Dark things stir beneath the surface as alt.country figurehead Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy releases umpteenth solo record.

Dance duo up their game on multi-packed, multi-contributor return.

Dazzling sophomore effort from New York singer-songwriter.

High prince of bad taste delivers unexpected meisterwork.

The ghost of Marvin hovers over debut by Digi-Soul merchant - sensuous dancefloor fodder with an evocative voice.

Youngbloods triumph with unpretentious pop.

Here’s Johnny! Marr forces Jarman brothers out of their Crib.

Reformation Post TLC may lack a tune as monumental as, say, the unforgettable ‘Hip Priest’ from Hex Enduction Hour, but 30 years into his career, Smith is still making music with the kind of vitality and imagination that shame most musicians half his age.

A record to cool the blood and quicken the pulse.

The sassy Swede gives Madge something to think about.

Although the sound of 30 people making music is always going to have an uplifting edge to it, the songs here are less self-consciously happy-clappy than before.

Missing, thankfully, are the twee Paulie-isms that often insult our intelligence, making Memory Almost Full that rare thing, a modern-day Paul McCartney you can listen to without wincing.

Maybe Carl was the talented one after all.

Brendan Benson expertly assembles pop music using the manual.

Four middle-aged men discover a dance element to their music... and it’s good!

Who needs love when heartbreak sounds this bloody good?

The record is low on saccharine balladry, high on rhythm protein.

The New York duo make experimental electro pop that works.

Piano playing songwriter straight out of a ‘70s dinner party.

Raw, beguiling psychedelia from Californian newcomers.

What the record lacks in lyrical insight, it more than makes up for in charm, so settle back, open a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and make a toast to the good times.

Charming debut from flirtatious Scandinavian popette.

I don’t care who you are, come up with an album title like that and you get a free pass.

A tiny step forward for indulgent Leeds outfit.

Welcome return to form from nineties stalwarts, not much has changed with this tenth studio album but if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

The mangled electronic hailstorm is unrelenting, but it is also perversely enjoyable and infectious.

In a surprise move, Alex Turner goes back to 1966

Rivers Cuomo and co. deliver another scintillating collection of punk-pop – with added experimentation.

Soft metal album that challenges Whitesnake, Bon Jovi and Van Halen. Funny...I think.

Think The Cramps crossed with the B52s, with a fair dose of Smog and Cat Power thrown in, and you’ll be in the Sons & Daughters picture

Established fans will be glad to hear Elbow’s sound further maturing; newcomers will hopefully realise that this particular seldom-seen-kid should definitely be heard.

Fogerty sets high standards for himself and thankfully, he has delivered an album that matches his early solo work.

But so what if The Magic Position ends up creaking slightly under the weight of its own ambition – surely that’s better than settling for the norm?

Rivers Cuomo & co rejuvenate some long lost gems.

Umpteenth Jack White side-project finally comes good.

Grand old dame delivers stunning Hal Willner-produced extravaganza.

Pete Doherty has just dropped one of the best indie rock records you’re likely to hear this year.

The new record sees him pushing his songbook to extremes in entirely unexpected fashion.

Kala is an intoxicating junk-culture travelogue, a genre-humping mash-up of Bollywood rumbles, shrieking guitars and machine-gun rhymes.

Strangely moving robo-pop from hyped duo.

South Carolina rockers make big music.

Dance-punk act up the ante and make play for music's top table.

Stereolab learn to stop being boring and love the pop.

Essentially, the record finds Phoenix doing what they do supremely well – danceable indie-pop with touches of shoegaze guitar and ambient electro.

It’s a bold, ambitious statement from a techno producer keen to expand his range watch this space.

LA producers bond over Sao Paolo funk.

Lovably noisy baltimore scallywags come good with their second effort.

Thrilling indie jinks from Arcade Fire wannabes.

It’s the closing triptych of quasi-classical numbers--the aforementioned ‘Exogenesis’ sequence--that transports Muse to a place beyond parody.

This collection sees Levon return to his roots to reinterpret classic songs from his childhood and pay homage to those who influenced him along the way.

Scots veterans turn up the orchestra knob and rock.

Icelandic eccentrics grasp for greatness.

Jack the volume up and let Fields suck the air from your lungs.

Great ambitious, hyper-real psychedelia.

Canadian sisters examine love's deceitful ways.

