Cry is pure from beginning to end and is a pleasant second instalment from the Texas three-piece.

‘What To Look For In Summer’ is an enchanting compendium of the bands live work and is an ideal accompaniment to spirit you away to those carefree summer days of enjoying live music.

It may be a lighthearted exercise in updating old pop bangers to suit a new style, Lovato’s career-spanning retelling is also an unexpectedly touching retrospective by the time it gets to the explosive rendition of ‘Don’t Forget’ that serve as a joyful end-credits.

There is a maturity to this album, however it is still uplifting and fun, to an extent. However, maturity can only take a band so far so we are hesitant to give them credit simply for ageing (and learning while doing so, of course). What we will say is that the brilliance of ‘Rushmere’ comes from the Mumford & Son’s sheer talent and hard work.

While the singles may be his most commercially appealing to date, he never once loses integrity or his aural signature as an artist.

In no way throwaway, this is a trip.

Simply a superb collection of beautifully captured moments and suggests that Mystery Jets are going to be making great music for a very long time.

Turn Blue is pure searing sexiness, hotter than a Nashville afternoon. Their best yet.

This is a career high from an artist about to reach his creative zenith.

A searing, soul-searching jewel.

An thrilling new chapter for old fans and an engaging entry point for new ones. Just don’t make us wait another four years next time.

The result is an album which moves on from ‘Hex Dealer’ but still provides the exhilarating, electrifying, and quite frankly, mindblowing songs the New York-based quartet are so loved for.

It’s messy and weird and colourful and completely unhinged, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not beautiful, in its own singular and undeniably innovative manner.

‘Assembly’ is so much more than a generic ‘best of’, it is a celebration of Joe’s musical genius.

With Love Keeps Kicking Martha have delivered 11 brilliant sketches on modern life and all the bullshit that comes with it. Sure, some days are hard, but there's still plenty to celebrate. Like an old mate lending a sympathetic ear, it's a record that helps remind you we're all in this together.

It is so easy to reach in blindly and pull out a well-produced track with a decent guest appearance and Smoke at his lyrical best. However, the album doesn’t stray too far from the genre, it isn’t by any means innovative.

The production is crisp and varied; Roots' warm vocal typically hits with soul without being too forcefully firebrand and constant changes in style and tempo gives 4Everevolution the energy to see it through.

Across its 14 tracks, the record is an honest and striking body of work.

She questions, she purges, she excavates and embraces the thorny contradictions of her life. Smith continues to shirk commercial viability, stripping away sheen and artifice, presenting herself as dimensional; flawed, bruised, exposed, at times disbelieving, but ultimately worthy of love.

Fans of Father John Misty, First Aid Kit and Sharon Van Etten are likely to be enamoured.

Anna Burch fills ‘If You’re Dreaming’ with deft allusions, enhancing her voice with jazz-tinged chords, soft rock blemishes, and singer-songwriter tropes. It’s all handled with her customary grace, however, resulting in a subtle record that gently overwhelms.

Dedicated is a joyride of anthemic melodies and fist-pumping bangers that see Jepsen at the top of her game. Revolving in a shimmering cloud of ‘80s synth, bouncy bass and progressive percussion, she has certified herself as a serious contender in the pop arena.

With Johnny Marr-Esque riffs, life-affirming lyrics that have a sincerity, depth, and wisdom beyond their years, the Lathums are cementing themselves as one of the UK’s top bands.

Truly, an album to savour.

‘Aporia’ certainly asks a degree of patience from its listener – the kind often reserved for previously-existing fans of Stevens – to realise its full potential, but over the last few decades the number of listeners able to give this patience has grown exponentially, just in time for Stevens to push boundaries that bit further once again.

The LA foursome’s second LP, Warpaint, is as devastatingly brooding as ever.

While the music loses nothing in its thrilling Afro-electro rhythms and horn flecked grooves, this time it’s delivered with an increased universality as Ibibio Sound System broaden out their lyrical approach to be more direct and questioning, addressing their own community as well as the world at large.

What’s remarkable about this seven track mixtape is the sheer consistency of pop ideas on offer.

“The power of conceptualising who you are has really informed this album,” Owens states about Inner Song‘s essence, and her second album executes it perfectly. This album is an eye-opening discovery of self, laid bare for all to see.

It’s METZ’s most confident record so far and a deafening reminder that art wasn’t designed to adhere to paint-by-numbers standards – it’s meant to bend until it breaks into something new.

An ever present Gang of Four musical demeanor, and the untiring pace of Fugazi makes 'The Chaos' quite aptly relentless.

The sound of a band resurgent, ‘Night Network’ will have you falling in love with The Cribs all over again. Tapping into their core sounds and core values, it finds the band emerging from their legal troubles triumphant, relishing the vitality of being able to make music together, in the same room, at the same time.

