Their musicianship and unflinching humour in the face of potentially bleak topics makes this album a distinct piece and a joy to listen to.

Mangy Love sounds like a collaborative affair from an artist who has the keen ability to keep his musical identity sounding completely idiosyncratic.

At ten tracks, Blood is a more focused and refined effort than 2012's Mercury Prize-nominated Is Your Love Big Enough?, building on what we've come to expect from Lianne La Havas and surprising us with new directions.

It's good both for bobbing heads and bopping feet — both for being alone-alone, and alone-around-others, too.

If this isn't Jacques Greene's magnum opus, we'll be very curious to hear what is.

Segall may not be bouncing off the walls on Sleeper, but its decided shift shows his range and ability to continue churning out great releases at an alarming speed.

It's heady stuff to dive into, and Williams isn't particularly concerned whether listeners sink or swim, so long as they get wet.

Låpsley has expressed a fondness for writing sad songs, and while there's a pervasive melancholy to Long Way Home, it remains both accessible and sonically explorative throughout.

It's unburdened by obligatory connections to what's come before and as a result, has a renewed amount of energy.

They've managed to create an album that feels fresh while also being the closest they've come to recreating the magic of earlier records. This is a band that has finally found a way to evolve without eliminating what it was that made them so special in the first place.

The result is a fun, freewheeling album that nonetheless feels mature — and still very NYC as well.

The propulsive spark that lit their debut lingers, keeping the record from drifting off into malaise.

Shallow Bed is refreshingly free of archaic, "old timey" references; it feels both relevant and familiar.

Every piece on New Bodies is painstakingly detailed and full of emotion--but experimenting with tempo and mood as much as they do with every other facet of their music would give the album even more weight. Regardless, it's one of 2018's best offerings so far and an exceptional entry in its sonic field.

Simply put, Playing Favorites is their best work yet.

Though the fanfare surrounding the band may have dwindled slightly, the heartfelt emotion they deliver has not.

Olympic Mess isn't a complete shift in direction for him. It's merely one step toward the outer rim of a very large and very dark shadow.

Rat Saw God is wildly ambitious and easily lives up to the industry hype — Wednesday have succeeded once again in twisting nostalgia and existential dread into a braid of bruising, life-affirming rock music.

Their third full-length, Scholars, reflects the modernization their latest instruments have undergone (Arx allows them to trigger percussion, change instrument effects, and control vocal harmonies with the push of an arcade button), keeping their wholly distinct sound while embracing digital and synth-based instrumentation.

It's a globetrotting affair: the wah-wah brass and dhol drums of "Mitote" make for a savoury blend, the Indigenous chants and percussion reverberate in title track "All My Relations," the mid-'70s Stevie Wonder/Herbie Hancock-styled funk of "Mescalero" hits the spiritual spot, while the smooth sax of "Seyewailo" offer up a sonic take on bliss.

Plumb is a rich, complex album, with the songs spilling over into each other.

Are You Serious is a mature and confident record that finds Andrew Bird exploring myriad new sounds while remaining instantly recognizable.

Her identity is permanently stamped on As Above, So Below — the album both showcases Sampa's growth as an artist and delivers on fan expectation, taking them on a journey beyond bars into Africa's rich musical heritage.

For a stopgap collaboration, Underrated Silence sits comfortably with some of Schnauss's best work.

Beyond the gooey saunters she’s become known for, she slows the tempo to near-standstills on multiple occasions, while likewise finding the most heart-racing BPMs of her career thus far. By virtue of this being a Faye Webster record, none of it feels jarring; it’s as intuitive as passing the time with someone you love.

This is a lovely record with enough autumnal tones to ensure that you'll still be listening to it in six months' time.

Metawar will not only please current fans, but will likely win them scores of new blood, simply due to their noticeable growth. This is the most realized and accessible the band have been to date.

K-os hasn't been this experimental or fun to listen to since his 2004 classic Joyful Rebellion. It's a thrill to hear him return to the creative stratosphere once again on Can't Fly.