It’s a master-stroke on a landmark record of staggering intelligence, depth and musicality.

The depth and breadth of this astonishing career compendium, comprising a colossal 189 tracks, will certainly surprise the uninitiated, but for long-time fans it’s a beautifully realised monument to a versatile musician whose genius is largely unsung.

Once I Was An Eagle represents a bold, adventurous step forward that’s resulted in her most fulfilling work yet.

Not since Bon Iver’s aforementioned reinvention or even Radiohead’s Kid A have a relatively mainstream band made such an assured volte-face, wilfully pushing their audience away while they revisit, remake and remodel the tension that made them so very precious in the first place. Fierce and beautiful. Low are back.

Blixa Bargeld and his consequential cohorts present a scrupulous, literate and multi-layered assemblage which subtly encompasses the enormity, the futility, the obsidian humour, the stark terror and the warnings from history (that, wouldn’t you know it, remain unheeded).

If ever a record sounded like a herd of elephants, this is it.

It’s an album that feels reflective but forward-thinking, observing a time and space but interpreting it in a way that all can appreciate.

It’s certainly the best down-to-earth storytelling item to emerge in ages.

It’s a fuller, more contemporary-sounding mix that is fascinating on first listen, but unlikely to replace the original mixes in fans’ affections. ... Still, the extras are why we’re really here and that’s where this reissue really delivers. By becoming a fly on the wall at their sessions we have the chance to feel closer to The Beatles; to better figure out how they did it and become privy to their casual chats. Close your eyes, suspend your disbelief and you’re there as they make history.

While the terrific albums they’ve released along the way have continued to describe that lo-fi fuzz and keyboard driven journey, in reaching this album’s sunshine warmth ‘Ripley’ Johnson and Sanae Yamada have elevated their project to a new level.

COW makes massive gains from having been created quickly, much of the source material being recorded on the road, and the samples and titles provide pleasing echoes of the group’s earlier work. Despite the nostalgia, those samples manage to sound fresher than those of more recent projects.

It’s a fascinating and most worthy archival release.

This marvellous set captures every funky, florid facet of their initial golden run in the spirit in which it was created.

Belle & Sebastian--now much more of a unit than ever before--have found their stride, turning in one of the most satisfying, complete and cinematic albums of their 19-year career.

The truth is finally out. People are talking about the music. People are dancing. People know Fat White Family are better than maybe Fat White Family themselves think they are.

The rockier songs have a vague whiff of Faith No More’s deepest cuts, or even the lurching noir-rock of Tomahawk. ... On the poppier moments he flaunts his range more confidently than ever. There’s a lot to take in. ... Few bands remain so interesting for so long. The adventure continues.

He delivers 10 killer tracks which, defined by horns, organ and a defying-the-years-vocal-hit from Bryant, span the spirited How Do I Get There? and commanding One Ain’t Enough to the compelling A Nickel And A Nail and swooning Something About You.

Fever Dreams Pts 1-4 is some great reward for the Marr faithful, a hope-fuelled 16-song set mounted on a generous, expansive balance of scope and detail.

That Bad Reputation deep cut – as well as five better-known extras including a spine-tingling Still In Love With You not heard before – reminds us we are in what was, for so long, uncharted territory. ... Live and definitive!

While some might contend that Freedom Jazz Dance’s exposure of Miles’ working methods divests him of his all-important mystique, rather, the project actually enhances rather than diminishes our appreciation and understanding of him. And that can only be a good thing.

Perrett’s mordant wit and laconic vocal delivery are happily intact and his current band (which includes sons Jamie and Peter Jr) sympathetically top and tail these 10 memorably idiosyncratic odes to love and despair. Highlights are heady and plentiful.

Bouyed by Reid’s honeyed vocals and Sam Taylor’s chiming guitar, the likes of Richard and Come Home To You may be two of Preservation’s more traditional tunes but are of a simply breathtaking level for such a new talent.

Otis and his touring band rip it up and the excitable singer thrills, with what now reads like a greatest hits.

Hiss Spun is easily a contender for her best work.

The ways in which Overjoyed thrill are as endless as the band are absurd and implausible. Overjoyed is literally amazing.

Lateness Of Dancers has the unmistakable aura of a deep classic. It is a US masterpiece. A wonderful thing, for sure.

It is a wonderful record – fascinating and engaging. Pure art. Give it the time it deserves.

Furman’s stories erupt in sunbursts of detail, lived-in and lividly imagined.

This time round Walker has brought influences from his native Chicago scene to the forefront of his music, loosening up and expanding his sound with frankly blinding results.

An unmitigated joy.

Extra tracks aside, the three parent albums are all remarkable realisations of the Captain’s fertile imagination.

It’s the longer pieces that really glisten, and they come in several forms. ... Moore’s band, it should be noted, sound increasingly powerful, growing ever groovier and more confident with each release. Their guitars may have unusual tunings, but the players are certainly in-tune with one another, mentally and musically speaking. In summary, cacophonies ahoy!

