Who remembers Scouting for Girls? I’d subconsciously consigned them to the mists of time, but this week the internet tells me they have returned with a new album, Still Thinking About You. The sickly-sweet-indie-pop genre unfortunately faded from public love along with James Blunt, Jason Mraz and the mid-noughties, but if you’re still into that sort of thing then this is the album for you. Eight years since the release of their first album, the sound of the band hasn’t changed much at all. Some tracks are a little more self-indulgent than their old work, using thicker acoustic instrumentals and a slower pulse, and ‘Best Laid Plans’ provides a surprising solo interlude. But the lyrical content and general tone is basically identical: why not, when they sold so many records to teenage girls? It is easy to be rude about the band, the way they’ve spent the time since their last album being in their late 30s and writing music for One Direction and Five Seconds of Summer, or the perhaps premature release of 2013’s Greatest Hits. I won’t be rude. I recommend this album wholeheartedly as foot-tappingly happy and fairly musically accomplished. They’ve even included a Christmas track on the end. Bless them.

Meanwhile, the latest release from Nothing But Thieves shows the kind of music now being expected in the UK industry from boybands. This is the first full album release from the alternative rock band, and it’s seriously impressive. Having made their debuts on Radio 1 over the past few years, they’ve since supported Arcade Fire and George Ezra, and toured with Twin Atlantic. You may have heard some of their singles, ‘Trip Switch’, or ‘Graveyard Whistling’, but the album isn’t just an hour of the same identikit formula that made these tracks so successful. The band themselves admit to hating albums that repeat the same sound, a sentiment implied in their track ‘Ban All the Music’, which aims for something more ‘eclectic’. The sound is epic, with flashes of the symphonic sound and almost pained vocals that fill Muse or Radiohead’s early work. Other moments are more electric and drawled and make better use of bass lines, such as ‘Neon Brother’ and ‘Painkiller’. While reviews are split between unadulterated adoration and contempt, personally I believe among the raw instrumentals and bitter lyrics there’s something quite exceptional.

Finally, the most recent work, Lay Low, from French singer-actress and daughter of icon Jane Birkin, Lou Doillon. Her tracks are softly jazzy at points, but at others more upbeat and electro-acoustic, and it is a mixture that suits her style. Although she performs in English the sound draws from the French chanson tradition, which comes through in the half-spoken, half-sung lyrics in which she reflects on the epic loves and tribulations visited on her by lovers. Her voice is husky, but emotive and rich, adding to the cabaret vibe of tracks such as ‘Good Man’ and ‘Where to Start’. The lyrics betray a stirring vulnerability, as she softly scolds herself, “I’ve got to stop this obsession / I’ve got to remember my reason / And let the film roll without you”. It would be unfair to attribute fame or success to her because of the talent and cultural relevance of her parents, and this work proves she deserves recognition in her own right.