Below the Branches is the kind of record true lovers of classic 60s and 70s pop can adore.

Quaristice does an excellent job of mixing the two sides of Autechre into one cohesive running narrative.

Not a slow spreading psych filled with guitar soloing, but instead an orchestra of miniatures, Infinite Love presents a joyous world which is always bright and never boring.

Hadreas is one of the strongest songwriters we've seen develop this year, and Learning puts that on display beautifully.

You've heard all these elements before, but never quite this way.

Whereas his previous long-players were primarily personified by their hushed beauty, dusty experimentation, and nostalgic romanticism, Post-War pushes forward a more boisterous and band-orientated vision for Ward’s sturdy songwriting.

An extremely beautiful and captivating slice of electro-pop.

Think Polyrock or Chairs Missing-era Wire in terms of the stripped-down elementalism of the instrumentation, but think Ikara Colt in terms of delivery.

This album will be divisive amongst fans as there will be those who just want them to get back to the days of "Full Collapse" and those who have always heard the sounds of Common Existence beneath the surface over everything before it. For those fans, you will be glad Thursday has finally let all of its aggression out to release an engrossing and explosive album.

The Ruminant Band opens up the Fruit Bats aesthetic and is a welcome addition to both late summer and a terrific discography.

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.

Watch Me Fall, is an exhilarating ride of roaring highs that never let up.

For the most part Remembering Mountains is a success, with the source material being affectionately honoured yet imbued with the distinctive traits of the invited artists.

Props to McGuire for making an album exuding love, humbleness, and gratitude which didn't sacrifice any of his compositional complexity or overemphasize its conception. He should be proud of living with himself.

Dreamy at times (Crawlersout), with shimmering synths and picturesque melodies, there is a haunting beauty, almost terrifying, that surrounds the listener, almost as if one is sitting inside a sonic cocoon while taking it all in.

The fluidity of the music allows for interpretive wiggle room. New Universe sounds like a great, sun-slowed summer album, but I can also see it playing into the feel of other seasons, making for a subdued autumn album or a twinkling winter album.

This new album capitalizes on many of the singer/songwriter's strengths with songs that support his abilities.

The chemistry between the members of Rahim is quite apparent from the beginning to the end of the album.

There’s enough depth and variety here to keep you entertained after the first listen.

While there isn’t a song that will stick out immediately such as “When K Got Over Me” or “I Can’t Seem To Make You Mine” there are plenty of songs that will find themselves ingrained in your memory long after a listen.

Total Life Forever is still thoroughly identifiable as a Foals album, their personality and songwriting quirks shine through even the thickest of creative haze--they're making pop out of art, which is a pretty good recipe for a young band.

Throughout Light Of A Vaster Dark there is an overriding sense of closeness and inclusiveness that draws you in and belies any accusations of pretentiousness that might otherwise come from straying into musical terrain far off the road so over-travelled.

The Anomoanon spin small miracles of magic on Joji by merely using a 70s rock-radio framework as a springboard for deceptively modern and intricate synchronized guitar leads, vocal harmonies borrowed from the Flying Burrito Brothers, and a taut rhythm section lifted from On the Beach/Zuma-era Neil Young.

Sitek manages to conjure a musical playground within which Adebimpe’s vocals can frolic.

The trademark stridency of “Red Right Hand” or even “Mr Clarinet” is replaced with an altogether more measured and restrained vocal style, and the overall tone of Skeleton Tree is less abrasively didactic one than that of its fifteen predecessors.

For a de facto second bite of the comeback cherry, Snow Bound has plenty to warrant continued active-veteran status for The Chills.

The Joggers’ struggle against depression yields song after song of emotionally rending rock 'n roll, and the album tells the gritty tale of their fight against this epic beast.

Polvo have returned stronger and more single-minded. Regardless of whether you were around the first time, you should get in on this right now.

All in all, You Are the One I Pick is a compelling and enjoyable listen which, at 35 minutes in length, is smart not to overstay its welcome.

Packed with a convincing fusion of craftmanship, camaraderie and charm, We’re Not Talking certainly never comes close to a sophomore slump.

This album is as buzz-worthy as other similar acts like the Postal Service.

Bloom is as fetching a record as any in Beach House's growing canon of work.

This is the record Pulp could/should have made as a sequel to the seminal Different Class.

This is great music from a fantastic UK band.

Parts and Labor have expanded their sonic palette with Receivers and with it may find some new fans who wouldn't have been able to tolerate the overwhelming stimulation of previous releases.

Possibly the best Kristin Hersh solo album since 1994's classic Hips & Makers.

About as good as a live album can get.

The band's eponymous debut is a classy, memorable, and swooning collection of sophisticated pop.

There’s so much to love about Popular Songs and whether you think it’s the outstanding collection of music, the superb style choices, the fantastic lyrics or all of the above, it’s clear that Yo La Tengo is winningly superb.

