Festival Bell is by no means perfect. It can, at times, become somewhat samey, and, at just over an hour long, could definitely do with a trim. But none of that's really important; because the music stored within Festival Bell's grooves is living proof that the venerable Cult of Fairport.

While it's unlikely that Neptune will have quite the sort of chart success Adele's 21 has enjoyed, it's a fine example of Eliza Carthy's huge talent.

Rare Bird Alert is every bit as good as its predecessor, and it's a delight to hear Martin and his band on form.

The Hangman Tree is certainly a decent sapling with plenty to like, but the love or loathe vocals mingle with the predominantly wonky atmosphere to prevent this from being a mighty oak.

As it is, Mountain Echo is a debut that is unlikely to offend, but it's unlikely to provoke repeated listens.

The only true misstep on the album is at the mid point in the shape of Steepless. For the most part this album's music is to be basked in, and after half an album of instrumentals, being suddenly presented with vocals is rather jarring.

With A Monument they have clearly shown that the have the scope and ambition to cross over far beyond that Portland milieu and establish themselves as a fine in their own right.

While the highs aren’t quite as high and the lows are quite a bit lower than they have been previously in his career, Mala might just be the grown-up album Devendra Banhart has been waiting a decade to make.

Heavy it most certainly is, but Daughter succeed simply by creating phenomenally beautiful music and heart-rending songs.

Hobba’s songwriting is simply not up to par: melody, lyric, and arrangement come off like caricatures of their desired styles; it seems often that in an attempt to replicate the feel of a classic rock song, all of the fun is lost.

Overall, this is much more than a chill-out album; there’s a level of depth here which showcases Hyde’s musical maturity and sensibility.

It’s easy to dismiss bands that receive so much hype before they have even got going, but with Peace, the early signs are definitely promising.

Palms then is so much more than the sum of its constituent parts. It won’t please everyone, particularly those with preconceived notions. But with any luck, this collaboration will continue beyond a single album, because on this evidence they’re really onto something.

Although there are plenty of adrenaline-infusing moments on Jungle Revolution, Congo Natty fails to keep up the momentum throughout

The band’s ability to contrast their often dark lyrics with upbeat melodies ensures that there is much more to the record than first meets the eye and, while Little Green Cars may not be the finished article just yet, Absolute Zero proves they undoubtedly have bags of potential.

This is not a world-changer, but it’s exciting, and great fun.

Fabricius is clearly talented, but Wish Bone probably won’t be the album to deliver the breakthrough she deserves.

Oh My Sexy Lord is not an easy album to break down. It’s really designed to be consumed in one awesome lump, an electro-odyssey that unsettles and delights in equal measure.

Eve is yet another record from Angelique Kidjo that reaffirms her position as one of the most significant Africans performing today, and is the sound of her reaching out and celebrating the strong spirit and power of African women that she embodies.

It’s the variety, vigour and conviction that makes this new record by Night Beats so impressive and engaging.

This is a worthwhile purchase for any David Gray fans, but for everyone else the world just keeps on turning.

Frozen By Sight is a good record--one that’s exquisitely played and recorded. It’s also a little stiff: occasionally its arts festival origins become a little too obvious and one wishes it would cut loose a little more.

This album just doesn’t provide the musical support that he deserves.

While there is nothing here to relegate Art Department to the role of also-rans, there is nothing to get wholly excited about either, as the music consistently retreats towards the background.

Lease Of Life succeeds in being every bit as bold and accomplished as its much touted predecessor.

There are genuine surprises on The Fine Art Of Hanging On for long-term fans.

This is firmly heading towards the subtler, less heavy summery sounds of The Proper Ornaments and Ultimate Painting and, while there’s little wrong with that, it may be a little disappointing to those that were so impressed by their occasionally mouth-watering first.

The result is the sound of a band at the top of their game. The potential has always been there, but Mirrors harnesses it.

Even during its more ludicrous moments, though, it’s impossible to deny the beauty that often shines through.

It will obviously appeal to most long-term Keane fans (even without Rice-Oxley’s trademark tinkly piano chords) but anyone who’s gone through a bit of a tough time in their lives will find this to be comforting succour.

Feed The Rats is everything you could hope for from Pigsx7. It’s heavy, stoned, accessible and transformative.

It is, in fact, an intoxicating must-have album worth a place in any collection.

Lyrically the album is an intriguing cocktail of emotions, veering from insecurity and vulnerability to assertiveness and outright feminine power.

It may not be an easy listening experience at times, but Violence is ultimately an album that deserves your patience.

Eels don’t do anything markedly different to what they’ve done many times before, but E’s songwriting remains in fine fettle and he still has plenty to say.

The Orb have long made a virtue out of following their own path, and there are still times in No Sounds Are Out Of Bounds where this pays dividends, but there are also sections where they merely retread old ground with diminishing returns, making this an only half-satisfying LP.

