Final track Modern Love Stories plays out with acoustic guitar and strings in tandem, emphasising the new textures that Once Twice Melody has introduced, perhaps not with universal success, but nevertheless there are moments here that rank alongside Beach House’s finest work.

It’s a beautiful, fitting send off to one of music’s finest lyricists and an excellent postscript to an incredible career.

Being a live album, some tracks are stretched out beyond their natural lifespan (the average length of the songs here is about six and a half minutes), but even then it's a joy to listen to the interaction between Thompson and his band.

Blackberry Smoke are the ultimate antidote to bad vibes, and You Hear Georgia is more than just escapist fun, it’s a superb record.

It challenges, questions and, quite frequently, unnerves. Despite all of this, you can’t quite stop listening. It’s a record that leaves you frozen.

No Mythologies To Follow is a solid record, one that features a slightly older and more thoughtful MØ. It should make any fan of pop music look forward to what’s to come next from this gifted artist.

Quiet The Room is the perfect introduction to Helen Ballentine’s hazy, dreamy world – a world you’ll want to spend an awful lot of time in once you experience it.

There’s an edge to these performances that couldn’t have come from a more rehearsed band. Slightly fudged lyrics, instruments not turned on, and a palpable sense excitement give every single one of these songs a sense of electricity and vibrancy.

You won't find a more compelling wall of sound in many other places this year.

For a debut effort, Amanda Mair's record offers both startling clarity and cohesiveness, a cherry picked smattering of so many inter-related pop elements, here weaved together into a lustrous tapestry of accomplishment.

It's hard to go into explicit detail on Music Sounds Better With You, simply because of how happily delightful it is.

Strangely, this record might be the first grower they’ve ever made, sacrificing some immediacy for subtlety and, presumably, greater endurance.

There is, thankfully, life in the old beast yet.

This is a fascinating record that will initially bewilder, but rewards repeated listens.

This is a fine and often beautiful album, full of sensual delights and productions that vary from wafer-thin to chocolate rich. Throughout the focus is on Lanza and her feelings, which are reassuringly human and grounded. Combine that with its underground origins, and you have a record for the everyday listener.

As a vocalist, she continues to command attention.

The songs are stronger than ever, and the production remains recognisably the work of Hamilton’s hand.

Despite the 22-year hiatus, Crime & The City Solution sound as if they’ve never been away, and with such a strong comeback there’s no reason why they can’t finally make an attempt of gaining the recognition they deserve.

It's an accomplished debut album that lays the foundations for a very bright future.

It’s catchy, perfectly executed, and succeeds in both honouring the better aspects of a much maligned scene whilst also sticking two fingers up at the horrific ideologies that still populate it.

Konkylie is a vibrant, often intense, mix of house and pop, infused, wonderfully, with both a spiritual glow and a dark clubland soul.

While the later tracks on Songwriter do start to feel slightly samey and Cash by numbers, they remain highly listenable, with impeccable performances from the band throughout. The arrangements and production merge seamlessly with the original demos, proving how intimately the key players knew Cash and his music, with the man himself in fine voice, sounding simultaneously both sonorously world weary and vibrantly fresh.

Grant’s lyrics have always been striking, often highly emotive and confessional, but also frequently designed to raise more than a few eyebrows. Here, there are moments where he is more cutting, and more sleazy than ever.

Beach Music will almost certainly push Alex G into the wider consciousness, and rightly so.

It is the sharpness, leanness, and absorption in detail found on Howl that combine to make it a success. It’s not impossible that it could ultimately out-shine a lot of the bigger names it has been pushed up against this year.

Mostly, it's gorgeous stuff.

Where Avery was perhaps a little formulaic with his previous record, Song For Alpha, here he is inventive and reinvigorated, and Illusion Of Time stands out as an emotional and enjoyable, if bracing, release.

This is a debut album of startling originality, that seems set to cast its spell most acutely on a hot summer's night.