Although they bring precious little new to the table, they have mastered the art of hiding beautiful melody under layers of glorious distortion.

Amphetamine Ballads probably shouldn’t feel like quite so much of a breath of fresh air--there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that it wears its influences (or has them tattooed, probably) very much on its sleeve--but it carries a threatening urgency so often conspicuous by its absence nowadays.

As brief as it is, and as unadventurous as the remixes are, Music Industry 3 Fitness Industry 1 may just be the mouthful of Mogwai nourishment needed by those left wanting more after Rave Tapes.

With all of their untameable if bizarre likeability, Shonen Knife are clearly a band that can just keep on giving.

Dream World is fine, but save for one or two tracks there's little on it that couldn't be called dispensible.

[“Modern Loneliness”] is quietly anthemic; an ode to the contradictions of contemporary culture and the cognitive dissonance of wanting to feel better but not doing anything to get there. It’s the perfect conclusion to an album which speaks to the various anxieties of both its subject and its listeners.

While Dark Hearts hits an exceptional stride in its beginning, we find quickly that its other tracks don’t necessarily live up to their fullest potential.

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

MITM is an album with depth, and will please both hardcore grime-heads and casual fans. You’d have to be mad in the manor not to love it.

It is the sound of a band reaching into new musical territory. Eyeland is flawed but unquestionably rewarding and, at times, outrageously impressive.

Grief and hardship have changed Surfer Blood, there’s no denying that. But they deserve praise for making a record that still has its own joie de vivre and doesn’t completely overhaul the alphabet that has made the band a success in the first place.

Wrapped in ’60s nostalgia and emphasising the complexities of emotions, the record really has a little of everything, except true love.

It’s an album that coheres more effectively than did the first, and it’s one that shows an adventurousness while staying within sight of the elemental spirit of its inspiration.

The grit has returned, but new shimmer introduced on that album has not, and the result is a much more rounded and energetic sound.

Though it tails off, it starts wonderfully, and how much you enjoy No World’s second half will entirely depend on whether you thought the successes of its first were so great that they were worth repeating within the following 20 minutes.

Had it been released by a lesser pair, this album would doubtless by hailed as full or potential, the first LP from a vital new force in alternative hip-hop; however, as it has been released by these two, it falls jarringly flat when one considers what they’re capable of.

It's an album of disco sadness, dry ice cut by lasers enabling glimpses of people dancing in with tears in their eyes. The reality doesn't actually sound like much fun, but within the context of Now I'm Ready, it manifests itself into arguably the best pop record of 2015.

Despite the mad proliferation of comparable contemporaries, The Deer Tracks have balanced out, and in so doing added context to their oeuvre whilst avoiding sounding derivative.

In spite of its shortcomings, High Hopes will tide fans over until the next bona fide LP.

Although he doesn’t offer the genre anything noticeably new, he’s more than capable to keep the momentum going over a long player.

In the end it is a work crippled by its own indecision, and perhaps bowed by the weight of expectation: a shame, for sure, but hardly a reason to lose faith.

Triage is a spectrum of colour and abstract character, stained with a unique personality. Thanks to this approach, Triage is the finest work from Methyl Ethel yet.

There are parts that gel, and others that are just plain strange: flippant tone shifts, gritty electronica jarring with the twinkling guitars and Deez’s hearty warbling.

Ed Harcourt too seems to be dealing with a few demons of his own on Back Into The Woods, but this collection of world-weary songs also beats with a poetic heart of longing.

Most of the album functions as a dance album, and a pretty good one at that. It’s the sections of the record where the focus is shifted, and Melidis tips his hat to the rock and pop music of the 60s or 70s or another by-gone era, that let the album down.

There’s plenty of kernels of good ideas here, but very few of them feel properly developed; just as their genre’s been thrust into the spotlight, Sleepy Sun seem to have developed stage fright.

An admirably well-balanced attempt by Drew to really strike out on his own.

This third full-length is enjoyable as a standalone too, but probably more so with the added context.