6LACK isn't doing anything new. But he is doing it better than everyone else. With East Atlanta Love Letter, the artist has trumped his opponents and influences with a fragile grace and solid talent for songwriting, echoing that of our most decorated balladeers.

Modulating between grandiosity and relative constraint helps to root the band’s sound in an eerily-wrought hinterland; a template that deters the fabled afflictions of second album syndrome, securing itself as a credible successor to their spry breakout debut.

Hauntingly atmospheric and staggering in its scope, it’s well worth spending an hour of your time with. Though perhaps not one to put on at a party.

The record isn’t a patch on his very best stuff, but compare Original Pirate Material to the work of the vast majority of artists and they’ll come up short. For every eye rolling moment, there are more than enough to make you glad The Streets are back.

Space is primarily given to the meditative on The Joy Formidable’s fifth album, a dynamic achieved without sacrificing the blisteringly euphoric appeal that has ensured their longevity.

Bleeding between the nebulous and formulaic, King's Mouth simultaneously presents the band at their most obscure and lucid; opposing absolutes that are wrought with the band’s ineffable style. This incongruity does not, however, dent the album’s stronger moments, which can be considered the Lips’ finest material in several years.

By harnessing their roots that made their debut LP, We Are NOTS, so celebrated, 3 finds the group adhering to a similar framework with its ten tracks. Nots underpin their hook-driven racket with themes of decaying existence and what it means to reemerge on the other side, liberated and ready for a fight.

By taking dubstep’s ideas and expanding them, one of the icons of that half-beloved, half-derided era has made a kind of a time capsule; granting longevity to an era of music which had liberation at its heart.

A successful experiment, a great record in its own right, and (hopefully) a great primer for a subtly evolved next effort.

It would appear that the desire to remain in stasis has left it to stagnate somewhat, which is a shame, as Kompakt remains one of the most invigorating labels in electronic music.

The more reflective moments on the album are some of the best.

If you're expecting a record which really takes off, Patience probably isn't it, but its downtempo, late night charms aren't hard to find (especially if you chuck it on headphones).

Sumac are an original voice in metal, and we certainly need more of that. However, as they currently stand, they're merely good. Really, the only thing stopping them from greatness is a lack of self-editing.

Crybaby is ironically more memorably catchy than some of their more obvious tilts at commerciality. Conversely that strength is also its slight flaw: the energy is so high on certain tracks that any slow to mid-tempo songs can naturally feel like lulls when actually they provide necessary variation.

It’s a different sound on Warpaint, that’s for sure, and though it’s friskier and more malevolent in nature--possibly even more damaged and/or emotionally ruptured--they’re far more open. There’s an accessibility, an empathy for kindred feelings.

Whether it’s dark and driving or elegant and echoing, Vultures is at all points capable of igniting a spark in your gut that’ll burn until there’s nothing left.

It’s not perfect--there are moments, such as during "Old Again", where my concentration has wavered--but when it hits the spot ("Big Bopper", "Guilt", "Acid Tongue"), it’s an absolute tour-de-force.

In Moon Saloon, Arc Iris have served us an album entirely unconcerned with nascent fads and just as heavy on challenge as it is reward.

It’s a natural-sounding progression that confounds the expected developments ‘a guitar band’ should make and instead adds a glorious musical technicolour to a set of songs to soundtrack the summer and beyond.

The essence of these songs is exactly what the essence of The Divine Comedy has always been. Expanded, with more intricately woven textures, Foreverland is an ode to everything that lasts: from historical characters to our own enduring emotions, the record celebrates the importance of importance on every level.

They find even more to dig up and use as coal for their runaway train. Imagine a rollercoaster that immediately starts on a death-defying drop, that you’re white-knuckling through with a chorus of cackles and joy, which swiftly takes you on a psychedelic mosey through a twisted fairytale tunnel - and that’s just the first three songs.

Flowing effortlessly between melodious vocals and blistering guitars, between reflecting on past feelings and accepting new eventualities, the majority of the album feels weightless.

Throughout the album, Broderick conveys the sense that he has a confidence in his songs to the extent that a hitherto unknown (to him) band can bring out their quality. It’s a risk, of course, but the rewards are at times startling

As good as Modern Dancing is, it just doesn’t quite encapsulate the complete experience of TRAAMS.

Pennied Days is an album anyone who has ever been in love with rock music should listen to, and it has the kind of universal appeal that should mean big things for Night Moves down the road.

There’s an exuberance to the entire record that feels genuine and fresh, like it was captured unexpectedly.

Day Of The Dead certainly makes a compelling case in favour of the Grateful Dead's merits as musicians and songwriters as opposed to uncommonly successful marketers of an alternative lifestyle.

This is everything a punk record should be; abrasive, aggressive, occasionally a little gauche, but with an emotional core that’s unmistakeable, and that elevates Surfing Strange from a enjoyable album to a genuinely gripping one.