It’s a theatrical 10-piece song cycle that neatly extends their work, while nodding to what came before. At its best – opener and lead single ‘I Still Have Faith In You’ for example – it comes close to reaching the transformative peaks ABBA scaled all those years ago. Yet for a piece of fan service ‘Voyage’ remains confusingly slight.

Sounding fifty years out of time and traversing genres without concern, it is unlike anything else you will hear this summer. And you really must hear it.

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

Trap Lord is an impressive outing for Ferg and another win for A$AP Mob.

If you are looking for a deliciously dark soundtrack of horror and funk, then ‘Danse Macabre’ should be on your Halloween playlist. The big question is – is ‘Danse Macabre’ for life or just for Halloween? Either way, for the majority of Duran Duran’s sixteenth studio album, in true Halloween style, it will be love at first bite!

Double Roses takes what worked the first time round, namely Elson’s gentle vocals and passion for the pastoral and forlorn, and amplifies the whole package with greater musicianship and composition.

‘A Complicated Woman’ is not your average pop record. Then again, Self Esteem is not your average pop star. This is an album born for the stage.

It’s a sad record, but one that envelops you in a warm hug, wipes your eyes and plays with your hair.

Despite the lack of progression from the first album to the second Take Control is a perfectly listen-able album--and perhaps album three will be where they shine.

While some of the more Top 40-driven tracks risk getting lost in the mammoth-like production value of his imaginative, left-field hyper pop tracks, the sum of the album is beautiful, intended to be enjoyed by both faithful Flume stans and new listeners drawn to the beauty of a cacophonous, glitched-out style popularised by super-producers like SOPHIE, Danny Harle, and more.

An eager act of fan service, the results represent one of his most consistent records from the past 20 years.

Independently released, ‘shame’ is raw and expressive, the result of infinite creative freedom after leaving their label.

A record that refuses to divulge its secrets immediately, ‘Life Of A Don’ is packed with immaculate sonic detail while also relishing a certain directness.

Long in gestation, ‘Mother’ feels finessed, her technical skills as a producer aligned to a gut instinct for what works in a club environment. Deftly pieced together, this feels like one of 2024’s most assured and enjoyable electronic records.

The sonic palette may be familiar, but the strength of songwriting indicates that September Girls might, just might, be capable of pushing past this.

Returning from a six-year long wilderness of soundtrack work and greatest hits, ‘Heligoland’ sees the duo back at the top of their game.

‘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.

Whilst we aren’t handed the next chapter of The Libertines story on a platter, the beauty and tumult of the band is in the subtext. It’s in John Hassall and Gary Powell joining Barat and Doherty’s mythic duo on vocals for the first time on ‘Man With The Melody’. It’s in the closer, ‘Songs They Never Played On The Radio’, which was born in 2006 and finished for ‘All Quiet…’, one of the most beautiful Libertines songs of all time.

There are plenty of hooks and the pace rarely relents, but it’s hard to ever imagine Colors ever being in anyone’s top five favourite Beck albums.

Recorded in Reykjavík with Sigur Rós collaborator Alex Somers and Múm’s Samuli Kosminen, the frosty twinkles and skittery beats complement Rhode Island-based Thibadeau’s alt-folk leanings.

It’s rich in intricately layered synths, blending swathes of influences into a more distinctive sound.

With many tipping these Birmingham indie sorts for success, a debut album as accomplished and hit-laden as this makes it hard to see the band faltering.

This is an album made by musical artisans, who know exactly how to translate the sound in their heads on to record.

Konradsen's warm intimacy both strangely familiar but uniquely their own is one which will stay with you in the months and years to come. Welcome to their world.

‘Sell Sole II’ isn’t quite the breakout moment fans hoped for, but it is most definitely her strongest, most in-depth project to date.

Whilst ‘Night Gnomes’ embraces a plethora of new sounds and concepts that make it distinct from the aforementioned album, it still maintains an overarching complexity and sonic ambition that listeners of old and new can revel in.

'The Courage Of Others' is a suitable album for today’s perma-frost Britain, what we’ll make of it when the Sun comes out I’m not sure.

‘Euphoric’ sits as a colourful sideways step from a talent we’ve long since learned to cherish.

It’s not all perfect - no pop record that takes as much chances as this could ever hope to hit 10/10 home runs - but it’s certainly entertaining. Direct, up-front, and completely unabashed, ‘Poster Girl’ finds Zara Larsson living up to the fame that has surrounded her for more than a decade.

