It might not be FOTL’s most accessible album, but The Peace And Truce is perhaps their most rewarding. Once those rough edges have been understood and accepted, Falkous’ cryptic lyrics are an endless source of mirth and puzzlement. There’s depth here, and it’s not just in Ruzick’s bass lines.

A solid album, one which, given time to explore its layers and textures, justifies investigations tenfold.

The last few records have seen them experimenting successfully with dashes of vivid colour, spinning bass lines towards the dubby area of the spectrum and enjoying a laugh at theirs and others’ expense. Wheeltappers & Shunters continues the trend, with music of colour, mixing its cold shivers with moments of unexpected charm.

Iradelphic is certainly Clark's most accessible record and it is arguably his best.

Women + Country is something of a concept album, providing a necessary and unflinching look at a people who are often too proud to admit they're dying slowly of the lonesome blues.

Young Fathers are exactly as their name suggests: firstly young, but more noteworthy, brutally honest father-figures who show the music world that, when you take musical and topical risks, you get noticed.

You Are All I See may be surreal and even hard work at times, but this is a work of sheer beauty whose contours are worth exploring in depth.

The emotional impact of this music is sometimes disorientating or alienating, but that is probably the intention. It's mostly impossible to discern the lyrics or comprehend their themes. Somehow this doesn't matter, given the striking, weird and often turbulent music beneath.

Proto is a very distinctive record, and its sound design is as astounding as we’ve come to expect from Herndon. It’s also deeply powerful, as its crystalline tones call to mind the ghost in the machine, and leaves the listener wondering what further symbiosis can be achieved.

It may be an album that’s been borne out of darkness, but as another Canadian wordsmith once sang, there’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in. There are plenty of cracks here – the joyous bounce of Sometimes, or the calm optimism of the title track – to show that Wainwright herself may have been reborn from the personal trauma of the last few years.

Common raps with the calm contentment of a man who’s reached his destination, and it certainly sounds satisfying.

Those who have managed to adjust to the attention deficit techniques of FlyLo or Prefuse 73 should have little problem in embracing Lynn's new approach, particularly as it appears to have resulted in one of the best albums of the year so far.

Music For People In Trouble will perhaps be a surprise for those who came to Sundfør via her last album, but they won’t be disappointed. This is an album full of hidden depths, stark emotion, and most importantly, absolutely beautiful songs.

With Getting Into Knives, The Mountain Goats provide us with a smorgasbord of robbed emotions and new, neon-backdropped friends – and we need it more now than ever.

It's one of the finer conversions of 2011, managing the delicate task of crafting a record that sounds both incomprehensibly universal, deeply personal, and, yes, endlessly listenable.

This is an album that demands to be properly listened to though, not reduced to background music – properly immerse yourself in Villagers’ Fever Dreams and it’s an experience you won’t want to wake up from.

Complete Me is a clever, well crafted and painstakingly produced pop concoction that was well worth the numerous delays.

Morrissey's non-album material has traditionally been impeccable, but Swords is not complete in terms of extra material from the past decade. Nevertheless, taken only as a somehwat arbitrary collection of songs, Swords still excels.

As usual there’s a lot of depth here and over time, more and more will be revealed. Glass Boys might not be as expansive as its predecessor, but it is no less impressive.

Despite the heavy topics, Gwenno brings a lightness of touch to everything on the album--her vocals are both light and breezy, and sometimes sound full of wonder, as if she can’t wait to explore this weird dysoptian future that she’s singing about.

The Argument is a highly laudable effort--literary heads will enjoy its attempt at condensing the complexities of the epic poem, while many will take pleasure in the story Man’s downfall sounding so varied and tuneful.

A winning combination of intricate, impeccable craftmanship and human warmth, Re:member is a record that further enhances Arnalds’ reputation as a truly modern composer, capable of scaling heights few of his contemporaries can match.

Sometimes it sounds bleak, sometimes it sounds glorious, but it’s in embracing the full gamut of life experience, as Zola Jesus does here that nothing becomes everything. The shackles might still be on, but this is the sound of an artist reveling in freedom.

Now Or Whenever doesn’t feel like natural progression when held up against Moth Boys and earlier debut Enjoy It While It Lasts from 2012, but its ability to have you singing along in very little time at all is an impressive quality.

Black Acetate is in equal measures, serious and mocking, threatening and comforting, ambient and rowdy.

It’s credit to her that within the congested realm of electronic music her record stands proudly distinct, as it is both danceable and meditative music with genuine heart. And with that Kelly Lee Owens has made a more than promising debut.

Jacklin has an uncanny knack for documenting her generation’s anxieties and issues, and wrapping them up in songs you’ll be humming for weeks. She is quite the talent, and going by Pre Pleasure, she’ll be around for quite some time to come.

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.

Fundamental is the thinking person's electropop album of 2006 so far.

Halcyon Digest is a triumph of multilayered nuance, and repeated listens reveal its genius buried just beyond the obvious.

Eve is yet another record from Angelique Kidjo that reaffirms her position as one of the most significant Africans performing today, and is the sound of her reaching out and celebrating the strong spirit and power of African women that she embodies.

