Sometimes words can't do justice to the beauty music can evoke. You have to experience it for yourself. At the very least, I don't consider myself a good enough writer to do so. Tonight at the Sydney Opera House brings me one such moment, where UK songstress Laura Marling embraced a sold out crowd performing her latest record A Creature I Don't Know in full (for the first time), and a second set of favourites from her first two records.

Not a cloud could be found as we made our way to the St Jerome's Laneway Festival in Sydney. Indeed, the sun had come out to play on a typically beautiful Sydney summer day (which we haven't seen much of this year); a stark contrast to the weather of last year and a very welcome start to what would be a stellar day of music.

The mercurial Laura Marling charmed The Forum Theater in one of the finest performances I’ve seen in... ever, really.

With the festival circuit getting increasingly competitive, reports of poor sound engineering and set delays could never be more damaging, however with an incredibly soggy lead up to the Brisbane leg of Laneway Festival, these problems were disappointing but not surprising. The festival organisers did well to ensure that all stages would be undercover, but unfortunately our dry vintage threads came at the cost of sound quality and atmosphere as we were herded into the RNA horse sheds.

"Holy shit" seems to be among the most commonly used words on the internet this morning with the announcement of the Coachella 2012 lineup.

We return with the next batch of our favourite albums of 2011...

Arctic Monkeys - Suck It and See

"Arctic Monkeys can do no wrong. Seriously. Even with a slightly more chilled out album than previous ones, it still rocks my socks." - Karina Carroll

Revered songstress LAURA MARLING has moved beyond her nu-folk tag with her highly-acclaimed new album “A Creature I Don’t Know” showing further depth and wisdom in her songwriting and lyricism. Hailed as NME’s Best Solo Artist and anointed Best British Female at the recent Brit Awards, LAURA MARLING’s star has well & truly risen at just 21 years of age.

And we're back! The video of the week was a bit of a no brainer. It belongs to Portland based Portugal. The Man, and their epic 13 minute music video "Sleep Forever / Got It All". It opens with the stunningly beautiful track "Sleep Forever", before leading into the current single "Got is All (This Can't Be Living Now)". All set it in the majesty of Alaska - from where the band originate.