‘HEROES & VILLAINS’ bursts with ideas, not all of which land. A record that revels in contradictions, it grasps towards the light while framing itself in darkness.

This set is teeming with energy despite its down moments, and demands to be played again in its entirety as soon as it ends.

Undeniably beautiful. Aloof, abstract and elegant, it melds ambient expanse with pop form to idyllic, if unassuming effect.

The euphoric, floating '60s guitar sheen and carefree swagger which dominates proceedings is utterly uplifting.

A fine sound indeed, but one that could have been better with a shade more variety injected into proceedings.

Packing a brassy punch, the tracks still manage to twinkle elegantly, rich in harmony with hymnal touches.

Within the iron grip, the looseness of categorisation between dubstep, grime, trap and mutant techno means each mission has something riding on it, transferring an aftershock of grim satisfaction throughout.

‘The Competition’ gets a hell of a lot right, and you get the feeling for album five it might finally all together perfectly.

Hot Pink is an album that knows exactly what it is, and it’s the work of a well-crafted hip pop star with something to prove.

If you’re in the right mood, it’s a fun slice of cosmic silliness that absolutely deserves to be packed away in your coolbox and brought out, nicely chilled, in approximately five months’ time. However, if your vibe is even slightly off then it can quickly become annoying in that subtle way that’s hard to register at first, but soon makes itself felt.

This is a cinematic body of work that triumphs in its ability to meld a plethora of electronic styles together with the glue-like emotional intent of sentimental reminiscence, and poignantly reminds the listener to hold dear their loved ones.

While it aims to push boundaries, CLPPNG does so in a way that demonstrates a love for the music and culture that forms its source material.

The results are mixed.

‘Doggerel’ isn’t a bad record, it’s just missing the audacious grit that is so entwined with the bizarre charm that makes the PIXIES so remarkable.

‘Dopamine’ isn’t a raw confessional either but a balanced, art-directed exercise. It’s a debut that hits the programmed sweet spot, conversant with contemporary trends and greater RnB and soul traditions.

An album that’s both heartfelt and sincere and utterly irresistible in the process.

Call this a mismatch, a contradiction, if you want, but only he can fully acknowledge this seriousness, this complexity. And if this is a ‘coming-to-terms-with’-type record, it does suggest he is starting that process, even if--musically--the progression remains somewhat tender.

We Will Not Harm You operates much like a London Sunday market in its vibrant, assorted survey of the electronic melting pot

It will inspire obsessive fandom and moisten a few eyes, but Henson’s voice is something of an acquired taste.

There’s nothing that lifts it from being middle of the road Einaudi. Then again, standing on a cliff listening to middle of the road Einaudi is never a bad place to be.

If ‘WASTELAND’ doesn’t quite match the hype then perhaps that’s due to the impact Brent Faiayz has had across his catalogue. An artist who commands cross-genre respect, his particular brand of R&B has been much-imitated, but never truly bettered.

Scrappy but charming, Times New Viking's fifth album shows their dirty sound scrubs up nicely.

At times the effects are superb.... However, there are wobbles with the quality control.

Nothing about this record feels forced but instead encapsulates Kesha’s outlook on the crazy and weird rollercoaster that is life itself.

B-Room is offensively inoffensive.

Psychedelic rock in its original form, the album is unlikely to win the duo many new fans, but as a testament to enjoying life, it’s unrivalled.

Although just seven songs long, the third album from San Francisco psychedelic rockers Wooden Shjips is a remarkably dense, intense affair.

If this is the last we hear from Woman’s Hour then it underlines their formidable creativity; a moving, touching return, Ephyra is the sound of re-constructed glories.

With a new sharpness, Hazel English has delved into a sophistication that dynamically blends her previous music to create an oscillation of hard and soft that exudes in her tonality.

These sounds are heavier and Miller flows naturally in this element.

Whether in love, experience or pain. This album supplies much-needed evidence for those experiencing heartache that their tale is not solitary, but there’s no right answer, and there’s comfort in that.

‘Fast Idol’ sets out what it aims to do. It’s one of those albums that leaves you mulling over the lyrics, itching to find some kind of meaning but feeling ever more distant from finding it with every attempt.

Paired down to their essence, this distilled Efterklang is premium strength stuff.

A puzzle that will take a long time to fully unlock, ‘Honestly, Nevermind’ stands on these immediate listens as Drake’s most daring gesture, a devastating about-turn that will fascinate and frustrate in equal measure.

‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ seems to be the theme running through ‘Mercury’, the first LP from producer James Hinton in six years. And that’s by no means a criticism.

The result is a compelling exercise in growth.

A gradual evolution, then, and all the better for it.

‘Stay Alive’ has a sense of quiet intensity running across its 13 tracks, material that uses points of inspiration gathered across the previous two year international tour. There’s a real vitality to the work, from the bare bones recording style so evocative of Albini’s work through to Laura’s powerful, trenchant vocals, erupting out of the speakers.

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

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.

It’s gripping, and we suspect the follow-up will be truly special.

It’s about love and life and happiness and positivity without being the slightest bit sloppy. It’s the perfect accompaniment to bashing away the January blues and starting 2015 with a smile on your face.

‘I Hear You’ is a solid tribute to vintage house, brought cohesively together under Gou’s powerful artistic stamp. But, there’s a feeling we’ve already seen her best work – 2021’s gorgeous synth-wave single ‘I Go’ is included in this tracklist but is not rivalled, while tracks like ‘1+1=11’ sound a bit too close to Gou’s self-professed love for 90s German trance DJ, ATB.

Once again, by mixing pounding dance beats with a feminist essence through a punk lens, Peaches continues the legacy of her image as the antithesis of conservatism.

Congreave, has selected with more ambition than his curatorial Tapes predecessors.

Welcome To Sideways sits comfortably amongst older material, but is more regressive than revolutionary.

Moose’s accompaniment soars, and subsidies, ensuring that this release doesn’t feel like a mere afterthought late in the release calendar. At a slight 12 minutes, it’s a brief coda to a strange year for the artist, but one fans will no doubt lap up.

The opening three tracks are almost an EP in their own right, before a quick reset. Semi title track ‘The Art Of Starting Over’ begins anew, a straight forward bop that gets to the root of Demi’s recovery – her natural talent, her ear for pop magic, affording room for personal renewal.

A blockbuster that lives up to the hype, ‘american dream’ is 21 Savage at his most luminescent. In staying true to himself, he’s been able to build something unique – now he’s taking it to the world.

An intense, ingenious and utterly insane listen, Murder Of The Universe is another brilliant addition to King Gizzard's already stellar and ever-expanding discography.

Money, manipulation and vaguely unhappy mediums haunt the album's lyrics, though indistinct phrasing and a blearily subdued vocal mix make these themes feel like peripheral, subconscious murmurings.

With 'Broken Equipment' BODEGA has transformed from a band to watch to something truly exciting indeed. Any early album of the year contender for those who like their music as sharp as a knife.

In its entirety Marble Skies is a mixed bag that showcases the multitude of genres Django Django can draw upon, but it lacks cohesion.

In classic Alex Cameron form, ‘Oxy Music’ is full of true lyrical artistry in the most to-the-point way possible.

Raw but refined, familiar but resolutely strange, Marauder seizes that fine balance of retaining the old while introducing the new; the sound of a band at ease with themselves, it could well be Interpol’s finest album in a decade.

Lyrics like “I’ll stay young to be saved” (‘Be A Kid’) come across as self-indulgent and frontman Sam McTrusty’s reedy vocals get lost in menacing tracks like ‘I Am An Animal’.

Fletcher and Parkin have released an album that doesn’t fit into the confines of what an ‘alternative’ album should be in 2018. Instead they’ve crafted 11 songs that show off their love of retro sounds, an infectious joy for life, a good melody and a catchy chorus.

It's a joy.

The Race For Space has its mis-steps, but most importantly it shows that Public Service Broadcasting aren't a one-off novelty act, and that there's mileage in their approach.

It's hard-edged, it's proficient and most certainly smarter than the average band.

Rich, detailed, and poetic, Blurry Blue Mountain explores human emotion and the meaning of life like the great writers of old. Gelb has been around a long time, and on the basis of this he will be for a long time to come.

Despite the album’s missteps, Coldplay manage to find themselves pockets of beauty in the midst of the chaos that they themselves have ironically created, to craft something melodically unique that whisks us back to 2008’s watermark 'Viva La Vida' era.

For the most part, regrettably, Geography only showcases a producer out of his depth behind the mic.

The short and well-paced tracklist is likely to leave fans yearning for more. If Kehlani aimed to create a collision of the soul and mind, for the most part, they succeeded.

