Where Culture of Volume excels it is a progression and refinement of prior work. But for all its ambition, it’s a showreel of promise and potential rather than a cohesive whole.

Let’s Eat Grandma have made one of the most intoxicating, inventive and original records of the year.

There's a lot to like here. "Bucky, Boris and Dent" aren't long for this world, but their memory lives on thanks to the song's chipper melody. It's just that a good chunk of the tracklist unfolds along a steady procession of waltzes. They're all gorgeous, too, smooth and shiny as a commemorative dinner plate. The spacey interludes will keep you on your toes, but anyone who's looking for a hoedown might get bored in a hurry.

Agree with them, or write them off as abstracted lunatics, The Shadow of Heaven is an incredible persuasive push for thoughtful guitar music, in an often vacuous mainstream.

Forgetting The Present is the latest and most perfect union of Remember Remember’s distinctive blend of styles. Expect that record to stand for as long as it takes for their next album to appear.

Interestingly the relationship described in Tenderness is between Standell and a new lover, which you would expect to be a difficult topic for Blue Hawaii to collaborate on, but they are alarmingly mature in the way they support each other on this musical project.

Some listeners may miss the rawer sounds and leanings of her debut and the instrumental adventurousness of her second album, as Lahey wends her way through a less incendiary and more restrained sequence. Still, she employs volume dynamics skillfully, her melodies are consistently enrolling, and her lyrics, at once colourful patter, empathetic pep-talk, and a vehicle for catharsis, are aptly accessible.

Love You To Death is a really, really good pop record.

This message of positivity, strength and optimism is one that is weaved throughout each track on their new album Ash.

For its occasional low ebbs, Oxymoron is an impressive display of bleak wit.

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.

Enter Shikari are as invigorating as ever, and perhaps at their most invigorated too.

MartyrLoserKing may not just be one of Saul Williams' best, but it could also find itself among the most important albums of this year.

Marigolden is a quiet exclamatory statement hearkening toward what’s gone missing from America’s roots.

Ricocheting through the wandering quips and rustic palette of Watch My Moves, Vile resists any temptation to curtail his free-roaming private wilderness, doubling down on the ambling strand of songwriting sure to sate seasoned listeners.

Their second album continues the work of the first, a yardstick for the heavy guitar sound, and is in its own way as hard hitting, visceral and effortlessly brilliant.

Arc Iris is traditional music thrillingly positioned at the nexus of the old and new.

Broken Twin may eventually necessitate more gusto and variation in tempo and dynamics should Romme want to further forge her plow forward. However, she intended for May to be a return to basics; with it, she has produced a compelling and painstakingly beautiful triumph of understatement.

So yes, it's a cracking release from DTP, but it's not without fault. You certainly get your money's worth though and only a fool would hesitate before recommending it.

It may take some time for casual fans to fully embrace the record’s shifting sound, but anybody who has ever dealt with loss can get something out of Away.

Ultimately, United States of Horror is more than just a collection of songs. It’s exactly what Ho99o9 intended it to be: a blistering manifesto for a disenfranchised America.

This project DJ Kicks is the most successful as it is marked by a spirit of rebirth of its author.

Gas Lit’s intent is so immediate, it communicates its significance regardless. Its statement is not just one you can hear or read about. More importantly, it’s one you can feel.

While there are undoubtedly highlights on Sympathy For Life, it seems like fans will have to keep waiting to see the band fully commit to their dancefloor ambitions.

The Things We Do sounds like the product of an alternate reality in which Bruce Springsteen was a teenager in the 2000’s who spent all his time crafting the perfect instant messenger away notifications instead of ruminating on small town America. But Alex and his bandmates pull it off with sheer conviction and force of will.

It’s a tense work, a deeply troubling piece--it evokes, at least in terms of mood, noise-terrorists like Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire. It’s also a thrilling record, one that stands up to multiple listens, and with each listen it becomes easier to digest.

At the end of the day, Gibbs is too talented of a rapper to put out a lackluster album, so while Shadow of a Doubt might not go down as one of his classics, it features more than enough quotables and street-smart truisms to be worth a few spins.

It’s a pretty relentlessly upbeat, pacey affair that could do with stripping things back (as it does a little, to great success, on ‘East Side Glory’) a tad more often--but not many.