Chaotic, energised and thrilling, this is Demi Lovato at her very best.

The fact that Nastasia has documented this period with such honesty, empathy and beauty makes Riderless Horse feel like a small, healing triumph of sorts, a quiet personal victory against overwhelming adversity.

Traumazine is a success in its own right, solidifying her position amongst rap’s big stars of the 2020s.

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.

This album is a pleasing, mature release, though a little more freakout wouldn’t have gone amiss.

With Cry Sugar we get a scrapbook of interesting ideas, diversions and pastiches from a producer with little to prove at this stage – it helps that Mohawke’s imagination and skill make the record great fun to listen to.

What is clear is that the band’s songwriting will never be short of heft, with the potential to rouse a festival crowd. The Alchemist’s Euphoria will definitely do that, especially the primal, chest-bared early examples – and so for now the band look set to begin chapter two of their story with a show of strength.

The sense of a missed opportunity lingers.

There’s barely a weak track on Surrender, and it’s a record that’s destined to appear on a lot of ‘end of year’ lists come December. The fact that this is only Maggie Rogers’ second album is astonishing, given the level of confidence and ability that shines through it.

Beyoncé mostly eschews polished vocal performances in favour of expression, with the intricate vocal runs that wrap up Plastic Off The Sofa a notable exception, and while the explosive final verse of Heated is being edited at time of writing its raw and spontaneous quality is intensely satisfying.

The general tone is low-stakes, suggesting that Bada$$ felt obliged to link the record to 1999 regardless of the content, and it lacks the impact he might want from his first release in five years. That being said, good taste in production makes it very listenable and his sound has evolved in an interesting way, meaning that ironically he’s not stuck in the past.

Hold My Baby emphasises King Princess’ position as one of pop’s most singular talents, but doesn’t drive home the point quite in the way you feel it should. Perhaps that makes it an even more interesting listen.

While the surprise and freshness of the Sticks ‘n’ Stones era is understandably a thing of the past, there’s more than enough on The Theory Of Whatever to show why Jamie T has had such longevity.

It makes for a decent companion record to Fear Of The Dawn but also works perfectly well as a standalone album in its own right. Two decades on, Jack White’s creative fire shows no sign of dimming.

Beatopia is an album which shows Beabadoobee still experimenting to find her voice – that doesn’t make it a bad album, rather a slightly uneven one. There are enough moments, such as the gently soaring See You Soon, which hint that she’s due to break out of her cult status and become a major star sooner rather than later.

The album rallies later on, as I Love Your Girl and When The Party’s Over are impeccable tunes that more than deserve their place, but Mabel’s dedication to the pure pop that gave her big hits in 2019-20 is now threatening to leave her somewhat faceless.

Generally though, World Wide Pop is full of inventive, bold pop music – sometimes sugary sweet like the acoustic led Crushed.zip, and sometimes big and anthemic such as the CHAI and Pi Ja Ma collaboration Teenager. And, as ever with Superorganism, it’s never, ever boring.

Hellfire is a superb and strangely seductive album that adds another gem to the crown of a band who are fast becoming one of the very best of their era. Mystifying, terrifying, essential listening.

The Other Side Of Make-Believe is a dependably great album from a dependably great band.

Overall, Pearson has produced an album with very few weak spots. It’s a record that takes the strengths of Return and builds on them, resulting in a work that, from the very first listen, you know you’ll be going back to again and again.

Two decades on, Formentera sees the band still going from strength to strength, evolving their sound as time goes on, while retaining all the elements which make them such an enjoyable listen.

Clever but debauched, silly but serious, this is the best album of their career thus far.

It’s probably the most accessible Soccer Mommy album to date.

This enchanting and deeply felt piece of work marks Gwenno out once again as a unique artist with much to say.

No one really shakes things up. Still, there are numerous moments of real beauty here.

It’s the sort of album which flows naturally along, with not a song, or even a lyric out of place. She’s been flying under the radar pretty consistently for a decade now, but if there’s more records of the quality of The Spur, more people will inevitably fall in love with Joan Shelley’s music.

