This Oregonian 38-year-old, perhaps best known as the "Him" to Zooey Deschanel's "She" (who guests here), hasn't reinvented any wheels with his seventh album.

If the term family festival conjures the unwelcome image of bouncy castles and entertainers, Camp Bestival might change your view.

ITTV is the third album from the Brighton duo of Laura-Mary Carter and Steven Ansell and, while they haven't quite justified their claim to have thrown away the rulebook, they're executing their spooked alt-rock with added poise and class.

Metronomy's third album wasn't just a huge success because of its summery feel – it also had killer tunes. Mainman Joseph Mount tells Gillian Orr his plans

The most memorable albums of the year, plus the top DVD releases

There may be more than a touch of end-of-tour high spirits, but Ireland’s current female star of gentle balladry is a revelation tonight, even to herself. “I don’t usually rock out with such force,” Lisa Hannigan explains as she ties back her unruly auburn locks once more.

War has always inspired great music, says Jessica Duchen, but since 9/11 classical has fallen behind pop in a world racked by conflict

Having ridden that iTunes advert to million-plus sales of 2007's The Reminder, Feist here cements her position as the poster-girl for intimate US indie rock, with songs that peel back the skin of the human condition.

Portishead's 1994 debut, Dummy, was so perfect it almost instantly became a cliché, a cul de sac they only escaped with 2008's aptly titled Third. But on the first night of a festival the Bristol band curated and headline, they dig deeper into songs it had seemed would bury them, expanding their sonic terrain of scratched hip-hop, vintage vinyl spookiness and Cold War spy movie cool, Billie Holiday and John le Carré.

Record-breaking star Adele will battle it out with two previous winners PJ Harvey and Elbow for this year's Barclaycard Mercury Prize.

The premature death of Poly Styrene is a sad occasion for anyone who knew her or was touched by the extraordinary music that she made under her own name and with her group X-Ray Spex, who, for a couple of years, were among the most innovative and trenchant of all the British punk groups.