If this were the debut album of a new group it would be celebrated as a fantastic example of the visceral and cerebral pleasures of a singularly oppressive style of psychedelic metal. As with all of Jarmusch’s projects, it’s an acquired taste, but a powerful one.

Badbea, then, is a spirited and triumphant addition to the discography. It puts a smile on the listener’s face, will make their feet twitch and will on occasion bring an affectionate tear to the eye.

Totems Flare is his best album to date, sparkling with man made brilliance but sounding natural and organic at the same time.

There is absolutely no doubting that Pastoral is a phenomenal piece of work. It’s a brilliantly informed artistic statement and a state of the nation address that cuts right through. It must also be said that it is a quite challenging and difficult listen.

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

Disjointed maybe, obtuse certainly, but listening to this album is continuously rewarding, new images, new storylines, and new moments of disbelief at Darnielle's lyricism on every listen.

It all adds up to another quietly life-improving collection of humble, euphonic Americana, a set of delicately realised musical tapestries that beguile and enchant.

The Red Album brings forward everything they do best, with hooks aplenty, emotive and funny lyrics, all washed down with the odd frisson of self doubt. It's a potent mix, and keeps them a step ahead once again.

A remarkably assured and instinctive piece of work, one that speaks of good times on the dancefloor while not being afraid to throw in more poignant and affecting emotions, all wrapped up in clothing that falls nicely on an ambient blend of disco and house.

As the subtle, off-tonic final note puts to bed the album closer The Empty Nest, and with every aspect of the record exceeding expectations, Two Dancers makes a strong case to be named album of the year.

Mike Skinner seems to have produced a funny, sad, emotional, honest album to rank up there with his very finest work, making us fall in love with him all over again, just as he leaves us.

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.

Above all, though, there’s McAlmont’s voice, which has lost none of its sexiness and agility in the years since he arrived on the scene in his partnership with Bernard Butler. ... While all of the musical elements may have a strong element of reminiscence about them, the lyrics are bang up-to-date, and not always as cheerful as the sound-world suggests.

Greenwood has recorded an eerie yet stunning score, and if Anderson's production is just as aspiring then filmgoers are in for a real treat for the senses.

A deep, meaningful and purposefully intimate rock ‘n’ roll record. But what sets this apart from the other LN&POTR albums is that is doesn’t borrow from the past so much as showcase their own strain of cosmic heartland rock.

It's an album that deserves the limelight, regardless of how it got there.

Yard Act’s influences never overwhelm their own personality. ... It may be early to start taking notes on the Album Of The Year, but the smart money says The Overload will be there or thereabouts.

Past Life Martyred Saints is an album that leaves a mark.

A monstrously grandiose, ridiculously gargantuan and stunningly inventive work from start to end.

The constant barrage of guitar noise and distorted vocals can become exhausting, but those who stick with it will soon find themselves falling for one of the most compelling, magnetic albums of the year.

Taken as a whole, Deep England is a remarkable, memorable thing. Disquieting and disorientating for sure, yet offering plenty of strange, macabre pleasure.

This is a quietly ambitious and exciting installment in the history of a band who may be happy (or possibly even destined) to remain under the radar but deserve something far, far greater.

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

Wasting Light sounds like the work of a band with something to prove, rather than the work of one of the biggest rock bands in the world.

Interplay is a consistently fine piece of work, and even though it is a shade too long it has a strong claim to being Ride’s best album since they reformed. Given the quality of the music since that second coming, we can go all out and say they are one of the finest guitar bands in the country right now.

While Wolfe’s incredible vocals are the main draw, her long term collaborator Ben Chisholm deserves significant recognition too. Not only does his fuzzed-to-fuck bass make these songs feel genuinely threatening, his manipulation of sound and creation of washes and collages provides unsettling backgrounds for Wolfe to weave her magic over. Without him, the oppressive atmospherics of the album wouldn’t be nearly as effective.

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

The Seldom Seen Kid keeps the band on this upward trajectory.

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.

Helplessness Blues sees the band finally reach the top of Barringer Hill and set off in majestic flight over the sunshine blessed countryside.

It's a career best for T.Raumschmiere and another proud moment in the history of hard-rocking electronica.

A fine record.

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.

Shifting moods and voices effortlessly, Harding is an often technically astonishing performer, and Party is a work of quiet power. An inviting, captivating darkness.