Themes For Television might not be the most dynamic album, but for fans of ambient electronic music it hits the spot.

More restless than Solan Goose, Sule Skerry is always on the move, constantly changing but all the more exciting and compelling for it.

As far as compilations and rarities sets go, this is no cynical cash-in, but neither is it absolutely essential, even for fans of the band. There’s a lot of cool material here that is definitely worth exploring, but nothing that will demand a second listen for anyone other than the most hardcore of fans.

A Pilgrim’s Tale admirably tells of a fascinatingly swashbuckling adventure into history, but in shining a light on the fate of this people it contextualises how so often that history is authored by the victors.

Disclosure have always had an attention to detail in their production that gives the songs that much more depth, be it the irresistible breakdown one minute from the end of Douha (Mali Mali) or the fluttering arpeggios that populate closing track Reverie. And in this respect, as well as songwriting, structure and guest selection, they’re back like they never left.

Minogue more than holds her own here. The sound is largely fresh and pays genuine homage to carefree nights at the disco with gusto, charm and flair, all qualities that Minogue has in spades.

A Billion Little Lights is a good album when heard in isolation, but it pales in comparison to those albums that inspired its creation.

Deploying ominous cinematic pacing and diaphanous harmonics, the transient Kaminari effectively incorporates an illustrative quality reminiscent of Cocteau Twins‘ Liz Frazer, before the Montreal musicians revert back into classic rockabilly mode and on the voyeuristic shuffle of Sarabande, they fixate on the more gonzo hallucinatory aspects of tropicalia and Turkish psych rock.

It is a special piece of work, reaffirming Avery’s position as one of the most consistent and exciting electronic artists at work today. We need to keep him under close observation.

Enjoy The View will undoubtably please the army of existing Jetpacks fans, yet tracks like Fat Chance could well bring in some new fans. Few bands can still sound on top of their game after 18 years or so, but We Were Promised Jetpacks do, and sound like they’re more than ready for the next 18 years too.

Too many of the songs fail to deliver the mind blowing moments that the band have been capable of in the past.

Half of the album’s 12 tracks are under three minutes, leaving no time to get bored, and there’s little to dislike.

Now Or Whenever doesn’t feel like natural progression when held up against Moth Boys and earlier debut Enjoy It While It Lasts from 2012, but its ability to have you singing along in very little time at all is an impressive quality.

When they’re on the game, The Wombats are well capable of turning heads and catching ears (People Don’t Change People, Time Does) and they have a pleasing habit of writing songs that sound remarkably cheerful despite sporting bleak subject matter (Everything I Love Is Going To Die). They’re not always successful.

The lovelorn subject matter is at times overbearing, but nevertheless Homesick is a decent listen from start to finish and its consistency is impressive.

The album rallies later on, as I Love Your Girl and When The Party’s Over are impeccable tunes that more than deserve their place, but Mabel’s dedication to the pure pop that gave her big hits in 2019-20 is now threatening to leave her somewhat faceless.

It all makes for a terrific comeback for a band that have been very much missed over the last few years. As truly entertaining as the title promises, in fact.

Now might be a homely, undemanding listen in places but it’s also rewarding, a set of songs that will certainly appeal to long term fans but one that also deserves wider appreciation. It feels like a classic case of Nash making music for himself and if others enjoy it too, well that’s a bonus.

It’s a pleasing finish to a rather uneven collection. People often say that the first episode of a sit-com is disappointing, and you should skip to the second, which is exactly the approach we propose for this album.

As a mini-EP of ‘new’ material, these musically diverse tracks are strong enough to make you yearn for the fifth album which will probably never come.

There is much to admire here the more you listen, the more it will grow on you.

After this blisteringly good start, Cardinology settles down into a languid country-rock groove - beautiful at times, intensely listenable and professional, but probably not breaking any new ground.

Still Living is an unobjectionable album, and any of its songs, taken individually, are certainly a fine soundtrack to the final lazy days of summer. As a whole, though, Still Living barely limps along, only occasionally revealing flashes of semi-greatness, and it ultimately falls victim to its own aesthetics.

There are still a few forgettable plodders on All Quiet – the likes of Baron’s Claw and Be Young seem to be a bit phoned in. Yet while the fire of 20 years ago is inevitably never going to be reignited, this new version of The Libertines seems to be settling quite nicely into a once unimaginable middle age.

By creating a world so comic-book vivid, each track stands and walks in its own desolate, saturnine world. But it's a world where the dead want to be alive and the alive would rather be dead. The creation of warped minds, Salem just made a monster.

Throwing a light on the minutiae of his fraying psyche doesn’t always make for the easiest of listens. No longer buoyed by adolescent concerns, Alec Ounsworth may not be in the happiest of states. But if you heed closely you’ll hear the sound of one man’s combing for moral redemption amidst societal and individual collapse. And that deserves applause.

