A career-best work that serves both as a tribute to and means of overcoming a life sadly gone.

This sense of being aware of our own impending death leading to a heightened sense of life sums up perfectly The Airing of Grievances, an album that bemoans the past, shrugs it's shoulders and raises a glass to the future.

With all the horror and terror of living in 2020 showing no signs of abating, we must turn to art for relief, to offer ourselves a steady stream of cathartic pleasures. This new Hinds album is just the thing you might be looking for, and it might offer you 30 of the most engaging minutes you’ve had in the past god knows how long.

Strangely enough, as short and freespirited as the tracks are, the album itself is a behemoth that takes some listening dedication to unwrap and to assign meaning to--and it's an effort that's well worth it.

Crawling Up The Stairs is a very fine follow up that sees them once again exploring the inner workings of their souls and collective psyche with often beautiful results.

Musical diversity has been embraced to better reflect his character, whilst a positive tone remains, even when he’s examining negatives. No longer is McKenna a teenager emerging at Glastonbury, he is someone for the generation he speaks for to listen to.

Things Take Time, Take Time is a tender, comforting salve of a listen, and will be one of those albums that you keep returning to when life seems a bit too much.

It’s a warm, comforting hug of a record, a friend to reassure you that things are all okay, even when it feels like it’s all falling apart. The type of soundtrack we all need in times like this.

All in, Tall Tales captures these two veterans in great form, locking into a sound that plays to their strengths while differing from anything they’ve done before – moody, enveloping, surreal in effect, but emotionally potent.

With Skyer, the Swedish trio have created their own dreamlike gossamer world where the exaltation to “take me to the clouds above” is almost realised.

Tobin's music is so full on, so conspicuously lacking in any sense of holding back, that the proper thing to do is just leave any preconceptions at the door and lose control.

For now, Elbow have created another record that comfortably matches up to anything they’ve released to date.

It may be her most mainstream album to date, but as ever with Bulat there’s a subversive and inventive edge lurking under the surface.

Much of Edge Of The Sun is as comfortable as an old pair of slippers.

All in all, this is a more mature, deeper developed sound for the band and will help us warm the cold depths of winter through toe-tapping riffs and clever lyrics.

Only Revolutions is just the kind of record to turn a cult following into a fair market share of the collective rock 'n' roll unconscious.

The key to this album is that whilst the original concept of Mariachi El Bronx remains in tact, things are changing slowly and given time, could easily evolve into something truly fascinating. They feel like they’re on the cusp of the something here.

Living Room Songs may not exceed 25 minutes in length but this is still an album to luxuriate in and one that fans of traditional classical composers such as Arvo Pärt and Henryk Górecki will find to their satisfaction.

The record is overweight with memorable tunes, epic and intimate at the same time.

When it comes to partaking in pop, MDNA has easily set itself out as 2012's go-to drug of choice.

On second LP, Résistance, Songhoy Blues feel not only like the ultimate festival draw but also the party band par excellence.

With The People's Key, he continues to solidify his place as one of the great songwriters of his generation. Here's hoping he doesn't hang it up anytime soon.

Though [A Bigger Bang] doesn't dare to place itself in the same hallowed halls as that Jimmy Miller-produced quartet of records between 1968 and 1972, it jostles justly and fairly with the best since.

Chinese Fountain really is everything that you would expect from these beach grungers, but it’s still fantastically unique and sparkles delightfully with fun and a sheer honesty.

What impresses most of all about this album, however, is the accomplishment and confidence with which it's constructed, and the economical way Merziger and Kammermeier make use of the huge array of colours and sounds at their disposal.

Homosapien at its best creates a refreshing sense of vitality in a genre often defined by its synthetic nature.

Glasvegas have managed to top their own previous efforts before we've even had the chance to get used to them properly.

This is a hyperactive but genuinely exciting listen.