Essex Honey is essentially a series of sketches, put out into the world before they could be framed. Yet therein lies its beauty, stemming from the bravery of Dev Hynes in sharing such bare thoughts and sadness with the world.

Song For Our Daughter is a return to what made her so widely admired. These are songs of undoubted depth and longevity that can provide moments of relief and solace to those in need.

This vibrant, audacious collection of pop bangers signposts the way.

What is arguably Joanna Newsom’s most consistently outstanding record to date.

Despite her albums being snapshots, sometimes a little more diversity in subject matter would be a good thing. Ultimately, while some intriguing risks have been taken, 30 is probably the weakest, as well as conversely the most intimate and in many ways bravest, Adele album to date.

It might not be an easy listen at times, but make no mistake, this is a vital an important record and one that needs to be heard in order to make sense of it. A definite contender for album of the year and one whose impact will stand alongside Lou Reed‘s Berlin for years to come.

While there may not be anything to rival their breakout hit The Night We Met for ubiquity, much of the band’s fourth album sounds like the sort of warm hug that many people are desperately searching out for right now.

It’s certainly Holter’s most accomplished and imaginative album--indeed, there hasn’t been an album this packed with ideas since tUnE-yArDs' w h o k i l l a couple of years ago.

The fact that he can produce an album like Bad As Me, with more energy, invention and sheer excitement that artists half his age stands as testimony that Tom Waits remains one of the true giants of music.

This is as compelling and coherent a collection as they have ever made. It’s a record that you can delve deep into and really inhabit; everything’s in its right place.

It may not be as, well, iconic as Portishead’s Dummy, but there are moments on Lives Outgrown that certainly stand shoulder to shoulder with Beth Gibbons’ glory days.

MASSEDUCTION is nothing less than an absolutely towering achievement.

As its title suggests, Accelerando provides plenty of speed and also a very real adrenaline rush.

With barely a weak track to be heard, it all adds up to an album that sees Waxahatchee move up to another level. It’s the sound of a woman at peace with herself, and Crutchfield’s newfound serenity makes for a wonderful listen.

Deep Science should enhance TVOTR's reputation as one of the finest, forward-thinking bands around, along with fellow Brooklyn acts Animal Collective and Liars.

Occasionally sections of Ten Fold feel too effortless, such as the off-beat delivery of carl thomas sliding down the wall, but generally the affect works as a stream-of-consciousness-style insight into Bey’s attitude and thoughts.

It’s a debut album full of confidence, heart and ambition, with songs that sound both instantly familiar and also like nothing you’ve ever heard before.

My Light, My Destroyer feels like a light slowly coming into focus after a dark period, and, in no small way, seems like Cassandra Jenkins’ masterpiece.

By the time Dislocated’s restless drums drop out he has also demonstrated a level of originality comparable to Madvillainy or Vaudeville Villain – a true artist.

While far from immaculate, Cookie Mountain is the logical progression from Desperate Youth, with its conception fruit enough for those who appreciate musical innovation.

Optimisme is more Garageland than Graceland in its approach.

This is fully lived-in music with natural soul that is totally free of pretence, and a shot in the arm for anyone who hears it. It may only be six tracks long but Can’t Lose My (Soul) is one of those records the listener is simply grateful to have encountered. We are all the richer for it.

It all means that Sometimes I Sit… is a likeable, enjoyable album rather than a great one. Barnett has written half a masterpiece: let’s hope that, next time round, she can complete the job.

For body and mind, then, this is a powerfully affecting release, one that cements Rival Consoles as one of the brightest jewels in the heavily studded Erased Tapes crown.

Is it a rewarding listen? Most definitely. It will take time to fully get to grips with everything that the album has to offer, such is the breadth and depth of Iconoclasts. Its importance lies in its central message, which is (possibly) that healing is possible, even when it doesn’t seem to be. It’s a stunning achievement and quite possibly the album of the year.

