Sufjan Stevens: Javelin review – the triumphant culmination of an unpredictable career

Deceptively simple songs burst into epic passages and walls of sound, with lyrical twists to match, in a remarkable album released as its creator recovers from an autoimmune condition

Wilco: Cousin review – a band rediscovering their experimental side

Jeff Tweedy and co’s 13th album bears a close family resemblance to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but with Cate Le Bon in the producer’s chair, it has an appealing wash of left-field weirdness and its lyrics express an older man’s anxieties

The National review – euphoric catharsis from an era-defining band

Aided by a fanbase who joyfully sing every word, the Ohioans channel their full range of melancholy Americana and pulverising post-punk in a stunning two-and-a-half-hour epic

Bakar: Halo review – genreless British star is also directionless

With anaemic music and maudlin lyrics full of staid teen tropes, Bakar blandly tweaks the sensitive male pop singer mould

The National: Laugh Track review – second album of the year feels like a fresh start

The existential conundrums of a cast of sad-sack characters – including a shattering Phoebe Bridgers collaboration – build up in dread and anxiety toward an intense, teeth-baring pay off

Feist review – indie shapeshifter gets conceptual

Audacious, occasionally baffling stagecraft and much emotion act in tandem in a daring set in which the Canadian singer-songwriter goes rogue

Mitski: The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We review – a songwriter with stunning melodic power

Playing country-inflected orchestral pop with sardonic wit and deep feeling, Mitski underlines why she’s one of the very best singer-songwriters working today

Feist review – one of the best live shows of the year

The magnetic Canadian singer performs her perceptive songs of love and loss during a gig that is precisely choreographed but still feels intimate and vividly in the moment

The Coral: Sea of Mirrors review – their best album since their debut

Including a cameo from Cillian Murphy, the Merseysiders have concocted a twangy, dreamlike folk-rock sonic voyage through Britain in decay

End of the Road festival review – all killer no filler in a truly magical setting

Wilco and Future Islands share the same zealous audiences as newcomers Fat Dog and the Last Dinner Party in a carefully curated weekend of constant surprises

Wilco review – guitar fireworks fused with complex emotions

The still-startling sonics of Jeff Tweedy and his Chicago survivors keeps them sharp-edged as they return to their Americana roots

Slowdive: Everything Is Alive review – exquisite songs from the comeback kids of shoegaze

The band perfected their blend of dreamy guitar noise washes and indecipherable lyrics decades ago, and the latest example has plenty of haunting beauty

Boygenius review – emotional sucker-punches and superb harmonies

In their biggest show to date, Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus showcase a sisterly camaraderie and a trunk of crunchy indie songs

Be Your Own Pet: Mommy review – teen punks’ return is inventive and itchy with anger

(Third Man)The Nashville band split in 2008 but have come back tighter, more explicit and raging about the realities of adulthood

Boygenius review – Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus meet hysteria with humour

The US supergroup have legions of fans swooning – literally – as they crown a summer of female cultural-dominance with an epic outdoor show