You will hear her work ethic throughout, positively Spartan, and tinged with rueful truth. A courtly service for all to attend.

The faster, rhythmic tracks are less convincing, though they can excite on occasion, but it’s this mish-mash of successes that make the album jar, and not in the way HeCTA would have desired.

McDowall is very much in charge of proceedings, even if her confidence in the recordings has had to be bolstered by fans in the intervening years.

What Mind Over Matter does exceptionally well is meld the playful and the cynical while always bringing it back to the songs--in both a lyrical and musical sense.

Rawlings emerges from his usual behind-the-scenes role with considerable originality and quiet authority on an album of entirely original songs.

The overall mood is, ironically, not dissimilar to drifting in and out of consciousness while the TV murmurs in the background, occasionally jolting you awake with a ringing phone or a spray of gunfire.

The bonus disc corrals the single Pool Hall Richard and the jokey trumpet version of I Wish It Would Rain. Faces didn’t outstay their welcome and never took themselves that seriously.

Yours, Dreamily is tight without purpose, bordered where it should be wild, and only occasionally feels alive at all.

The flipside of all the editorial freedom is that rather too much of the album is made up of endless midtempo guitar chug, which can feel like a bit of a chore after a while.

Musically there’s nothing new here, though Anthems For Doomed Youth feels particularly sanitised, especially compared to the freewheeling, ragged approach that gave The Libertines’ first two albums such charm.

You Against You, which benefits from that unpredictable, bolted-together feel that all the craziest Slayer songs possess; and Implode, the first advance single released last year, and now re-recorded. The rest, unfortunately, lack spark.

So it’s an album that demands your attention.

While labours of love are always hard to knock, if Godin is trying to convert untested ears to Bach’s charms, he might be better off using the more effective tools in his impressive arsenal.

There are times when Music Complete seems like the result of a newly passionate group’s desire to squeeze a decade-worth of ideas--and another quarter century of influences--onto one album. That said, it’s still their best work since the age of Republic.

Consistent with the band’s work since All Is Dream, wide-eyed odes to the elements are interspersed with fragile ruminations on relationships. A welcome return.

Ones And Sixes sees Low churning out some of their most accessible work, with What Part Of Me having the potential to be an unlikely hit. As ever, strong stuff in every way.

The man is a master guitarist--and an unflashy one, content to let a wash of pedal steel or a sprig of piano commandeer the songs.

Rattle That Lock is a small, intimate album that maintains Gilmour’s impeccably tasteful quality threshold throughout.

An eccentric take on Please, Please, Please is maybe surplus to requirements, but the rest is lean and lithe.

The songs aren’t a huge departure from Folds’ regular style, with sweet melodies, vocal harmonies and lyrics that switch between the quirky and the emotional.

A record that’s strongest when at its most unassuming.

La Di Da Di comes across a tad too studied, never lifting out of the complex math of the group’s music.

This is a landmark project in that respect, much of which succeeds in being thoroughly bewitching.

The first album in this collection is a rather spotty affair, suffused with dread, as if the band are suddenly experiencing a moment of self-awareness. Still, by most other group’s standards it would be a career stand-out. It’s Leaves Turn Inside You, though, on which Unwound’s legacy rests. A thrillingly diverse exploration of the possibilities of rock’n’roll.

Though recorded cheaply, The JPSE’s early material remains especially sublime.

As with the name (the band is actually from NYC), there’s a satisfying contrariness throughout a curious and sometimes excellent set.

Another excellent studio album of all-new material.

It’s a consistent and often stirring effort, with Liebling in particular sounding on fine form.