Circle

Despite drug battles and internal strife, Jeff Tweedy's band sound newly liberated

Early, lunatic work by Japanese gods

Exquisitely frosted debut from Toronto's Tony Dekker

This belated sequel to 2002's triple-album retrospective Love God Murder features 18 songs that might easily have fitted under one or another of that set's individual headings. Not, perhaps, "Murder"—the only death here is that of the Native American hero of Peter LaFarge's "Ballad Of Ira Hayes", a war hero allowed to fall into alcoholism and ignominy after he'd helped raise that iconic flag at Iwo Jima—but certainly "Love" and "God".

Third album from Scottish indie four-piece has roughly accurate title

Superior then-and-now compilation ensures the circle remains unbroken

First UK release from powerful and strange Michigan singer-songwriter

Cracking mod anthology from former NME receptionist and erstwhile chum of Paul Weller

Grim post-Taliban tale from Afghanistan

Latest album from lowa-based erudite John Darnielle