What Perfume Genius started with Too Bright was strengthened and solidified on No Shape and has been brought into full focus here, and nurtured to full bloom.

The wry humour on display even extends to the setlist, with 'I Tried To Leave You' being the first song of the encore. It's little touches like that which make Live In London both the perfect souvenir for those who were there on the night and also a handy introduction to one of the true living legends of the music industry.

His major label debut good kid m.A.A.d city solidifies his burgeoning reputation and stands out as a landmark contemporary hip-hop album.

The Myth Of The Happily Ever After doesn’t just stand out, it soars, inadvertently becoming not only Biffy Clyro’s best album to date but one that will undoubtedly stun their critics.

While it’s impossible to fault Cowboy Carter’s ambition, it’s sometimes a bit too sprawling for its own good. Eighty minutes is a long runtime for an album, and some tracks inevitably sag a bit, especially in the middle section.

Glutton For Punishment is nothing if not cathartic. Thankfully, Orme’s quite phenomenal songwriting means that she has somehow made the pains of life sound like something that we should embrace and celebrate.

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.

Bailey Rae sounds like an artist reborn. It may not be what you expect, but it’s all the better for that. Without a doubt, it is the best album of Bailey Rae’s career, and quite probably one of the albums of 2023 as well.

Sex, Death & The Infinite Void resembles The Rocky Horror Picture Show if you were to watch it on a rollercoaster in the dark: it’s thrilling, coquettishly idiosyncratic, and filled to the brim with palpable pride at their lack of creative limits. If it’s one thing no critic could ever say Creeper lacks, it’s ambition, and here it really pays off.

As this wildly talented, unpredictable and near flawless young singer and musician bids her farewell with the album's longest track, BaBopBye Ya, this time in cocktail club torch singer style, one can but marvel at the impressive range, ambition (realised) and detail of this deeply polished, professional yet utterly, brilliantly bonkers album.

Blue Weekend is Wolf Alice’s best work yet – a confident, euphoric, blistering 40 minutes that’s guaranteed to be on many people’s ‘best of’ lists at the end of the year.

Guts is an immensely confident and assured record which confirms that Olivia Rodrigo is here for the long-term.

If SZA needed to prove that she’s still at the top of R&B, she has succeeded with emotional heft, piercingly astute lyrics and a versatile delivery: with more than a few similarities to Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, SOS is perhaps the best break-up record since TDE’s last one.

He has bravely laid his songwriting gifts bare in their purest form.

Somehow, from nothing, they’ve pulled off a surprising but oh so welcome return, and this record plays like a triumphant middle finger salute, coolly showing everyone how its done... and writing the first line on a thousand ‘album of the year’ lists before January’s even out.

Punisher is funny but serious, subtle yet obtuse, familiar and somehow simultaneously entirely unique. Even if in the final analysis it’s still not massively folky.

Like all the best albums, it keeps you on edge, never quite knowing what’s coming next.

A glorious album, a record that beguiles and enchants, and one that, in time, you won’t want to stop listening to.

Here In The Pitch might only be just over 27 minutes long but it is a disproportionately affecting album full of wonder and magic. It will stand the test of time and be rightly regarded as something of a classic in years to come.

Black Dog might not be a comfortable listen but its unrelenting power and undisguised starkness demands attention and makes it impossible to ignore.

Just like a balloon the music soars to ever greater heights, until finally the listener stands transfixed, observing until they can see no more.

It’s rare to hear a debut album so confident and accomplished, especially when the artist himself has just turned 20 years old. Yet Psychodrama is pretty close to a masterpiece and raises the bar for a new standard in British rap.

Untrue is complex, stark, tender, blurred and breathtaking. Burial has managed the impossible and improved on his faultless debut.

It’s just as special as you’d expect.

With a couple of judicious tweaks to the song choices, this retrospective could have been truly great rather than simply very, very good.

This is a fantastic album. It may be the best of an already-excellent run of albums produced by – and it really does bear repeating – the greatest rock band in the world.

Spaces demonstrates a prodigious, world-class talent that shines through regardless of format or circumstance.

Despite Tim’s absence, LSD is awash with his presence. LSD is a masterpiece and evidence of what can be done in the face of adversity. It’s a record whose importance is more than its music.