Mark E. Smith successfully negotiates that difficult 28th album.

A thin line between revelation and revivalism, Adams and the Cardinals make an album worthy of high praises.

The Calling will test your emotions, making you feel glowing and comfortable, then useless and helpless.

Comprising 11 beautifully varied trad numbers, The Rocky Road is a big-hearted tribute to the enduring power of Irish folk songs.

‘Amarillo’ Man records Richard Hawley-produced album of songs from Sheffield.

Though this hook-up frequently pushes at the boundaries of plausibility, there's lots about Scream that makes perfect sense.

The rave revival starts here!

Stonking new record from former Lad rockers. Who’d have thought?

West works because it juxtaposes a sense of vulnerability with a desire not to stay down for long, and is tinged with a sense of realism not always present in her rivals.

Hold On Now, Youngster is the proverbial promising debut, brimming with attitude, ideas and oomph. We await their next move with interest.

Chicago duo ride to the rescue of hip-hop--on pimped up BMXs.

Pop go the classics with Sufjan Stevens.

Electro-pop wizards deliver cracking third album.

A powerful collection of passionate, anthemic rockers that will no doubt please their hardcore following whilst winning new converts to the cause.

Erudite, Whiskey-Soaked, alt countryish maverick just keeps getting better.

Middle-aged indie jinks for NYC mainstays.

Former 10,000 Maniacs frontwoman channels Alice In Wonderland with tingle-inducing results.

Phillips’ vocal style is of the quietly devastated Erin Moran/Aimee Mann school, backlit by Bacharach-and-Wilson-ish arrangements on ‘Another Song’, ‘Little Plastic Life’ and ‘Flower Up’.

If Lullabies To Paralyze was a strange forest fairytale dusted with desert blues courtesy of Billy Gibbons, Era Vulgaris finds the band holed up in an abandoned funkhouse in the centre of a shady copse, waiting for some strange sexually-contracted fever to pass.

And as folksiness, indieness and bittersweet mournfulness set the tone, it also becomes apparent that this is much better than the words ‘folk’ and ‘indie’ on their own suggest.

The girls play to a new beat in this album, as they focus on evolving their sound while changing up their lineup.

Melody takes precedence on Roots And Echoes, and this makes it stronger and tighter than The Coral’s previous releases.

Zany jinks anew from Hip-hop’s Awkward Squad.

A tight collection of intelligent numbers that, instead of bombarding us with stale rhyming schemes and plastic beats, groove ever so effectively.

A&E isn’t a reinvention for Spiritualized, but while that might be a disappointment for some, the comforting embrace of familiarity shouldn’t be underrated.

A sleek melding of soul, disco, techno, Eno-esque ambient, gospel, and hi-NRG electro.

As you might expect from a bunch of Springsteen-loving misfits, Stay Positive is delivered with a generous amount of their now trademark skewed cynicism.

Pop chanteuse lets the sunshine back in.

With big choruses, pristine production values, sing-alongs, and much lovelorn balladry could it be that Devendra Banhart is about to cross over?

Beautiful, but never callow, here is an album to fall slowly in love with.

Genius robo-funk opus from worthy-of-the-hype OutKast protege.

A mesmerising, love-lorn, tear-soaked magical mystery-Jet tour.

A slight change of pace can be seen in this EP with a hip-hop icon cameo and some Eastern embellishments that may hint to new musical endeavors for Coldplay.

The beautiful skeleton of a shoe-gazing album.

Another dose of brilliant pop parody from the NZ twosome.

Nouveau synth-pop and shoegazer drones mightn’t seem like the wisest bedding for Tom Waits’s compositions, but Scarlett and Sitek know exactly what they’re doing.

What happens when you cross Mazzy Star with Sleater Kinney? These boy/girl newcomers have the answer.

Third time's still a charm with Philadelphian prog-folk contingent.

Triumphant sophomore offering from butch Vig-produced punk-pop outfit.

If there’s a central problem with War Stories, it’s that at times it strays too close to rock orthodoxy and loses the offbeat stylistic flourishes that made Unkle such an exciting proposition to begin with.

Twilight Of The Innocents re-announces the group's commitment to melody and proves they have successfully re-ignited their creative spark.

The record goes some way towards capturing the heaviness of that band’s live performances.

Washington Square Serenade is another substantial chapter in what looks like becoming an epic songbook.