While 2008′s debut affair We Brave Bee Stings was all wide-eyed and tingling senses, synapses firing at new experiences and possibilities, this is a true follow-up, way more wistful, with hindsight the order of the day. This is an album that’s learnt its lessons, but without getting maudlin; it’s a bit more worldly-wise, but not quite yet world-weary. It was out in the States a few months ago, but it’s also my runaway favourite of all the long-players on the shelves over here this week.

Much as is the way for the singles, this seems to be a week of some fairly high-value releases on the album front, with follow up albums from Vampire Weekend (the feverishly anticipated and thoroughly leaked Contra) and These New Puritans (the stringtastic Hidden), as well as Minor Love, the long overdue new long-player from Adam Green and Acolyte, the super-hyped debut from Manchester bleep outfit Delphic. In the less travelled (though well-blogged) corners of the shelves though, other little gems dwell in the shape of albums from The Irrepressibles, Neon Indian and the excellent Erland And The Carnival (pictured).

I first came across Plan B as part of that whole grime explosion from a few years ago, when Lethal Bizzle was seeing “Pow!” banned from clubs because it caused violence where before there was only calm, when Dizzee was about as far from pop as it was possible to be, and when Plan B was getting busy deeply upsetting everybody with some of the most viscerally raw lyrics ever delivered by anyone, anywhere. 2006′s Who Needs Actions When You Got Words LP was full of some properly grim tales, and it was titanically, horrifyingly, and thrillingly dark – the end of “Rakin’ The Dead” will probably remain one of the finest, funniest and most fucked-up moments in British hip-hop history. It was an eye-opener and no mistake.

There’s some solid hipster names out on the shelves this week knife-fighting for your recessionary 7″ hard-earned, including White Rabbits‘ excellent “Percussion Gun”, Fyfe Dangerfield (off of The Maccabees) and his entertaining “She Needs Me” and the twitchy goodness of Good Shoes‘ “Under Control”. All worthy choices, we feel – but this week’s headgear gets tipped towards San Francisco’s 60s-tinged garage psychers The Fresh And Onlys, Chicago’s noisy and bombastic Campfires, and the flat-out fucking brilliant Sheffield kids Standard Fare (pictured), who I fell a little bit in love with in the space of about thirty seconds.

It’s been a long time cooking, but as with all eagleowl fare, their latest dish is best eaten slowly, savoured at leisure, and served when it’s icicle cold outside. If only all records at Christmas sounded like this.

Imagine you hadn’t seen an old friend for years and suddenly, after only hearing quick bursts of what they were up to through other friends, they resurface. Naturally, you invite them out, and when you meet, you grin – because you’re quite excited and pleased to see them – and your friend smashes you over the head with a bar stool, sets fire to the curtains and leaps headfirst out of the window into traffic. Welcome to the ridiculously late Comanechi debut LP – it’s been too long in coming, it’s a ridiculously challenging listen, but it’s chuffing amazing. Welcome back.

Maybe out of a sense of blessed release after this week’s Album Of The Week, but I’ve found myself loving this. Not sure if that’s a sensible thing listening to Comanechi followed by Blue Roses repeatedly, though. It’s like sitting in a room and turning the lights on and off and on and off and on and off. Can’t be good for you, right? This is though, it’ll make you all warm and nostalgic and pleased with yourself.

I really, really hate Christmas. I can’t tell you how much. Just writing that I hate Christmas makes me hate it even more. Not because of the nature of Christmas itself, you understand, but because it has the effect of turning everyone in the world into a drooling, fat fucking idiot for about six straight weeks, and I end up running around trying to avoid the trouble they all cause me. In a roundabout way, this then is why the release list this week is just a list, and everything else is late. “Bah, humbug” just doesn’t seem enough, somehow.

There’s been a fair bit of blog buzz from LA about Jail Weddings, and not just because it’s a shit-why-didn’t-I-think-of-that GREAT name for a band. More out of curiosity than anything, I got hold of their Inconvenient Dreams mini-album (out 30th Nov over here), but I’ve had it on – loudly – at least once a day ever since.

A good spread hits the tables today, with platters served up by Beans On Toast and Sparrow & The Workshop, as well as a fair load of other stuff to expand that oversized room full of vinyl you just can’t help adding to.

Yeah, yeah, the album’s been out for ever, and no, there’s nothing new on here that’s not on the LP. Doesn’t mean this won’t stroll home with Single Of The Week, though.

There’s a lot of looking backwards this week, with Slow Club covering songs from the 1960s, Twin Atlantic sounding like Hundred Reasons from the early noughties, Sennen sounding a bit like a shoegaze band from the early nineties and Elizabeth Frazer sounding nothing like one (despite being in one at the time) and Johnny Flynn doing his medieval troubadour thing. Mcfly? McFly? Hello?

Jonas Stein – while he and Be Your Own Pet were all still employed – used to keep Turbo Fruits as a side-project, and occasionally roped in BYOP members for band duties. Their first self-titled outing, back in 2007, was a scrappy little terrier of an album, a gleefully messy affair; this time out, as a full-time gig, they’ve managed to keep the charm, but they’ve ramped the tunes well up to eleven and beyond.

Although I’m a bit giddy for Turbo Fruits this week, there’s also some other ear-catching releases this week on the racks of your local independent record store, including cuts from Acrylics, The Millipedes, and Head Of Light Entertainment, who’s sitting over there in the picture with such excellent posture.

Cor, these don’t along very often. What a blimming little cracker this is, all lo-fi Wall Of Noise and stuff. Fucking fantastic.

As well as Spectrals’ single of the week, there’s the usual rash of aural novelties out there on the shelves this week, with new jingles from the likes of Kurran & The Wolfnotes, Fool’s Gold, Peggy Sue, the Jon-Fratelli-featuring Codeine Velvet Club, Jamie T, and the snappily-named An Experiment On A Bird In The Air Pump – that’s them glaring at you over there on the left.

For those of you old enough to remember, the year 2000 wasn’t exactly a vintage for music. Just like we were supposed to, we’d partied like it was the year before, then met up when fully grown, but the soundtrack for the new millennium hadn’t quite got itself together yet. Meanwhile though, in Dallas, Tim DeLaughter had a plan. Over the coming couple of years, while The Strokes arrived, while The Libertines crashed on board, and while guitars became the new hip-hop, up popped the peculiar, the multitudinous and the downright crackers Polyphonic Spree. 2002′s ‘The Beginning Stages Of…’ was a record like damn near no other at the time, full of joy, optimism, euphoria and a thousand wide-pupilled faces, grinning at you like goons. Without ever becoming a huge fan, I nevertheless remember exactly where I heard The Polyphonic Spree for the first time. So, anyway, I’m still very fond of them, and they’ve just stuck a new demo online and it’s amazing.