A prime opportunity to taste everything from Haines’ buffet--sweet and savoury alike.

The new exclusive material for this Late Night Tales is quite superb; the cover of I’m Not In Love by Song Sung; Holmes & Steve Jones’ The Reiki Healer From County Down shows why he’s in such demand as a film composer. Best of all is the most amazing tribute by writer BP Fallon to the late guitar legend Henry McCullough.

The Early Years 1965-1972 is the sonic equivalent to background reading and extensive footnotes for their remarkable body of recorded work.

While some may sneer at the glitches and production tricks that pepper the record, thinking them mere gimmicks, those who stick around long enough will be rewarded by a string of mature, thoughtful songs emerging from their concealment, gradually revealing a little more of themselves with each play.

This is a great place to start--and possibly to end.

Live In Paris 2014 is a superb introduction for the uninitiated, as well as a welcome souvenir for the experienced. Warm, potent, invigorating and liberating--it’s difficult to imagine a better live band existing this side of the Sahara.

If you only buy one multi-disc set by soul legends whose work spans seven decades, make it this one.

This is an exquisite interpretation of an exceptional album.

Mind-blowing on any level. Colossally vital.

It’s a stunning record – from the album artwork down to the perfectly-weighted running order, nothing is out of place and nothing jars. Matt Berninger didn’t want to write a solo record. But thank god he did.

Mavis Staples is an international musical treasure, and here you’ll find the recordings that cemented her standing as a living legend.

Not just a compilation, not even just a big compilation, The Roaring Forty is a moving trawl through the life and times of an extraordinary artist who has never stood still.

Latest must-have. .... Not only are most of these renditions drastically different to the originals, Young blends one reimagined song into the next without any pause, producing less of a medley than an epic, multipart ballad. When he’s gone, none will replace him.

Bird changed up the backing group from his previous three records and picked a producer he worked with during 2005 solo breakthrough, The Mysterious Production Of Eggs. The result of all this makes Are You Serious arguably his best, at least since Eggs.

It’s one of those evocative retrospectives whose true worth exceeds monetary value. ... American Dreamer spotlights an uncompromising visionary who created music on her own terms and paved the way for Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush and Tori Amos and many more of today’s female singer-songwriters.

Black Rainbows magnificently roars around garage rock, jazz and even, on Erasure, Black Flag hardcore. Better still, Before The Throne Of The Invisible God is a heavenly soul-psych masterpiece, equally Sly Stone, Prince and Billie Holliday. It’ll continue to uncover fresh layers of magic for years, while being enticing from the off.

Iechyd Da is his masterpiece, start to finish.

Give yourself over to what’s not only a 21st-century masterpiece, but also something timeless that will resonate whenever you find it.

More than the sum of its parts. ... In returning to half-finished songs of the past with the renewed verve of the present, Callahan is constructing a future that looks likely to provide some of his best work.

All 11 tracks are evocative and addictive.

Recorded last year at Bestival on the Isle Of Wight, the band are as tight as ever; they’re clearly having a ball.

One of Will Oldham’s strongest albums in recent times, if not ever. .... It’s thoughtful, beautiful fare, along with a few singalong stormers (Mama, Mama will get a crowd swaying at 30 paces) as you’d expect from Oldham, but it’s in the lyrics that he succeeds in his desire for self-reflection.

It’s worth reminding yourself that the swarming deeps, lo-fi thumbprints and careworn erudition of Bowler Hat Soup--released in a limited run of 500 vinyl copies--would represent a career-best achievement for a preternatural craftsman of any age.

Evocative and enriching, Tiersen’s Eusa is a faultless work.

It is simply one of the most beautiful records ever made and anyone who hasn’t experienced it needs to stop reading and do so immediately. But for those of us who have, while they have already heard the best possible version of No Other (as we tend to learn from all box sets of this ilk, the best version got released), in these newly-discovered versions there is much to learn about and love.

Everything here is on point; every single element is executed with a stupefying mastery. Soaring strings, luxurious French horn, jangled distortion and purgative, unhinged vocals; all these things fuse together with glorious consequences. Utterly exceptional.

It can only tower when it comes to naming this decade’s great albums; miles above and light years ahead of anything else.

This is a proper major work, revealing an artist at ease with himself without resting on his laurels. In short, it is the sound of confidence. A Kind Revolution could well be Paul Weller’s greatest album to date.

This is no stop-gap, contract filler of a record but rather a perfectionist giving a great album the full workout it deserved.

It’s a dense, lengthy work (at 71 minutes the longest studio album of her career). Only one song, the ecstatic, pulsating techno of Sue Me, is likely to work on the dancefloor. Yet the errant, raucous confluence of sounds and styles has a homogeneity that works to create a beguiling, and ultimately hugely rewarding whole.

As Light Return pushes The Telescopes’ sound to newer, often much darker places. It’s a bracing and occasionally totally disarming listen, but utterly compelling throughout.

Despite the great weight of hype, Tame Impala have evolved into a satisfyingly altered form, both alien and humming.

