Ultimately, though, ‘Come Ahead’ may have a whole lot of funk on its surface but still packs oodles of punk and grenades of protest in its trunk.

Despite being told over the course of just three tracks, the story of growth and revitalisation that underpins ‘SABLE’ hardly feels rushed.

Within the chaos, there’s beauty — the sensitivity of ‘Hey Jane’, the infectious hip-hop bite of ‘Thought I Was Dead’, the rising cacophonies of brass and percussion on ‘I Killed You’. But perhaps a less frantic approach would’ve benefited the listen overall.

‘Manic’ is more stylistically diverse, ‘If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power’ more musically ambitious, but ‘The Great Impersonator’ is Halsey’s most honest album – that is if you choose to believe her.

A record that is surprising, affecting and invigorating in its honesty.

This collection of (mostly) new songs stands strong on its own. The record is tighter yet bolder, sexier yet sadder, as icy, electropop siren Kylie once again leaves it all on the dancefloor.

‘3AM (LA LA LA)’, their most assured collection yet, proves they definitely have the tunes to match their outsized personas.

A complete and resounding success, ‘Dreamstate’ offers one of the most emotionally engrossing collections of electronic music you’ll hear this year.

As a body of work, ‘Glorious’ is uneven – there are a handful of certified hits and a bunch of questionable additions that suggest better quality control was needed here. But, with her undeniable energy and beautiful message of girl power, it’s still worth a listen, even if it doesn’t live up to the expectations that her attention-grabbing singles previously set.

During the rousing, blissfully noisy one-two of ‘Chicago’ and ‘Upon Sober Reflection’, ‘Fate & Alcohol’ has the juice to make you forget the lights are about to go out, harnessing the energy that once made Japandroids’ reckless, romantic barroom epics so at odds with the real world.

Arguably the most personal album of Smith’s career. Mortality may loom, but there’s colour in the black and flowers on the grave.

In some ways, ‘Brat And It’s Completely Different But Also Still Brat’ is a home run for its creator, letting her finish the game on her own terms. She has perfected the art of remixing, keeping the songs moving by giving them a brand new lease of life rather than letting them exist statically in their original form.

Some bars are simple to a fault – a continuous problem throughout the record. Luckily, ‘Formula OneDa’ shows a lot of promise. Other songs represent her strong storytelling better as she seamlessly shifts between grime, dance, and hip-hop, delving into a wide array of themes.

Melding intriguing lore with a provocative (and sometimes crass) take on feminist politics elevates the album into more interesting territory than mere revivalism.

It’s an exhilarating punk album with the intention of mobilising those who listen to it. There’s rage, sadness, delight and bitterness within every sound and syllable, and from within that cocktail of feelings is a charged devotion to creating change.

Sharp pop moments shine brighter than some of the weaker ballads that pad out the lengthy tracklist. Yet ‘The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess’ is a display of Roan’s bold and brazen pen, where she places searing revelations alongside some deliciously cheeky choruses.

It’s not necessarily trying to be clever – more that the sheer weight of its many ideas crushes the more visceral response that its obvious instrumental swagger demands from its listener.

Eschewing any grand, overarching statement, The Smile sound – whisper it – quite comfortable within what is now their established aesthetic.

The sequel to 2021’s ‘Music Of The Spheres’ – and one of the band’s final records – gently and subtly distils that spirit of weathering any storm, going on a journey from that bleak opening moment to a more accepting, happier ending.

Ezra Collective deliver on the excellent ‘Dance, No One’s Watching’, bringing people back together on the dancefloor.

Amid the admirable artistic confrontation in this record, there’s a gnawing impersonality that plagues many of the tracks here. There’s enough diamond material shining in the dirt to make this one of the most inventive posthumous albums that’s been released in recent times – it’s just a shame that the album doesn’t fully execute SOPHIE’s unique vision.

‘Smitten’ is a loved-up record that’ll have you falling for Pale Waves all over again.

A record that sometimes hits the target but rarely leaves a lasting impression.

Packed with meditative spoken-word vocals, this is an even more melancholic record than its predecessor – and a less immediately exciting one, too. But it’s arguably a more complex beast, born of a complex era yet authored by a musician with one eye on the simple, timeless pleasures of the club.

An honest, innovative collection that bolsters her reputation as a stellar songwriter, Yanya “undiluted” makes for an absorbing listen.

