This Vancouver quartet have untied that Gordian knot and created something startling, combining monodrama scripts, non-linear broken glass bottle musical atmospherics and historical sample that dance into the sons like some sort of living theatre. Print edition only

Delayed following his recent stroke, Michael Kiwanuka’s fifth album presents the singer at his rawest

The whole thing is biblically, sometimes exhaustingly epic, but a timely reminder of Iommi's pioneering musicianship. Print edition only

As dark chroniclers of their age, Fontaines D.C. are here to illuminate the gloom

She might feel off-centre, but these songs expertly hit their emotional targets. Print edition only

A bit of a downer, but those who have found their way to Thompson's songs - via Fairport, or fellow travellers like Robyn Hitchcock, Tom Verlaine, Bob Mould, Pere Ubu, R.E.M. and now The Tubs - will know how intoxicating his kind of gloom can be. Print edition only

Despite the no-nonsense title, Don Not Dare To Dream isn’t a bleak record: these warm, intuitive songs just know that glossy perfection isn’t necessarily the shape a happy life takes. It might be good to talk, but as Teenage Fanclub prove at this stage in their career, listening can be just as therapeutic

Exhausting, but that's the point. Print edition only

Don't miss where Freeman goes next. Print edition only

Best of all is waltz-time ballad In And Out Of Love, one of Marr's best solo songs, in which his yearning vocal underlines the fact he now as much of an accomplished singer as near-peerless guitarist. Print edition only

Artful, affecting third album. Print edition only

The Gem quietly dazzles. Print edition only

This earhole-scouring noise isn't for everyone. But if you possess the itch Pugnello satisfies, you'll scratch 'til you bleed. Print edition only

The vulnerability here only grounds the inventiveness of Diamond's brashly primitive multihyphenate sounds, and never smothers the manic, lo-fi funk that makes this such an addictive treat. Print edition only

More considered, sure, but still unstoppable. Print edition only

Laus circles the dynamics of her electrifying debut Fake It Flowers, but never quite recaptures its precise power. Print edition only

A miraculous return

A masterpiece of melancholia

Second Song is comfortably his best since the molten sprawl of 2012’s Psychedelic Pill, the last hurrah of Poncho Sampedro-era Crazy Horse. Print edition only

Ingenuousness bordering on whimsicality is certainly the album's hallmark. Print edition only