Heartbreak is rarely as raw or bittersweet as it is on Michelangelo Dying. It is a brave piece of work, Cate Le Bon surrendering to her feelings in a costly emotional investment but delivering a piece of work whose release must be immensely cathartic. Such inner strength proves ultimately uplifting.

It is just one of the many avenues Bowie could have gone down, but the effect of what he has done is fascinating and wholly satisfying.

It’s a record that’s testament to going through hell and coming out the other side. It’s also an album that confirms Angel Olsen as one of the foremost singer-songwriters of her generation.

With The World Only Ends When You Die, Skyway Man has come up with a boldly visionary record that is bursting with ideas and provides unexpected twists and turns at every corner.

Magdalene is an album that, like FKA twigs herself, defies both genre and classification. Yet it’s a late contender for album of the year, with songs that will live you for months to come.

Letter To You provides both a moving thematic adjunct to Springsteen On Broadway and a timely and welcome burst of the sheer euphoria that only the E Street Band can inject. It also, importantly, demonstrates the band’s unacknowledged flexibility.

This album certainly is a rush, and it’s also the best Japanese Breakfast album to date.

The music is consistently either thrilling, evocative or moving.

Manning Fireworks is an album that you’ll keep coming back to time and time again, a record that firmly secures MJ Lenderman in the pantheon of great singer-songwriters.

By turns danceable, blissed out romantic, familiar and new, it's technologically and musically fascinating. Its juxtaposition of orga and mecha is one of its many well executed contradictions. Packed but sparse, thrilling, complex, innovative, simple. Without even a dud bar never mind a filler track, In Rainbows is more than any fan could hope for.

After just a few listens, it cements itself as the best Vampire Weekend album to date and, much like the New York City to which much of this album is an ode to, there are layers and layers to this record which are a delight to unpack and discover.

What Now is sometimes not an easy listen, but it’s certainly a thrilling and restless journey. Looking at how Howard has evolved from her early days with Alabama Shakes, a more appropriate title for this collection could have been What Next – as whatever does come next is likely to be intriguing.

An album of the year contender.

Nas is not a perfect rapper in 2022 but the chemistry on King’s Disease III works well enough to paper over the shortcomings, leaving a focused, well-executed release.

Culled from various single B sides, radio edits and with two unreleased tracks bolted onto the rear, the band’s musical cauldron appears to be simmering over with malevolent goodness.

No Selfish Heart is something to cherish all year round, no matter what’s in or out of fashion musically; something to keep coming back to when you’re unimpressed by everything else.

Foundations showcases the development in the band’s songwriting skills.

Songdreaming is a big musical event. It is a great place to start if you are less familiar with folk music, opening its arms to ambient and electronic influences while simultaneously celebrating traditional instruments and old melodic forms. It is also a great place to visit if you’ve lived with these forms of music for decades.

Idles offer so much more than mere spit and bile. The nuance of what’s on offer on this record contributes to the rich contemporary loosely threaded punk scene that has produced bands like Protomartyr, Priests and Algiers.

Boucher’s pleasingly scattergun approach means that it doesn’t hold together as a fully coherent album. Yet after a couple of plays, the weird and wonderful world of Grimes soon starts to seep into you, and soon you won’t be able to imagine an ‘albums of the year’ article without this being on it--no matter what the sleeve looks like.

With Dawn FM The Weeknd has demonstrated a vision that the vast majority of his peers would be incapable of, and has executed it with finesse and a slippery, enigmatic charm.

Black Tambourine have finally gotten the treatment they deserve. This is essential listening for anyone who wonders where indie-rock's been, or where it's going. The influence is obvious, and the music has never sounded better.

It’s a beautiful record to immerse yourself in and just lose track of time for a while – once its myriad charms have become apparent, you won’t want to listen to anything else.

Her instrument has aged with her like a fine wine, like Iggy Pop, or like Mr Jagger himself. It’s completely her, completely unique. The new version is gleefully bleak and unwieldy.

