On Old Yellow Moon, in that hokiest of country traditions--the boy/girl duet--an old alliance triumphs with charm.

ASIWYFA sound like they’re having fun shaping and performing this music, and you’ll want to be part of it.

The same could be said for Lapalux's production ability; this is a brilliant EP, but he's still to reveal his full potential.

On its own terms, it's a lean, mean success – and questions about longevity can probably wait until the follow-up.

The production might be slick, but James relaxes into this framework, providing the necessary lived-in looseness.

Nevertheless, what the album lacks in depth, it more than makes up for in the length and breadth of Weller's imagination.

Musically, it's both moody and approachable.

With a signature sound established at the first time of asking, The xx's challenge was to both expand their palette and satisfy the demands of a huge audience. And through refinement rather than reinvention, they've succeeded in singular style.

It's clear that All at Once is a record of big sounds, bigger themes and enormous – and entirely achieved – ambitions. A crushing classic.

He now presents his third compilation which, as such compilations should, demonstrates to the world that he is a man of excellent taste.

To further the point, the album's 10 tracks total just 34 minutes, so listeners will snap out of the dream rather than disappear with it down a wormhole. But the blissful summery mood hangs around for ages. If you don't want summer to end, or you're a SAD sufferer, then consider Skit I Allt the best and cheapest antidote on the market.

Stuck in a time warp they may be, but singer-guitarist Craig Fox, drummer Patrick Keeler and bassist Jack Lawrence (the latter pair better known as the rhythm section in Jack White's Raconteurs – Lawrence also plays with White in The Dead Weather), revel in their chosen genre with such mellifluous joie de vivre that it's hard to deny them their retrospective orientation.

It’s Thomas’s guilt-free love of mavericks past that lends such evocative warmth and unusual spontaneity to a fascinating album that could have been pure self-indulgence.

Banga is the best Patti Smith album since Horses. No one else makes rock records as rich, poetic and sexy as this.

It's the comedown after Power's other lot are done with their sensory assault, a perfect after-hours accompaniment for contemplation and restoration.

Nobody would expect an eighth album by a band 20-plus years into its career to sound this fantastic, but time away has obviously helped re-energise the brothers into crafting this triumphantly grand return.

It’s focused, and superbly executed, but forgoes immersive longevity for determined immediacy.

As good as their 2007 Mercury Prize-nominated album, The Bairns, undoubtedly was, Here’s the Tender Coming raises the standard higher still.

Her enviable clarity of tone and the disarming beauty of her vocals lend Love and Its Opposite a dreamy, if uncomfortable, sort of truth. But blithe, sunny romantics are advised to keep a stiff drink (and a hanky) within very easy reach.

Rokstarr bounces to a beat that feels fresh and vibrant.

Vanishing Point proves the quartet is still a thrilling proposition, in love with the simplicity of mayhem and volume.

Even though much of the album is inwardly gazing, there are repeated outbreaks of jazz toughness.

Smith remains stubbornly entrenched in a perpetual slough of despond. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem he had much to laugh about during his short, unhappy life, but over an entire record, his maudlin musings are rather hard work for all but the most introspective of listeners.

As tasters go, it’s exciting fare: the appetite for more isn’t so much whetted as left in a state of delightful fervent.

A sixth album of exuberant, glammy pop and driving Southern-fried rock.

Credit to this fine record that, when you actually listen to it, the need for explanation feels like the last thing on your mind.

The imaginative artwork, of a black and white keyboard splintering into different colours, emphasises the feel-good factor of this winning collection of songs and arrangements done with great style.

A marvellous little record where improvisation rubs shoulders with immediacy.