Crooked Calypso never sounds outdated or like a couple of crooners growing old, but it certainly sounds graceful.

Moonshine Freeze is an album that sparkles with exuberance and energy, but it also subtly and steadily gives up its deeper secrets. Stables has always had a knack for accomplished melody and intriguing lyrics, and as you dive under the surface, you can’t help but find a wealth of inspiring rewards.

At just over an hour, Eucalyptus is a bit too sprawling, and could have probably been pruned comfortably in half. This may have made it a little bit more accessible and coherent, but given Avey Tare’s boundary pushing mindset, this probably would have missed the point.

He is clearly putting the time in on Raskit and not short-changing his considerable talent as a vocalist.

Smart, engaging lyrics are a widespread and continual theme on McKenna’s initial offering.

Sacred Hearts Club is record of frustration on the listener’s part--we know they’re capable, but Foster the People have again failed to recapture the brand of youthfulness established in their hype-fuelled industry breakthrough. Equally, they fail to mature into an alternative sound with adequate craft to entice attention.

As cynical as it is whimsical, with their fifth album Arcade Fire have bridged the gap between actuality and aspiration.

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.

These unreleased tracks are a nice glimpse behind Prince’s purple curtain, and provide a tantalizing hint at the potential treasures that await us within his Vault. But a discerning ear will easily identify why these songs didn’t quite make the cut for the soundtrack and remained locked away for so long. ... The original Purple Rain soundtrack, however, still sounds fresh, vital, and impassioned.

While they aren’t designed to make pop bangers, they clearly have an ear for the kind of instrumentation and production tricks that enable them to cut to the feeling much faster than naked piano. Let’s hope the future holds a bit more exuberance and a bit less niceness.

With Soft Sound From Another Planet, Michelle Zauner has moved beyond mourning to a solace far more celestial, communicating her grief through these poignant musical prayers aimed directly at the heavens and beyond.

There’s nothing quite as personal as digging through someone’s record collection and God First feels almost exactly like that. From funk and soul to chilled out electronica, the entire spectrum of Steadman’s eclectic record collection has been mined here.

Ke$ha too reaches for a savage base pull, lifting from the low-end, high-reward arena rock spectrum, a place of soaring peaks and valleys that still float above heads even at their most subdued, music meant to be blasted from towering stacks of speakers, so the stage appears bookended by the Willis Tower and the John Hancock Center and that finds its artistic beauty in the sheer size and ferocity of its scope and emotional appeal.

Mura Masa isn’t perfect, with his production sometimes losing its identity to his guest stars, but it’s a solid and most importantly fun debut for a real rising star.

Ultimately Need To Feel Your Love is an unashamedly retro flavoured affair, but it's one that’s worth tasting.

The Thin Black Duke isn’t their finest album--for my money, that’d have to be 1995’s Steve Albini-produced Let Me Be A Woman--but it’s still one of the most thrilling, galvanising records I’ve heard in recent months.

In Hug Of Thunder, Broken Social Scene have managed to master the balance between spiky energy, tender melody and a singular knack for carving out a soaring chorus. Hug Of Thunder has undoubtedly been a long time coming, but it has unequivocally been worth the wait.

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.

This is yet another reinvention for Crutchfield, but this is the first time she’s so palpably given off the sense that she’s at peace with her own thoughts: stronger and more candid for having figured out how to best to take care of herself.

Algiers crafted a unified, cautiously optimistic record that rises above the vitriolic din.

4:44 offers renewed hope for fans who, since Kingdom Come, have felt increasingly disenfranchised by Jay-Z’s loss of touch with his roots and apparent marginalisation of his rap career.

The actual content of OKNOTOK, in terms of what’s new, is hardly justification for any casual listener to pick it up, but the excuse to revisit the record itself would absolutely vindicate the purchase.

Ruinism does, at times, often feel more like an experiment than a cohesive whole; a criticism sometimes levelled at Lynch. ... And yet, there’s something about Ruinism that sucks you into its world. It’s beauty amid chaos and it’s easy to let your inhibitions go and just fall into it.

A Walk With Love and Death re-frames the Melvins’ legacy with newfound aplomb. Whilst perhaps unlikely to win over anyone sitting on the fence up until now this is not merely their most impressively realised effort in many a moon, but also one of the most rewarding listens of the year thus far.

As an entry level to this magnificent band, this more than suffices.

Going it alone might not have been the most obvious next step for Pierce, however he has managed to maintain a catchy and consistent sound that justifies that decision.

Though Dust often feels like it’s dreaming, you’re nevertheless consistently reminded of its complexity and Halo’s deep cognisance of the musical language.

Murder is hellishly dark, terminally weird and subsequently very funny.