Birthing feels, in a romantic way, like both an ending and a beginning. An exceptional album from an exceptional collective, led by one of the most powerful songwriters of the past 40 years.

It’s the sort of album that even repeated listenings can throw up a myriad of surprises: you never really get to know who the character of Father John Misty is (is he a self-hating misogynist, is he a sage or is he just a simple romantic?), but it’s clear that Josh Tillman has slowly turned into one of the most talented songwriters of our age.

While the album is unmistakably Hecker’s vision, it’s the listener’s experience.

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.

For a debut album it's brilliantly realised and contains not an inch of flab across its 11 songs. Debut album of the year? It's beyond doubt.

Dig deeper and you'll find that Goat has managed to create not just a world of their own, but an album that draws on influences from all over the world.

While some fans will always have their favourite Deftones album (White Pony being the most popular), it’s becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish what their best album is, especially when they’re in form as hot as this.

The album could have been a niche critical favourite that marked them out as just curious oddities. Instead every preconception has been firmly smashed. Firmly on track to become the biggest band in the country, Wet Leg are here to shake the post pandemic culture out of its slumber.

On paper these might sound like mad genius, but Daft Punk somehow misplace the wit and the light touch that’s pretty much their trademark. Instead, these long epics become somewhat tedious and there is a strong whiff of egoism and self-indulgence.

soil is an extraordinary album, triumphing seemingly without making any artistic concessions.

You could make a fair case for it not even being as good as Funeral – but my oh my, it's close.

On songs such as this [Fairchild] and Chapter 16 Dave sounds focused, engaging: ingredients of a great album are here, but he’s yet to stick the landing.

By this point, she’s probably preaching to the converted, and won’t attract anyone previously immune to the Del Rey charm – yet this is probably her finest record since Born To Die, and this new partnership with Antonoff ensures that her next move will much anticipated.

An album that feels alive and joyous in its creation and performance.

Overall, Touché Amoré’s shift to the emotional and the subtle at times, without sacrificing the exhilarating annihilation that characterizes their music, renders Is Survived By dynamic and of higher quality than anything they’ve done before.

It is a remarkably enduring and giving album that further enriches this already flourishing genre.

Tenderly questioning at every turn and predominantly joyous in its approach, these subtly provocative tracks are a defiant call to arms in an ever more uncertain age, underlining Bottum’s impeccable songwriting chops following his tenure in the disparate groups Faith No More and Imperial Teen and gleefully showcases Holman’s innate charm.

With this record Young Fathers have managed a perfect synthesis between what they are saying and how they choose to present that sonically. Yes, this is a highly political and experimental record, but it is also a brilliant pop album.

One of the 21st century's most intelligent and satisfying bands (musically, lyrically, emotionally) have once again set out their stall, and once again produced a work of inspired resonance, capturing truth after truth, in all its muddled, human realism.

Bob Ludwig's remastering punches up the drums and adds clarity and volume to the mix without overblowing it or excessively altering the overall sound, and the result is that these two albums sound incredibly modern, relevant, and invigourated... The Gish standouts include a demo of Daydream with Corgan on vocals in place of D'arcy Wretzky and an extended version of Drown with blistering alternate guitar solos.

This record has been a long time coming, as Fabiana first appeared as one to watch in 2017, but with her development as a singer, songwriter and producer it’s surely been worth the wait.

What is perhaps most impressive about Beautiful Africa is its sheer number of thrilling twists and turns.

It doesn’t always maintain the consistency that makes a truly great album, but it makes you feel good and puts a smile on your face. Just as the cover promised.

Shore is a glorious, life-affirming collection of songs, a move to the centreground that shows his absorbing of musical influences is paying rich dividends. It has ‘future classic’ written all over it.

Here she is doing what she does best--weaving the sounds and statements of the people she's writing about into the song itself.

Hit Parade provides ample demonstration of her inherent and infectious sense of fun and her propensity for eccentric bops, qualities which have served her well across the decades.

Venus In The Zinnia is an engaging duet with Welsh musician and kindred spirit H. Hawkline. A lot of the other songs may be less immediate but still have their strengths.

What is provided here [is] superb playing and a peerless collective spirit, along with a clear and nuanced production that is never intrusive.

Like the original album, most of these songs deal with the themes of love, loss, sex and power in open, frank ways that can make for – at first – a difficult, unwieldy listen. But presented here, in a more intimate setting, the songs are more accessible, and certainly more apt for repeated listens.

It’s introspective and understated while never failing to get its message across. He may not receive the accolades and acclaim that the likes of Stormzy or Dave garner, but Hugo is more proof that Loyle Carner is one of the foremost names in UK rap and hip-hop.

