The group’s first LP since 2014’s Ghosts of Download plays brilliantly on their talent for blending genres and turning melancholy into melody. It’s a winningly astute addition to a catalogue too clever to be pinned down to a definitive style.

Rarely have they sounded so good.

In.ter a.li.a is better than we dreamed it could be. Prepare to fall in love all over again.

In Spades sees Greg Dulli synthesizing all of his musical and thematic elements seemingly into everything he’s ever wanted.

Changes in timbre aside, those expecting a progression or departure in sound from the last two Mac releases will find them subtle, if present at all. But frankly, as with its sensitive and charismatic creator, it’s hard not to like This Old Dog from the start.

What they have achieved here to a commendable extent, though musically the halves are far from polar opposites, is a compartmentalization of their dueling harsh and mellow impulses.

With strident chords, spiralling melodies, and a shiver inducing delivery, No Shape might spend a lot of its time searching, but in being open about that the record presents Perfume Genius at his most realised.

What makes Pussycat an unqualified success is how Hatfield has constructed it with multiple dimensions and, no matter the mood or approach a given song takes, she continually scores with material among the finest of her career.

The result is a collection of songs that can speak to and through anyone who hears them.

I Go Missing In My Sleep is certainly short on instant reward, paying out higher dividends with repeated and closer listens. While there are portions where the rewards don’t feel like they justify the effort, Wilsen has thrust their own marker in the sand with this debut and given themselves a wealth of directions in which to pivot toward for the future.

Ultimately, Rock n Roll Consciousness is a collection of songs that would sit as comfortably in and amongst Sonic Youth’s back catalogue as they do within Moore’s own solo work. And that's no bad thing at all.

Like My Bloody Valentine with m b v, they’ve listened and they’ve learnt and they’ve adapted their sound for a new generation without losing what made them names in the first place. It’s a difficult tightrope to walk, sure, but Slowdive have walked it deftly and returned with an album that doesn’t disappoint.

Masking our flawed humanity with flawless electro, the South London trio fork over a delicious portion of pessimistic pop, drizzled in scrumptious synths and glorious electronic production, but bypassing a sugarcoating of over-hackneyed hedonism.

On this accomplished fourth album, Little Dragon’s enthusiasm is palpable and their world well worth exploring.

Even though it’s Feist’s barest full-length, it’s also her most playful, her most consistently inventive. On the surface it sounds wafer-thin, but at its core there’s no shortage of heft.

At its core, What Now is a love letter to music, warts and all. About the romance, the emotional release and the sheer joy it can bring when everything feels so doom-laden.

In all, it's pretty confusing. But with Mandela Effect, Gonjasufi has created a truly stimulating album that will be quite unlike any other released this year.

Like a kid in a candy shop, Goddard has indulged in a selection splashed with dazzling colour; but the results are pic’n’mixed.

At times, Narkopop moves surprisingly fast and the senses struggle to absorb all the nuances of sound. Other moments are more traditional mesmerizing GAS offerings. Either way, it is a complex, beautiful and terrifying experience.

Overall, this is a much better album from the now quartet from the North-East. While it is still a long way from achieving the status of A Certain Trigger, Risk To Exist reveals Maxïmo Park in a new light and is certainly a step in the right direction.

The sheer volume of material on offer soon succumbs to the law of diminishing returns.

Belong would still be getting outright praise along with their slightly more subdued self-titled debut. Previous work aside, this is still an intricate, technically awe-inspiring LP with many narrow pathways to explore.

Kidal is first and foremost a kick-ass, spirited rock 'n' roll album that demands to be heard far beyond any 'World Music' specialist interest circles.

The anguished sentiments of the songs resonate whether you understand Spanish or not, with the celestial tones of the tracks serving as an illuminating pathway to either heaven or hell.

IV is not all fuzzy skull-rattling stoner jams. Repeated listens (especially those at high volume) reveal a clever use of melody and a clever structural awareness.

The album is inner thoughts given flesh, a voice of candour and comfort soaring towards the future. Where it's leading is anyone's guess, but that's not the point. The point is right here. The point is right now. The point is the almost-hour you spend listening to these songs. And it's nothing short of magnificent.

Even without the visuals, the mood and narrative of Vanbot’s journey are sometimes sharply articulated, sometimes mysterious--we can piece together a story, or just sit back and observe as it passes.

Blending the brash with the heartfelt is something The Smith Street Band have always succeeded in doing. Here they take that to the next level, deftly executing a record that’s as bombastic as we’ve come to expect from the band, and isn’t afraid to wear its heart on its sleeve.

On the whole, Careless People could do with a bit more weirdness.