‘Give Me The Future’ achieves everything a pop album should and stands out as Bastille’s best and most expansive work. The narrative is compelling and successfully paints the picture of a universally relatable topic.

The familiar sparse, shrugging guitar touches return, sounding no less beguiling than they did three years ago, but the craft has improved. Where 'xx' traded on a certain naïve charm, 'Coexist' is a meticulously controlled aural environment.

Imperfect, but still as absolutely bloody essential as the best of Fugazi always was.

In forty minutes, the band not only reminds listeners why they became scene heroes but also why they’re one of the UK’s most thrilling exports. For our money, it’s another home-run of a record.

What we needed to decipher from this album was whether Miles Kane was capable of anything audacious, anything unexpected, complex and constructed. Colour Of The Trap displays this on numerous occasions, unrelenting in its boasts of adventurous and candid variation.

Both essential and influential, get these tracks loaded into your spastic dance moves.

Delivered in a soft whisper, with the most minimal of supporting musical infrastructure compared to its studio counterpart, ['Distant Sky'] is immediately tender and transcendent, but devoid of all hope, the addition of Danish soprano singer Else Torp's stirring vocal enough to render even the hardest-hearted individual a bawling mess.

Throughout a collection of moving gems that have the potential to evoke heartbreak, ‘Nobody’s Home’ also houses contagious jams that speak to Bakar’s take on the infectious nature of indie rock.

As with any Harvey project, the musicianship is of the highest, yet understated, order.

A record packed with solitary voices, the New Yorkers seem to amplify their ability to capture the beauty in melancholy, stripping back the paint of the everyday to reveal the extraordinary underneath.

A project that outstrips most of his peers, ‘Intruder’ offers a stark and impassioned vision of our society – one that could well rank as his most complete project to date.

This is a debut that is hard to describe and that works in its favour, it is a fascinating listen that defies categorisation but never derails.

A quality accompaniment and memorial.

Yes, there are 'Did she really do that?' moments... But'MDNA' is mostly filled with moments when listening to Madonna still feels like the most thrilling thing any pop fan could possibly hope to experience.

The sound of bliss.

A helter-skelter ride through extra-dimensional sonics, ‘Wilds’ is an exhilarating return, The Soundcarriers’ lengthy absence simply making their return all the more potent.

There is no weak link in sight across 18 varied and often pulsating tracks that dance between darkness and light as Cave’s music so often does. It is a testament to his artistry and continued innovation.

Riot Boi is a trailblazing record very much in the now. It's bombastic, and transgressive.

This isn't a record to dip into, but an absorbing, cerebral and often funky trip.

Singers aside, we have those subtle harmonies drenching every song, sparkles of synth, strings and flute, and those sunrise drums lifting everything. It’s utterly gorgeous and the best bits of Midlake still shine through.

Raw, real and humorous, ‘All That Glue’ is an important event delivering a conclusive overview of the duo’s achievements and successes at a time when there’s a real thirst for it.

The album has immense scale, wonderfully indulgent soundscapes and limitless sing-alongs.

It's a gorgeous example of an album bursting with huge, dreamy songs.

At times it's testing, but there are flashes of phenomenal creative genius here that are destined to manifest further.

This offers an unparalleled listening experience. Each quality – the gorgeous vocals, the radiant tones, the graceful guitar – manifests enlightened bliss. The expertly blended transitions between each track transform them into puzzle pieces that fit smoothly together.

A dizzyingly ferocious support slot on the recent Gold Panda tour proved that London-based producer/remixer Alessio Natalizia's one-time bedroom project is now fully-formed.

With his trademark pliability anchored deep beneath the surface, he is able to swerve from garage blues (“A_01,” tentatively) to glimpses of the Raconteurs (“A_03”) to electric folk (“B_02”) with a coherence few can replicate.

‘Tonic Immobility’ establishes a consistently immersive pull into a world that you don’t want to be in, but that you can’t quite escape.

‘EBM’ is full of stadium-ready anthems and is a riveting, celebratory and bold musical odyssey that is both glorious and gritty in equal measure.

Experimental production combines with soulful pop here, as we see Jordan Rakei is at his brightest and boldest.

A record so evocatively laden with peaks that it makes the Alps look like as a flat as a plastic football pitch, ‘Panic Shack’ is basically the most fun you’ll have with a British debut this year.

'ENERGY' sees the duo step out of their comfort zone, engaging with an array of previously unexplored artists, genres and themes. They have wholeheartedly refined their vision and approach as artists.

The glimpses at the making of the album and its various iterations will enthral fans, finally getting the fabled electric sessions. Ultimately, it proves that the album in its original guise in 1982 was a masterstroke, continuing to win new fans to this day and reinventing the home recording process.