It's far from perfect - 'Ghost Note' sounds horribly like Skrillex in places - but there [are] enough interesting sonic detours to suggest that these agitators of sound are more than just another over-hyped gimmick band.

The Long Island five-piece show a greater willingness to vary their musical palette than many of their contemporaries

Each ["sides" of the double LP] is so good, it’s a toss up between which incarnation you'll end up liking most.

This is an album is subtle transition. Broadening the dynamic between light and shadow, rock crunch and synth splendour, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes grapple with their sound, oozing confidence at every turn.

Rarely has an artist’s death been so vivid. R.I.P. Actress; your dystopian electronic visions have widened our nocturnal vision. We now await your reincarnation.

Trans-Love Energies is a master-class of pulsating euphoric electronica from one of the dance fraternity's true pioneers.

This is a powerful reminder of the pair's quite brilliant lunacy.

Utterly lovely.

Things move from melodic ambience to galloping sci-fi workouts and back again, the highlight being the sublime 'Emerald And Stone'.

For a band consisting of four members, Born Under Saturn is both remarkably adventurous and eclectic.

Fans may miss Wolf's habitual genre-hopping and eccentricity, but this is mature and compelling stuff. His best so far.

At times it’s sketchy and frail, at others decidedly defiant.

Dragged down by a excess of melodrama, with some cutting and a dash of pop sensibilities The Jezabels would have a stone cold classic.

Interestingly, the album itself isn't “too true”--rather, it’s just true enough.

His use of simile and metaphor is questionable but with an irrepressible energy and guest vocal spots from Kelly Rowland (Invincible) and Ellie Goulding (Wonderman) on top of three top five hits, this Peckham born rapper might just have made the most fun pop album of the year.

False Idols comes close to vanquishing the spectre of ‘Maxinquaye’, comprising a fleshy and nasally return to form.

When you see Jungle live, it takes very little provocation for them to extend their songs into euphoric, funk-laden, instrumental prang-outs that mesmerise your mind’s eye. Unfortunately, the album lacks a little of that psychedelic deviation, and instead chooses to quite politely proffer 11 great and concise songs, with a whistling instrumental mid-point.

A quirky best-of entertaining the inner child with tongue-in-cheek lyrics and psychedelic funky pop.

Although the material demonstrates Vek’s undoubted talent, Luck can’t quite match our hopes--or, indeed, the quality of its predecessors.

EX will neither enliven classicists nor win new fans. We need challenged by this artist, who normally thrives on doing exactly that.

For the most part, too, it’s an absolute joy, an urbane, witty, extremely catchy selection of three minute ditties, superbly well-written and expertly arranged.

Unified and complex, ‘Octane’ bolsters the aspects that drove him to Billboard heights, while also teasing out fresh ideas.

‘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.

Some decent-enough songs on an overly long album mostly containing sub-par tracks from an artist capable of much more.

Playful and melodic, Clash suggests that you take this on a Norfolk country ramble ASAP.

Every Now And Then takes the form of a transcendental equivalent of the longest summer. Wavelengths stretch leaving you feeling worked over, fatigued and ready for a taste of something new.

With a hefty 17-track structure, ‘Sugar Honey Iced Tea’ is held together by its towering moments.

This is a band, ten years into their career, still at the height of their powers, rejuvenated and ready to show the world that you still can’t second-guess them.

Imitations comes at the right time of year: like autumn, it has a decayed feel. Yet, this is more triumphant than simply bleak.

BBF Hosted By DJ Escrow may be the most sarcastic record Blunt has put out, but there's real emotion here amidst the baby cries and union jack hover boards.

When it all comes together, In Rolling Waves is a thrilling, melodramatic ride through the regions where pop, electro and alternative rock crossover, and finally meet.

Hard to say when each track on this album is ridiculously strong in its own right. Much like the artist behind them.

While not breaking new sonic ground, the broad brush strokes of nostalgia rarely wilt.

‘The Night the Zombies Came’ isn’t an album for the uninspired or your average Joe – it’s a bible for the daydreaming visionary who finds beauty in the mundane.

This is music that stretches from the decaying rain-lashed estates of their home to the stars.

There is no doubting the power Roddick and James are wielding on ‘Womb’. The talent of Purity Ring as songwriters, instrumentalists and visionaries is clear to see – it will be interesting to see where the band can take their sound in years to come.

For all of John Kowalski and Rian Trench’s accomplished textures and impressive ’80s sci-fi sheen, it’s these [songs "Happiness Is A Warm Spacestation" and "A Sky Darkly"] simmering, slow burning heavyweights that give Supermigration the thunder it needs.

