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After almost splitting following their third album ‘Tonight’, Franz Ferdinand are back from the brink and brimming with fresh rock vigour. We talk them through the dark days, the fights, the remote band summits and the rejuvenated love for their music – and each other – that led to their “invigorated” fourth album ‘Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action’. Plus we interview the woman who saved the band!

Arcade Fire lift the lid on the weird numerology, Bowie guest spots, anonymous gigs and cryptic graffiti that have made their new album ‘Reflektor’ the most hotly-anticipated album of the year. But why did they want to make it “unlistenably long”?

As you pick the dried mud off your Docs and pack up the wet-wipes for another year, we conduct the ultimate festival survey of 2013 – which band was best? Who put on the most spectacular stage show? Which drugs were you on? And what were the most entertaining toilet moments?

Georgian rockers Baroness relive the terrifying moment that their tourbus brakes failed on a West Country hill, sending them hurtling off a viaduct towards almost certain death. Miraculously, they survived to tell the tale, and make their celebrated comeback; true survivors and a band Metallica describe as “fucking next level”.

From her traumatic childhood beginnings in an abusive Pentecostal cult, Angel Haze charts her progress into one of hip-pop’s brightest and most visceral talents and reveals how her turbulent debut album ‘Dirty Gold’ – recorded alongside Grimes and Kanye collaborators – will expose her to be more rocker than rapper. We discuss her parent troubles, suicidal tendencies, self-harming fans and the romantic split that spurred her on to greatness.

Having given away chart-quaking smash ‘I Love It’ to Icona Pop, Charli XCX is preparing for her own overnight success story while also writing for Britney, Rita Ora and Danny Brown. We find out what it’s like to be a 21-year-old songwriting sensation and how she’s making “a shout, fight, fuck record”.

Eleanor Friedberger steps out of the Fiery Furnace! An unheard Joy Division tape uncovered! Jarvis’ fiftieth celebrated in fifty fun facts! Why Kanye shouldn’t have played for a dictator! The Strypes unveil their most influential musical moments! And Kings Of leon’s ‘Mechanical Bull’, The Weeknd, Chvrches, Placebo, Babyshambles, The Julie Ruin, Fuck Buttons, Bjork, QOTSA and Palma Violets reviewed!

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