Where the Fleet Foxes disc was 2008’s breakthough from indie to sort-of-mainstream sleeper, this year that privilege will go to Grizzly Bear. Grizzly Bear is a 4-piece Brooklyn-based band, with two songwriters (one of whom, Daniel Rossen, made what should have been the 2008 breakthough indie album, in his Department of Eagles side project). Veckatimest, named after a small island in Massachusetts, is a lovely thing if you give it time. Like a Beach Boys album (not one of the singles…) interpreted by Mercury Rev, Veckatimest relies on intricate melody, harmony, and sweet swooning. Following 2006’s indie favourite Yellow House, this follow-up loses a little of the intimacy, and gains more of a big album feel, in the same way that My Morning Jacket have perhaps lost. It is poppier, more mainstream-ready, so perhaps no surprise that its new-found fame is on the way. And, compared to so much else out there, this is a great record. It is hard to shake the feeling that there is a better album coming – combine half of Department of Eagles’ In Ear Park with half of this and it would be nigh-on perfect. As a whole, In Ear Park is the better album.

ACE rating 8/10

Half of this album is truly, genuinely great – hard to categorise, certainly, but the kind of ‘great’ that will draw in any weary music fan. A 3-piece from Portland, Oregon, 31 Knots make the kind of music that might break out if you let some literate musicians loose on a project to unite Talking Heads and Pavement (but with a great British vibe – some Chikinki, some Manc attitude). So, the half? Well, you need Certificate, Compass Commands, The Breaks, Strange Kicks (you really need this – it has the kind of shock that the first Muse album held within), and, erm… That’s it really. So, more like a third. The rest is freakier, more ‘out there’ than this reviewer could get into. It is musically sophisticated, challenging. If those four songs had comprised an EP, it would be the finest EP released this year. Fortunately, that makes it about £3 on iTunes, instead of the full £8. Strange Kicks may well be the coolest song you’ll hear for some time to come yet. As a four song EP, this would be 10/10, but the rating has to reflect the ‘hmmm, I know what you’re trying but it didn’t really come off’ rest. Still, rather some highlights than another Gary Go album.

ACE rating 7/10

The marketing for this album makes a lot of the ‘one man Coldplay’ quote from a review, and it is absolutely true that Gary Go sounds like Coldplay. Not the great Coldplay, though. The filler Coldplay, the stuff on the albums between In My Place and Clocks, the lukewarmPlay… With a Chris Martin voice (by nature or design is unclear). Gary Go has had a dramatic rise to fame, and after paying his dues in support of middle of the road acts like The Feeling, The Script and Amy McDonald, he is now out on tour supporting Take That, which is about right. This is lushly produced, nice and easy to listen to, the kind of album that would make no waves at all at an upper middle class dinner party (although Refuse To Lose sounds like it has a few mad moments where his rock side came out). Where this debut falls down is that it has no Yellow, no Trouble – no standout songs to make the filler bearable. Lush and lovely is fine, but it is hard to shake the feeling that Gary Go is a bit, well… Surrey.

ACE rating 6/10