There is something new and exciting in Ellison’s bewildering synthesis, and something very original in his seemingly unlimited horizons.

The lack of ripe new fruit is probably what makes Homegrown a slight disappointment, but judged by most standards, it’s still a very solid collection that vividly reflects a turbulent chapter in Neil Young’s long and eventful career.

At over an hour long, this isn’t an album to dip in and out of--it’s that rare album that you have to commit to, and let it wash over you.

It's rare to be so gushing about a debut album--yet after living with this album for a few weeks, you'll be hard pressed to find any flaws.

As a soundtrack to watching those flames flicker, it doesn’t come much better than The Past Is Still Alive.

It’s more conceptually consistent, more musically accomplished, more of pretty much everything that she’s ever done before – and what she was already doing was verging on masterly. Filthy Underneath is already a contender for Album of the Year, and it will take something truly exceptional to beat it.

Although there are a couple of songs on this album which don’t set up camp in your memory, the vocals always astonish, from the sound of Jeff Buckley floating on a soul bisque on It Must Change to the greasy gospel crescendo of Rest.

This is a joyous artistic rebirth, its creator shaking her tail feathers, pushing her own boundaries and immersed in emotion and whim brought out from within.

Everything Harmony is the sound of two men taking nearly 50 year old references and reframing them for today. For a refreshing twist on a vintage sound, nobody does it more impressively than The Lemon Twigs.

Mainstream R&B fans may be baffled at various points, but there will be few more engrossing albums this year.

I/O marks the return of one of this country’s premier musicians and, as befits a project with this long a gestation period, contains songs that stand alongside Peter Gabriel’s finest.

This may well be Holter’s most accessible album to date, but it’s this very approachability that renders it all the more intriguing, drawing you in with open arms. Stately and serene, it’s a wilderness that begs to be inhabited for some time, a country you’ll be reluctant to leave.

A stunning debut then, and one that will make Fleet Foxes one of the most sought after bands of the year.

It’s Prince’s ghost that reigns supreme over the record, and while she nails both absorbing his spirit and infusing her own, there are times when you wish she would push the envelope a little harder, as she has on previous records.

This is a sumptuous and rewarding way of spending 60 minutes. YTILAER shows how he keeps raising the bar creatively, consolidating his place in the upper echelons of alternative rock in the process.

He’s not resting on his laurels lyrically, but we have entered a new phase where his output is reflecting him in a more raw sense. He’s just as inclined to bellow his producer’s name with blood-curdling intensity as he is to ruminate on his place in the rap game, and with results like these his position as “big me” is surely secured.

It's a brilliant exploration of the inevitable interaction between sound, the passing of time and the active process of listening.

At just eight tracks and clocking in at 40 minutes, Former Things is never in any danger of outstaying its welcome. There’s an argument to be had that some variety could improve the record, as there’s a definite template being stuck to. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though – LoneLady’s third album is the sound of an artist expanding her musical horizons and reaping the rewards.

It’s an album that sums up Bowie as an artist--restless, audacious, constantly looking forward to the next new idea. January may only be a week old, but that ‘Best Of 2016’ list already has a slot filled.

The legend behind m b v, as well as its songs, have created something many will talk about for much longer than it’s taken to arrive.

This all may be too intense and striking for some people (the last 70 seconds of closing track Magic Dealer are simply ambient noise), and those who were pulled in by the warm sound of Saddle Creek on the band’s first two albums may find this switch to 4AD to be too jarring. Yet, for most Big Thief fans, UFOF is a natural, welcome progression, and one that you likely won’t want to tear yourself away from.

With every album she releases, Angel Olsen seems to step up a gear. As My Woman will comfortably be seen as one of the best albums of the year come December, it’s a head-spinningly exciting prospect to think where she’s going to go next time around.

This is a magical, magnificent album – one of the best of Sufjan Stevens’ career.

