It’s an irony that musicians who regard pop with suspicion usually turn out to be quite good at making it.

The Modern Age is craftily frontloaded, rattling impatiently through the most immediate tracks and building up a steam of goodwill before slowing the tempo with the gentle experimentation of the title track.

The musicality of It’s Real is deliciously idiosyncratic, yet refreshing and musically progressive.

While the album can feel sluggish at times, Ring’s knack for constructing textured sonic architecture is still a draw.

Occasionally Ibibio Sound Machine venture a little too far into the wilderness with some slightly half-baked R'n'B and a rather meandering slow number, but they’ve taken risks and for the vast majority of this superb record, it has paid dividends.

Significant Changes may well plunge you below the surface but by the time you reach final track Conclusion, tying in perfectly with the album's overriding scientific theme, we're ever confident that even deeper sounds are still to come from Jayda G.

American Football build on their distinct craft for creating pop songs out of odd time signatures, seamlessly weaving multi-minute epics without ever feeling overblown such as on Silhouettes, cementing the band's return as a success.

Although refusing to be pigeonholed, the album hangs together effortlessly and each part feels as vital as the last; despite its 17-song length, it’s hard to imagine Yanya’s vision without each one of these tracks.

The entire album is a triumphant showcase on how to master percussion, and the finished result is a dreamy 53 minutes that seems to end as quickly as it began. Stunning.

While there's nothing particularly new or breakaway on this self-titled release, it’s a familiar feeling that will leave fans more than satisfied.

While there are moments on this album where Benjamin Francis Leftwich's positivity is genuinely very nice to hear, all in all Gratitude is musically beige and lyrically clichéd. Leftwich would be better to stick to what he does best: playing his acoustic guitar and singing about 1904.

While it is endearing to hear Karen O working with a more patient form of songwriting, the raw energy and emotion of her best work isn’t here.

New cute or not, CHAI make a pretty strong blend of all the best bits.

Experimentations galore, Sundara Karma’s second album is one that works well, as tracks blend into each other despite jarring soundscapes. But there is no track that appears a clear standout, and therein lies the failing within an otherwise bold record, as no one track roots you in your place wanting more.

What it does signify is a willingness to embrace and learn the uncomfortable from a prolific artist whose output may have seemed set in its ways. Malkmus’ continuing willingness to think outside the box is much appreciated.

Curt's voice sounds beautiful, crisp and clear, resigned to fate, yielding beauty in the midst of cracked flaws. And the band, fleshed out with keyboardist Ron Stabinsky and Curt's son Elmo, work the magic of making all of this sound fresh and new.

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.

There are some moments here that feel a bit too languid--but SASAMI is still the sound of an artist stepping into the limelight and forging their own distinctive sound.

Still On My Mind is Dido’s most engaging album to date. It’s her first time trying a style of music that connects multiple genres as well as retaining her original sound and she’s delivered a masterful creation in one take.

On its own merit, Part 1 is yet another banger-laden album, from an indie-rock machine who are now firmly established as one of the most consistent in their scene.

Vocally and lyrically charged, Self Esteem’s debut is one that takes several paths in its journey, revealing Taylor as a remarkable vocalist and a powerful lyricist.

A varied and highly enjoyable record.

With Stunning Luxury, Snapped Ankles have achieved that rarest feat, a stridently political album that loses neither its sense of humour nor its capacity for bangers.

Good at Falling has a feeling of the relief that comes after crying. It takes a moment to sit in sorrow, to feel every inch of it, only to find it washed away by hope and gratitude.

The record is ultimately a conflicted one. It has masses of recalcitrant spirit but little in the way of sonic inventiveness, with songs feeling more and more one-note as the album goes on. In the end, we're left with 11 perfectly listenable songs that are not quite as interesting as the ideas that lie beneath them.

The best tracks here are those which delve into the power ballads that we know Lavigne can produce so effectively. But other than the album's self-titled lead single and It Was In Me, with soaring orchestrals and subtle keys paving the way for her lung-bursting croons, it feels much like a lost Lavigne seeking a sound that’ll just keep her afloat.

There’s much of TOTS's recent past hidden in WRAITH. The industrial cyberjams of 2015’s Highly Deadly Black Tarantula are unceremoniously drained of their colour and body fat for a second go-around; blocky drum machines protrude like bones from rotting flesh on opener I’d Rather, Jack.

Taking chances while renewing and enhancing their inimitable sound, Eton Alive is a belch in the face of the architects of austerity, a cry of sheer life amid an increasingly deadening environment.