Here is a songwriter effortlessly recounting his joys of youth and getting lost, and in the process finding himself through a set of subtle musical gems.

There’s a massive amount of power and feeling in the music but perhaps even more of an impact is in the feeling of expressionism and freedom that it represents. In forcing herself to look at who she is as an artist and explore new ways of creating Zola Jesus has firmly taken back her power and forged a new way forward out of the darkness.

From start to finish, it’s a thrilling ride with some important messages of determination and empowerment that swirl above annoyance, frustration and resignation. Once again, the Berlin-based Newcombe has crafted yet another worthy addition to his portfolio.

‘Flicted is one of the more positive responses you will hear to the pandemic, and it continues Bruce Hornsby’s rich vein of form in recent years. ... It is giving Hornsby some of the best music of his career.

The main issue that dogs this album is weak composition – few of the ideas are outright bad, but they don’t earn their runtime.

As there is little deviation, you wonder if the band had control with the various producers largely going along with what the band wanted rather than trying to exert their own influences over the record. Whilst it does work at times, Life Is Yours will probably find itself confined to the list of also-ran albums of 2022 as a whole.

Magic Pony Ride might not be the most ambitious record in the world, or in Paradinas’ discography, but the music accomplishes its stated goals and is enjoyable in the process.

This album’s half-in-half-out approach is unsatisfying.

There will be parts of this album’s roots that those outside Mali can never fully comprehend, but regardless of your entry level, you’ll be certain that those roots are still strong and bearing exquisite fruit.

The only problem with Inside Problems is that it’s possibly too arch and mannered to appeal much beyond those familiar with Bird-lore.

A perfectly paced album, but despite the elegant sequencing, there are definitely tracks you’ll come back to far more than others.

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.

It’s a record which will make a fine introduction to Stars for any newcomers, while long-term fans will hail it as their finest work since Set Yourself On Fire. At its essence, From Capelton Hill is a distillation of what makes Stars so great.

There is no filler as such on Some Nights I Dream Of Doors, though there are some pacing issues that could be dealt with by rearranging tracks. However this does not prevent it from being an auspicious debut, and a fine showcase for Obongjayar’s many talents.

C’mon You Know’s problem is that, after the initial bluster of his two preceding albums, it just sounds distinctly pedestrian, complacent and reflective. The addition of wisps of trippy phasing, looped drums and a diversion into dub (eek!) all add up to songs that seem just a bit too contrived and calculated to really feel like he ‘means it man’.

May well be Tempest’s most enduring work to date.

Recent years have seen outstanding releases by people like Claud, Chloe Moriondo and, on an even more successful level, Maggie Rogers. Jordana is firmly in this lineage, and Face The Wall is an outstanding realisation of a prime talent.

A fine piece of work here, both profound and mysterious. Hopefully we won’t have to wait another eight years for the next one.

The soundfield on Tonight There Is Something Special About The Moon/ Jaki Księżyc Dziś Wieczór… is just too cluttered, whilst the tuning-radios-whilst-the-bath-empties vibe of Anti-Antiphon (Absolute Decomposition)/ Anty-Antyfona (Dekonstrukcja Na Całego) veers close to ambient cliché. Still, Regards as a whole is a rewarding, absorbing listen, and is liable to instigate an outbreak of searches for Schaeffer originals in obscure corners of the ‘net over the coming weeks.

Six albums in and Everything Everything continue to find new ways of developing their art, and yet the feeling remains they still have an enormous amount of potential to fulfil. Raw Data Feel, one of their very best achievements, gives a strong indication they are getting there.

Kendrick’s lyrics are as erudite as ever, and he has thankfully backed away from the excessive voiceplay of DAMN., though a few tracks could have been cut to create a more consistent listening experience. That being said, Mr Morale & The Big Steppers should be applauded for its intimacy, a remarkably detailed self-portrait of his unique, troubled mind.

The whole album is delivered with great assurance and feels instinctive, Moderat effortlessly rediscovering their mojo as a band. They may have had a break of half a decade from releasing music, but MORE D4TA proves they have never really been away.

