With Getting Into Knives, The Mountain Goats provide us with a smorgasbord of robbed emotions and new, neon-backdropped friends – and we need it more now than ever.

Listening to the music in the knowledge of its back story makes for a poignant experience, a reminder of how music can be an incredibly cathartic means of expression for both listener and artist.

Off Off On captures something of how the world is right now. It has moments that encourage us to turn off and seek escape, but at the same time also provides energy to help us to re-engage with the world. In short, it’s a perfect soundtrack to help us through these pandemic-dominated times.

The Instrumentals album is naturally a looser, less magnified affair, consisting of collages of the exploratory, freeform acoustic guitar improvisations that each day of the recording sessions would begin with. They showcase a different side to her creative process, but it’s undoubtedly on Songs where the emotional impact is located.

This is an album which, although it encompasses many feelings, never seems to fully settle on one – and therefore it’s both incredibly prescient and incredibly easy to get lost in its whirlwind wonderland of bittersweet narratives.

Of all of the guest-heavy Gorillaz albums, this is by some margin the leanest, meanest and grooviest set of the lot.

This is a fantastic box that will occupy fans for the next few weeks and months, but it’s also a superb gateway into the world of Tom Petty for those who like both pretty things and great music (and have a few bob to spare).

Letter To You provides both a moving thematic adjunct to Springsteen On Broadway and a timely and welcome burst of the sheer euphoria that only the E Street Band can inject. It also, importantly, demonstrates the band’s unacknowledged flexibility.

Optimisme is more Garageland than Graceland in its approach.

Fake It Flowers is a very well-accomplished debut, featuring a consistent, enjoyable style, a fully-formed persona and catchy tunes which speak to the head and heart.

A compendious set of cinematic, soothing and poignant songs, showcasing a deeper maturity not only in Melua’s voice, but also in her songwriting.

This is never going to replace your favourite Kevin Morby album, and it’s unlikely that it will make him new fans, but it feels like the kind of private delight that great artists bestow on their fans for their loyalty from time to time. Sundowner is Morby’s Harvest Moon, his Nebraska, his Hejira – a statement of intent made in the quietest way possible.

Simply put, no one does electronic music quite like Autechre.

Dark Hearts is a mixed bag: it has many well-crafted moments and some stellar production choices, and there aren’t any outright bad songs; the likelihood is that some of the less obviously pop moments have the potential to grow over time.

For a first solo work, Serpentine Prison is an excellent sidestep from Berninger’s vitally important and highly respected day job.

It may not be a record that grabs you by the scruff of the neck, but its quiet, understated nature demonstrates an artist confidently setting off on a new chapter in her career.

There’s little time to get bored, and there’s a distinct feeling that too much of this would be overkill. But for half an hour, it’s perfect. It may have had a painful journey with hellish events at every turn but Moveys is, for the most part, heavenly.

They’re constantly trying to better themselves, and provide their listeners with new ways of looking at old feelings. As Long As You Are is an endlessly rewarding listen, and it’s certainly worth the wait.

So much of the delight of listening to music comes from the lyrical, our tacit affiliation with the rage, wit or pathos an artist wishes to project. This record goes some way to appropriate the perception of being wordless, hushed by the beauty of the world we inhabit.

It’s considerably better than it has any right to be, made up of a surprisingly satisfying mix of bright modern pop, standard club bangers and Billie Eilish-esque miserablism.

Under The Spell Of Joy didn’t quite achieve the transcendent ritualistic occurrence Death Valley Girls pointed to, but it should still win them a few zealous new converts.

Shiver may be a step out of Jónsi’s comfort zone, but it’s a step that seems to have reinvigorated him.

All Thoughts Fly is undoubtedly a peculiar album, but absolutely one well worth investigation.

Blue Hearts finds him upping the ante yet again.

While some fans will always have their favourite Deftones album (White Pony being the most popular), it’s becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish what their best album is, especially when they’re in form as hot as this.

Róisín Machine sees the singer charismatic, confident and in control, and Barratt’s beats accompany that mood perfectly. Accept no imitations, this album has some of the best electronic music you’ll hear all year.

The Pineapple Thief’s latest work is a positive reflection of prog rock in the 21st century asserting, after all this time, how underrated they are. Let them be a mystery no more: on Versions Of The Truth, this band bear the torch of prog rock, and it burns still.

With Apple A. G. Cook shows plenty of potential, but ultimately more consistency is needed with his songwriting if he is to really make his mark.