While the album is pretty much removed from her usual major pop moments, it’s more refreshing that way, and there’s more of a connective-unit feel to Positions than much of her previous work. After all, Grande has always been an album artist, and this one is yet another to whistle home about.

Unapologetically angsty and beautifully chaotic, Pale Waves have created a safe space for fans with ‘Unwanted’. A place of pride.

Although there's nothing exactly groundbreaking here, Policy packs plenty of personality and attitude.

Cut And Paste is a well-crafted slice of guitar pop in and of itself, but it largely functions as a placeholder album that succeeds in stoking into life the flickering embers of a dying flame without ever truly reigniting the pyre.

An album that suffers from feeling just too assured.

Throughout the album, a more mature sound can be heard, which reflects their break from recording music, allowing them to evolve as musicians and songwriters on this more mature, risk-taking production.

The choice to make the album half fun, half sincere was a smart one, and the admirable trait of honesty through hardship definitely deserves praise.

While sweetened by a potent handful of emphatic guitar romps, DIIV’s latest record quickly overstays its welcome, and ultimately would do well to be remembered as more than just a watered-down collection of indie rock songs.

Both immediately hook-filled and intellectually deep at the same time, God First has already earned its place as one of the most exciting and unexpected releases of 2017.

Artistic development and risk-taking is to be applauded. With risk, though, comes the possibility of mis-steps. Sadly, here, this is what it feels like Tamaryn's done.

The wonderful ‘Isn’t That Enough’ recalls Neil Young’s ‘Harvest’ – it’s followed, aptly, by ‘Heart Of Gold’ – and these songs carry within them a quietly pervasive sense of direction, as though the album itself became a means of continuation. There are moments of real melodic distinction, too.

A gigantic album.

Lianne La Havas has grown up, branched out, written some devastatingly honest songs, and presented a highly competent album.

A solid second record with tinges of brilliance, it’s another fine piece of work from the busiest man around.

This is a body of work which highlights his famed vocals, feels perfectly produced and guides listeners through the hazy uncertainty of love and loss whilst still offering something fresh and clean.

Sabbath have produced a muscular, urgent sounding record that does no disservice whatsoever to those early metal masterpieces.

Can any record match up to a 20 year wait? Perhaps not, but when the dust settles fans will have one of Nas’ best rap performances, fuelled by one of the all-time great producers.

An honorable effort in what they do best.

The spaces in-between are almost as important as the notes themselves on a headphone album with which to brave the winter.

Every track gives you something new and exciting, while holding tightly on to Emilíana’s flawless voice and melodies.

The execution may at times be slightly slapdash and a little heavy-handed but the message is still there.

Bloody marvellous.

Whilst ‘Lobes’ doesn’t reinvent the lobe shaped wheel, this is an effervescent funk-laden album which will certainly brighten up those dark January evenings thanks to its soaring choruses and memorable melodies.

There’s a feeling that ‘Something Beautiful’ is searching for a unity that doesn’t quite coalesce, all while lacking some of the towering peaks of Miley’s more commercially-focussed work. A fascinating one-off, potentially; ‘Something Beautiful’ adds another layer to Miley Cyrus’ story.

Balance aside, ‘Get Up Sequences Part One’ sees the band doing what they do best, wading into an often cynical world filled with apathy and melodrama and detonating a glitter bomb - and you’ve always gotta love them for that.

Despite being the result of creative restlessness, After The Disco never really takes us anywhere new. By playing it safe, however, Mercer and Burton have also made it pretty difficult for fans to feel disappointed by it.

Although the succession of lukewarm tracks early on prevents this from being a flawless debut, Vic Mensa does enough to keep the album an engaging listen even in its misguided moments.

Expansive and exploratory, powerful and hymnal.

Neither offensive nor inventive this album is a bit like a bag of Rainbow Drops; thrillingly pretty but ultimately full of air.

While undeniably sweet on a surface level, 'Cry Mfer' is a clear reaction against the self-seriousness that runs rampant throughout indie music, and while its conception proved challenging for My Idea, this debut is a clear sign that specific working relationships can bear remarkable fruit.

Closer ‘SMILE’ drops the noise, and embraces beauty; the lilting guitars are pinned down by a dulcet vocal, with Rico’s tender singing voice resonates with beauty. Leaving fans on a softer note, she shows true bravery, and no small degree of self-acceptance.

You’re left with the impression that DMX was a true rap great who was on the verge of potent rediscovery, of claiming his place as a key factor in the growth of a new hip-hop generation. But you’re also left desolate that this simply wasn’t to be.