Better Dreaming feels not so much like a reset, but as if they’ve rediscovered what made them such an exciting prospect in the first place. It’s resulted in the best Tune-Yards album for some time.

For his sense of structure and emotional give and take is acute, so that we move from loud to quiet, from slow to quite fast, from acoustic to electronic, with an ease that makes perfect sense.

Nothing is overstated or overplayed and individual parts are delivered with a care and delicacy which sustains a sense of empathy and warmth. The arrangements are deft and adventurous, but never at the expense of a sense of space and a grounded quality in the music.

TFCF might well be an Angus Andrew solo album under the Liars banner, but what he’s achieved here fits within the his band’s remit for consistently morphing and confounding expectation. More importantly, it’s heartening to see an album as intriguing as this emerge from such a traumatic time.

Street Worms is a fine example of how to subvert expectations, and it’s a fine example of how to do ‘punk’ in 2018.

Whilst it might not reinvent the wheel, Vessels is a rewarding slice of indie rock with a pleasing amount of dark psycadelic twist.

Given it's gestation, it's fairly amazing that Baby 81 wasn't stillborn. To find it's kicking with such vigor is little short of remarkable.

By the time the vocal duet and droning guitars of Chem Trails come around, you'll realise that this is the sound of a band who are going from strength to strength.

It is the best and most meaningful music Tracey Thorn has made in a long time.

Despite the often heavy lyrical content, Lucky Me mostly sounds light and fresh – with perhaps only Leach’s self-loathing becoming a bit oppressive towards the end of the record.

Metallic Life Review is one of their finest achievements, an elemental album that never loses touch with its human origins.

This is the best and most complete set of songs Spiritualized have made since Ladies And Gentlemen.

Multi-Love is more than just a brilliantly designed sonic facade--its excoriation of modern psycho-sexual mores is impossible to resist, so too its musical detail and understanding.

With new release Stuff Like That There, Yo La Tengo are celebrating the silver jubilee of 1990’s Fakebook by once again demonstrating their flair for interpreting the works of others, as well as reinventing their own back catalogue.

This is an album which, although it encompasses many feelings, never seems to fully settle on one – and therefore it’s both incredibly prescient and incredibly easy to get lost in its whirlwind wonderland of bittersweet narratives.

Home Sweet Home is refreshing and genuinely breathtaking.

Some may describe this album as too raucous and little more than a racket, but it's a glorious racket.

Frequently thrilling and never boring, There Is No Year reveals subtleties amidst the powerful energy with each play, and in so doing shines a light on Algiers, a band who stride defiantly forth, urgent counterpoints vital for facing down the injustices of our times.

Those who appreciate what she does well can recognise that in her own understated way, Thorn belongs in the pantheon of the truly great British female singers, and this is another worthy addition to a back catalogue of consistently high quality.

Despite the dark emotions on display, Not To Disappear is the sort of album that can sound oddly comforting, one to which you can gaze out on a bleak and snowy landscape, while musing over January’s travails, and take some sort of solace in. That’s the sort of thing Daughter do so well.

With this widescreen delivery Moby has made an album at once more profound and more substantial than anything we have heard from him in a long time, and certainly more personally meaningful than Play.

Musically, lyrically and emotionally, it works.

It’s a consistent and, at times, deeply thoughtful record that is pleasantly familiar while offering occasional surprises. This easily stands up with the better end of Pollard’s work.

In swapping fiddles, banjo and slide guitar for synths, piano and dynamic guitars, Life On Earth invokes a true sense of step change, capturing Segarra moving into the spotlight with purpose and confirming herself to be an artist ready to embrace newfound opportunities.

'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! rewards immersive, though somewhat uncritical, listening: a glorious hymn to the visceral and transformative power of sound.

An album which on occasion fails to inspire ends with a sense of unbridled pleasure.

Let's hope they carry on with that form of expression, as Replica Sun Machine has created an early blast of summer sunshine--playful, majestic, reflective and content, all in the same record.

More dancefloor domination beckons for the Danish trio--and these tracks should once again work a treat live. Let's just hope they don't leave it too long.

As usual the positives far outweigh the negatives. As a surprise shot in the arm to get the year off to a good start, this is a very welcome New Year present.

He has been launched into the UK jazz marketplace fully formed, capable of extraordinary flights of dexterity and rhythmic trickery, yet also with a strong sense of fundamental musical language and compositional flair.

Packed with oodles of overdrive and a dissociated, ambient feel, Sour Cherry Bell is another enjoyable release from an artist who is rapidly reaching the top of the dream-pop scene.

Room(s) is both evocative and threatening--a place of danger and thrill.

This is an album that sparkles with invention and surprise.

At 14 songs and over 70 minutes long, it's certainly not for the faint hearted or easily distracted. Yet for those who are willing to put the effort in, some of Amos' most beautiful work will be found within.

What keeps you coming back to Good Woman is a sense of hope and optimism that shines through – that sense that, despite the grief and pain, there’s always better times ahead. Maybe it’s exactly the sort of record we all need in these times, and it certainly contributes towards this being the best Staves album of their career to date.

