For the first time in years, Pet Shop Boys sound thrillingly modern. The songs, too, are the finest in years.

So, business as usual then; SFA have made another enormously enjoyable record, but one that is unlikely to ‘do an Elbow’ and suddenly make them a serious mainstream proposition again.

So the album doesn’t sound old but there’s a refreshing warmth emanating from these fizzing and burbling Moogs and Parker Steinway keyboards.

There’s no better soundtrack to getting by and falling in love as the world wobbles unsteadily about us.

Art Brut haven’t made the record that’ll reverse their gradual slide back towards cult. But they have at least made the one that’ll make the cult even more fervent.

The effortlessly cool beats, hooky choruses, and above all, his witty, super-fast flow indicate this skinny blond to be a genuinely talented star.

Manchester Orchestra are from Atlanta and play loud/quiet grunge. Nothing new then, but fans of the Pixies and Weezer will love it.

Though there’s a lot to dislike, there’s also the bones of something interesting here. If only they’d stuck with making more numbers like the enticing Adam Green-ish gypsy pop of ‘Neal’, they might just have won us over.

My Maudlin Career is the kind of record that exists to reward those both mad, and sad, in love.

Still Flyin’ are a silly, dumb blast of a bash worth attending.

No matter what instruments are used, their weedy, aggro-pop retains the impression that it’s the chosen soundtrack for lifeless 35-year-olds stuck uncomfortably in suburbia.

She’s great, but Lord, it’s heavy-going.

Busy and Melissa have made a record that shimmers with possibilities, mapping out an alien territory that’s eerily inviting. Now it’s time to build on it.

A quiet return to form.

They’ve certainly lost none of the delicious oddball energy that comfortably pitches their carefree electronic and romance-heavy tunes as the work of a lounge Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Swoon is a bit of a dying whale of a record. In a good way; vast, dark, a little mysterious, sad, dignified and palpably in pain.

Black Francis has brewed up a pretty thirst-quenching prospect with Petits Fours’ the debut album from this new venture with his wife.

The slow, dusky familiarity and lack of dynamics make for more of a groundhog day than transcendence into any fifth dimension.

It’s Dionysian disco: dynamic, decadent and utterly brilliant.

The abstract hip-hop guru’s fifth full-length offering, in the tradition of wayward cut-and-paste instrumentalism, is one almighty mess.

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

So, less shoegazing and ’80s pop, more Doors and ZZ Top. Still magnificent, though.

Pretty, but all too forgettable.

Two Suns is epic in scope and ambition and requires a similarly epic patience to unravel its charms.

Whatever way you look at Kingdom Of Rust it’s a magnificent rock record, one which will delight the faithful and also surely see them pick up new devotees.

This is often quite brilliant genre-busting music from a girl who makes a mockery of Lily Allen’s status as the voice of ‘ordinary’ Britain.

Life And Times is unchallenging pap. But it's furnished with the odd line of lyrical craftiness and melodies that, on the whole, manage to keep the stabilisers on his career because (as always) they make the seemingly untenable emotions of their writer sound tolerable.

The suggestion the pair have somehow increased the emotional palette of their repertoire is a red-herring, but this is still a tremendous success.