Album

Pure pop perfectionists have got a ticket to Ryde and they don't care

Final demos of Alabama's doomed blue-eyed soul boy

Telex chap's 1977 Moog-driven disco mini album

A concept album of sorts, the second solo release from the Mekons founder and Chicago-expat charts the rise and demise of honky-tonker Lofty Deeds as a metaphor for US history. Like all things Langford, though, it's not heavy-handed or portentous, the music rollicking like a midnight special braced against the hard wind of his uniquely British delivery.

Agonisingly slow metal rituals

Six-track EP from rising Nebraskan noiseniks

Kick-ass Kiwis make a blues-rock move with their second album

Oft-forgotten Parisian new-wavers' audacious synth-punk opus

Enjoyable survey of underrated Oxford trio's first decade

Brooklynite Jon DeRosa's outfit are deceptive. At face value, PHAR offer little more than a sad shuffle, the odd cracked waltz and scattered flurries of noise. But give it time and these trampled-heart melodies burrow under the skin. Last year's Uncut-endorsed These Are The New Good Times was DeRosa's stoned-slacker take on slo-mo country mores, but here he broadens the palette with the addition of Low collaborator Marc Gartman as co-songwriter and ex-Mercury Rev pedal-steeler Gerald Menke.