The battle between melody and noise at the heart of 'DEATH MAGIC' is a fascinating one, and the twelve songs on which it plays out are damn near bulletproof. Welcome to the most terrifying pop album of 2015.

Think ‘Step Up’ from ‘Blue Songs’, developed full-length.

The electronic palette moves him in a fresh direction, and although some of the mid-section does congeal into one, the album’s overall arc is a successful embrace of personal, and above all sensual, evolution.

Fun, and wildly over-the-top, ‘Harlequin’ scratches an itch for both fan and artist.

It makes for a focused, solid offering.

Had it been trimmed down to ten or eleven tracks, then maybe we’d be talking about one of Green Day’s strongest releases. As it stands, ‘Saviors’ turns out to be a somewhat confident return to form, but one that also fails to build upon the records that inspired it.

Their subtle blend of kraut-funk, atmospherics and hushed vocals works, but at points several tracks pass by and you realise you haven't noticed anything.

With clean production and virtuoisitic precision, imagine a Latin, metal, jazz inspired mellow mele, on acoustic instruments.

It’s the balance of maturity and melody that will keep you going back to this album. They’ve grown up, but then so have their fans. Let's just see where they go from here.

She’s opening out her sound, and finessing her approach. The results are immaculate – and she’s only just getting started.

Funky, frenetic and fast, Zipper Down is not for the pretentious listener.

The radical variation on this album speaks volumes--this casting respect to yesteryear twisted with the juices of his modern imagination--and if ‘The English Riviera’ was Mount at his most accessible, then Love Letters finds him at his most inventive.

One thing is for certain: they've produced a much more pop orientated album. Clash isn't anti-pop, but we are anticheese.

Often lifted by angular, bug-eyed guitars, Mush can’t help but approach matters with considerable levity. Hyndman revels in the irony of American patriotism being the product of KGB-controlled algorithms on ‘Bots!’. His cutting and sarcastic remarks are telling of one nation’s innate habit of being easily led.

Delicacies proves that this aging duo still have the fire in the belly of their hard drive.

Overall, ‘Makes Me Sick, Makes Me Smile’ is beautiful, explosive, and honest – and a stunning debut for Pretty Sick.

Does ‘ten days’ elevate the modern dance album? It unequivocally does. It’s built from connection and collaboration. It explores the contours of the dancefloor whilst never forgoing its gushy, human centre.

Reid’s soundtrack is vibrant, but it can’t save the album from its own tedium.

Ultimately ‘Fighting Demons’ works almost as a tribute record, gathering fragments of his undoubted genius. Whether it’s a true Juice WRLD album, though, is another matter.

Wallowing, dreary vocals are effectively juxtaposed with electronic twinkles on the likes of ‘You Are’. But other tracks, like ‘The 5%’, seem too chaotic and narrowly miss their targets, resulting in an album just falling short of top marks.

He’s deftly left himself room to manoeuvre, but at this rate, there’s a hyperpop throne with his name on it.

Heavily weighty with fiery doom and gloom, Lauren Mayberry masters the art of colourfully abstract lyrics.

While she might play it safe as far as messages are concerned--generally exploring relationships--her metaphoric representation of them somehow manage to keep the oft-played theme quite fresh.

It’s compact, elegant and striking.

By the end of it, it’s very clear that this is a deadly serious record--not a parody, not even an homage, but a largely enjoyable marriage of the stodge with the airy and the old with the new which manages to retain an impressive sense of cohesiveness and consistency.

The Chemical Brothers continue to buck any notions of a creative burn-out with their strongest release in a decade.

There's still a level of discontent that quietly rumbles along beneath the bass, but every cloud has a silver lining and it seems that Eagulls might have found theirs.

With a voice that creaks like well-loved furniture and lyrics telling tales of the lives and losses of others, this album represents a career highpoint.

The moments of nu-disco are superb, yet are weighed down by the sometimes-cringey segments of auto-crooning.

‘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 best thing about the album, and there are a lot of good things to it, is just how simple it is. Nothing feels overthought, calculated, or insincere. The songs come across like gentle gusts of warming wind when you are out late without a coat.

Beneath its whimsical summery palette, lurks a repetitive sound that dulls the vibrant texture the lineup promises. In short, it’s an album that’s halfway there.

It is the very definition of a grower, simply because there are so many little things going on in stark contrast to her elegantly sparse previous release.

A well-timed treat delivered by one of music's most beloved eccentrics. Go explore.