65daysofstatic, the instrumentals-only post-rock experimental band from Sheffield, have suffered from the obsessive need to brand every supposed sub-genre of music when, in their case, they are much more than a math rock or glitch band. They are instead just courageous and adventurous, searching for new ways to put sounds together. Their strength and originality lies in the fact they escape categorisation and, as the good artists they are, re-invent themselves at every turn.

The canonical town-taming Western High Noon brought Gary Cooper the 1952 Academy Award for Best Actor (his second).

New Pornographer-in-chief AC Newman grew up enraptured by how much and how little pop could be: from David Bowie shucking skins to the rush of the Monkees’ “Daydream Believer”, to Pixies' boiling down of a song to three chords and a scream.

Rachid Taha, sadly felled by a heart attack just over a year ago, has come back from the dead! He could not sound more lively than on this vibrant posthumous offering, definitely not something cooked up from tasty leftovers, but a well thought-through album, which, in his usual vein, draws together the sounds of the Maghreb and rock’n’roll.

Keane were always the best of that post-millennium Coldplay crowd. Tim Rice-Oxley showed adult craft in his lyrics and keyboard textures on their 5 million-selling debut, Hopes and Fears, where the small-town specificity of Battle, Sussex’s biggest band lifted singer Tom Chaplin’s yearning. Six years after they effectively broke up, this fifth album’s title announces itself as a sequel, dissecting Rice-Oxley’s divorce (foreshadowed in 2012’s Strangeland) with forensic relish.

Liam Gallagher's 2017 solo debut, As You Were, took everybody by surprise. Not only did it show Gallagher Jnr to be still capable of capturing the public's imagination, but it also revealed him to be a much more capable writer than anyone had suspected. Two years on, things have (slightly) changed. Each song on Why Me? Why Not. has been co-written with a one or two superstar songwriters, leaving Liam to concentrate on his inimitable vocals.

Unsurprisingly, the basic formula remains the same. There may have been some tinkering around the edges - a little more classic rock and a fraction less Beatles - but anyone hoping for jazz saxophones or mandolins will be disappointed. What stops the record from descending into a stodgy Oasis homage is the excellence of Greg Kurstin and Andrew Wyatt’s production.

Opener "Shockwave" bursts out of the gates sounding like a close cousin to Oasis's "Lyla", and the album closes with the raw, woozy "Gone". The best tracks, though, aren't the hard-rockers, they're the quieter moments. "Alright Now" conjures up the spirit of George Harrison for a trippy journey through Liam's mind. Better still, is the Lennon pastiche "Once", whose heartfelt delivery somehow stops you bothering about the lack of originality. Even the spectacularly awkward lyrics (sample: "the freedom we want...feels so uncool/ just clean the pool/ send the kids to school") possess a strange charm.

Or at least they do if you buy into the idea of Liam exploring his vulnerable side. That was the basis of the recent documentary, As it Was, which portrayed Liam as a man down on his luck and being forced to grow up. The journey made him seem unexpectedly endearing. It's a similar story here. Why Me? Why Not. may be essentially flawed but it's still undeniably likeable.

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@russcoffey

Overleaf: Liam Gallagher's video for "One of Us"

Renée Zellweger already has strong musical cinema form, Her role as Roxie Hart in Chicago garnered her second Oscar nomination. However, playing and singing Judy Garland is a whole different ball game.

Swedish singer Tove Lo appeared at a time when female physical sexuality was being used as a raw, blunt weapon in pop, when porno chic reached an apex in music videos. Half a decade ago was the time of Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” and Miley Cyrus’s “Wrecking Ball”, thus Lo’s overt displays of sexual bravado seemed part of the same and she had big hits with songs such as “Habits (Stay High)” and “Talking Body”.  Her output since, however, has proved her sensual agenda to be more than a passing foible.

Mudhoney’s new album Morning in America is a strange beast. Made up of outtakes from last year’s Digital Garbage, a cover version and rerecorded versions of limited edition 7” singles, one look at the track listing suggests a second CD that might eventually accompany a reissue somewhere down the line. It also implies a release forced by contractual obligations or a cash-flow problem at their label, Sub Pop.

Charli XCX would make a cracking mixtape. I mean that not in the hip hop culture sense - although she’s knocked out a few of those in the five years since the release of Sucker, her last album proper - but like the mixtapes you used to make for your friends and crushes.