There's nothing like a songwriter on a hot streak. Brisbane sci-fi, hi-fi bandleader Lewis Stephenson has songs falling out of him right now. He's a Blade Runner, not a Replicant, out to terminate bands who are slaves to their influences. The debut album gives a sweaty, loved-up hug to the Madchester scene without becoming an Andrew Weatherall sycophant. Sorry To Say is a mantra, Caroline uses a girl's name as an adjective, Turn Down the Band rockets you across the dancefloor with your eyes closed, trusting in the kindness of strangers and the salvation of music. The Belligerents have a refreshing lack of cynicism, Flash provides a joyous, how-good-can-this-band-get? moment in a gloves-off, arms-up chorus.
/ MIKEY CAHILL

SOUNDS LIKE: Kasabian and Ariel Pink doing high kicks
IN A WORD: searing

Of course Neil Finn decided a complex and delicate album should be recorded live online one week and released the next. With choirs and composers on hand, Finn continues to be both McCartney and Lennon. Chameleon Days mixes a soulful falsetto with a touch of the dark majesty he mined on Private Universe. Love Is Emotional is all floaty harmonies and dreamy orchestration. See also More Than One Of You. And Independence Day. You get the picture. Second Nature is classy adult pop, Terrorise Me a tender tribute to Paris music lovers. When brother Tim surfaces (as seen on Facebook) on the stunning Alone it's another of those goosebump moments that occur when they get together.
/ CAMERON ADAMS

SOUNDS LIKE: four hours recording very well spent
IN A WORD: communal

A learned friend brought a French expression to my attention: "Trop de choix tue le choix" (Too much choice kills the choice). Let Beaches calm your farm. The Melbourne quintet have put out a double album that is a safe haven, a brain settler, a full wheel alignment over 76 gliding, gutsy minutes. Put on your headphones, flick ya phone to flight mode, drop out. Turning's hearty refrain "Ah ahh, ah ahh, ah ahh, hah hah, hahhh hahhh" is stunning/simple. There are Oz-rock, cosmiche, psych and tribal vibes grooving through a wall-of-sound the band manifests (with a bit of help from John Lee). You can actually feel your heart filling up with every chord on September, Arrow, and Walk Around. Get thee to The AMP Shortlist.
/ MIKEY CAHILL

SOUNDS LIKE: spring is sprung, the grass is riz
IN A WORD: choice

Together with Flume, Seattle's ODESZA ushered in a contra-EDM boom. They defeated brostep with melody, glitchy depth and abundant atmospherics. This second album proper doesn't signal a huge sonic advance, so much as some flexing (cue the bliss-co Late Night). Instead, the duo solicit the customary "name" guests otherwise absent from 2014's In Return. Still, their curation here is idiosyncratic, with Texan soulster Leon Bridges (the beat-switching Across the Room) and Regina Spektor. There are even Aussies, with Sydney band Mansionair (the synth-pop Line Of Sight) narrowly pipped by RY X, the surfie James Blake, on the triumphal Corners Of the Earth.
/ CYCLONE WEHNER

SOUNDS LIKE: cool summer
IN A WORD: raveheart