At just eight tracks long, EyEye never outstays its welcome, although its relentlessly downbeat nature may put some people off. While the absence of a big pop banger is a shame – Li is so good at them – her restless nature and willingness to experiment is to be admired.

Harry’s House is a heavyweight pop release that feels understated and lightweight. It threatens to give everything about Styles away and strip back his starkest emotions, but leaves it still ever so slightly cloaked in mystery. We’re closer than ever before to truly understanding Styles the person, but he still keeps us ever so slightly at arm’s length. Styles, the artist, the pop auteur, though is far more clear.

Flume is stuck between innovation and the urge to party like it’s 2014, and though Palaces has real highlights, it is weakened by this indecision.

The band’s third album has a raw power which has the ability, at times, to stop you in your tracks. It’s also their best work to date.

Dance Fever is a startling return, full of all the elements which made us sit up and take notice of Welch in the first place.

Sigrid has delivered a suite of tracks that explore a theme without becoming tiresome, with slick songwriting and polished production to help the message hit home.

Unlike those other Radiohead solo and side projects, you can easily imagine The Smile appealing to more than those aforementioned obsessives. As a soundtrack to these unsettling, rather terrifying times, you won’t find many better composers than Yorke and Greenwood.

While some may find the almost gossamer light touch a bit insubstantial, repeated plays will find Radiate Like This weaving its way into your heart. Despite it being a long time in the making, it almost feels like Warpaint have never been away.

Over the last few years, she’s become one of America’s finest songwriters, and this album shows her continuing that trajectory.

They’ve had their day doing one thing, they now need to do another, and while further albums are even less likely than this one, Happiness Not Included feels like something of a missed opportunity.

While there are no surprises to be found on A Bit Of Previous – it’s pretty much a textbook example of how a Belle and Sebastian album should sound after 20 years – it’s a warm, comforting return for a band who do what they do extremely well.

It’s an album that crystallises just what makes Arcade Fire so great, and when they hit the mark, as they do several times on this record, there’s nobody to touch them. It’s good to have them back on form.

Scalping have produced 35 minutes of vehemence and vigour that has enough depth to repay repeat listens. If Slavestate was an industrial-dance crossover, this is more like a metal-techno crucifixion.

The more instrumentally talented Eno has struck gold with these pretty arrangements, providing a worthy reminder of why his career hasn’t fallen victim to the passing of time.

The broadening of their musical palette here has offered up multiple directions for the duo, but they still retain the distinct Girlpool vibe on their most accomplished album yet, one augmented by a rare magic.

This isn’t their strongest album – that’s a dead heat between Sehnsucht and Mutter – but it’s at least as good as the three albums preceding it, and that means it’s a very good album indeed. ... This is also – you’ll see – an endlessly replayable album.

For all the sonic invention which they usually display, it’s the raw emotion and sadness on Two Ribbons which make this Let’s Eat Grandma’s finest album yet.

Forced to do something different out of circumstances, Owens searched deep within her musical soul and tapped into her deepest creative touchstones to record a remarkable record, one that’s a product of a distinct time and place in history.

At times, Alpha Games does hark back to the glorious early days of Bloc Party, and while this doesn’t quite measure up to Silent Alarm, there’s enough evidence that the band’s line-up changes have reinvigorated them.

The music is uniformly simple but beautifully effective. It sounds like what it is, one man telling you stories and weaving beguiling tales of distinct and not too distant lands through a carefully intricate and delicate soft rock tapestry.

There was always a risk that Heart Tax may feel a bit stitched together. Fortunately, the opposite is the case – this is an album to dive into and luxuriate in.

Invisible Forces is a deliberately minimal affair, as even formal notation is eschewed in favour of an intuitive musical journey, and if this makes the album repetitive it will surely still be put on repeat by fans of this sort of thing.

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.

If nothing on Everything Was Beautiful feels truly essential to anyone with the Spiritualized back catalogue, it’s also a glowing example of their aesthetic.

