Probably the best post-punk album you'll buy all year.

Most of the time 'Lowedges' is so laid-back in Hawley's well-bedded-in, Fifties crooner way, it almost buries itself.

If you're bored of 'Danger! High Voltage' like us, there's plenty to plunder, though ultimately you'll be filing this album away in your "don't play anymore" library after Echobelly and before Electric Soft Parade.

It’s this rediscovery of how to make pop music with loud guitars and peculiar sounds which makes Kaito so fresh.

It's like a thicker, dirtier Good Charlotte.

It sounds like a dog howling over a Sepultura record. No, worse. It sounds like Fred Durst.

It's a move on from 'Here Be Monsters', musically if not lyrically, and, for all his world-weary posturing, he's still only 25 for God's sake, though obviously in love with the idea of being a great singer songwriter.

There's nothing that catchy here - Manson seems to have used all his best hooks already. But it's not terrible, and it sounds good LOUD.

Cex played with Mogwai last year, and the experience seems to have had a profound effect on him. The best moments of the late nineties Scottish post-rock explosion seem apparent here, and there are even hints at prime Arab Strap, which is of course quite brilliant.

'Imperial' is an evolving and ever-involving shard of artistry by a true original on his 'Victorialand'-era form nonetheless, and that's got to be cause for celebration.

A beautiful, engaging, enchanting record.

The sound is small scale, but the bewildering range of styles shows he thinks big -­ listen with your brain plugged in.

Lamb's most rounded and complete collection yet.... Even if they've lost something special in the process.

Unlikely to be defined by any passing scene, Herren seems likely to go his merry way in the way production auteurs do, body-swerving ham-fisted attempts at pigeon-holing or categorisation.

'Black Cherry' is a record that, like Lemon Jelly's sophomore effort, 'Lost Horizons', consolidates rather than defines but, when Alison gets her honeyed tonsils into the warm duvet-textures of the title track, the world can happily stand still for 5 minutes and we'll gladly give them another bite.

As long as you are open, you will love this album. It will be as important to a lot of people as 'The Queen Is Dead'.

'Think Tank' is an extraordinary record that pushes boundaries and sets new standards.

So few men have managed to touch our scabrous hearts in such a way. Cohen, Bukowski, Barrymore, Hulk, Waterman... Middleton, Moffat.

We don't dislike anything on here, and each time we listen, we like what we hear even more.

This album, if it came from a newcomer, could kill a career stone dead.

Whereas 2001's 'Confield' often felt like a thankless task 'Draft 7.30' is often, by Autechre standards at any rate, a much more welcoming beast.

There is no New here.

Summer Sun is a compelling, enthralling and gorgeous album that gets better with each listen.

Manitoba is a lunatic and a fool, and his strange music, crafted from nature and machine and birdsong and the wind and the air and the seas and THE GODS... it is a fine, fine thing indeed.

'De Stijl' is just about better song for song, but the sheer vitality and energy of this one alone makes 'Elephant' their most accomplished record to date.

There are too few ideas here to really make 'Keep On Your Mean Side' worth our devotion.

Like post-Kelli Sneaker Pimps or a goth Massive Attack, it adds slow trip-hop beats and whispery vocals to a dreamy soundscape.

An unholy brew of overreaching ambition and soul-destroying complacency.