Despite occasional moments of album filler, Delays have still given us an album with at least three slices of timeless pop.

Largely magnificent.

But, and here's the catch, at times the arrangements just don't cut it.

Tres Cosas does then what all good third albums should do – it takes the best bits from her earlier works, perfects the model, and then goes a little bit further.

A work of art, slightly rough around the edges and a little makeshift, but tremendously beautiful all the same.

Make no mistake: it may be a good two decades late, but ONoffON is the follow-up that Vs. has always cried out for. And as a result, it’s one of the finest records I’ve heard all year.

This is not for all tastes. Slow, broody, experimental.

The first five tracks are some of the rawest the nine-man conglomerate has ever served. But this all transpires within the first fifteen minutes of the disc. From there Pretty Toney takes a few ugly turns.

Faking the Books... is to Tridecoder and Scary World Theory as OK Computer was to The Bends – a quantum evolutionary leap that, taken consecutively, quite takes your breath away.

The Runaway Found is to be filed alongside Coldplay, Starsailor and Snow Patrol.

They honestly sound like no other known band.

While Satanic Panic in the Attic is unlikely to make significant waves outside of Elephant 6 and indie-pop circles, those lucky enough to hear it (and persist with it) will find very little to complain about.

Where The Volunteers falls down, surprisingly, is in the excessively slick production. Despite the ethos and lyrics, musically this is not the handmade, indie effort you might expect.

It is never fun, but is always compelling.

The result, when it flows, is music that verges on the transcendent.

I’d recommend ten to anyone who bought oaklandazulasylum; to anyone else, I’d recommend both with some urgency...this is the real thing, and you’ll never know how much you needed it until you hear it.

It's hard to underestimate how big and strange some of this massive album is.

Their initial EP documented a band that sounded ready to take on the world – but the follow up just shows that the journey may take longer than expected.

If you can distance yourself enough to judge Franz Ferdinand on its merits alone, it’s an impressive yet inconsistent debut record from a promising young band.

There are two great tracks here, three solid ones, and five complete duds.

Many numbers, such as the unbearably meandering No Christmas While I’m Talking, present themselves as merely background music - pleasant enough, sure, but doing little to draw the listener’s attention.

A welcome addition to the avant-garde canon, an album that demonstrates the continuing development and growth of Mice Parade and Pierce.

Side projects rarely eclipse their protagonists’ main works, but Apropa’t is one radical departure that finds the players perfectly aligning themselves to each other so convincingly that it’s hard to imagine Herren looking back again.

With all its shallowness and artifice, it can only ever be a guilty pleasure. But it is the most intense of guilty pleasures.

Still, three CDs of good-to-great music is a pretty acceptable ratio, and while this is not meant for the casual Cure fan, it’s an essential purchase for the hardcore ones.

It's a grower - no doubt about that.

To really get the most from Margerine Eclipse, consume it in its entirety in one sitting: songs that appear to be fairly average when dipped into randomly take on new elements when they take their place in the overall sequence.

No matter how cliched and predictable this record gets, there are always some undeniable hooks to lure you back in before your patience wears thin.