Whilst Jeffrey Lewis’s self-knowing musings and musical personas will still remain an acquired peripheral taste for some, it’s pleasing that Manhattan finds him in such rude health, as arguably his most compelling and charismatic collection since 2007’s 12 Crass Songs.

Joan Of Arc’s latest is much more abrasive, much edgier and squeamish than what I’ve come to expect from them. And that’s not a bad thing at all.

For all the energetic, dark, brooding noise of Howling...It Grows and Grows, the Catheters are missing one thing: variety.

Rest assured, The Thermals is back and as tight as ever.

At this stage in his career, Loudon Wainwright III could forgivably have lost some of his mojo, but on the life-affirming evidence of Haven’t Got The Blues (Yet), there’s still plenty of great songwriting left in the tank.

All the Saints pound out lumbering hard rock. And it sounds good.

An album that finds them further exploring the depths of their palettes with another worthy album of expressive highs.

Although a couple of things don’t quite go the distance--namely the slightly meandering “See High The Hemlock Grows” and the murky slogging “Slow Down”--Quiet And Peace holds together remarkably well for a late-career collection.

I think it would be safe to say that while her latest release was noticed with excited anticipation, not many expected it to be quite this good.

Whilst certainly disjointed and disorientating in its execution, this first full Moon Diagrams showcase is an oddly gripping sonic ride that suggests that there is plenty of artistic life beyond the drum stool for Moses Archuleta.

An excellent album, perhaps not eclipsing the band's previous work, but at least firmly holding its ground.

For those who found that record [Nouns] to be a trying listen though, it's unlikely that the duo will win them over with Everything In Between, another lean and visceral assemblage of songs that expounds on many of Nouns' most endearing qualities.

The freshness of these subversions reveal spaces you didn't know were there, and achieve a rare expansion of the vocabulary of music.

No doubt, the music that falls between the Beatles and Bacharach extremes suffers slightly from adherence to formula, but few can boast such immediately memorable melodies. What surprises, though, is the care that they take with the lighter side of their music.

A record of truly original and moving songwriting.

There's no denying that Departing is miles ahead of where the band was a year ago and while die-hards will love Hometowns for a long time to come, Departing is absolutely the band's strongest work to date.

Whilst it has a few unconcealed flaws here and there, that a tighter trimmer tracklist might have edited-out, Say Yes! is a robust, well-rounded and re-signposting listen; which should reward completionists looking for choice off-cuts from their favourite featured artists, remind us to revisit the original source material and hold-up to plenty of standalone spinning.

Taken altogether, this two-disc reissue (or three if you’re after the full-fat triple-vinyl version), is a fine and thorough history lesson from The Afghan Whigs curriculum.

Spaces Everywhere is a deliriously upbeat 40 or so minutes of quality indie guitar music and The Monochrome Set continue to await your recognition.

Terra is in no hurry to hook you, but once its charms become evident, it's hard not to be bewitched. It cleans up all of the more histrionic and clunky aspects of Lynch's previous work, and conjures a neat little self-contained world.

Black Lips are able to both faithfully emulate some annoyingly nearly-recognisable sixties and seventies styles while using the one-take demo approach to give their own 3 chord song structures an air of immediacy that prevents the album from sliding too quickly into the pit marked “slavish recreation.”

Undeniably the most diverse album Leo’s ever made, Living with the Living leaves not one of Leo’s stylistic stepping-stones unturned.

In the end, the album’s rather limited scope is justified by the masterful detail with which it is rendered, granting the listener limited entry to a place most of us wouldn’t want to stay long.

Whilst The Jean-Paul Sartre Experience canon is far from consistent and most of us might not regularly play much beyond the sublime first CD/LP of this compendium, there is much to be (re)discovered here that vintage Flying Nun label fans can certainly not afford to live without. A heartily-fulfilling curate’s egg, in short.

With Dark Days/Light Years, the Furries have once again proven their worth: splendid musicianship, experimentation at its most sensible meaning and those proven hooks are all on display here.

16 sonorous, brooding alternative-rock tracks that are as open and experimental as they are rocked out and catchy.

Another unique and compelling album of mystical indie-rock with shimmering vocals, proving she not only has a voice to be reckoned with, but is a voice to be reckoned with.

Whilst the cynical might ponder whether Wooden Shjips may only really have one song, at least on V they prove how well it can it be stretched and squashed into many alluring, energising and enveloping shapes with charming self-confidence.