Rave Tapes doesn’t stray far from the Mogwai comfort zone, but nor is it the sound of a band clapped out. Nineteen years in, there are still crescendos left to climb.

If you're after better versions of classic songs, think again. But as a humanising, comprehensive and often heartbreaking document of a man who, in five years, changed the face of music, almost by accident, it's essential. [20 Nov 2004, p.55]

The '80s revival taken to its spangliest, synthiest, chino-flappiest extreme.... Our flashback to a dead decade has thrown up both guilty pleasures and glistening horrors.

In spite of all the terror and uncertainty, it's the warmth that lingers.

Nostalgia aside: this is an album worth celebrating now.

Comparisons to SK will doubtless arise but the production here is sparser, with more focus on intricate oddities.

What these tracks are, though, are lovingly programmed, laser-dappled, preening--thanks to Sampha's buttery soul voice--and glossy reduxes of late-'90s two-step and twitchy post-house that should be filed next to James Blake and Jamie Woon.

We would have liked to have heard more lead vocal from the uniquely talented Cedric, but this is a small quibble when we're talking about the soundtrack to dancing like your life depends on it in 2011.

It's a tougher listen than usual, but it's still laden with lashings of classic Lekman pop hooks and a vocal that's sweeter than a Swedish cinnamon bun.

Few More Days To Go seldom offers easy listening or conforms to expectations--but it's easy to tell what Damon and others see in them, and you can expect to hear more from Fufanu.

With each song so different to the last, ‘Renegade Breakdown’ is one of those rare records that will have listeners discovering new intricacies on each listen.

As they adopt the very sounds that cultivated them on their come-up, ‘Ghetto Gods’ should mark the start of EarthGang’s ascension to superstardom.

Despite a sprightly run time of just under 38 minutes, the pair cover vast ground, much of it new, across ‘Alchemy’. However, after several sporadic vibe changes, the album’s overall cohesion feels slightly lost, though perhaps that was the intention due to the personal circumstances in which it was created. Nonetheless, it’s clear that Guy and Howard are enjoying their newfound creative freedom to push beyond what’s expected of them.

Ruins might see the band playing it safe, but rarely are safety manuals this stunning.

With not a single duffer over another eight tracks, it looks like our eventual Best Of Body Talk compilation might just be the album of the year.

It's weirdly powerful stuff this, couch-rock, heartbreak coated in cereal. And with this limelight-stealing album Best Coast are providing an amazing advert for dropping out, having mad crushes and doing very little other than getting high.

Shrines is a euphoric treat in its own right, made all the more thrilling by its heady potential.

This record fuses the first album’s goofy sense of humour with ‘Joy…’’s brazen manifesto for a healthier society. Despite their imperfections and the often justified criticism, IDLES are ultimately a good thing. The band want to take you on a trip and for you to enjoy the ride, and for the destination to be serene. Hold on tight.

But, bar the turgid swamp blues of ‘Be Careful What You Wish For’, it’s Noel’s freewheeling solo freedom and return-to-mega-form song-writing that makes this amongst the albums of the year.

Sandoval's voice remains an indescribably beautiful thing, while David Roback's guitar provides haunting backing.

This is clever, girl-led guitar pop.

Balf Quarry, however, sees Elisa Ambrogio and Pete Nolan emerging blinking into the sunlight as they continue to excavate the more focussed sounds of last album "Boss."

Never compromising herself or her sound, Mahalia has produced a debut album filled with dazzling songs.

Overall, ‘Reprise’ is full of dignified reworkings that don’t offer too many surprises.

‘Time Skiffs’ is a gorgeous, exploratory album, containing some of the greatest creations this curious lot have turned in for years.

It feels as if Tomora’s true potential will truly reveal itself on future records after finding their energy as a live act. Still for now, ‘Come Closer’ is a debut worth dancing about: exceptional, beautiful and shit tonnes of fun.

‘Mutator’ might well find favour with fans of his distant descendants like Squid, Perfume Genius, Sleaford Mods and Black Midi. A quarter of a century on, this lost rumble from post-punk vaults finds new context, as a lesson in uncompromising art from an old master.

On A Mission is hands-down pop debut of the year, marking the arrival of a completely credible, fresh-faced, mischievous talent to draw the proverbial moustaches on pop's gallery of gurning grotesques.