Throughout the record, Steve Mackey's production shimmers both warmly and vibrantly, sounding at once like a throwback from the 1980s and futuristic.

A stunning debut album, one that proves the hype was more than justified.

Each track melds into its predecessor and its successor, creating a mesmeric experience that truly captivates the attention and inspires awe at the sheer musicality of Thurston Moore.

The Monkees have made an album which stands readily among the best of their career and of the year so far.

They’ve turned everything up beyond 11 this time, opting to throw more skull crushing riffs into the mix. The songs might be shorter, but they lack none of the innate need to pummel that infuses most of their work. 


There are so many ideas, grooves and interesting deviations on Pas Pire Pop that it is impossible not to be drawn in by it. Rather than being overwhelming, it’s a record that stuns with its hypnotic and jubilant rhythms.

The sounds on Microcastle form a lush landscape.

They've created a finely honed album that hints at a multitude of influences but because they are ploughing their own furrow they're in debt to none of them.

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.

It is, quite simply, a staggeringly good record for an artist at this late stage of what has been a remarkable career, entirely made up of original compositions and worthy in its own way to stand alongside the masterpieces of its creator’s mid-’60s and mid-’70s halcyon periods.

This is a special album, make no doubt about it, casting its spell as it makes both a moving memorial and an example of raw talent. If techno with a soul is what you're after, then look no further than this.

Complex yet accessible, and best experienced when fully immersed in it. It’s possibly Braids’ best record since their debut Native Speaker – a record that reveals more delights the more times you listen to it.

30 Years Of War aside, this is an album that finds the Manics in fine form.

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.

Skeletal Lamping flicks across channels like a man with an itchy trigger finger who trigger finger is actually itchy, but it excels in making a brilliant kind of sense.

This Is Happening suffers no shortage of really great songs. Each track is a well-executed study in the finer points of the long form, each thumping and building, wavering and shifting in the haze of its own self-contained ecosystem.

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.

The Mountain is by some distance the most ambitious Gorillaz album yet, a multilayered musical tour de force that brings meaningful strands of hope to the deaths, chaos and delirium.

This compilation, the fourth and possibly final in their Switched On series, collects some of the various EPs, compilation tracks and tour 7″s they made between 2000 and 2005, along with some deep cuts that stretch back to the Mars Audiac Quintet era and proves the critics wrong.

Appreciate the storytelling of Strawberry Hotel without shuffling. It’s nearly a five-star experience, too, its facilities and furnishings impressing greatly – along with the conviction that Underworld are as good and as vital as ever.

This is a vital album for anyone interested in how musical traditions are disseminated, absorbed and reinvented.

Gold and Green finds its mark far more consistently than Kila, despite being a far more expansive and rambling album.

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

Everything is ordered, nothing is left to chance, and with a clear path of progression. For the chilly yet soothing soundworld it conjures, it is endlessly replayable. Medicine never tasted this good.

It's to Diplo and Switch's enormous credit that the style is fully authentic, the party in full swing the whole way through.

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.

An emotionally raw and thrilling pop record (because it is a pop record, despite its rock sensibilities). After a series of downs that would finish most bands, Get Tragic sounds like a new start for its creators.

The introspective narrative may not be uncharted territory, but Dido chose these waters. She is unrivalled in navigating them with her disarming and melodic harmonies. If we’re going to hell after this, let’s enjoy this atmospheric goddess while we can. Beautiful.