He pushes deeper and comes up with something that’s both poignant and fun in equal measure – a solid gold record that leans into the little moments and produces pure, emotional magic that will ensure many more “biggg mad crazy” times in Fred Again..’s future ahead.

Scream the words and dive head-first into the Fat Dog experience, because ‘Woof.’ is pure, unbridled escapism – just what the world needs right now.

It’s tempting to tell Smith that Murphy wants his shtick back (along with his suit), but the pastiche is often effective, at least.

‘Manning Fireworks’ is an album that aches for its cast of freaks and losers, and its success in walking that line is a sign of MJ Lenderman’s richly developing voice.

It’ll take time to see if it becomes a standout in her discography, but this boldly brazen record definitely makes a statement.

Where that debut album focused on Slater finally becoming the songwriter he had the potential to be, its follow-up reworks and refines his strong storytelling. Here, the frontman enriches his lyrics and pairs them with a dash of chaotic energy brought in by his bandmates and the unity between them.

With a lust for life, the once-dark prince is letting the light in.

Gel have a firmer grip on the steering wheel this time around; their savagery is nuanced but uncompromising, and they’ve grown into themselves with a great deal of grace. Take your eyes off them at your peril.

Musically, Carpenter mostly finds that niche she’s been searching for, getting comfortable in a country-pop groove on the likes of ‘Coincidence’ and ‘Please Please Please’, or nailing frothy pop bops like ‘Taste’ and ‘Juno’.

Effortlessly weaving elements of his hardcore upbringing in the West Coast DIY scene with more classic and fragile approaches to songwriting, this is an open introduction with all the hallmarks of America’s next unlikely star.

Pacing a 15-song LP is no simple task, and ‘This World Fucking Sucks’ can sound uneven. .... The record ends with a showcase of the emotional power of Cassyette’s voice, which still feels like a breath of fresh air in the alternative sphere and will stand her in good stead as she continues to establish her sound.

‘Imaginal Disk’ is a zeitgeisty time capsule of anxious post-internet existentialism and the online condition observed through a synthy flower-power lens. Here, Magdalena Bay are underrated pop messiahs at the top of their game.

‘Romance’ is the band’s most considered and intricately crafted release yet.

Coupled with their uninhibited star-crossed takes on love and relationships, these chiming refrains are addictive and refreshing, lending impetus to what can appear to be a dog-eared set of blueprints.

Songs like ‘No Simulation’ and ‘Red Flags’ bring back her ethereal, brooding signature sound, too, while others serve as little pick-me-ups for when you need to switch on. But, this record doesn’t weld these two sides of Tinashe successfully. There’s still a way to go before she finds her sweet spot, but this is a fun stepping stone along the way.

Although ‘Lungu Boy’ sees Asake still rewriting the rulebook on Afro-pop, you have to push through a lot of samey repeats of his past work before you get to the good stuff.

Many of the digressions are compelling, however, the frequent changes in approach mean that its creators’ personality isn’t always easy to grasp. This mercurial quality is a result of several straightforward rock tracks that are noticeably weaker than the album’s finest moments.

Intriguingly adventurous, ‘Bird’s Eye’ marks Lenae expanding her musical repertoire and exploring new vistas – an ambitious accomplishment.

A collection of songs that showcase the tangled feelings of this time, the young artist’s third record is a poignant, powerful thing.

On solo album number six, the meal is lean and hella spicy.

The star’s debut album shows plenty of promise but some filler, too. It’s not a masterpiece that will silence the haters, but it’s not likely to slam the brakes on her rapid rise either.

On his last musical hurrah, Glover has made a record as otherworldly as his other outings. Yet, ‘Bando Stone and The New World’ stumbles slightly – where its sonic variety is exciting, it lacks a clear sense of cohesion or theme compared to his previous work – making it a bittersweet farewell to the legend of Childish Gambino.

‘Heis’ ultimately serves its purpose and shows who Rema truly is: a dancefloor mastermind that will be a face of Afropop for decades to come.

As its lead single suggested, Eminem is attempting to have it both ways here – to emulate his 2000s hits while lampooning Shady as a cultural relic who makes geriatric barbs at sensitive Gen Z-ers (as on ‘Trouble’), which enables him to say the same old thirstily provocative stuff. The extent to which he does so only overshadows the point he’s apparently trying to make.

‘Charm’ boasts a new level of maturity, its creator more poised and at ease than ever before.