In the grand tradition of rockers who have music to cure their own isolation and misery, Barnes and Of Montreal have entered a great one in the canon with Lousy With Sylvianbriar.

There may be no one track that could be a crossover commercial hit for the Wolter siblings, but this is an album full of signs of longterm progress. This is the sound of a band in it for the long haul, and by the sounds of it, it’s going to be quite the journey for them.

While it's far from perfect, Casiokids have done well to polish their sound, even if they've not yet quite decided what they want to be when they grow up

This is another step along that path of evolution destined to appear on end of year best album lists, and (ducks from those crazed blues-starved fans of old) it’s quite possibly The Black Keys’ own best ever long player.

A largely entertaining but occasionally baffling listen, Enter The Slasher House sadly falls just short of Animal Collective’s best work and Panda Bear’s stunning solo projects.

At only nine tracks long, Everything Is New never outstays its welcome, and is the perfect riposte for anyone who had previously dismissed Penate as a scenester who'd got lucky.

It consolidates what's gone before comprehensively, and occasionally points towards where the band might be headed.

It's a refined, seasoned effort, alternating between country-tinged folk and leisurely paced rock.

Against all the odds though - can the self-pity of a millionaire rock star ever be listenable? - it's still a compelling record.

It's a shame that Hynes' songwriting chops haven't developed as quickly as his musical skills. But this shouldn't put the brakes on Hynes' progress: Coastal Grooves might be a forgettable, minor work, but Hynes' career to date proves that he shouldn't be written off easily.

Realism showcases how effective it can be when it is allied to a dry sense of humour, a flair for melody and an ability to engage with more than a narcissistic world view.

It is different in many ways, but never neglects the melodic, vocal and lyrical genius that has established, and will continue to establish, his status as one of the all time greats.

An album filled with singles that should be instant hits.

After remaining stagnant for so long, Concrete and Gold is a mini breakthrough for the Foo Fighters. Progress, at last.

It's a brave, sometimes successful, but ultimately flawed attempt to evolve and grow the band's sound. The one crime is a distinct lack of any memorable tunes, but it will certainly stand as one of 2010's more interesting releases.

For the loyal fans, this is what they come back for. For the more casual Sleigh Bells listener, this may prove one full-length album too many.

On a technical level, Wolf People are a competent outfit but, for all its repetition, it doesn’t leave much of a dent in the brain.

There is nothing of great surprise here, which while reassuring to fans does also lead to the criticism that McVie and Buckingham are just that bit too predictable through the course of an album. There is however no lack of emotional input to songs like Feel About You.

As far as exploration goes, U2 seem to have finally found what they were looking for.

There is no pandering here, with Springsteen and the trusty E Street Band rocking and rolling with free abandon and sounding like they thoroughly enjoyed every single moment recording the album.

Olympia is a rich, soulful immersive album; and a terrific return to songwriting form.

By the end of this eclectic, intense experience Skrillex has proven himself to be an inventive and well-rounded producer, but his abilities in the pop world seem more dependent on the songwriting of others.

Big Echo won't change the direction of modern music but it's such an easy, pleasurable listen that it can't fail to enrich whatever environment it's played in. Unreservedly recommended.

Everyone else can celebrate Peaking Lights’ decision to target the feet, rather than the minds, of the listeners this time round. Their reward is one of the year’s most intuitively entertaining releases.

Snow Globe, for all its charm, isn’t the record to re-instate their importance. Instead, it feels destined to languish in the oeuvre of vaguely interesting ‘alternative’ Christmas albums.

It’s the sound of a band dabbling in other areas whilst still maintaining something of their roots, and as long as they don’t stray too far from the path that they have clearly mastered then they’re a band worth sticking with as they make their sonic explorations.

The broadening of their musical palette here has offered up multiple directions for the duo, but they still retain the distinct Girlpool vibe on their most accomplished album yet, one augmented by a rare magic.

There is a sense of 'heard it before' on many of the songs on the album, but, nonetheless the songs still have the ability to rip your ears off.

There's obviously more to come, but this eagerly awaited debut disc doesn't disappoint.

He’s shown that he can write great songs, albeit not quite as consistently as one would like. Despite that, What For? still contains over twenty minutes of some of the year’s most decadently enjoyable music. A treat.

Quite a varied collection.

I Disagree is surreal, genre bending, heavy, light, childish and mature all at once.

The Other Side Of Make-Believe is a dependably great album from a dependably great band.

While this doesn't quite hit the heady heights of "A Rush Of Blood To The Heads," it's a huge improvement on the beiger than beige "X&Y," and if their next album (apparently featuring a Kylie Minogue duet!) continues this trajectory, we could have something pretty special on our hands.

The more you listen to this record, the more it falls into place and traps you under its spell.

Flowers Of Evil is awash with religious imagery and allusions, snatches of mythology, and nature. The band is looking at the state of humanity and how progress doesn’t necessarily get us very far at all.