As long as you come in solely expecting to be treated to top-notch instrumentation and heartened by the (sometimes-vague) familiarity of your favorite tunes, Walking Shadows will prove to be one of the year’s most satisfying jazz listens.

With Below The Waste, Goat Girl proves they can keep their high standards while trying out new things, and actually manage to pull them off.

An album that playfully veers all over the place and leaves you feeling as heady and confused as a first time stoner.

Whilst most die-hard fans are likely to be put off by some of the tracks on offer, this is the sound of a band settling into comfortable maturity.

Oh Fortune is a luscious wall of sound, one that should see the criminally underrated Canadian featured more regularly alongside the heavyweights.

All in all, an accomplished return, and a welcome and relatable one for these dismal times.

After a couple of listens it reveals itself as Goldfrapp's most subtle, affecting and rewarding album to date.

Divorce have served quite a calling card with this debut, and it’s fair to say that, by the sounds of it, they’re in it for the long haul.

A showcase for Keita’s skills as a musician beyond his lauded voice they present.

Her songs are similarly sparse and fragile, with some astonishingly mature lyrics framed by beautifully pretty melodies.

Another excellent album from a band who know how to play to their strengths.

This all may be too intense and striking for some people (the last 70 seconds of closing track Magic Dealer are simply ambient noise), and those who were pulled in by the warm sound of Saddle Creek on the band’s first two albums may find this switch to 4AD to be too jarring. Yet, for most Big Thief fans, UFOF is a natural, welcome progression, and one that you likely won’t want to tear yourself away from.

Creep On Creepin' On is a richly textured, intriguing piece of work that bears up well to repeated listens.

By this point, she’s probably preaching to the converted, and won’t attract anyone previously immune to the Del Rey charm – yet this is probably her finest record since Born To Die, and this new partnership with Antonoff ensures that her next move will much anticipated.

Creative and fascinating.

Despite these occasional moments of divergence and experimentation, fans will be pleased to hear that the album is still peppered with quintessential Field Music bangers.

All in all, Put The Shine On is a stunning update of the classic CocoRosie sound.

Many previous fans may be slightly put off by the lack of wild abandon and experimentation, but there is a newfound lucidity here that is ultimately more rewarding.

There’s no doubt that Pile have made a bruising record, but it’s also one that is rich with off-kilter melodies, roaring guitars and moments of variety.

Lyrically and stylistically our protagonist spreads her wings much further than before, making a statement of intent that confirms Sampa The Great is in this for the long haul. The sky really is the limit on this evidence.

Primrose Green may not be the most original of statements, but it definitely amounts to more than the sum of its parts and there is the lingering impression that Walker is only just getting started.

It may not be up there with the best of The National, but Get Sunk is definitely a new avenue for Berninger to explore. That closing choral shout of “Get sunk! Get drunk!” on the final track Times Of Difficulty feels both playful and emotional, as the best of Berninger’s work can do.

There’s a distinct absence of envelope-pushing on Until In Excess… – but frankly, when the result is this beautiful, who can really bring themselves to care?

Year Of The Snitch feels totally alien. It is an exhilarating release that doesn’t let up, and proves that six years on the group are still a force to be reckoned with.

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.

Following some recent setbacks in his personal life, Luke Abbott has got round to making, for all intensive purposes, his impression of a breakup record, and damn, if it isn’t a total knockout.

Commercial considerations aside, this is a finely crafted and lovingly realised album that Halstead should be proud of, and which deserves to finds its way into more homes than the usual coterie of 4AD fans.

With each album, Gibson develops these techniques, and Empire Builder sees her building these details to a new peak.