Sometimes all you need is an escape; a world of fun to jump into when you need a little pick me up. ... With Love in the 4th Dimension, they’ve capitalised on that feeling and make a truly stonking debut.

It’s concise and straight-to-the-point, with no signs of over-indulgence. In short, it’s the album fans of the New York rapper always knew he was capable of making.

For now Pure Comedy is another elongated and extensive example of Misty’s intense outlook on cliché, contradictory and conceived contemporary life. If misunderstood, it’s easy to believe that the signified still signifies the signifier, but call Pure Comedy boring at your peril.

Finn has created a great album here, horn-drenched and hazy in its instrumentation, precise, prescient and poetic in its words.

At just 30 minutes long, it never outstays its welcome and, often times, you’ll find yourself hitting ‘repeat’ just to get another hit.

Sincerely, Future Pollution continues to raise the band’s crooked bar.

Silver / Lead is a record with density but one that is also light on its feet.

While Emperor of Sand is amongst their heaviest, proggiest material to date, it’s also the quartet at their most emotionally bare. Mastodon have dug deep into their darkest moments and have surfaced with one of the best albums of their career.

Sillion will leave you feeling drained, but also enriched. It's a piece of art.

It's still early days, but this London-based quintet have delivered a debut with all the hallmarks of a band who will continue to refine their own distinctive niche.

Here, it’s clear Ainsworth understands the importance of experimentation, building something familiar yet otherworldly.

Post punk of course is a genre totally played out, but VENN’s approach is a new perspective on the genre. Runes is fresh, wildly innovative, and utterly essential.

The great success of In The Same Room is that it achieves the admirable feat of making us feel intimately close to each performance.

Kannberg-led songs on Pavement albums were always immediately identifiable not just for his voice, but also for their lack of lyrical obfuscation. His perspective remains direct and perhaps more openhearted than ever.

Some of his trademark glitchiness is gone, but it's replaced with masterfully skillful composition and delivery and, like a Squarepusher record, Elektrac does not simply fade in the background; rather it requires an active listener and results in total appreciation of the talent.

While Providence is by no means a failure or throwaway LP, as a body of work, it doesn't quite keep you enthralled and, more than often, leaves you grimacing at the cacophony of, at times, irritating sound that's pummelling your eardrums.

It doesn’t as a whole compete with its first offerings.

Concrete Desert is not intended to fade away and become background music or some meaningless soundscape. Rather, it's a captivating effort that leaves the listener exhausted, but ready to spiral again.

The mystery of James Scythe, Room 309, and The Callous Heart that unfolded on the run up to this release acted as a rabbit hole gateway into rock and roll at its most theatrical. Eternity, In Your Arms loses none of that sense of spectacle.

Future Islands seem to communicate certain fundamental truths about the travails and triumphs of themselves and their compatriots with an eloquence that is unparalleled by virtually any of their current peers; moreover, they have obtained access a significant international audience for their ideas without compromising their artistic approach.

The Jesus and Mary Chain are trapped in amber on Damage and Joy, untouched by the very different musical climate to the one they last sent an album out into. Good job, then, that it contains far more hits than misses.

Everything’s been cleaned up and beautifully balanced, and it’s for the better; the engineering is so good, in fact, it actually elevates the songs themselves. ... While nothing here [in the collection of six demos] is all that revelatory, it’s still fun to watch the band tinker with their songs.

A work of great craft, multifaceted charm, and, yes, an alluring marriage of the visceral to the gentle, this album feels like the opening chapter of a thrilling career.

Idles are one of the most exciting British bands right now and Brutalism is proof.

A collection that isn’t going to win over the world but might just help you make more sense out of it.

Their debut packs a far mightier punch than the output of almost any other contemporary group with whom they may share certain influences; not bad for a fictitious band, really.

Forging strength in the wake of confusion, The Haze is the rapturous escape you've been craving.

It's their best since 1993’s Songs of Faith and Devotion.

Morgan and Bridges compliment each other well on Cinderland.

Yours Conditionally is much more fun when you allow yourself to dive headfirst into its strife and inhale its sarcasm rather than floating along its serene surface.

At times he delivers just that [a huge and definitive work].

Mercer is a poetic lyricist and his abstractedness continues on Heartworms. With all the extra bells and whistles on this record however, it takes extra attention to appreciate the details.

Unlike many acts that seem to get lost and lack any creativity once they're several albums in, Real Estate have arguably produced their best record to date.

Ruminations is essential, then; consider Salutations its eccentric cousin, often engaging and occasionally difficult.

Condition often has a slight avant-garde feel to it, but it's ultimately an album full of songs that sound like they've been raised with the sole intent of wanting to jump out of the speakers.

