STOP THE PRESS.

This is the first we’ve heard from Alt-J since they won 2012 in every conceivable sense. Their debut An Awesome Wave was a critical and commercial success as well as wooing fans across the globe, and ‘Breezeblocks’ was easily the biggest song since ‘Little Lion Man’, sailing proudly through that year as king of the airwaves. But no matter. It’s now 2014, and Alt-J are back.

The band recently announced new album This Is All Yours, slated for a 22 September release. And today, they let loose our ravenous little ears upon first single ‘Hunger Of The Pine’. It’s accessible, atmospheric, and samples Miley Cyrus. As first singles go, it’s pretty great. Apparently, it’s about how the feeling of pining for someone or something can build up inside you like a physical pain, like a hunger - kind of like how we feel about this album.

September can’t come soon enough.

Gang Of Youths describe their musical style as ‘EMOTIONAL-ASS, 10-TRACK CONCEPT ROCK’. The caps are theirs - their entire Facebook page is written in them. The Sydney-based band have forged themselves an upfront, no-holds-barred image, and latest single ‘Poison Drum’ fits right into it. Bouncy drums, shaggy guitars and a fervent and fearless vocal performance are shaken up and poured over the ears like the best improvised cocktail you ever heard.

Earlier this year, the band were on the road supporting The Jezabels, before headlining their own Australian tour. They just announced that they’ll be supporting Foster The People for a series of Splendour sideshows, and their very own debut album should be ready for release by the end of the year. Gang Of Youths are most definitely a band to watch, and ‘Poison Drum’ will be shaking about in your head until they’re filling stadiums - and...

Seinabo Sey hails from Stockholm and has a knack for writing killer tunes. First single ‘Younger’ made serious waves in 2013, eclipsed only by a smooth-as-anything Kygo remix of the same. She’s back at it with the recent release of ‘Hard Time’, which puts her powerful soul-pop vocals front and centre.

The track is a punchy and uncompromising tale of the shifting power relationships between lovers. It’s accompanied by a visceral music video that juxtaposes the ordinary with the catastrophic, from a cat messily lapping up milk to a wave of ink crashing over the roofs of a city. Sey warns of the permanence of the largest and the smallest decisions in love - ‘forgive and forget’ just isn’t how it works.

Caribou, aka Dan Snaith, has been silent since 2010, and the world has been holding its breath. But as of this month, he’s back, announcing new album Our Love for a 7 October release and sharing new tune ‘Can’t Do Without You’. It’s lyrically simple, but its slow-building groove is addictive as anything, and the track’s vibe is as colourful as the cover art leads you to expect.

Your head will bop. There’s no fighting it.

Since 2013’s stunning I Love You., The Neighbourhood have been expanding on and experimenting with their distinctive sound. They have always borne the mark of vocalist Jesse Rutherford’s hip-hop background, but ‘Jealou$y’ is the first time they’ve released a rap song proper.

I won’t pretend to have much insight into the lyrics, but the beats and synths are tight, and the rapped and sung vocals contrast nicely. As always, the sax is my favourite part. Let’s face it, the sax is everyone’s favourite part.

In the last year I’ve noticed that my music taste has developed into a sort of three-pronged trident. By that vague and unnecessary metaphor I mean only that there seem to be three distinct kinds of sound I keep returning to: whenever I listen to something new and like it, odds are it fits into one of the three.

The first features a smooth bed of electronic or heavily-produced sounds coupled with striking, soulful vocals. Sometimes they also feature a little bit of sax. Or a lot. This category spans everyone from Chet Faker to London Grammar to Phoria, and also includes this fresh Sampha/SBTRKT collaboration.

The second is characterised by honest guitar bands writing straightforward indie rock songs. Inventive and unpretentious are not mutually exclusive, and songs that emphasise this with catchy, original songwriting and unreserved energy have been catching my attention. The best...

Sounding like something the Breakfast Club might have danced along to after a cup of tea or two, Arkells’s ‘Come To Light’ is an old-school rocker.

Lyrically, the track is inspired by the moment of respite found under an underpass when driving in the pouring rain: those few seconds in which you can hear one another speak before plunging back into the fray. The words are brought to life in the song’s striking lyric video, which can be seen below. Musically, the track is more breathless than breather, with big piano chords punctuating an anthemic chorus.

High Noon will come to light in August. Prepare yourselves.

This is a song recorded three years ago by a band who don’t even play together anymore - but it’s still kind of new, I promise.

Mink Mussel Creek features Tame Impala mastermind Kevin Parker on drums and Pond frontman Nick Allbrook on “vocals etc”. The band were making buzz around Perth in 2007 and 8 with the sort of wonky psychedelic rock that the above mentioned bands got famous with later. In 2011 they recorded an album (Mink Mussel Manticore), but kind of forgot to release it. As you do. Anyway, it’s out now, and the band has been promoting the chaotic 14-minute ‘They Dated Steadily’ as the first single.

Never mind what ‘most bands’ do.

Morningsiders might just be the most adorable bunch of New Yorkers ever to make sounds together. A foursome of very recent Columbia graduates, they bring together classical instrumentation (and a uke, of course) and a distinctly modern flair to make unpredictably delightful folk-pop.

If you love ‘Riptide’ but kind of wish Vance Joy would change it up rhythmically sometimes, Morningsiders will probably be your thing. If double bass and trumpet kind of turn you on, Morningsiders will probably be your thing.

Get into it.

“This is a song about somebody else”.

One of my favourite recent finds, Fink’s ‘Looking Too Closely’ builds a castle on a muted guitar strum. Fin Greenall’s earthy vocals draw you into what might have been a break-up song, but turns out to be a tense comment on self-perception. As the music unfolds around him, Greenall offers a heartfelt warning to the man in the mirror that if he looked back he might not like what he saw.

Album Hard Believer is out 14 July.