vignettes ("He was the best thing that you've ever seen in Swansea", goes 'When I Get To Hollywood'), adding colour to an already rich album.

There's no overarching narrative to Short Movie--it plays out like a series of vignettes, of moods and moments, people and places--but there is a sense of a journey completed, with a hard-won wisdom at the end of it.

While it's still shrouded in the frontman's down-in-the-mouth moodiness, its slinking rhythms offer the album's most striking and effective contrast between light and dark.

Their most complete, most important album yet. Ferocious, thrilling and unrelentingly heavy, it’s an emphatic reminder of who Cancer Bats really are.

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

There are cheesy moments--Jesso pretends to cry on 'Crocodile Tears', and 'Can't Stop Thinking About You' mimics the theme from US sitcom Cheers--but the compelling fragility of his demos remains. Because of that, Goon is a triumph.

Ultimately, Rebel Heart feels like a wasted opportunity.

Policy is a gloriously unhinged sprawl of a record, but fittingly for the man who constructed sparse piano tech-paeans for the soundtrack to Spike Jonze’s 2013 movie Her, the downbeat moments resonate, too.

Sunne is a grotty, grubby and exciting refining of Cheatahs' sound.

The volume remains punishing, but this record triumphs in melodic subtlety, political nuance and conceptual clarity.

Another Eternity is a far more mainstream-sounding album than their 2012 debut ‘Shrines’, but it’s also rooted in sounds from the underground.

What Happens Next is a distracted listen--an experimental Gill production that should be out under his name only.

Chasing Yesterday has its flaws, but they’re far outnumbered by moments where it succeeds in catching up with its titular quarry.

For all the music's cagey intelligence, Drake sounds like the kind of guy who comes sauntering out the traps in a 100m race and immediately breaks out into a victory lap, pausing only to remonstrate with hecklers.

The abrasion and urgency of their sound remains, but magnified, as they explore new territory.

While I Want To Grow Up doesn’t exactly break new ground, it compensates by being affecting, relatable and having occasional gnarly solos.

You can hear Badu’s influence across EarthEE, which flows as freely as its predecessor, but is more sonically detailed and rich.

This resulting debut is a masterpiece of desert blues; blending American guitar licks with Malian groove.

Sure, it has its moments.... However, things come unstuck when Joker swings for romance.

Here they’re more melodic, emphasising tone rather than volume. It pays off.

Even though Gliss Riffer comes with no added extras it still creaks under the weight of its experiments.

The record is littered with painstakingly layered guitar parts, mellifluous melodies and clapping drumbeats that nod to Russell’s posthumous collection ‘Love Is Overtaking Me’.

Closer ‘Sea Of Trees’ is as impressive, its restrained riff suddenly smothered by an almighty dirge. It’s a fitting climax to a record that unsettles from start to finish.