Each song spills over with a breathless, unhinged vigour that impresses... But taken all together, the band's refusal ever to let up on volume, bombast, group-shouted vocals, fast-strummed chords or smashing drums makes Celebration Rock an exhausting sonic assault in need of variety.

The spacey, meandering jams flow effortlessly, bringing to mind sunny afternoons with an old lover and a big bag of weed. No, it’s not the kind of album that’ll change the world, but it might just be the perfect summer soundtrack of the year.

Y Dydd Olaf’s beautifully layered sounds and rhythms convey a tightly conceived sonic world full of endless ideas, even if you can’t understand the lyrics.

If David Browne's Sonic Youth bio was to be believed, Swans, who emerged from the same noise-filled no wave scene in New York's early 80s as Thurston Moore, had a rotating cast of nasty-tempered psychotic rockers, with multi-instrumentalist Michael Gira at its centre. Listening to Swans' new album, the first in 14 years, you get the sense that some of that malevolence remains.

I have seen Esco­vedo’s future, and its sound is rock ’n’ roll.

Prima Donna bristles with paranoia, anxiety, depression and anger about racism, violence, the music industry and his own psychological state. Loco distills all that. Staples's vicious, suicidal fever dream sees him alluding to Van Gogh's mental illness and dropping references to The Great Gatsby and James Joyce.

Throughout, his rhymes hit the mark, whether he’s painting a bleak picture of the Detroit streets, battling his own demons (loneliness, molly, more molly) or rapping at length about drug-dealing without glorifying it Rick Ross-style.

There’s no better way to describe the music than impeccably Superchunky.

Hospice isn’t uplifting or hopeful; it explores themes of dejection through delicate, beautiful sounds.

If anything, the grooves have gotten tougher and funkier on Game Theory.

These are slow, sad ballads brilliantly executed.

This is one of his best albums in many years, although that's not exactly a ringing endorsement.

Thankfully, there are just enough flashes of brilliance to save it, even if much of the album comes across as a really expensive demo.

Love may not be a full-on revolutionary take on the Beatles catalogue, but it does bring back some of the most awesome material ever to come out of a recording studio.

On this trippier, more scattered collection, it emerges in the looming calm, the open moments that peek through pneumatic melodies, beatific, druggy vocals and that throbbing, omnipresent kick.

It's indie rock that actually rocks. From Brooklyn no less.

All the trademarks are here, filtered through frontman's Dylan Baldi's snappy power pop talents.

Each woman's distinct singing and songwriting style is front and centre, but their voices blend beautifully.

At worst the album gets a bit too cutesy (lead single Frankie Sinatra), but its unrelentingly cheery harmonies and melodies are so effervescent that it practically makes the air sparkle.

It's that classic Beastie Boys sound, and a reminder why they've set the gold standard for posse rap.

Young Fathers' alarm at being boxed in has led them to make an uncompromising, and, yes, prize-worthy pop statement.

Lots of bands pillage from the pop music canon; few do it with the aplomb of the Horrors.

If neither the lyrics nor bass lines break your heart, you might not have one.

Williams gives her songs more room to breathe than ever before, opening up vast, cinematic visions of the highway and land that inspired them.

Wine Dark Sea is a brilliantly track-listed album, stronger as a whole than broken into parts.

Lyrically, Beyondless is occupied with notions of excess, from the endless cycle of war, to switching one dependency for another, to indulgence and appetite. It works because the band fundamentally thrives in extremes.

These are explosive epics that don't get tired, tied together in an album that's both instantly accessible and grows on you over time.

Cave drops brilliantly funny lines throughout, and his enthusiasm for this project is palpable.