We all love a surprise collaboration, and this month’s new music survey has thrown up some particularly intriguing combinations: there’s Cillian Murphy guesting with The Coral, Nick Cave and Debbie Harry covering a rare Jeffrey Lee Pierce song, Laura Marling’s LUMP giving a Elizabeth Fraser an electro makeover, Ride’s Andy Bell remixing Dot Allison, and The Chemical Brothers enlisting the services of French psych-pop singer Halo Maud. Everyone sounds like they’re having a ball, as you can hear below.

There’s also a pell-mell new single from Blur, the long-awaited return of Slowdive, a gripping Animal Collective epic, and a tonne of other great tunes that we guarantee will make the daily grind a little more bearable…

BLUR
“St. Charles Square”
(Parlophone)

THE CORAL
“Oceans Apart feat Cillian Murphy”
(Run On Records)

MARGO CILKER
“Keep It On A Burner”
(Loose)

FAYE WEBSTER
“But Not Kiss”
(Secretly Canadian)

NICK CAVE & DEBBIE HARRY
“On The Other Side”
(Glitterhouse)

VERA SOLA
“Desire Path”
(City Slang)

BEVERLY GLENN-COPELAND
“Stand Anthem”
(Transgressive)

WOODS
“Between The Past”
(Woodsist)

SLOWDIVE
“Kisses”
(Dead Oceans)

SUN’S SIGNATURE
“Bluedusk (LUMP Remix)”
(Partisan)

PETER GABRIEL
“So Much (Dark-Side Mix)”
(Real World)

ALABASTER DePLUME
“Did You Know (feat. Momoko Gill, MettaShiba)”
(International Anthem)

JOHN RAYMOND & S CAREY
“Calling”
(Libellule Editions)

CARLOS NIÑO & FRIENDS
“Flutestargate”
(International Anthem)

MAROULITA DE KOL
“The Youniverse”
(Phantom Limb)

GOAT
“Jazzman”
(Rocket Recordings)

DOT ALLISON
“Unchanged (GLOK Remix)”
(Sonic Cathedral)

THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS
“Live Again (featuring Halo Maud)”
(EMI Virgin)

TRAYSH
“Paint Sink”
(Husky Pants)

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
“Defeat”
(Domino)