It’s clairvoyantly obvious that Ghostface Killah’s ideas are abound. Forever flourishing, there is so much to love about an album as playfully awesome as this one.

Akron/Family II might be too scattered with divergent concepts to capture the attention of the masses, but in this still very young 2011, it should rank among the most ambitious and rewarding listens of the year.

As if the Lips' perfect mix of pop and psychedelia wasn't enough, they write songs that are not only excellent but distinct as well.

Frankly, you could pick pretty much any song at random and be guaranteed either a gorgeous slab of jubilation or a bittersweet drop of beatification.

Bird is in full control and evokes his The Swimming Hour and everyone’s favorite, Mysterious Production of Eggs, days; those days where he did everything on his own. All of the aforementioned allows him to present one of his best albums to date.

What it Means to Be Left-Handed is just that: a diverse assortment of refreshing new music from a band that has already developed and progressed their chops. It's a joyful occasion and for Mice Parade; a loud celebration down the street, rodents and all.

Like the music, there is always a vast amount of territory enclosed and in that same sense, Alpers covers a lot of ground with careful trepidation. The meticulous feel of the album stems from its creator and the calmness of the music is a sheer result of it.

Closure is undoubtedly a reliably contrarian, brutally honest and uncompromisingly human album for a great band to--at least try--calling it quits on.

In all seriousness, Wondervisions isn't hard to handle. There's nothing abrasive here to worry about, and the variation in structure and theme is exciting enough.

The listener gets acoustic ballads, guitar-driven rock exercises, poppy refrains, and jazz-inflected asides in a single package, and at no point does it really feel that the Scottish quartet is overextending itself or sacrificing the vitality of its work for the ability to slap the name of another sonic digression on the board.

Bleach showed instances of promise and a few songs went on to become some of the best they ever wrote, but in comparison, it pales to the band’s later work. So take it all in stride because Bleach is surely for fanatics but certainly not for everyone.

Some of the mid-tempo tracks towards the end of the album may slow the momentum created by the first half, yet Only In Dreams is ultimately a triumphant, self-assured release that proves the Dum Dum Girls are here to stay and will continue to evolve into full-fledged rock stars, a role they seemed destined to fill.

Barnes is literally all over the place and his cryptic storytelling makes for an eccentric album. And although each song may shift styles five or six times, as a whole, it’s a tightly constructed and smartly shaped listen.

This tandem of dream pop has crafted a beautiful, spectral and memorable album with Devotion.

It’s a glorious low-frequency hootenanny that slurs soul, punk, psych-rock, and pop until you’re not sure what language you’re hearing anymore.

Whereas previous Elbow records set a mood, Build A Rocket Boys! may require a certain mood, and a few spins, before the lofty expectations are shed and you're left delighting in its radiance.

The fuzz and drone of Today is the Day is a refreshing look back at the band’s mid-90s, Painful/Electropura era.

On the whole this is a richly inventive and enthralling eponymous long-player from a side-project with legs of its own.

Hopefully those that came to SunnO))) through "Black One" will find much to love here. If they don’t they will be seriously missing out as Monoliths & Dimensions is devastatingly epic.

One of his finest efforts to date.

Taken for what it is: strong folk leanings, with a sweet country shuffle, delivered with some of the best lyrics of the year, they all make for one brilliant combination.

While it definitely is more static and sustain, you really need to turn this up, put down whatever else you're doing, and connect with it in the moment, as this is very present music. It feels like a refined version of his past esthetics, and is more intense for the limitations he has decided to work under.

Art-punk, post-punk, hardcore, alternative, slap whatever label you would like on it; I'll stick to youthful, captivating, raw, and memorable as my descriptors.

With Radical Connector, Mouse on Mars is taking an important step forward – both in terms of musical vision and international standing.

Such is the rich detail dispersed across Kiss Each Other Clean that it demands some intensive listening to absorb all of its pleasures, especially when the choruses are not as cleanly-cut as one might expect of such a well-groomed higher-profile release.

Thirteen tracks of exceptional music and a clear-cut success for Boucher.

It might take a couple of rotations, but upon spinning Let Us Never Speak of it Again, be prepared to suffer from involuntary dance fits from surfeits of jollity. Asinine lyrics be damned, I’m dancing here.

From those opening, gorgeous, chords – their sultry delivery, their soulful demeanor, their jazzy glean, everything – signals that The Roots are back.

What I am here to do is to point you in the direction of Take My Breath Away, Boratto’s exceptionally crafted new album.

Heron King Blues, for all its successes, is not an album for Califone rookies.

Blood Red Shoes still rocks out on most tracks, all riled up and restless, keeping the rhythms chunky and choppy on standouts like the defiantly-played and shouted "Light It Up," the revved-up guitar and drums of "Don't Ask," and the guitar jags and slamming drums on "Keeping It Close."