Ultimately Drunk is an impressive record which commands multiple listens as much by its quality as its complexity. It shows off Bruner at the height of his powers as an artist shapeshifting through genres but always leaving his scent in the air.

Even though it’s a short record in terms of both duration and the number of tracks, this is very much a kaleidoscopic work, examining what it is to be a woman from a variety of cleverly-realised access points.

Golden Eagle is a wonderful collection of songs and tales that ultimately find a sense of redemption. Over its ten songs Macve displays an innate talent for exquisite songwriting and storytelling in a voice that is just jaw-dropping.

Though Sick Scenes is unlikely to win the band legions of new fans, it’s a record that sits comfortably alongside the rest of their canon while acting as an affirmation as to why, in 2017, a decade after their debut, Los Campesinos! are just as important now as they were ten years ago.

It’s a thought-out piece of work; a collection of collaborating and competing daubs of colour across a blank canvas; a flock of sounds moving together as one, for one simple reason alone: to bring you joy.

It has a versatile feel and can easily be used for both out of body meditations and out of world journeys.

The struggle and challenge presented here is worthy our attention if not for pleasure’s sake alone, but for the varied breadth of emotion that each mini soundtrack evokes.

Elwan is pure rock n’ roll. There is an undeniable swagger and an unfettered attitude of resistance here; no pretension or theater.

Hoop has been producing thought-provoking, arresting folk music since Kismet was released nearly a decade ago, but this is her most cutting, cohesive, and critical record yet.

It might not hit Dumb Flesh’s dancefloor highs but with decent headphones and a windswept night there’s points on here that are damn near-transcendental, although the damage left might be permanent.

On the parts of this album that are worth remembering there are subtle signs of a stylistic and emotional shift. You can sense Future dabbling in the extra-rhythmic potential in his vocals, and there’s a delight in Future’s register that’s been notably absent on his records since after Honest.

Preservation hits the hardest when there are zero or few added ingredients to divert attention from the voice, the melodies and the words.

A record that feels like one of 2017’s most exciting, fascinating and emotionally involving albums.

In addition to the improved songwriting, the production has been upgraded. Returning as producer and engineer, Arthur Rizk wisely dials back the reverb from Decimation, resulting in a clearer record that allows breakneck riff-fests.

Sleeping Through the War nods more than it winks, but it operates with its own in-joke sense of humor.

In many ways, Impermanence is vintage Silberman, a sullen continuation of his preoccupations with the maudlin and the melancholy. And irrefutable proof that silence is indeed golden.

While there’s some quirky songwriting and clever lyrical tales on The Tourist, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah just don’t seem to be hitting the mark that they once did.

Listeners may not like the whole album--but they’ll almost definitely love it in parts.

Prisoner is an album filled with Adams reconciling his doubts and fears about life and love with his faith in music and the power of song. And ultimately--thankfully--music wins out over heartbreak in the end.

Sometimes the electricity is there, and when it is it connects deeply, but when it doesn't it's hard to see past the banality of its structure.

With riffs weighted so they're heavy enough to bludgeon, and vocals that feel like they're being torn straight from the larynx, the album is a tour de force of high octane refrains and filth-driven focus.

Moments of personal darkness are threaded throughout Hard Love, but the clarity and strength that Showalter finds when he shrugs off the gloom gives the songs a restless optimism tempered with a belief that the sun will always come up no matter how long your night has been.

Musically and thematically, everything about Little Fictions’ gestation has conspired to create arguably the most taut and urgent album of Elbow’s career.

Experimental works like this aren’t typically held up for their broad appeal, but the waves of static peace and disorienting swells that wash back and forth over Cruel Optimism communicate on an open plane where specific meaning is obscured but state of mind is apparent to anyone.

That’s why it's a remarkable debut, it doesn’t sound like anyone else, it sounds like Lowly, who on Heba are a band completely on top of their own game.

Musically the album moves in a more organic way from one song into another than if it were just a collection of ten songs.

Fin is a record of intimacy and confidence, a rare and sumptuous combination that Syd has pulled off quite remarkably.

Generous but gradually revealing.

Life is weird and random, the smallest things sometimes having the biggest impacts, and Life Will See You Now celebrates that in glorious style.

Like all good bands, the front man is only as good as his team. And listening back to Cobblestones EP, the congruency and closeness that has matured between the four-piece on Blue is magnetic.

It might not be all we'd hoped for, and could certainly benefit from some variety, but there are just about enough standouts here to keep admirers interested.

Singles "Human" and "Skin" are due their high praise, but there seems little soul to the rest of proceedings.

An album of woozy nuggets of sonic delirium. Step inside.

After The Party showcases the band at their boldest and brightest yet.