The 10 tracks that make up Tales Don't Tell Themselves brief-though-engaging narrative are deeper, more accessible offerings that need those vital extra two or three listens to really sink in.

This music is at the core of what he does and has informed his musical language throughout his career. The fact that he manages to breathe new life into melodies as overplayed and hoary as What A Wonderful World or as complex and beautiful as Lush Life is triumph enough in itself.

It is a very human experience, and if you can work past the occasional awkwardness of the vocal by spending more time with it then listening treasures await.

In short, the album is great but you do wish these bands could learn to dress better.

Lyrically it is rich pickings for those that savour the words so often masked by either sheer noise or mumbled vocals, as O’Brien proves how he has developed into a rather impressive poet.

At times, it’s the lyrics in Old Fears that firmly stand out over the music itself.

Much of what follows is vintage Stranglers, incorporating tributes to their departed friend. These are done both explicitly (the touching song And If You Should See Dave…) and by association (This Song).

Real Life Is No Cool inhabits a place where pop, electro, house, funk and disco collide, and the results are accomplished, stylish and, above all, fun.

Its cumulative impact is immense, the singer giving everything she has to the music. Limbs may not be an easy listen, but Keeley Forsyth makes it an essential one, singing from the depths of her very bones.

It's clear that Trans Love Energies has been a long time in the making, but Fearless has managed to make it sound like a fresh piece of work.

While the lovely melodies and Vega's hushed vocals make it perfectly good background music, to achieve the full effect you have to listen to those lyrics--she's one of the finest lyricists of recent times.

The result is sublime, lost somewhere between a 3.00am Ibiza beach party, the Royal Festival Hall and the best soundtracked bedroom in the whole damn world.

This is an odd gem of a record that should be cherished in a class of its own.

While he's certainly earned his right to experiment with genres - really, to do whatever the hell he wants - he's never so affecting or engaging as when he's reduced to his quivering roots.

Ultimately, Haines has once again succeeded in producing a surreal, engaging and magnificently wry collection of songs that provide a satisfying conclusion to his concept trilogy.

Puberty 2’s only four-minute plus song was far and away its weakest, but here the songs are short, richly melodic, with layers of detail packed in--like super-compressed sad-pop bombs--and topped by Miyawaki’s vocals, at once commanding and plaintive.

This is emotional, mature art you listen to on some lonesome night--or with a loved one--intently, focused, and open. You will not be disappointed.

An exuberant and heartening spin of the songwriting wheel, a carefree and not overthought documentation of how creativity can be harnessed and fledgling ideas brought to realisation More importantly, it’s a valuable addition to his catalogue that should provide happiness to many.

The experimental edge that Wainwright has introduced with this album bodes well for the future--while she may not be writing operas like her brother, she remains one of the most intriguing, honest songwriters around today.

Some more cynical types may find this heart-on-sleeve approach too cloying, but the delivery and writing is so honest and heartfelt, it’s impossible not to be charmed. Carner is a genuine talent, and this second album demonstrates just why he’s so highly rated.

Submarine is the sound of the real Turner emerging to the surface, and it offers a depth charge to the age of the lazy movie soundtrack.

Festival Bell is by no means perfect. It can, at times, become somewhat samey, and, at just over an hour long, could definitely do with a trim. But none of that's really important; because the music stored within Festival Bell's grooves is living proof that the venerable Cult of Fairport.

The Bravest Man In The Universe is a success. It doesn't re-invent Womack as some sort of lost beacon of soul, nor is it an ersatz look at the career trajectory of a legendary figure. Instead the album posits Womack as a restless spirit, ever expository, invigorated and emboldened by age and experience.

It still sounds like them--just an improved, sharpened up them. And it’s wonderful for it; their best yet.

Elinor Dougall has obviously taken her time to get this album sounding just as she wants – Strange Warnings and Poison Ivy first appeared on 2013’s Future Vanishes EP – and, on the majority of these cuts, that time has been unquestionably well spent. It doesn’t all work. ... Stellular finishes strong, however.

Wells is an immense talent, and for those willing to put the time in, there’s so much to enjoy in these dreamlike baroque-pop numbers.

It’s a collection of 11 instantly likeable songs that, from the title onwards (a twist on a motto of the BBC) seem to touch on communication issues, growing old and lessons that life can teach you. Collins’ voice, despite his health issues over the years, is still as rich and distinctive as ever and suits these songs like the comfiest of jumpers.

It is a glorious statement of intent from one of pop's most misunderstood characters.

It is to Costas and Burton's credit that they have fashioned such an enchanting album from such an unpromising premise.

Lush is an album that the devoted will take to their hearts and luxuriate in its sadness. Some may decry the lack of variety on show (there’s a definite template to a Snail Mail song and it’s stuck to rigidly on Lush), but it cannot be denied that this is a debut that promises great things to come.

The lack of introspective revelation is part of the whole mystique, and this debut album offers a striking first glimpse into The Child Of Lov’s bewitching melting pot of sounds.

This is the sound of a band truly enjoying themselves in the studio, confident enough in their abilities to freely collaborate with other big names.