[Fragrant World] is a further evolution of the band's interests in Eighties electro and contemporary R&B.

Williams manages to retain the transportative element of his previous work while slightly neatening the edges.

A quite singular record from a singular voice, ‘Dunya’ is testament to the strength of Mustafa’s ambitions, and his desire to be heard.

The group tread the perfect line between evolution and honouring their trademark style.

It’s definitely too short, but it’s worth every penny, ‘The Third Chimpanzee’ is a work of innovation and instinct.

Disjointed? Slightly. But who cares. He’s conjured something mischievous and joyful. A record that feels like it’s been beamed in from a distant star, sounding something like a near and possible future.

The trademark visceral beats, scathing lyrics and the general feeling of anger and aggression that peppered his previous albums have been replaced with slower beats and irresistible soul hooks. At first this change in tone, and pace, is jarring and you are waiting for it to kick off, but as the album progresses you get into it and dig this new Tyler.

Sule Skerry is a hymn to the sea, and it certainly feels that way in places: there’s a gentle ebb and flow to its ambient pieces which rarely threaten storm’s break, save perhaps the more urgent arpeggios of ‘Lump O’ Sea’.

At the end of this journey, we’re left not only with a playlist you’re itching to put on repeat, but also with the a much-needed notion of an inspirational woman made much stronger- much more in love with herself- by the trials and tribulations of her life.

Arriving at 14 tracks spread over an hour, it would be remiss to mention that ‘Stung!’ might be a little on the long side (at least, at first), certainly their longest yet anyway. But with music this exhilarating, Pond’s buzz eventually lands a memorable sting.

'Ignorance' is a well-crafted and heart-felt piece of work that dances seamlessly through the caverns of dark and light, a perfect offering to hold onto with hope.

Overall, the album--filled with as much theatrical swagger as great music--is much more than just a remake as Ferry’s baritone vocals and inventive arrangements make for an album that invokes a lot more than nostalgia; with the ability to attract new fans as well as hold the old.

The band tracked everything live (apart from the odd overdub) and have crafted an exhilarating, hedonistic modern psych album that means the album doesn't just pay homage to a lot of the great influences mentioned, but sounds just as good.

A strange brew of instrumentals both delightfully becalming and playfully boisterous.

An apt step forward, Rave Tapes finds its makers matching grace and irreverence, noise and beauty with the don’t-give-a-f*ck bravado of people who can only know better.

This is an album that grows in grandeur with each listen, layers unravelling with every replay.

It feels like a genuine step up for the duo, and the divine collage of sounds and futuristic atmosphere make it an essential listen.

In The Seams is the most intricately beautiful auditory to coexist with. Just let it in.

‘Black Classical Music’ is a unique experience, a true journey, the musical autobiography of a musician central to the ongoing development of UK jazz.

By the time the record comes to a close, one thing is clear: ‘Traumazine’ is a deeper excavation of who Megan Jovon Ruth Pete is. While the glossy persona of “That Bitch” Megan Thee Stallion is able to roam free, introspective uncertainties linger beneath the surface. ‘Traumazine’ abounds in empowering affirmations but, beneath it all, this is a release that starts to unpack Megan the human.

The Road is at once the antithesis of quick-fire culture and the very embodiment of it: a mixtape, picking and choosing the best bits and distilling them into one heady brew. Bring on Part III.

There’s obviously going to be more in here for die-hard devotees than the passing generalist, and the sheer size of the release makes it far from the ideal jumping off point for a newcomer. However, it is an undertaking of rare unfiltered insight that allows those willing to stay the course to get under the skin of a true genius in a way that, had the 1990s gone a different way, may never have been possible.

Lotic has pushed the envelope sonically, and compositionally, to create a brave and breathtaking view of gender in 2018 and, ultimately, what it means to be alive.

A fast-paced, immediate selection ‘Dark Matter’ easily ranks amongst Pearl Jam’s most straight-forwardly enjoyable releases.

More than simply a side project and definitely not just a collection of cast-offs, Oddments Of The Gamble is a remarkably cohesive listen for something assembled over time and without restrictions.

It’s a fearless, intricately crafted and sonically expansive body of work that effortlessly showcases why he’s one of the UK’s most talented songwriters.

Not For Radio’s ‘Melt’ is an incredible introduction to her solo world.

It is what it is: a passionate, purposeful and wonderfully presented collection of combustive rock songs.

Memory Streams is mesmerising. It feels familiar, but is ultimately new and exciting.

Front Row Seat To Earth strongly standing as one of the year's most affecting and luscious releases.

Ambitious, anthemic and at times, gut wrenchingly emotional, At Hope’s Ravine is a staggering piece of work.

Succinct – a smidge under 30 minutes, all told – ‘I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away’ manages to be extremely impactful.

Spine-tinglingly brilliant.