There’s no wallowing in self pity on Proxy Music. Instead it serves as a celebration of one of folk’s most talented figures, and it’s great to hear that Linda Thompson has found her voice again, with a little help from her friends.

Even at this early stage of the year, it’s fair to say that Power Trip might just have written one of this year’s most exciting and important albums.

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.

Body Talk shows just how easily she can churn out hits more frequently than labels can process production teams.

Oil Of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides does not remove all mystery, but is a powerful statement of identity, a shattering of traditional genre boundaries and nuanced, moving expressions of emotion where there once was an inscrutable deadpan. The fact that it all sounds so irresistibly good is the icing on the cake.

In a year that's already been rather special for great albums, Merrill Garbus may well have produced the finest record of the year.

This is an incredibly well fused and structured album that taps into a wide range of emotions.

For, as beautiful as the arrangements are on End Of The Middle, it’s Dawson’s lyricism that raises this up to another level.

Musically, she’s moved on from the folky Americana that made her name, and moved towards a more doomy, synth-based sound. Yet it suits her down to the ground.

Holden has created a life-affirming hour in the musical heavens, just as the title promises.

It’s their best album in years – maybe since The Seldom Seen Kid – and one of those records that will throw up new little surprises on each listen many months from now. Not only one of our most consistent bands, but also one of our most surprising – the national treasure status is well earned.

Diva Cruz, the Colombian percussionist and MC, brings a carnival atmosphere that is hard to resist. It’s in these collaborative works that Dreijer really strikes gold on Loud Bloom, the mix of influences and sounds giving a global feel and celebratory energy to the early parts of the album.

thank u, next is a very accomplished album which showcases Grande’s inner strength and emotional maturity in the face of the undeniably harrowing trauma she has suffered in the past couple of years. Forget Grande: This album is a Venti, with an extra shot.

Big production bombast in the latter half of the record--especially on 'Africa,' the English-language 'I Follow You' and the title track--could happily be skipped over, but there's at least half a record here that's as indispensible as it is likeable.

Given the expressions of vulnerability and exploration of heartache here, this album has had timely release. It makes for a glorious companion to Björk’s Vulnicura but also stands as a confident, masterly debut album in its own right.

Where before they gave the distinct feel of a quick side-project for a bunch of talented musicians who were currently in other bands, on Mirrored it's clear that their hearts and souls are in every one of these songs.

It has little in the way of variation, even less in the way of optimism, but feels completely whole despite that lacking.

She’s been able to defy expectations time and time again due to a combination of good taste, charm and a deceptively versatile voice, and Tension has its fair share of all three.

This is Vernon leaving the seclusion of the forests and, as many of the track titles suggest, moving through towns, cities and open spaces.

On this one, they’ve become a great band. It’s harder to take them seriously here, but perhaps that’s something they’ve never wanted. They’re more than content with being the class clowns, and we’re more than happy to have them.

If Afrique Victime tells us anything, it’s that Mdou Moctar’s fire and passion are drawn from his homeland. The results are staggering.

As an album that is both outward an inward looking the balance of the two is well measured.

Happily The Early Years’ renaissance has been well worth the wait, their second coming blossoming through music that frequently dazzles.

It is the finest achievement of Coombes’ solo career so far, a magnificent record – and the feeling still persists that there is more to come.

This integration of sounds and styles confirms Irreparable Parables to be a quietly powerful statement from an artist who has proved he can broaden his sound with confidence and conviction.

They find Harris stepping away from the choral ambiance and glacial minimalism of the Nivhek era and retreating back to the nocturnal ebbs and crackling timbres of earlier albums such as Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill and The Man Who Died In His Boat.

It's the big numbers, when Hegarty steps up to the microphone, that reveal Hercules And Love Affair as a project that captures not only the full range of moods on a night out on the tiles, but also the full range of human emotions from the start of a night to its end.

Whilst it is true that Aphex Twin’s delicate and more minimalist side is neglected on Syro, save for the piano kiss-off of aisatsana (102), there are plenty of signs of James maturing and developing as an artist.