Ultimately, ‘Midnight Sun’ is Zara Larsson honing in on what she does best with laser focus: starry-eyed, joyous Scandi-pop built to ignite dancefloors as easily as festival sing-alongs.

As an ode to the pleasures of the dancefloor, Kylie has delivered her most unashamedly fun record in almost a decade.

You might think punk bands berating the patriarchy is uninspired, but The Spook School do so with spirit, vibrancy and clever honesty, demonstrating how candid discussions of gender and sexuality in pop culture is still worryingly subversive.

If it’s a stopgap between albums, so be it, but I’d wager Blue And Lonesome will stand out as more honest, more rousing and more representative of The Rolling Stones as septuagenarians than anything that might follow.

Neil Young is also isn’t accompanied by anyone. He’s just has his guitar between himself and the audience. Its wonderful to hear. And this is why ‘Royce Hall 1971’ is a remarkable album. Yes, we’ve heard all the songs before, but not quite like this.

A songwriter who would thrive in any setting, his work thrives due to its simple poetry and emotional impact. A love letter to another time, ‘Promenade Blue’ is also resolutely, unashamedly now.

It’s a more grounded and less airbrushed exploration of identity than we might be used to from Hannah Diamond, but one that counteracts an era increasingly obsessed with the perfect image and the false promise of forever.

A powerful album, confirming Home Video as another exquisite offering from Lucy Dacus.

For Smith, though, she doesn’t need loud dynamics in order to submerge the listener; and for much of her latest record the command of her machines is such that the mind is easily able to wander, and forget that they’re there at all.

Melodic, melancholic, at moments almost celestial, it's simply stunning work.

That the new Daphne & Celeste album is not just good, but great may seem absurd, but that’s the only way to describe it. It’s full of moments of sublime pop genius, thrilling electronica, unexpected warmth, DGAF attitude and good humour.

It doesn’t disappoint. Unapologetically heavy, with some spell-binding riffs and addictive hooks, ‘Below’ takes us across twelve gritty tunes all reflective of the turbulence of fourteen months spent in isolation.

Stimulating, surprising and supreme, ‘The Glow’ is a remarkable outcome, a place where guitars receive as warm a reception as sequencing, drum looping and synths.

‘Ramona Park…’ was a bravura work of therapy, a rap bildungsroman that crafted an entire world. More insular, ‘Dark Times’ is in many ways less accessible; that said, it refuses to let the quality dim, it’s endless stream of ideas enticing and perplexing in equal fashion. In emphatic style, rap’s foremost outlier demands your attention all over again.

If you’re after blunted beats and wordplay that reaffirms your belief in rap as urban folk music, then you’re in for a shock. But for anyone looking for a mind-expanding trip to the outer edges of the solar system, these rap futurists are your guides.

A hugely effective partnership, Curren$y’s raps – weed, women, the trappings of fame – don’t dwell on subtlety, but it’s the manner in which they are presented that affords ‘Continuance’ its depth.

A young super-group who are growing at a fast pace, their third album is glorious, ambitious and fulfilling, and it can take the band to new places and...loving spaces.

The Magic Gang’s debut is all you could wish for. ... Though it’s been a long time coming, The Magic Gang is still an ambitious release, that offers hopefulness and heartbreak in a 60s tinged wrapping.

'Your Hero Is Not Dead' is essential listening for anyone at odds with themselves or the current state of society, which really should be just about everyone at this point.

With fluidity and ease aplenty, the ten songs on ‘The Universal Want’ render a soulful, elevated journey visiting outer and inner locations, providing the listener with a sense of fulfilment.

Alternative Light Source is a worthy successor to 'Rhythm & Stealth', not as sparse or hard hitting but brimming with energy, ideas and familiar Leftfield diaphragm-rattling bass.

His incorporation of lo-fi house and cosmic techno uplifts through the smallest dosage, and induces a powerful stupor until you're out the other side, perching on a Balearic mountaintop.

Warm On A Cold Night is essentially a pick-up line delivered in Andy’s charmingly unfinished croak, wrapped in sensual synths and slick basslines.

Even what Jordan already excelled at – her vocal and lyrical expression, as well as her skill with guitar –does not stagnate, resulting in a fantastic example of how a second album should be.

Distinct from his 2022 debut ‘Rave & Roses’, this feels uncompromising, and new. ‘HEIS’ is the work of an artist emboldened, and undimmed.

‘Covers’ feels refreshing and invigorated.

Blending elements of footwork, noise, broken beat, neo-classical and experimental, the Indiana artist has crafted the sound of a far out utopia, inhabited with fear, euphoria, bliss and anxiety.

Revenge is Sweet almost feels like a compilation full of singles – quite a few tracks are Top 10 contenders – and it’s a welcome return for a pair of South London’s finest.