As with every track on this perfectly crafted piece of work from one of the world’s most distinctive voices, it is really quite beautiful.

An album that is nothing short of a triumph, one that perfectly balances their craving to be “unsettling” again with soaring, arena-ready anthems.

Gunn’s perfectly snarling vocals amplified in intensity by the punchy production, it is a electric opener which sounds unmistakably PVRIS, just with a fresh energy.

There’s enough variety and sheer pop power here to merit the hype, and more.

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.

When it hits, as on the wistful Fionn Regan sample on the closing 00000 Million or the breathtaking piano introduction to 33 “GOD” you know that this strange, beautiful, willfully obtuse album is one that you’ll want to live with for a very long time.

A few good ideas emerge, but are then repeated endlessly to the point of sheer boredom.

Let England Shake, Harvey's first solo album since 2007's White Chalk, is a brutal, often difficult and always unflinching look at what terrible things happen to people when nations fight each other.

Taken end to end, Sound Of Silver is a thrilling, exhilarating ride on a fast machine.

Heavy Heavy is a short, sharp blast of energy that never outstays its welcome. ... The year may be only one month old, but the first truly great album of 2023 has arrived.

There’s no wallowing in self pity on Proxy Music. Instead it serves as a celebration of one of folk’s most talented figures, and it’s great to hear that Linda Thompson has found her voice again, with a little help from her friends.

Even at this early stage of the year, it’s fair to say that Power Trip might just have written one of this year’s most exciting and important albums.

Róisín Machine sees the singer charismatic, confident and in control, and Barratt’s beats accompany that mood perfectly. Accept no imitations, this album has some of the best electronic music you’ll hear all year.

Body Talk shows just how easily she can churn out hits more frequently than labels can process production teams.

Oil Of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides does not remove all mystery, but is a powerful statement of identity, a shattering of traditional genre boundaries and nuanced, moving expressions of emotion where there once was an inscrutable deadpan. The fact that it all sounds so irresistibly good is the icing on the cake.

In a year that's already been rather special for great albums, Merrill Garbus may well have produced the finest record of the year.

This is an incredibly well fused and structured album that taps into a wide range of emotions.

For, as beautiful as the arrangements are on End Of The Middle, it’s Dawson’s lyricism that raises this up to another level.

Musically, she’s moved on from the folky Americana that made her name, and moved towards a more doomy, synth-based sound. Yet it suits her down to the ground.

Holden has created a life-affirming hour in the musical heavens, just as the title promises.

It’s their best album in years – maybe since The Seldom Seen Kid – and one of those records that will throw up new little surprises on each listen many months from now. Not only one of our most consistent bands, but also one of our most surprising – the national treasure status is well earned.

Diva Cruz, the Colombian percussionist and MC, brings a carnival atmosphere that is hard to resist. It’s in these collaborative works that Dreijer really strikes gold on Loud Bloom, the mix of influences and sounds giving a global feel and celebratory energy to the early parts of the album.

thank u, next is a very accomplished album which showcases Grande’s inner strength and emotional maturity in the face of the undeniably harrowing trauma she has suffered in the past couple of years. Forget Grande: This album is a Venti, with an extra shot.

Big production bombast in the latter half of the record--especially on 'Africa,' the English-language 'I Follow You' and the title track--could happily be skipped over, but there's at least half a record here that's as indispensible as it is likeable.

Given the expressions of vulnerability and exploration of heartache here, this album has had timely release. It makes for a glorious companion to Björk’s Vulnicura but also stands as a confident, masterly debut album in its own right.

Where before they gave the distinct feel of a quick side-project for a bunch of talented musicians who were currently in other bands, on Mirrored it's clear that their hearts and souls are in every one of these songs.

It has little in the way of variation, even less in the way of optimism, but feels completely whole despite that lacking.

She’s been able to defy expectations time and time again due to a combination of good taste, charm and a deceptively versatile voice, and Tension has its fair share of all three.

This is Vernon leaving the seclusion of the forests and, as many of the track titles suggest, moving through towns, cities and open spaces.

On this one, they’ve become a great band. It’s harder to take them seriously here, but perhaps that’s something they’ve never wanted. They’re more than content with being the class clowns, and we’re more than happy to have them.

If Afrique Victime tells us anything, it’s that Mdou Moctar’s fire and passion are drawn from his homeland. The results are staggering.

As an album that is both outward an inward looking the balance of the two is well measured.

Happily The Early Years’ renaissance has been well worth the wait, their second coming blossoming through music that frequently dazzles.

It is the finest achievement of Coombes’ solo career so far, a magnificent record – and the feeling still persists that there is more to come.

This integration of sounds and styles confirms Irreparable Parables to be a quietly powerful statement from an artist who has proved he can broaden his sound with confidence and conviction.

