On Dark Days + Canapés, the sense of darkness becomes a bit wearisome. Yet, come the end of the year, this will no doubt be held up as one of the albums that held a mirror to its times. It also confirms Ejimiwe as one of this country’s most vital voices.

It’s an album that screams out for an editor, but when it hits the right notes, it demonstrates just why Taylor Swift is one of the biggest pop stars in the world.

Sega’s production is consistently impressive, whether it’s the seasick bass on Elk Skin’s glitchy hook, True’s baroque chord sequence or the pumping trancey arrangement of Dirt. He is a better producer than a songwriter however, and some of the less musically eventful .tracks test the patience.

Rarely Do I Dream is another beautiful album from Powers, which seems to be a constant, no matter what name he chooses to record his music under. It manages to sound both nostalgic and contemporary, full of songs that evoke the warm glow of childhood, but with a creeping menace never too far away.

This is an impeccable record from an incredible songwriter.

This is a remarkable debut that fairly sizzles with confidence and attitude.

Ultimately, Mothers feels like a stepping stone to bigger and better things for Swim Deep.

Two decades on, Formentera sees the band still going from strength to strength, evolving their sound as time goes on, while retaining all the elements which make them such an enjoyable listen.

Waxahatchee’s second album is one to immerse yourself in, to lose yourself in and generally marvel at the raw emotion that’s so beautifully expressed.

Basically, it’s a fantastic debut.

While Ghostpoet will never be considered an easily accessible artist, this is the enigmatic follow up we’d hardly dared hope for.

An artist at the top of his game, with the newfound artistic freedom that Konnichiwa granted him but the energy of still having something to prove. It also confirms the 2010s grime revival as being more than a passing trend, and on this basis it’s stronger than ever.

At just 36 minutes, Every Loser never outstays its welcome – instead, it’s a short, sharp blast of energy that sounds impossibly refreshing.

Island Of Noise is set to be a sustainable release, with some intoxicating visual art, thoughtfully sourced and sensitively delivered. This attention to detail runs through the pores of the music, giving the repeat listener something new to discover with each visit but, like the peacock butterfly, making a strong first impression too.

In its creation of something towering from fundamental, basic elements, it is alchemical.

She has delivered her most soothing and assuaging set of songs to date, music to help re-establish personal harmony and emotional equilibrium.

There’s not much on here that comes close in quality to either of Grant’s solo albums--like a fine wine, he’s become better and better as he’s aged. Yet there are some hints of his early promise on this compilation.

Alabama 3 are at their best when they let go, embrace the fact that they’ve successfully sustained their eclectic sound and bizarre personas for over 20 years, and lose themselves to their own warped version of the blues.

Ignore the occasionally terrible lyrics (rhyming artist with “fartist” for example) and The Painful Truth contains some of their most heartfelt work.

Silver Bleeds The Black Sun… is not just the next entry in their incredible evolutionary cycle, it genuinely feels like the culmination of what the band have been trying to do for over a decade.

Generally there's not too much straying away from the Nashville sound and Wagner's production keeps things sounding impressively full and remarkably fresh considering the age of the source material.

Despite the unsettling nature of Abyss as a whole, it’s a work that is strangely comforting once its charms are fully submitted to.

Because Of The Times is Kings Of Leon's best album yet, their most fully realised and mature work to date.

For all its challenges and provocations, Garden Of Delete may actually be more inclusive and open than it first appears. It might be that its moments of hope and beauty (Lift) linger longer in the mind than its very varied assaults.

As an EP taster, Mount Wittenberg Orca would have been great, but by positioning itself as the finished article, one is left with the sense of an incomplete journey and a wasted opportunity.

Django Django’s style is well-worn by now, and a little more stylistic or structural invention wouldn’t go amiss, but Glowing In The Dark still delivers the goods with ease.

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.

On Accelerate R.E.M. sound like men less than half their age, ripping through 11 songs in a mere 35 minutes that contains great chunks of just about everything that made them the biggest band in world back in the 1990s.