Nothing quite prepares you for the sheer beauty of The Magic Numbers' music.

This is an astonishing album.

The Loon will stand up as one of the best albums of the year, and Tapes 'n Tapes as a jewel in the American music crown.

Fucked Up have created a masterpiece that pushes boundaries, takes risks and delivers huge rewards.

Frank is a superb debut album that announces Amy Winehouse as a major young talent. With hardly any weak tracks on here, it's frightening to think what she could produce in the years to come.

Grapefruit is an exhilaratingly exciting album.

With not a dot ball or an overthrow, The Duckworth Lewis Method is an unqualified success.

Birthing feels, in a romantic way, like both an ending and a beginning. An exceptional album from an exceptional collective, led by one of the most powerful songwriters of the past 40 years.

One of the freshest, funkiest, tragic and joyous albums in recent times.

This is about as close to perfection as a soundtrack can ever hope to get - perfectly capturing the emotional grit of Danny Boyle's onscreen drama, while successfully evoking a very Indian atmosphere for a very Western audience.

This compilation may primarily be valuable for illustrating the full length and breadth of Sylvian's musical progression.

Walking a fine line between being leftfield and hook-laden, Jaga Jazzist have delivered another selection of epic, psychedelic sojourns through electronics, brass and beats that consistently engage and excite.

A monumental, spectacular achievement.

Takk does what Agaetis Byrjun did by burrowing into the consciousness and snuggling down to bed there, purring. Each listen brings out another mood, another thought. It's gorgeous.

Ten Love Songs is an enormously creative, endlessly surprising album.

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.

My Light, My Destroyer feels like a light slowly coming into focus after a dark period, and, in no small way, seems like Cassandra Jenkins’ masterpiece.

As from an unspeakable event a remarkable record has come. One that sits amongst Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ best. Skeleton Tree is full of grief, but full of heart too.

Heavy it most certainly is, but Daughter succeed simply by creating phenomenally beautiful music and heart-rending songs.

The release of The Next Day would have been one of the biggest stories of the year no matter what its quality--the fact that it also happens to be one of the best records of Bowie’s career to date just makes the comeback that much more triumphant.

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.

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.

Taken end to end, Sound Of Silver is a thrilling, exhilarating ride on a fast machine.

By the time it finishes, it’s hard to avoid thinking that Cutouts is the best album by the best side project of the best band of all time. If you don’t get there, or if you read that and find that it doesn’t sell it to you, then you simply can’t be helped.

With Idlewild you get a sumptuous surface that constantly excites, but reveals its secret charms with repeated listenings.

This is a spectacular, rich and luscious album made up of a variety of sounds that many listeners will have etched into their minds and hearts forever.

Like low hanging fruit plucked fresh from the vine, the bacchanalian temptations Daniel and collaborators such as Angel Deradoorian, husband MC Schmidt and John Wiese offer are a scrumptious treat in which to indulge.

Simply put, his music seems alive, and utterly modern – despite its clear and obvious debt to The Beatles. ... This is a staggering work, a monumental achievement – and easily eclipses any of Jones’ acting to date.