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.

Chance is still just 23 years old, but Coloring Book is a staggeringly mature record, and while it isn’t on par with Acid Rap in terms of unforgettable lyricism, it also has a different mission.

Overall, Cut and Paste is a fine collection of Oscar’s old lemons made into lemonade--it’s refreshing pop music, but with a floppy fringe and a tote bag.

Toledo’s 13th album as Car Seat Headrest, captures inherent self-loathing and turns it into something to be proud of.

The album is a heavy 17 tracks that last over 70 minutes, meaning it’s a long and intense listen, but deliberately so--loneliness is a long and intense feeling.

He’s still figuring out the transition out of his remix artist phase, but enough works on his debut to show that there’s hope for the future.

Strangers feels and sounds like a breakthrough album, a set of linked short stories set to music. Having built a head of steam with her previous six records, album number seven sounds like Nadler’s waiting game is at an end.

Modern Baseball have found strength giving a voice to their disillusionment. With the daring demonstrated here, they'll be singing their spirits sounds for a long time to come.

Whilst no-one wishes further misfortune on NOTHING, Tired of Tomorrow proves they've learnt how to make the most of it and turn it into something dark, but beautiful. Its title suggests despondency, but its content should certainly leave them hopeful.

There is undoubtedly more beauty in Ullages, but darkness always seems to linger in the background.

The most impressive thing about Introducing Karl Blau is how easily it could find itself slotted in the second-hand racks between Charlie Rich or Glen Campbell.

Whether or not grime loses its threat in the near future, Konnichiwa will still stand tall as a hard-hitting soundtrack to unfulfilling life in cruel Britain that's achieved by giving a microphone to voices that otherwise wouldn't have been heard.

The formula might not be a new one, and ultimately Seratones are unlikely to change the world, but they will make your day.

With their third album, Twin Peaks have become not just one of the most exciting young bands in the Chicago music scene, but in the entire rock landscape.

Embodying that impervious inner spirit that Kafka called the Indestructible, where the possibility of perfect happiness exists in spite of everything else, its calm resignation defines what A Moon Shaped Pool strives for. In honing that potential from start to finish, Radiohead have excavated their most accomplished album in at least 15 years.

Overall, Paradise is another thrilling entry into White Lung’s catalogue that proves the band still has plenty of exciting new ground to crush beneath their heel.

Throughout Hopelessness, Anohni reveals multiple layers to the stories within her songs, and that the deeper you dig beyond the headlines and easily digestible sound bites, the more pain and deception you are likely to find.

Views, like Take Care and Nothing Was the Same before it, is brilliant in places and thoroughly bloated in others.

Hoorn’s sultry vocals; swirling, gossamer textures; and grand orchestral arrangements tirelessly interact with the record’s musculature to develop and bring to life the exquisite and anthemic anatomy of Spiritual Songs For Lovers To Sing.

The collection instead represents more of an expansion on their current sound and scope, and finds a band still willing to take risks 40 years into an exalted career--still not caring what we think of it, but daring us to follow them where they lead before the Wire factory goes quiet once again.

It’s an emotional record first and an ambient record second, and one that will resonate even with those who typically aren’t fans of the niche genre.

While it’s pretty impossible to sit through more than a couple of hours of this box in one go, the importance of this body of work is undeniable. Music simply hasn’t caught up--this still sounds futuristic, enigmatic, distant and complicated.

Eleven different audio artists form ideas, take chances and augment the backbone of a record which at its core, is Hubbert all over.

["Listen Out"] like so many songs on Last Evenings On Earth, has a fidgety, loosely controlled nature that sees it stray off into almost freeform sections before winding itself back in again, but it’s precisely this inclination to push boundaries that makes Melt Yourself Down so appealing.

This is a record that is highly sonically ambitious, and even the moments that don’t quite come together are carried by Beyoncé’s vocal talents and sheer star power.

Methyl Ethel have an innate knack for a tune, yet the darker ideas can feel unremittingly earnest.

It’s bold approach, from a group of musicians clearly focused on soaking in a wide range of influences and offering their own distillation of the Tuareg sound. The apprentices aren’t fully ready to surpass their masters just yet, but they are intent on writing their own story.

On The Ship he has managed once again to take listeners somewhere thrilling and new, while rising to the challenge of adding another dimension to a distinctive career filled with innovation and originality.