Garden Of Ashes is redolent of a muggy swamp and just as easy to sink into.

Less of a debut and more of a bookend, it listens like an aural autobiography of Greene’s influences and productions, a release that will satisfy old fans as well as find new ones without compromising the clarity of his vision.

Empress is that rare breed of album that is entertaining and says something worth saying. Once you get past the tight production and bass blips, what you are left with is a way to live your life.

The songwriting leged could easily be rehashing old songs and playing it safe, but instead he’s written an album full of catchy songs, searing riffs about hope for the future, rather than dwelling on the past.

A solar system held in place by its own revolutions, ‘The Slow Rush’ is testament to the patient productivity and unrelenting creativity of Kevin Parker.

The result is something genuinely startling. Raw, and often quite deliberately unfinished, the lyrics have a bullet point bluntness to them, with Simz aspiring to a level of direct communication other MCs can only marvel at.

A wonderful, absorbing listen by a truly special group.

There are layers upon layers of glorious melodies and hooks here; you just need to spend the time to find the ones that work for you.

Lyrically the album does what pop music does and creates a vibe but doesn’t necessarily encite any thought or, challenge the listener and the rest of the album from this point feels quite disconnected as we navigate out of the Afro-R&B with a feature from Rema on ‘Compromise’ to Nigerian highlife with lead single ‘Afro Highlife’ and reggae rhythms on ‘Having Fun’.

The result defies expectations in the best possible way.

For the most part, ‘Addison’ is a fun, delicious ride, soundtracking a movie where a small-town girl wins the lottery and parties it up in New York City.

Nothing Was The Same offers the listener a lot of what they’ve come to love (or loathe, indeed) about its maker, with the occasional flash of something a little more daring than might’ve been anticipated.

The record feels slick and polished, yet natural and unnatural. Like Grimes’ previous music, it’s a scary, ambient, and muddlingly beautiful mess.

This album is a black-belt in terms of song writing and instrumentation... but when McCombs’ lyrics can’t match up, Tip Of The Sphere sounds like it’s limping.

It’s not a perfect album, though. The vocals effects on ‘Kick You When You’re Down’ are more than a little grating, while ‘No Man’s Land’ feels stodgy, at times even like a chore. That being said, there is quite simply no other group on the planet who can match AC/DC at their best.

With Closer to Grey, the group have created a near-perfect piece of 21st century pop escapism. So, the next time world’s weighing you down, you know what to do. Reach for your turntable. Chromatics have got your back.

This is Hopkins’ strongest album to date. It is also his bravest. Which is saying something indeed.

Intimate and endearingly honest, This Old Dog is Mac DeMarco’s most essential chapter of slacker gospel yet.

If you love Kasabian you might think Velociraptor! is a 9/10 album, but for the rest of us it's a salt-seasoned, Spielberg-sponsored 7/10.

The album tails off after a strong start. Lyrically though, and as a view into Adams’ psychopathology, Prisoner is nothing short of fascinating.

Innovation isn’t on the album’s invite, but nonetheless fans will gobble this up.

A carefully sculpted project, a level of fluidity and richness stitched together with the highest calibre of performance, production and songwriting. Like Frankenstein and his monster, the commitment to the design and blueprint of this record is incredible; every minute detail, sound, glitch, has been selected with the utmost care by The National.

Always accompanied by her impressive soulful vocals, Lola Young wholeheartedly bares her soul on this album, leaving no stone unturned and no topic unaddressed.

The Wild Hunt, the second release from Swedish guitar-twanging folksy master The Tallest Man On Earth, is a graceful and beautiful advancement of form, and matures just the way a second album really ought to.

‘LOTTO’ is still a disorientating and mystical record—one that feels a little out of reach even after multiple listens—but it’s certainly one of the most compelling releases of the year, the kind of album you’ll feel drawn to return to again and again.

The rapper fails to assert creative delineation over this sprawling mesh of music. That said, ‘Featuring’ is peppered with career highs.

Loud, hypnotic, vitriolic solos, mordant melodies with biting lyrics. It’s everything we’ve come to expect.

Instrumentally, the album maintains the similar Owen tropes we’ve come to love and expect.