It may only be eight tracks long, but each song contains so much invention and ideas that repeated listens bring their own rewards. As the seemingly interminable wait for a new Radiohead album goes on, The Smile are making music that, at times, is equally extraordinary.

Ambitious yet restrained, elegant yet exciting, Veckatimest is an endlessly-rewarding album which seems destined to vie with Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion for the title of the year's best.

Nine Types Of Light is another strong early contender for album of the year.

Taking field recordings from various locations, Tiersen has created an album that works on a number of levels, and listening to ALL completely devoid of context is a rewarding listen.

It’s a truly absorbing listen, almost effortless. For a band that have been through so much turmoil, they convey so much beauty.

Shriek is a powerful reminder of how refreshing and affecting bands can be if they have the confidence, self-awareness and ambition to look beyond their usual horizons.

Kollaps Tradixionales is an outstanding album that competes with anything the band has done previously under its various monikers. It's early in the year to be predicting albums of 2010, but this will surely be up there.

There is a sense that perhaps Swisher is Blondes pushing their oblique take on dance culture by way of rhythmic experimentation as far as it can go, but there’s no doubt that where they have taken it is to an entirely new and sublime level.

Akin to falling asleep next to an electric fire whilst snow begins to fall, Camila Fuchs have created an extrasensory gift of a record, one that is affectionate, woozy and a comforting delight in these most taxing of times.

It’s heartfelt and sincere without pandering to any audience.

The music is consistently either thrilling, evocative or moving.

Japanese Breakfast’s most satisfying album to date.

Go is a phenomenal record with almost every bar bursting with beauty. It is soulful, fun, naive and sad in its own fantastical world; if only life really were this good.

This is a superb album, and a slightly better one than Mercy, which says a lot, but whether it joins the pantheon of Cale’s most legendary records remains to be seen. One would certainly hope so.

It never feels too claustrophobic. You can feel the care and attention lavished on each track – it’s a full three minutes on Alone until we actually hear Smith’s voice, but that doesn’t seem to matter as it feels like a pleasure to dive into this sound again – the chiming guitars, the shimmering synths. it’s like welcoming an old friend back home.

To paraphrase Public Image Ltd, this is not a love album, in a form that most would recognise. It is, however, a powerful rumination on its presence, absence, and the power, both good and bad that love holds over us. Oxbow understands the power of love.

Lament is a deep and complex album. It is not so much a piece of music, as a work of art.

Yet another album of utter genius in a stylistic vein that nobody in their right minds would have predicted from Ulver.

As befits songs of mortality, yearning and loss, the tempo never really rises above a mild trot, with just the catchy chorus and crunchy guitar on Motion Sickness hinting at it being a breakthrough hit. Yet the downbeat atmosphere and fragile arrangements only serve to accentuate Bridgers’ strong, distinctive voice.

In what has already proved to be a strong year for breakthrough artists the duo have gone and raised the bar once again, and in doing so, created one of the most essential albums of the year.

The friends have created something memorable here – not just to bring attention to serious causes, but to captivate and delight all those who stop to listen.

The full listening experience is perplexing, intriguing, sometimes perhaps infuriating, but rarely less than intoxicating.

This is a deep and heartfelt album, being Kae Tempest’s strongest and most powerful statement yet. Instinctive and raw, yet tender to the touch, it demands to be heard.

Ultimately, Champion is the sound of a band fully focused and completely in control of what makes them special.

This is gorgeous record that starts great and gets better with each additional hearing.

It’s an expression of what we should all do with our trauma, which is open up, share, and react to each other with the greatest of support. And that is so unbelievably beautiful, we’re left at the end with a single phrase. Thanks, Keaton. Thanks.

It confirms how they’ve always been a band that have explored human emotion in deep, meaningful ways but Distractions feels like something more, like the beginning of a fresh chapter in their story.

It's eccentric, it's exhilarating, it is, in parts, absolutely insane. Yet it's never less than absolutely compelling, which is what makes The White Stripes one of the greatest bands of modern times.

Killer Mike has taken a meticulous approach to ensure MICHAEL paints a nuanced, vivid picture of him and his community, and the effect is inspiring.

The legions who bought and enjoyed El Camino are sure to enjoy this unofficial second helping and those who yearn for more of the freakier blues of Rebennack's 1960s heyday are certain to agree this brilliant gumbo is just what the doctor ordered.

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.

These songs show him in a newly redemptive prime, and will satisfy both short and long term devotees.

