The songwriting is there, as are great performances. But with a band like Horse Thief, the difference between in studio and on stage is a distraction that’s as unfortunate as it is glaring.

Long Way Home is a vindication of all that time spent slowly learning her craft and doing almost everything herself. As a result, she has finally delivered what all those early tracks promised; a bedroom record conceived in the club that drags confessional pop music further into the future.

None of the tracks are bad per se. But they lack something that the first tastes promised, and so pieced together it feels like the debut is not worth more than the sum of its parts.

Whether its hiding tragedy behind comedy for his own purpose, or simply making it easier for us to digest what Purdy preaches when he gets to the truth, either way, ISTHISFORREAL? is a special balance.

Though melodically not as rich as his previous offerings, Boo Boo is just as considered and stylistically coherent as you would expect from a Toro Y Moi record, which, given that it was born out of an identity crisis, is a continued testament to its creator.

Across the record it’s clear that Pillow Queens have truly hit their stride as a band. Leave The Light On strikes the balance between the excitement of an early career and the deliberate precision of seasoned musicians.

By maneuvering their psychedelia to one side, the band has crafted their most clearly defined record to date. For those in love with bar italia for their uncanny qualities, there’s still something here, but the verdict on intention is up.

Touching on Northern European chamber, opera, and folk traditions as they steer through a minefield of club-ready moments, Catharina Stoltenberg and Henriette Motzfeldt have created a sonic topography that thrives on paradox - it’s a disorienting pleasure to navigate.

As a whole, Anti might not be as provocative of a statement as Rihanna hopes for it to be, but it’s still fascinating to see an artist in the midst of a metamorphosis.

A complete throwback to everything that’s been missing for over twenty years, INHEAVEN have blown the cobwebs off and are ready to kick some life back into a stale scene.

Consistency may still be a struggle, but when they get it right, Audiobooks’ unsettling brand of musical chaos makes for an impressive sophomore album that is every bit as effervescent as their debut.

Fans of Field Music will be absolutely overjoyed with this set, and of course, fans of '80s art rock will be in their element. Those put off by the unwieldy concept ultimately have nothing to fear – the WWI themes are completely ignorable, and so disparately connected that the only reason you’d ever know they were there was if somebody told you in advance.

Sitting comfortably alongside high water marks like El Camino, it’s clear on Let’s Rock that the boys’ batteries are fully charged and ready to giddy up and hit the ground running once again.

What a solo album with all of his own bars over all of his own beats would have sounded like, we’ll never know; The Diary does more than enough to fire all of our imaginations, though.

Themes and aims aside, Sub Verses is simply an example of Akron/Family’s continued good run of form, and undoubted confidence.

Yes, B-sides and rarities are sort of supposed to feel rough or incomplete, but A Folk Set Apart seems to be characterised far more by its misguided decisions than by its lack of polish or perfection.

TEXIS delivers everything that one could hope to find on a Sleigh Bells record: dance worthy beats, angelic vocals, and satisfying boisterousness. While TEXIS could have afforded more variability, it remains a testament to the act’s ability to express a range of emotions without killing the tempo.

With this album, Palace have offered a spiritual voyage through the fluctuations of life, and the uncertainty that holds its hand. If Shoals is anything to go by, Palace will be filling stadiums before too long.

If your faith in the concept album is failing, The Grand Tour will restore it. And if you have any long, trans-national train journeys coming up, this album will be great for those, too.

Whilst there aren’t as many obvious hits on this record as 2009’s chart-bothering Only Revolutions, Ellipsis is an album that will undoubtedly keep Biffy Clyro right at the top of British rock’s hierarchy.

This band are masters of their craft, and Dances in Dreams of the Known and Unknown is simply more evidence to attest to that assertion.

Heartache, healing, clandestine make-ups and complicated feelings have saturated pretty much all her discography to date, and the same broken heart bleeds well into the first half of her Girl Of My Dreams.

In fact, far from feeling like a tired riff on an established formula, Turbines might just be the most definitive Tunng record yet.

Though taken as a whole, YU is a wonderful record. Okumu and Lowe are a dream partnership, and along with the rest of London’s modern soul players present on YU and hiding amongst other projects, have way more to give us over the next few years.

An ouroboros-like reawakening that finds them at their acerbic and celebratory best.

It’s an ambitious enterprise--and one that Stewart tackles in a number of remarkable ways.

For the most part, a palpable sense of uncertainty permeates the lower-key proceedings, with the eerie strings of the title track proving a winsome kick down the rabbit hole into a place populated by unease and confusion.

This is a band that isn’t odd for odds sake. Every single crash, bleep, smack and ring (insert other onomatopoeias here) is carefully placed with love, care and attention. In short, it’s a fascinating debut from a band that want to the push the boundaries of what pop can be.