Individ is certainly a challenging listen. The intricacy of the drumming and the choppy vocal style are both compelling components and together represent the key ingredients that will determine a listener’s attention span.

It is unashamedly cerebral music, but this is a band now finding that they have a powerful beating heart as well as a head.

Fears Trending is the musical equivalent of a cross-country run on a cold, wet winter’s day: challenging, occasionally a bit of a trudge but, ultimately, rewarding.

Yes, it’s a mess but somehow a thoroughly glorious and jubilant mess. In other words, it’s a perfect encapsulation of everything that Man It Feels Like Space Again is.

Given the expressions of vulnerability and exploration of heartache here, this album has had timely release. It makes for a glorious companion to Björk’s Vulnicura but also stands as a confident, masterly debut album in its own right.

10 Futures may sound like a collection of individual tracks on the surface, but the more you listen the more it all begins to make sense.

This is a difficult album to find fault with--not only on an immediate, aesthetic level, but also on a more considered, objective one.

Vulnicura feels, overall, as if it is one of Björk’s most successful albums, one where she mostly finds sonic strategies that are well matched with her concepts and themes.

As it is, Modern Blues is probably one for the fans only.

Not only is the music a step forward, the songs are too--and Coombes revels in their delivery.

It’s a tough genre to make a lasting impression on primarily because guitars are somewhat limited as instruments, but the strong presence of electronica clearly makes a difference here where it is less evident in other shoegaze/dream pop acts.

Much of Nervous is a little heavy for what is, on the surface at least, a gentle, lilting folk inflected album. However, there are moments of utter joyfulness to be found.

This is undoubtedly Greenwood’s work, and he writes with ever-growing assurance and colour, broadening the orchestral palette. It’s just a shame this album as a whole could not be arranged in a more satisfying way.

At times, the music is so rousing and glorious that it’s easy to just not care about the fact that they’re heading down a well-worn path. Needham and Violet have conjured up a heavily melodic album that is as surprisingly well thought out as it is satisfyingly loud.

He certainly manages to squeeze a lot of words in to this mercilessly concise album. Sometimes the results are touching, sometimes they are perplexing.

There’s plenty to enjoy in Uptown Special, even if there are some tracks that end up sounding insubstantial and a bit unsatisfying. If you’re looking for a party album, there are songs on here that will sound fresh for the rest of the year and beyond.

This is an occasionally beautiful, often strange album that deserves a wider audience than Christinzio’s previous releases.

Somehow, from nothing, they’ve pulled off a surprising but oh so welcome return, and this record plays like a triumphant middle finger salute, coolly showing everyone how its done... and writing the first line on a thousand ‘album of the year’ lists before January’s even out.

With music sounding this raw, vibrant and strikingly different to the current generation yet achingly familiar to those that will remember the original post-punk era, Viet Cong have tapped into something exciting, something too big to be contained in a Canadian city most famous for winter sports, and something that could just be the tip of the iceberg for yet another intriguing Canadian act.

It occasionally threatens to become a bit overwhelming and topple in on itself. Most of the time though, Murdoch and company keep things steadily focused, and the result is another accomplished record from one of this country’s most consistent bands.

Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper is often blissful electronica for both the heart and the brain.

The band are renowned for (occasionally controversial) storytelling, with lyrics artfully crafted, stretching their old English vocabulary like the most wordy of literature students; this is still evident but it’s generally less adventurous.

Ultimately, it’s disappointing that after Pop Tune, Shonen Knife seem to be on autopilot, creating songs that could have appeared on any one of their previous records.

The Balcony may not have the presence of a Definitely Maybe or an Is This It, but it’s certainly a solid step in the right direction.

Lament is a deep and complex album. It is not so much a piece of music, as a work of art.

He’s crafted something braver, harder, and worth a spin. White paintings be damned.

It’s fair to say that sometimes, Power’s laudable ambition means that the album trips over itself. However, despite some flaws, it does make for a great showcase to remind everyone just what a brilliant songwriter Ben Garrett can be.

Petals Have Fallen is one of the most original hip-hop releases of the year thus far, having a solid awareness for what moves the body while retaining the introspective attributes that characterise the best of British urban music.