Exai shows they still occupy a special position in the current generation of forward-thinkers, producing music that couldn’t have been made at any other time other than now, unostentatiously trailblazing a path for others to follow in.

Whatever your interpretation, it's clear both parties have a deeper understanding of one another's music than any outsider could ever hope to comprehend, a synergy that has only strengthened over the 20+ years of their acquaintance.

Le Bon and Presley are certainly a potent cocktail and this is one of the most uncommonly satisfying releases of the year so far, whose charms reveal themselves best after a few plays.

Singles is a record that is experimental, yet hugely accessible.

There’s no pure pop moments like Losing You and she may never generate the same amount of press inches as her elder sister does on a regular basis, but this third album is an endlessly compelling one.

This album is a joy, with a cast iron guarantee that you’ll be smiling by the end of minute one.

Life Metal resonates in the surrounding air particles long after the last track concludes, and will reverberate in the minds of listeners longer still. A truly magnificent, very real, and ultimately restorative record.

New album Delta Machine is about more than simple fulfillment--going one further to actively excite, as it lays the template for some of the band’s most vigorous, energetic material in 15 years.

This is an album that seeks to explore a shifting in spiritual planes, and the music reflects this by twisting its source material into something entirely other.

It may be occasionally unnerving, but there is pure balm to be found here, music to speak to even the most troubled of souls.

Efterklang have managed to locate the sweet spot where the organic meets the electronic, and have carefully stuffed each track full to bursting point with a gorgeous mix that at times seems to require a new musical format, just to deal with the sheer bandwidth of sonic invention on display here.

For all its blaring noise and sneering obnoxiousness, its probably ATR’s most accessible album; playing Reset feels like lighting a fuse and detonating something.

Sunn O))) may just be the band’s most accessible work to date. There are moments where actual riffs are discernible amongst the thunderous drones. The closing section of XXANN is genuinely terrifying, the guitars swelling and diving like an incoming squadron of bombers.

They may have hit national treasure status a while back, with all the advantages and pitfalls that that can bring, but as long as they carry on producing music with as much soul, heart and beauty that’s contained on The Take Off And Landing Of Everything, Elbow will be with us for some while to come.

2:54 is deep and dramatic, taut and poised. It stands up to repeat listens with a unperturbed grace and a wonderful habit of showing you something new and unheard each time.

One of the Decemberists’ finest albums. Even at this stage of their career, where they can comfortably be described as veterans, Colin Meloy and company still have the power to enchant and inspire – As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again, indeed.

Its youthful sense of noise and joy and wonder are heartening, its way with a tune addictive. Would that all summers were as warm, as happy and as big-hearted as this music.

Feels like a jolt to the nervous system in the best possible way. As a soundtrack to the weird times we all find ourselves in, and a potent call to action, it doesn’t get much better than this.

In writing this stunning, emotive album Sarabeth Tucek has not only dealt with her own grief, but will undeniably help others in a similar situation, a perfect way to commemorate her father.

Deceptively expansive, Fink’s tricksy Hard Believer is essential listening.

[Love & Hate] was a magnificent album, and the formula is continued with the same collaborators to stunning effect on KIWANUKA.

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.

[A] glorious album, that is full of both gravity and levity, wisdom and beauty, and that is, most of all, infused with the honesty and humanity that make of it such a triumph.

He has made five albums, at least three of which are very fine indeed. But concern was growing that he might have peaked creatively. Bleeds refutes that notion emphatically, within a minute of the start.

Ultimately, the whole album is a triumph of collaboration and should be seen as a celebration of the artistic vision of Rob Marshall. There’s not a misstep on a single track, and there’s a depth here that rewards repeated listens.

Created by two genuine outsiders and made with a refreshing lack of irony, Album is a welcome addition to the very best albums of 2009.

Surely nothing tastes as delicious as this music feels.

Overall though, this is another wondrous album from a band at the height of their considerable powers.

One of his best albums and deserves better, confirming Damien Jurado to be an artist operating at the peak of his powers.

While existing fans are catered to generously, the band have brought their sound on in leaps and bounds; an achievement that is testament to Mount's evolving songwriting prowess. They don't come much better than this.

On first listen, it seems unfocused, rambling and at times impenetrable, but given time, it unfurls into something utterly compelling and all encompassing. ... It’s a difficult and traumatic journey at times, but it is worth taking.