There's a Paris, Texas feel to much of the music on offer here, but LeBlanc and super-producer Cobb have also moved from the ditch to the middle of the road for some driving rock sounds not heard since Ryan Adams last put his head above the parapet. And if there's an Adams-shaped hole in the Americana landscape at the moment, we may have just found the man to take his place.

While Mr So and So shows the gig perv no mercy, elsewhere Hanna’s bonehead-nailing, predudice-lancing manifesto reverberates, as ever, with humanity and truth.

Playing with a mix of spoken word and sung lyrics in both English and French, powerful techno beats and fear-inducing soundscapes, New Path is a beautifully balanced and flowing record.

From massive, bashy beginnings, Congrats opens out into an album of very real, ripped-rule-book excitement; it’s exhausting and exhilarating and wonderful.

Many of Sharon Van Etten’s fans may be disappointed by the lack of sadness and darkness on Remind Me Tomorrow, and while there are still elements of both in the album’s undertones, there’s more of a hopefulness and sense of promise that suits her just as well.

While Peggy Sue never quite reached the dizzy heights of Mumford and Sons’ stadium-sized tours, their artfully woven narratives are more than double-tap worthy of it.

With The Departure, Wilson has indeed crafted a constantly captivating experience that's rich in both sound and spirit.

Giannascoli continues to ring genuine emotion from strange affectations and modulation to change his singing voice. It makes when he sings pretty (Oranges) hit even harder.

While Don’t Look Down might lack the knockout punches that would bring Kojey Radical to the top table of UK rap, it's another step in his rise as a star of the alternative scene as he continues to carve out his own sound.

At the very least, Cry Sugar acts as a reminder of Birchard’s originality but, at the most, it’s a broad and diverse exploration of the many faces of electronic music past and present.

Lust for Youth may not have made any personal great leap forward with this album, but it remains a set of glorious synth-pop gems, with an aching heart at their centre that most can only dream of.

It's a beautiful album that requires patience and provokes instrospection, while still retaining the gorgeous discotronics and expertly stitched samples that come with a Caribou release.

Uplifting and electric, Love Yes is a blast.

Where Ugly Cherries felt spontaneous and carefree, Pageant feels more mature and considered.

These songs are more impressionistic than anything Kenney has produced to date making for interesting and thoughtful music, and an accomplished second album.

The band’s impressive interplay and energy make these songs wonderfully replayable, to the point where the lyrics feel melodic and singalong worthy.

Like the image its title evokes then, Light Upon The Lake is a transient pleasure--but a vivid one while it lasts.

Come Around doesn’t have the tonal or the sonic variety of that previous record. Instead the record polishes to perfection dal Forno’s specific sound-world, feeling more like a jigsaw, the songs forming a kind of composite dreamscape.

With acute taste and an ability to meld disparate sounds together, bdrmm have a solid formula: radio-rock with more substance, nuance and historical awareness than most of their contemporaries.

Understated but never dreary, on Aperture Jadagu invites us into her inner world with refreshing vulnerability – to feel as she feels, dream as she dreams, and ultimately, to hold hope at the end of it all.

Similar to The Highland Mob, it utilises a number of classic grime tropes--eski clicks (Kontinuance); 8-bit homages (Evil Spirits); Dizzee Rascal-sampling sino throwbacks (A Like Ye)--but repackages them in a way that brings introspection to the fore.

Night Light, their seventh studio album, is one of their best yet, even when they veer into Bryan Adams-cheese on ballad Everything Is OK.

The most crucial overlap here is between Foals’ dual ambitions – creative and commercial. They’ve been one of the biggest bands in Britain for a while now – and finally, they truly sound like it.

It's not a record that's overly concerned with coherence, but the freedom to experiment suits Malkmus well, especially when he lets the ideas dictate the music without trying to adhere to any sort of thematic cohesion.

It’s not groundbreaking but, like the first record, it’s a fucking good time.

It’s certainly an assured debut, impeccably written and produced in a way that captures the singer as both youthful and soulful. Her voice is light and airy, with her distinctive vowel sounds giving a fresh spin to even the simplest of lyrics.

The unashamedly 80s aesthetic--which hallmarked the first Lost Themes--is pleasingly and emphatically recurrent on the second.

There's an ever-growing sense that Segarra is in a class above in terms of poignant lyricism and emotive performance – The Past Is Still Alive reaffirms this in spades.