The record doesn’t fully commit to a new direction, so its primary audience will still be Avett diehards, but it’s a fun listen for the summer and a testament to the brothers’ enduring success as one of the savvier folk groups out there.

Yoncalla isn’t earth-shattering--everything sort of blends together, as is often the way with most dream pop records. But what does it matter when it’s the sort of album that makes you feel good.

This is also her most musically subtle and lyrically direct album to date.

Collaborating with vocalists such as Hannah Peel, Blaine Harrison of The Mystery Jets, Euros Childs and Jane Weaver, the musical styles glide from genre to genre with impressive ease. The approach would have resulted in a patchy album in most other people’s hands, but The Soft Bounce makes such eclecticism sound like a natural thing.

Earth finds Neil Young in his element expressing the collective concerns of the modern age, a fitting coda for an artist whose name has become a byword for transition and re-invention.

While it might lack the chaotic charm of Nights Out, or the lush, well-rounded sound of The English Riviera, it makes up for that by simply being fun.

No one idea ever outstays its welcome and there’s no denying the passion behind Hynes’ work and the fascinating insights that come with these 17 tracks. It’s an album that feels haphazard but one that is luckily more hit than miss, and an album that ultimately needs to be experienced.

You don’t have to be a fan of punk music or emo to be a fan of The Hotelier, you simply have to appreciate genuine, earnest emotion.

Though The Mountain Will Fall cannot be considered a failure by any means, it does continue the trend of his recent work being left firmly in the shadow of his past.

Too often there’s simply a lack of focus to the songs on this album, which would have benefitted from keeping things a lot more simple and in line with The Strokes’ indie rulebook.

Jambinai are at their most moving when reduce their ire and create more drawn out, ambient compositions.

Disjointed it may seem, but the pervading sense of chaos and feel good factor tie each track on Blood // Sugar // Secs // Traffic together perfectly, coming to a frothy, tumultuous head on closing cut "Amazing Supermarkets". Arguably the record’s highlight, it’s almost seven minutes of anarchic garage pop, mirroring in miniature the album it concludes effortlessly.

Tempered with meditative calm, space and restraint are the dutiful catalysts of each blissful rupture and devastating pay-off.

An album that retains much of the vitality and vigour of the band’s previous releases, but where those albums were coloured by a fresh-faced excitement and in the invincibility of youth, No Grace is the sound of band who’ve discovered that life is fleeting, so they’re taking it for what it’s got.

The Magic proves surreal until the very end, just as promised.

There are so many different genres, instruments, sounds and ideas at play here that at times its too much to digest.

Gojira have turned their grief into triumph. It will ensure they don’t remain on the fringes of metal’s elite for much longer.

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

“Grecian Summer” seems like a Hanging Gardens off-cut, all bouncy beats and twinkling synths, whilst “Faraway Reach” is a blissed-out, breezy tune with just the right amount of funk. These moments are, however, disappointingly few and far between.

Big Deal's third album is pleasantly dreamlike and fuzzy, but lacking focus.

Rather than making a sharp left turn on Basses Loaded, the band instead pays homage to their long, curious history by plugging in with some longtime cohorts, making an unholy ruckus, and once again not giving a damn about what we think of it.

There are some gambles that don’t entirely pay off, like the 808 drums on “Sentence”, but Weaves mostly holds to its own internal logic, so it’s up to you about whether you’re going to buy in. Overall, it’s an enjoyable outing with a band clearly brimming with talent and a physical need to get their ideas out to the world.

Praise Ipepac Recordings for allowing these two visionaries to continue to challenge the purpose and the manner of music.

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

Fearless is releasing the best material of his career.

Equal amounts tender and wild, Mitski places power in vulnerability. Validating every topsy turvy emotion, Puberty 2 is a soundtrack of self-awareness and self-acceptance at its most real.

case/lang/veirs is an understated triumph, and a stunning addition to all three songwriters' discographies.

Twentyears does exactly what a compilation needs to; it shows how Air are arguably one of the last great singles bands, but by delving beyond the hits we are presented with an abbreviated version of a back catalogue of panache and flair. Always engaging, always different, but always Air.