They find Harris stepping away from the choral ambiance and glacial minimalism of the Nivhek era and retreating back to the nocturnal ebbs and crackling timbres of earlier albums such as Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill and The Man Who Died In His Boat.

It's the big numbers, when Hegarty steps up to the microphone, that reveal Hercules And Love Affair as a project that captures not only the full range of moods on a night out on the tiles, but also the full range of human emotions from the start of a night to its end.

Whilst it is true that Aphex Twin’s delicate and more minimalist side is neglected on Syro, save for the piano kiss-off of aisatsana (102), there are plenty of signs of James maturing and developing as an artist.

With Young Man In America, Anaïs Mitchell has created her second consecutive masterpiece.

Fay consistently finds beauty in the world and is not afraid to express such sentiments. There are also moments of very real sadness--but a hard-won wisdom and acceptance cuts through.

It’s all intelligently arranged, but also in thrall to the energy and swing of jazz tradition--there is plenty of rhythm and blues during the improvising.

Robyn has assured her contemporaries that pop life does not end as a tweenie, that pop music can be for adults, and that adults can be Do It Yourself indie artists, so long as one thing is in place: talent.

This Music May Contain Hope will easily be a certain contender for many people’s end of the year lists. This is an album of rare scale and energy, and one that’s been designed to come back to time and time again.

It’s a comforting record, but one you wish was a little more abrupt in places. Even so, it’s a hugely graceful collection played out with dignity.

Of course this is a great record. Of course this is essential listening. At this point in his career he’s still getting better, and that’s a scary proposition.

serpent has crafted a spatially attentive album centred around representation and reverence, inclusivity and acceptance.

Yves Tumor has drawn inspiration from all those moody vocals, watery guitars and blown-out mixes to create their best album yet. ... The increased connection of the internet is taking an already rich musical landscape towards its very own singularity, and when we get there it may sound a lot like Yves Tumor’s raw, surreal, multilayered tunes.

It’s a work that’s beautifully single minded, but may be a little too much of an undertaking for some. What’s inescapable is that it’s the sound of a person bravely questioning her place in the world, often in inspired fashion.

It is, quite simply, one of the essential albums of the year.

The voice of Shirley Collins is blossoming again, delivering its compelling stories with the urgency of a singer who simply had to make this record. Collins is a musical key worker, her songs compelling at every turn.

She’s bringing a perspective which is often fascinating, but never less than interesting.

These songs might not be his most immediate, but House Of Sugar, it rewards repeated listening as these songs start to reveal their hidden depths with every listen. Whether its ever possibly to get right to the bottom of them is another matter, but really, it’s the mystery of them that makes them so appealing.

While it may not hit the meteoric heights of It’s A Wonderful Life or Vivadixiesubmarine, Bird Machine does act as an emotional and evocative farewell to one of the most missed songwriters of our age.

It is a key work – a significant milestone – in the grand history of not only Sanders’ career, but the whole free jazz style he helped pioneer. ... This is a truly joyous album, and a purely pleasurable experience.

This is a healthy, diverse, multi-faceted music that should be approached critically in much the same way as any other genre.

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

This is an album that sparkles with invention and surprise.

By the time we reach final track A Hollow Skeleton Lifts A Heavy Wing it’s noticeable how familiar the songs already seem to feel, a special quality that confirms the album to be significantly greater than the sum of its individual parts.

Gelb has produced his most focused work in ages.

LCD Soundsystem's many fans will want this principally for the bonus tracks but will probably already have the rest of 45:33.

With the original foursome reunited it's as well that Midlife dwells mainly on the music they made together. As a playlist of what Blur were and capable of, it suggests a band with few peers.

Fontaines DC wear their influences close to their sleeve, with nods to The Pogues, The Strokes and Joy Division, but these influences are absorbed into their identity, to create something that instantly familiar and accessible, but also thrillingly compelling. ... They’re going to be big, and one listen to Dogrel will convince you of that fact.

Of its kind, Bakesale is a classic, and well worth reappraising.

Their last studio record saw them in upbeat, energetic form, and whilst that playfulness is still present at times on Elwan, there is a conscious grounding too this time around.

Double Negative is an album that will endure for a long time. It’s a thrilling development that proves how Low continue to release music of extremely high standards, restlessly creative and never content to stand still.

So in summary if you are looking for an album that could almost double up as an engrossing series of short stories, with tales from the darker side of life and love, then you could certainly do worse than dip into this album.

Whichever stylistic avenue is being explored she successfully sculpts and shapes her music in a way that gives it a soft and organic feel.

No Name is wonderful, magical, truthful and the most consistently surprising rock album of the year by some margin. Just Jack White doing Jack White things.