FFS: FFS review – art rockers unite

Wit abounds on this Franz Ferdinand and Sparks team-up

Pins: Wild Night review – droney indie with a newly sharpened edge

Pins’ second album retains the druggy, droney indie sound of their debut, but sharpens and shines it all up a notch

Of Monsters and Men: Beneath the Skin review – Icelandic indie rock with a fairytale tinge

Chorus is heaped upon sing-along chorus in lyrics that play up their pastoral roots

The Bohicas review – sparky indie rock’n’roll

With their bluesy riffs and hurtling drums these Essex boys get you moving, but don’t go looking for hidden depths or variety

The Riptide Movement: Getting Through review – rousing blue-collar rock

Irish stars the Riptide Movement get a wider release for their second album of fist-pumping, beer-swilling rock anthems

Soak: Before We Forgot How to Dream review – delicate singer-songwriter debut

It doesn’t quite have the spark that some of her early EPs did, but the debut album by this Derry singer-songwriter has some fine moments

Ride review – this reunion lived up to expectations

Their songs sound more wistful but the Oxford quartet can be recognised for what they always were: a superior psychedelic pop band

The Vaccines: English Graffiti review – straightforward indie pleasures

The Vaccines don’t experiment – much – on their third album, but their familiar pithy guitar pop will please their loyal fans

Juan Wauters: Who Me? review – DIY acoustic folk of limited ingenuity

Uruguay-born Juan Wauters’ lo-fi folk songs have moments of clear-eyed observation, but often just feel apologetic and timid

The Great Escape festival review – unexpected new sounds thrill Brighton

A mesmerising Kate Tempest and Skepta and JME’s pulverising grime are highlights at the new-music festival

Torres: Sprinter review – astonishing, unsettling, beautiful

Torres combines a haunting melancholy with minimalism, to brilliant effect

Torres: Sprinter review – jolting, intimate stories set to 90s alt-rock

Mackenzie Scott’s intensely personal lyrics contain some real jolts, but the music behind them isn’t always as effective

Belle and Sebastian review – indie stalwarts get political in Westminster

Murdoch and co seem about to instigate Britain’s own velvet revolution, but their flimsy alt-pop and lacklustre disco takes time to build up steam

Happyness review – familiar but appealingly off-the-wall slacker-rock

Bermondsey’s Happyness make a racket clearly indebted to US bands such as Pavement and Built to Spill, but throw in a good few surprises, and do it all with warmth and humour

Joanna Gruesome: Peanut Butter review – Weird Sister minus the hooks

Alanna McArdle’s vocals go to waste on this lacklustre follow-up to their Welsh Music prize-winner