It’s about clean lines, geometric beauty and clear sincerity. But it also has depth, richness and luxurious colour. It can be taken as superficially perfect pop music, or you can listen a little deeper and hear just how intricately woven her heartbreak anthems really are. She is an artist in the truest sense. And Honey is her latest masterpiece.

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

It’s an album that confirms the sound of an artist continuing to push forward, a unified expression of joy that is never anything but bold, playful and fun.

Killer Mike and El-P have been speaking out about the deep rot at the core of the USA for their whole careers, and with this album they add several more tunes to a rich canon of protest music that will galvanise an oppositional movement.

On Wild God, he’s open and honest and raw and impassioned and vital.

In a parallel universe, Getting Killed would be the album that catapults Geese into superstardom. .... This is Geese’s finest album to date, and one that will no doubt find its way on to many people’s best of the year list.

This is an astonishing debut album, one to immerse yourself in and live with for weeks, if not months – an intoxicating statement which announces one of Britain’s most exciting new bands.

Olsen, her arrangers and producer (The Paper Chase‘s John Congleton) have created an album that simply bulges with perfection and timeless songs.

This is thrillingly visceral music that could bring Mannequin Pussy ever closer to crossover success.

If the sound of Beyoncé‘s similarly sonically adventurous Renaissance whetted your appetite for challenging, demanding soul, then Sudan Archives’ latest could be just what you’re looking for.

The Hare, The Hound & The Tortoise is a promising debut album, one which spells a bright future for a quite unique band.

This then, is a solid album of phenomenally crafted songs.

This music is restless but keenly aware, finding common ground and intersections between a range of source material and contemporary contexts and, most importantly of all, delivering these songs with honesty, conviction and genuine feeling.

Safe In The Hands Of Love is a fascinating synthesis of rock, plunderphonics, bass music and noise from an artist that remains stubbornly undefinable.

The recordings here are ideal for longtime fans, whose only gripe might be paying for material that they already own. But this is not a big problem when you consider just how many rare tracks you get for your buck.

What makes Shortly After Take Off work is the attention to detail, both musically and lyrically.

Anchoring the album with his own painful history and never admitting defeat, Balfe has scripted a exhilarating album that contends with unimaginable loss whilst warmly celebrating persistence.

The Mess We Seem To Make is a remarkably confident, assured debut album – every inch of care and time that’s been lavished on it has obviously been well spent. Crawlers sound very much like a band on the cusp of some very big things.

Hit Me Hard And Soft might be the very best pop album released so far in 2024, and it’s certainly one of the most enjoyable.

This is an album full of surprises, and some perfectly crafted, often very moving songs.

The ambition of Home? is admirable, and Wretch 32 delivers his best album yet by centring the music around these weighty themes.

Occasionally the sparkly pop stylings and dependably profound poetic musings give the record an air of interchangeability, but this minor parlour trick merely invites an opportunity to explore the contents further at a pace comfortable to the listener.

It’s true to say that Chris seems to run out of steam a bit at the end, with only the beautifully reflective Make Some Sense really standing out during the album’s last few tracks. Nevertheless, this doesn’t stop Héloïse Letissier’s second record being one of the year’s most intelligent, enjoyable albums, and cements her position as one of our most intriguing, interesting pop stars.

Tiger Blood is the sound of an artist improving on her already high standards.

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.

In a year where R&B and hip hop have proved the most innovative and original genres Solange has delivered a brilliantly crafted record that places her right at the top.

The Idler Wheel… is a really incredible album, where Apple has quite cleverly developed musically in just the right way, creating something utterly distinct and different to her earlier work whilst still retaining all the characteristics that won fans over to begin with.

Oozing fun out of every pore, this record is the perfect tonic to the increasingly troubled times that 2009 brings with it and will most likely feature on many of those Best Of lists come December.