Loose but not chaotic, Set Fire To The Stars has a poetic grace more than worthy of its subject.

With no hint of hype (but a lot of alliteration), The Usual Suspects is perhaps chef Wobble’s most appealing musical smorgasbord to date. It’s rare for one album to evince comparisons to both Lee Perry and Lalo Schifrin in style, or to Lonnie Liston Smith, Eddie Van Halen and Keith Moon with its musicianship.

Badbea fair glows with uncomplicated affirmations, literally buzzing with Collins’ unique wasp-tone guitar interjections--a sound that no one else has come close to approximating.

Their best--and most radical-sounding--LP to date.

This is their finest work to date.

Crowell continues to stake his claim as one of the genre’s most learned and accomplished performers, and if there is a gripe it’s that, at 11 tracks, the party’s over way too soon.

Those more straightahead tunes hint a sonically-reduced winter could be coming, but right now bask in i,i’s deep autumnal glow.

It’s fine for the moment and could even earn Krell the spotlight he craves, but when that fad ends, only the smart will survive and graduate to longer term success. Expect to see his mortarboard first and highest up in the air.

Movies are the best comparisons as Faun Fables’ dark yet beautiful songs are utterly cinematic.

The country-rock songwriting tones of Tired Of Being Alone and Falling Into The Sun are rich and expansive, the themes of finding comfort and purpose in middle-age – whether through rekindled romance (I Left A Light On, I Will Love You), artificial means (Self-Sedation) or self-reflection (Middle Of My Mind) – ring true, and big emotions continue to be captured, seemingly without effort, on their canvas.

He’s painstakingly conceived a uniquely personal concept which, for the first time, includes creating new music for the project.

Ray Davies’ dreams and reality combine to make Americana an absorbing listen. Just touching an hour in length, it is as curious and rewarding as anything he has ever done.

A long overdue return, and well worth the wait.

It’s a consistent and often stirring effort, with Liebling in particular sounding on fine form.

Ditching everything he’d been working on, Carr launched himself into New Shapes Of Life, his finest work since The Boo Radleys.

What strikes you as the cast of thousands run through the Guthrie repertoire on these three discs is just how singable they were--Woody played fast and loose with his melodies, but his words still score and sear.

Even kids who don’t like rock’n’roll might find this infectious invitation hard to resist.

Spoon have been together for over 20 years now, yet it’s clear from this ninth full-length that their inspiration remains plentiful. In fact, Hot Thoughts is a surge of vivid creativity that veers between straightforward indie-pop and more experimental art pop.

Throughout, they’ve remained a surprising and, more importantly, single-minded unit.

Cool Ghouls have a very thorough grasp of how psych should be repackaged for today. Animal Races offer harmony-laden 60s folk-rock with a slight slacker feel, not unlike Quilt.

Smash The System is another complex smorgasbord that fans of Haines’ music and sense of humour will lap up. And that non-concept thing might just be another arch attack.

The rave presets of old will appease older fans while the more intricate synth work will satisfy more recent converts. Still, it’s the deeper tunes here that point to an intriguing future.

While the cynical may snigger behind their hands at this degree of conceptualisation, it makes for a suprisingly tight, focused release.

There’s an easy charm about the whole project that lends it a robust confidence.

Between its open-skied romanticism and thorny honesty, Stars’ sustained momentum seems assured.

A thoughtful and subtle gem.

With the cleaner production (and techno wizard Trentemøller’s post-production) serving to highlight rather than smooth its bristling urgency and naked emotion, it seems destined to win hearts and minds.

While the relaxed vibe is continuous, the music isn’t repetitive but there’s nothing really new here: rather it’s an extension of what Sade’s band Sweetback and trumpeter Roy Hargrove’s RH Factor were doing well over a decade ago. Even so, it’s an enthralling fusion of sounds and styles.

End-times prophecies have always been a part of Gorillaz’s world view, but here Damon Albarn’s lyrics allude to personal burnout. There’s something poignant about hearing Stevie Nicks’ weathered voice twin itself to Albarn’s while singing about reaching a place “when you can’t help yourself anymore and the madness come”.

The result perhaps misses the conceptual cogency of earlier Tree peaks. But it doesn’t want for controlled reach. Over a tight 48 minutes, C/C weds a reinvigorated affirmation of band identity to expansive energies, all to confident effect: “The sum of all, of new and old,” as Wilson’s lyrics put it.

Mug Museum emerges as another low-key intelligent pop gem from Le Bon.

As you’d expect, plucking the most successful songs from their respective albums and reconfiguring them has both an impressive cumulative effect and sets them in a new context. But fans will have all of this music already. The real interest comes with what else is in the package.

Understandably ruminative in nature, it’s a renewed sense of creative vigour which provides the driving force on a piece of work which stands among the composer’s best.

Non-Believers offers up a more fragile, exposed side of the songwriter. While the catchy, jangly hooks that have defined Superchunk for so long are present on these 10 tracks, they feel more tentative, gentle--even slightly unsure of themselves.