The album shines with crisp production, a dynamic of extremes and Aurora’s unflinchingly confident performance and message.

With a lilting, mountain-spring-clear vocal, Lillie effortlessly brings to mind Dolly Parton, whose sass and strength she channels throughout her solo debut’s 11 tracks. This is old-school country music that digs deep into the past.

ever. The Kills are finally hitting their peak, but a low-key kind of peak.

iii is probably a couple of tracks too long, but Banks has created another supremely intriguing musical world filled with ear-snagging lyrics and quirky production flourishes: the lone dog-bark sound effect before the final chorus of ‘Gimme’ is a classic Banks touch. It’s difficult to avoid the conclusion “that bitch” is a pretty apt description for her after all.

Sounds as if it was recorded in a hermetically sealed ballroom by a group of misanthropic, jazz-obsessed weird-beards.

Love is a lush, romantic, folk-driven collection that moves away from his earlier, more psychedelic work.

A record which is closer in spirit to the rustic eccentricity of his '...Bewilderbeast' debut, while still moving things forward. [19 Jun 2004, p.57]

[A] great debut record laced with melancholy and beautiful moments.

The result is a weighty collection of tunes that toughens up the band's predilection of a softly rendered, Cure-indebted jangle and nudges the harder edges of Green Day's stadium punk.

Of late he’s adopted a sweeter, eddying Americana, and Dream River takes a turn to lush country-soul.

Remind Me Tomorrow, then, serves not so much as a nudge, but a forceful and playful shove to remind listeners just how special Van Etten’s talent is on both a lyrical and musical level. Don’t call it a comeback, but it may well be her most intoxicating and impressive work to date.

These 10 tracks contain a dark power, an atavistic pull. Give in to their bad romance.

‘About Last Night…’ leaves you with your ears ringing, hooks stuck in your head and a healthy dose of dancefloor catharsis that’ll make you feel lighter – much like the jacket you forgot to collect from the cloakroom.

In sick times, with extreme politics on the rise and a fright-wigged bad Tory joke in charge of London, this is an album you can retreat to for succour.

From the moment ‘Bombs Away’ hoves menacingly into view, it’s clear this is Eels at their most visceral.

‘Jade Bird’ has the edge of an assured debut album and is a startling introduction to a British talent who looks set to take the States by storm.

Not their best, but still more consistent than any British indie album released this year.

He empowers all to be ‘African Giants’ on an all-over entertaining album, demonstrating that he’s one for his people.

S.C.U.M may still have a way to go before they truly master their references and get a handle on their lofty metaphors, but their debut is a hymn to maturation.

'Cripple Crow' is way too much, in a way we don't get given often enough these days. Take it all in at one sitting and you'll end up bloated. But little and often? It's a cut-and-come-again treat.

Although this self-titled debut contains shades of their previous bands, it's noticeably more direct, and rockets onwards, simple and straightforward.

A collection of astounding anthems for a new tomorrow, made by the disaffected youth of today.

It’s Dire Straits teamed with louche New York cool--a combination that shouldn’t work, but totally does.

'Under Construction' is stuck all over with shocks and surprises, more than enough to keep the rogue-scientist glitchmasters who mutated 'Get Ur Freak On' in mischief for months.

The largely well-executed ‘SuperGood’ provides enough evidence to suggest he’s en route to bigger and better things.

‘I Barely Know Her’ is a slick, ambitious collection of songs crafted for big venues and festival stages.

Undoubtedly the one Sleater-Kinney album that everyone should have. [21 May 2005, p.66]

Leaping from its 2009 predecessor, Psychic Chasms, with the first notes of 'Heart: Attack', Era Extrana becomes a lesson in how to execute electronic music properly.