Put simply: there isn't a bad track on 'Blood Mountain', which will be seen as the metal release of this year, on whichever level you care to mention.

Sigur Ros do this better than anyone else right now.

A great release from a great new talent, Kano has the words and the beats to deliver.

It's every bit as essential as any of its predecessors; completely essential, in other words.

Like The Polyphonic Spree stripped of all their faux compound dwelling arse wittery, this is an unambiguous shot of serotonin straight to your head and heart.

This is a record for the late night after a later one; the cauterised throat, the yellow of the reading lamp, and the restless shifts in twisted sheets.

The album sees the band moving on from the Libertines-aping chord structures of their debut and pushing in new directions.

If you like your dance music jerky, nasty and just a little bit angry, Death From Above are your boys.

Distant connections are subconsciously weaved into an undulating whole that fans of electronica, Tortoise and Mogwai will all appreciate - at least in parts.

Mostly, it's Chan's wonderfully bold and understated piano and guitar work that makes 'You Are Free' what it is, a collection of shapely and becoming lo-fi oddities.

'Rooty' isn't going to change your world - 'Remedy' did that - but it is another indispensable, truly, properly, madly inventive and utterly enjoyable album of the sort that, at the moment, only Basement Jaxx make.

A tour de force of infectious acid techno and head-rush-inducing electroclash and, as likely as not, this year's essential dance purchase.

If there's a main criticism of this record then it's the fact that it's not entirely cohesive.

'Silent Alarm' is a brilliantly accomplished art rock record that immediately immerses you in a world of taut, late 80s post-punk, melodic indie. It rarely lets up.

There are moments of prog rock, jazz fusion and freakydelia in this rush of ideas and if that sounds awful then don't be put off. Instead of the shambolic mess that this kinda influence normally entails Mars Volta have come strictly disciplined.

Admittedly, this time round he's prone to touch on more comfortable territory than before... but often there's a delicious sense of him going back to basics without sacrificing the benefits of modern technology.

Akin to Bowie's 'Hunky Dory', in its senseless but brilliant eclecticism.

There is just enough balance between the tune, and the unexpected jazz chords, ear-splitting squeals, and lovely harmonic noises to make it forever listenable.

Elbow have made the most passionate, beautiful and downright special record you'll hear this year.

'Rather Ripped' is the most accomplished and mature album Sonic Youth have done in years.

A decade after he first set an impossibly hard act to follow, Jarvis Cocker has returned with an album that knocks not only his ageing contemporaries, but many of his descendents, for six.

It’s this rediscovery of how to make pop music with loud guitars and peculiar sounds which makes Kaito so fresh.

Yes, there is a lot in the way of failing relationship therapy on here, but when it's done with such eloquence and downright elegance it'd be churlish to treat it with the disrespect more easily afforded to music's legions of professional disenchanteds.

This album is sublime.

This is better than anyone could have expected.

'Aerial' towers over the vast majority of even this year's embarrassment of riches.

No-one makes gizmos and machines prong like fruity tuning forks as well as this man, nor do they construct such vivid atmospherics with such cunning simplicity.

He lays bare pissed-off tantrums and his emotion through a burgeoning self-belief and raw musicality to create his endearingly bittersweet masterpiece.