It all adds up to a magnificent third album which serves as the crowning point of a career that is, excitingly, still in its infancy.

There is little filter on the creativity here as White’s legacy allows him to explore and indulge odd ideas, but it could do with some productive channelling. Hence Fear Of The Dawn ends up a partially enjoyable but partially frustrating listen.

Horace Andy is clearly an artist not content to rest on his laurels, and with this album he strengthens his position as a bona fide reggae legend.

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.

El Mirador is up there with their strongest albums, certainly rivalling the likes of 2003’s acclaimed Feast Of Wire as possibly their best.

This album at its best can be genuinely explosive – see Holding Back with its booming trap beats and chipmunk-soul hook – but Banks’ central problem on Serpentina is how to channel emotion without straying into musical indulgence, and how to evoke situations without wallowing in them.

You Belong There is a genuinely transporting, multi-dimensional song cycle and a glimpse into a fascinating musical mind that demands repeated plays. It’s destined to appear on album of the year lists but its depth and sense of ambition will ensure its treasures last well beyond 2022.

In their second album Confidence Man provide us with the feel good music we desperately need right now, taking the weight from our shoulders and offering more than a semblance of hope in difficult times.

There’s the occasional curveball, such as the Latin shuffle of Olvidado (Otro Momento), but for most part the music hovers on an astral plane between speakeasy jazz and the later nexus of Dylan, Nilsson and Newman. The result is strangely timeless.

The Unfolding is an album with a broader purpose that conveys its egalitarian, inclusive message with discretion, confidence and superb musicianship. It succeeds in balancing the beautiful with the cerebral, simultaneously existing as both head and heart music.

For some the relentless artificiality of this album will make it hard going, and is likely that Walt Disco will make better records, but as a debut this is assured, individual, and liable to incite a thousand arguments about teenage clothing choices. Like all the best pop music.

It might not be exactly how you remember Loop to be, but it’s distinctly Loop nevertheless and is a welcome return for a band that were thought to be done and dusted.

The music of Aldous Harding is beautiful on the surface, but becomes even more wonderful when given a chance, and when it’s as good a first listen as Warm Chris is, finding time to dive back in is a rather simple task. Warm Chris is the first great album of the coming summer.

Filled with the classic Molko goth-nihilism it’s twinged with as much Nirvana as it is Depeche Mode. Familiar yet fresh, a grower indeed, catchier with each listen.

The lovelorn subject matter is at times overbearing, but nevertheless Homesick is a decent listen from start to finish and its consistency is impressive.

Crash, while not a perfect record and not entirely free from external pressures, sees the singer in a completely different space, making joyous music that flits between normativity and hall-of-mirrors-style subversion in a manner reminiscent of The Weeknd’s Dawn FM.

Becoming Undone is a twisted, thrilling ride, at once stylish and unhinged, showing that more sophisticated production techniques haven’t taken away any of ADULT.’s edge over the years.

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

Whilst it’s unlikely to have surpassed a compilation that would have boasted the likes of I Wanna Get Lost With You, Indian Summer, Graffiti On The Train and Mr And Mrs Smith to name but a few, Oochya! is undoubtedly one of Stereophonics’ better albums in recent times even if, at 15 tracks, it’s a little too long.

It might have been largely inspired by events that took place in the past but this is a forward-looking album by a band that has rediscovered their place in the world.

Though it’s only a brief listen, Back In Black finds Cypress Hill refreshed and re-energised.

To produce songs that listeners want to stick on over and over again is the holy grail, of course, and although the whole album doesn’t manage to maintain this level, the highlights could stay with you for a considerable time.

Deciding which music you listen to in a world that now benefits from so much of it is another tough choice, but in the case of The Jacket, it comfortably feels like it could be a very good fit for many.

Reeling is undoubtedly a solid step on a road to a successful career, and one that will find this band honing in on both its desired path as well as strengths that will become clearer as time goes by.

It features roughly one good tune to every two mediocre ones.

The music can be deadpan and serious at times, but Magazine 1 gives the running impression that it was a huge amount of fun in the making.