Somehow Blink 182 have captured the space created by Green Day.

Anyone else tries this, it'll be like being force-fed Sunny Delight by a battalion of pastel-pashmina'd Pokemon on My Little Ponies. In the hands of The Flaming Lips, with their stellar inventiveness and inquisitive sweetness, it's just utterly noble.

As ever, he's on point, and brilliant.

It's an unrelenting trip, and while Hawtin's much trumpeted spoken-word vocalisations veer perilously close to self-parody at times, 'Closer' is a stunning re-affirmation of an uncompromising musical vision.

There simply aren't enough superlatives to describe the genius of his music.

But shorn of the spoken word indulgences and look-what-I've-just-found electronica it's a leaner, hungrier beast, a more focussed, more alluring, more dangerous, but still tender trap.

Gris Gris' practice of bleeding their songs together in dissonance creates a roller coaster that renders 'For The Season' over before you've really realised it's begun.

Unlikely to be defined by any passing scene, Herren seems likely to go his merry way in the way production auteurs do, body-swerving ham-fisted attempts at pigeon-holing or categorisation.

Quite simply, 'Bows + Arrows' is a Great American Record, taking the qualities most admired in the last 35 years of US rock and barbecuing them together.

Lethally simple pop tunes which sound like they were written during a particularly good seaside holiday in 1974.

A fascinating work of collage that never gets tedious or faddy.

In truth, there's no good reason to only confine yourself to just one of these albums when both have charms to spare.

'Suspended Animation' is less a compendium of songs and more a splurging, raging, raping jazz metal fusion machine, weaving in samples, gong noises and assorted cartoon horror.

It's terribly important that you don't give up on this record too easily. Given just a little bit of your precious time, the album will grow into something you never expected.

An album that rivals the brilliant 'The Sophtware Slump'... as their absolute masterpiece.

Even if you only have a passing interest in 70s heavy rock this album is nigh on essential.

She has issued a treasure. She has floored us again.

This is mainly an improvement on a brilliant formula.

As ever with the great man, this is a record that rewards the attentive, and repetitive listener.

You can almost see the soul evaporating off this into nothing. But the good stuff struts through the sludge of the bad, and it's worth it.

'Skull Ring' is Iggy's strongest and most consistent album since 1993's 'American Caesar'.

While 'You Are The Quarry' is a very good album it's not the earth shattering masterpiece many had hoped for, nay, expected.

Of course, if you've never particularly liked rickety, no frills, folk albums complete with twanging country guitar solos, banjos, the odd duff note and gloriously lo-fi percussion, then 'Where The Humans Eat' really isn't the record for you.

It's a more oblique successor to 1999's self-explanatory 'Tune In, Turn On, Free Tibet', and, paradoxically, their most focused effort yet.

Challenging, arresting and moving in equal measures.

It might be easy to criticise 'Those The Brokes' as a stab at busting through into the MOR mainstream, but it's fairer to see it as The Magic Numbers developing their expression while staying faithful to their core sound, and quiet charm.

It's not just the vocals that captivate. The sheer busyness of the whole production and all the sounds are to be marvelled at, and though it would be easy to over-egg, they never allow any of the tracks to be cluttered or overblown.