So, from bed-bound broken foot casualty to creator of the finest debut album of the year in just over a year.

With the third in his Essex trilogy Darren Hayman has surpassed himself, creating an album that is intelligent, heartfelt, and musically stunning.

The sound on Welfare Jazz may be more of the same glam-phetamine trash disko bomp that made the first record so distinctive – a ramshackle wad of low-end guitars that spit and burn like chip pan fires and boisterous oft intoxicated vocals with a surplus of undulating sax – but there’s something else that’s been added to their arsenal, something that was hiding in plain sight all along. The protagonist of these songs may not be all that apologetic as he pontificates of his transgressions, but he is at least man enough to put his grubby hands up and forewarn friends and lovers that he’s a little damaged. It’s a good start.

This is an intelligent and deeply human album and it would be no exaggeration to say that it’s already a modern classic.

While Lux is certainly accessible, it’s also a challenging listen. The fact that it sounds like nothing else may put some people off straight away. Yet for those willing to fully immerse themselves in its overwhelming sweep, the reward is likely to be a dizzying, unmatchable experience which cements Rosalía as one of the most visionary artists working today.

A sensational album of varying degrees of pleasure and pain. ... Ultimate Success Today is their most cathartic statement to date.

Cabin In The Sky is a rollercoaster of an album that reveals its depth over repeated listens. Yes, at heart it is a eulogy for fallen loved ones, but it is also an existential crisis wrapped up in phenomenal guest appearances and carefully selected samples.

The album could have been a niche critical favourite that marked them out as just curious oddities. Instead every preconception has been firmly smashed. Firmly on track to become the biggest band in the country, Wet Leg are here to shake the post pandemic culture out of its slumber.

This is a magical, magnificent album – one of the best of Sufjan Stevens’ career.

Allo Darlin' have achieved their aim of not producing a carefree record again, and then some--instead, they've created one of considerable, admirable depth and nous, though it retains the warm, personal nature of its predecessor.

A statement for all of the limp new rave pretenders to pack up and fuck off, a return to form rarely sounded or felt so exciting.

Hadestown may have gained her success through her successful harnessing of external inspiration but by turning attention inwards on this occasion she’s delivered one of the quietly outstanding albums of the year.

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

The cover of In Waves may be black and white, but the music within proves every bit as colourful as his debut, with the added bonus of frequent dancefloor highs. What a thrill it all is.

The third Self Esteem album that takes the best parts of Prioritise Pleasure and her debut Compliments Please, and turns it all up to 10.

WU LYF are a band to celebrate, a DIY tour de force, and their first album deserves a place of reverence in the modern indie-rock canon.

One of the best albums in North America last year and surely one of the best of 2006 for us; Live It Out is sinister, intelligent music for sinister, intelligent people.

A neat album of only 10 tracks. We find her in life-admin mode, clearing out any dispensable trash that she no longer has time or the inclination for. ... Sublime.

Mesmerising as the words and delivery are, the album is also musically excellent.

Shunning a tried-and-tested formula to focus on evolution and experimentation is always a massive risk. But by choosing to embrace their calmer, and often much darker side, the Dubliners could well have given us their masterpiece.

Love Kraft is the greatest realisation of the Super Furry vision to date.

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.

It might take a week, a month, or even a year for it to yield up all its treasures; but after only a week in its company, this reviewer's instincts tell him that Have One On Me is a masterpiece.

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).

This is out in the margins, removed from 'pop' and 'alternative' genres by the scale of its reach, its bloody and bold ambition. It is complex, multilayered, densely plotted, wordy. It's also scary, harsh and bruised.

Here, Gira shows that the Swans resurgence isn’t a fluke. Not even close.

Songs like Joy and Cruise Ship Designer and Hit My Head All Day offer enough immediate pleasures to ensure the replays keep happening. It adds up to an incredible record from one of the very best bands in the world.

Fontaines DC wear their influences close to their sleeve, with nods to The Pogues, The Strokes and Joy Division, but these influences are absorbed into their identity, to create something that instantly familiar and accessible, but also thrillingly compelling. ... They’re going to be big, and one listen to Dogrel will convince you of that fact.