Microshift finds Hookworms drawing a line under their history and taking their first step on a new adventure. They’ve not put a foot wrong yet.

An album that really only Mitski could make: strange, otherworldly and yet immediately accessible and addictive.

Ten Love Songs is an enormously creative, endlessly surprising album.

It’s funny, thoughtful and catchy as hell.

Musically it is arguably the best thing the band have done..

Avid listeners have known all long just how funky, playful and revolutionary she’s been, a genuine musical magpie, but sat barefoot on the cover in the centre of a tenement of abstract coloured birdhouses, her eyes closed, on this record this Liver bird’s calling any stragglers back to the roost.

Skellig is a searching piece of work. Beautifully constructed, it is at times uncomfortably sparse and weather-beaten, but its resilient head remains unbowed at the end. As an image of humanity through and after the pandemic it comes into clear focus, providing solace for those who need it too.

A showcase for Keita’s skills as a musician beyond his lauded voice they present.

It’s just about impossible to live up to the hype that an album like this has been subjected to, but Ocean comes pretty close. Blonde is often a bit of a sprawling mess, but with some patience it becomes one of the most rewarding albums you’ll hear all year.

A wonderful album, undoubtedly a career best and an exemplary case study in how to respond artistically to a life-changing event.

By the time Heavens Sent’s mellow guitar line fades out it feels as if Glacier has reached a spiritual breakthrough – the journey to this point, while fragmented and non-linear, is one of the most accomplished debuts of recent times.

In an interview once, she admitted, “I see things in my head. I dream in colour”. This posthumous addition to her near perfect catalogue confirms that statement, expertly revealing how attuned to the universe she was and how vibrantly her imagination shone in the dark.

Thin Black Duke should be regarded as a genuinely innovative and exciting piece of art.

This album, though not what anybody on the face of the Earth would call ‘fun’, is an absolute classic of modernist architecture. It’s certainly the best thing she’s ever done.

Daughters have provided a soundtrack to satisfy our ghoulish intrigue with a rare beast that is both thrilling and wholly singular. Yet, however darkly disturbing You Won’t Get What You Want is at times, its matchless quality elicits awe and wonder, and strangely, that brilliance provides a surprising and curious warmth.

The jittery electronics of closing track New Year’s UnResolution close the album, confirming L’Rain’s special ability to expertly splice sounds and styles to create something distinctive and original.

Part catharsis, confession, panacea, exhumation and confrontation, these are mantras for healing, hurting and helping. Their elliptical nature leaves room for interpretation, and offers a way in for those who may be suffering unawares, without losing any of the passion behind their delivery.

Bright Future consolidates the view that Lenker is now one of the most distinctive and powerful voices of her generation and these new songs will only deepen the intensity with which her music is received.

Songs like Joy and Cruise Ship Designer and Hit My Head All Day offer enough immediate pleasures to ensure the replays keep happening. It adds up to an incredible record from one of the very best bands in the world.

It’s not the easiest of pop albums to listen to but its raw power makes it a dazzling triumph.

It’s a remarkable, joyous and life-affirming record, a testament to remaining musically open-minded and progressive, and very much confirms O’Hagan’s under-appreciated genius.

Big | Brave’s music doesn’t feel in the slightest contrived. This is rock music, for want of a less reductive term, at its exhilarating and imaginative best. In Vital they have created something you can’t quite grasp or capture, yet the invitation to attempt it is all too persuasive.

In many ways, it’s the perfect soundtrack to a world struggling to emerge from a pandemic. ... If there’s a criticism to be had, it’s that it all sometimes seems a bit cold.

No Thank You could be forgiven for resembling a victory lap, but it is a triumph in its own right, cementing Little Simz’s position as one of rap’s essential voices.

All involved have created one of the most unusual and surprisingly moving records I have heard in some time.

It is also one of the most jaw-droppingly beautiful albums that I have heard since its predecessor.