Dick Diver Melbourne, Florida

Recorded in Apollo Bay with the perennial Mikey Young at the helm, Melbourne, Florida is Melbourne quartet Dick Diver's third full-length outing, after the highly-praised New Start Again (2011) and Calendar Days (2013) albums, both of which scored high on many end-of-year polls. It's a wide-ranging and diverse album, simultaneously smoother and more eccentric than their previous world-conquering efforts: there's a horn section, there's a Tears For Fears-style synth ballad (Percentage Points), and there's even a song co-written with a bona-fide poet.

First single Waste The Alphabet, written by guitarist Al McKay with renowned Australian poet Michael Farrell, is a short, sharp pop attack which premiered in December on The Fader, and blazed its way across the internet like a shooting star. On Melbourne, Florida, Dick Diver have really stretched out, creating a bigger, broader Australian sound, one with a foot still entrenched in their musical roots (Go-Betweens, Television, Flying Nun bands, etc.), but one which will undoubtedly find them a wider audience. The band will be touring on the record, you can expect major coverage from the music press, Triple J, community radio, blogs etc., and this one is sure to wind up on many Best Of polls come this December.