‘Vertigo’ is a diaristic tale of scaling mountainous fear, traversing back to her naive youth spent making music in her bedroom – and welcoming a new chapter with newfound courage.

It’s a record that – while injected with a healthy dose of groovy fun – is keenly honest. And although it may be sonically sugar-coated, Wolf’s candid lyrics never are. It’s funk-fuelled catharsis.

At just 28 minutes in length, Kasabian’s eighth studio effort is concise, precise and generally focused. This allows a vibrant emotional clarity to bleed through its swaggering fabric, adding up to Kasabian’s strongest album in some years.

What on the surface can feel like a lack of cohesion makes space for an eclectic, expansive sonic palette that constantly drifts between genres yet is anchored in his diaristic musings on finite romance.

The major swings he takes not only pay off, they highlight his uncompromising spirit.

Over the album’s 52 minutes, Megan sprawls out, mining different aspects of her identity and personality at her leisure. It’s exciting when she enters new territory.

Though Young’s specific type of yearning and bluntness may be indebted to SZA, she possesses the genuine star power to further develop an already strong artistic identity. This is a record that always remains sure of itself, even in its deepest, darkest moments.

Leaning into catchy pop and garage rock mixed with an anecdotal edge, Bird’s debut album ‘American Hero’ has a gloss that is, undeniably, all-American.

‘C,XOXO’ is a laconic, off-kilter pop record filled with heavily Auto-Tuned vocals inspired by T-Pain. It’s a new sound for Cabello that heightens the music’s intriguing, trippy sheen. Throughout, her lyrics pivot between pithy and revealing.

With ‘Scream From New York, NY’, Been Stellar trade in their title as one of the city’s brightest new hopes and emerge as a NYC staple.

It’s a moment of pure pop catharsis that leans into the good, bad and messy of infatuation. This is the joy of ‘The Secret of Us’: it doesn’t shy away from the complex or contradictory. Here Gracie Abrams embraces her growing pains and celebrates enduring the difficult moments. She’s never sounded better.

There is little room to breathe and you will practically be beaten into submission by Keary’s snare by the time you reach closer ‘Slap Juice’. But this is a confident, assured debut from O., two instrumentalists at the height of their craft – with a real sense of humour to boot.

In the dark of the night out, the moment is all that matters and the rave will set you free. To shout that in a ‘dying’ language on a record that couldn’t sound any more alive? That’s power – and Kneecap have it.

It may have taken six years, but ‘Dopamine’ sounds like the (damn) album Normani was meant to make all long.

While the singles released for ‘Model’ were strong and lively, the album as a whole sounds like a band that has withdrawn from taking a risk and stepping back into their comfort zone.

AURORA has often been plagued with this patronising image of being another “ethereal” Nordic witch. This, though, is a fiery record dealing in reality – dancing with the imps rather than away with the fairies. Album highlight ‘My Name’ pulses with a Trent Reznor groove – a flash of evil but all guts, balls and intent.

This album acts as a bookmark of his creative evolution, and its polished production work makes it a good representation of his musical identity thus far.

While renowned for R&B and Afrobeat, here, Tems displays an ability to meld contrasting sounds and tempos, allowing them to flow and interlock – seamlessly echoing notions of freedom. Tems closes out the record with ‘You In My Face’ and ‘Hold On’ – a one-two punch of finesse.

Starr assures the listener that they can overcome hardship, too; stringing together a tightly-constructed album where love, pain, and joy exist in tandem.

On the self-described “club record”, XCX offers pure party girl hedonism. .... Yet these heady songs also see XCX at her most raw, smuggling the reflections that spill out in the early hours of the morning through the guise of club bangers.

When ‘I Hear You’ deviates from its dance-pop blueprint, it doesn’t always work. .... The album picks up in its explorative second half, with intercontinental drum’n’bass (‘Seoulsi Peggygou’) and comforting piano house (‘Purple Horizon’). There are still cheesy references and canned snare fills, but also a welcome dose of surprise.

Despite the fullness of its sound, ‘Call A Doctor’ never loses its personal touch, too. “You’ve been swell / Oh, what the hell / You’ve been dear,” closes James on ‘Outro’, bringing all this colourful melodrama to a touching end.

‘In This City They Call You Love’ doesn’t falter for its lack of invention; there is just a feeling that these sonic quirks can be pushed even further, made even bolder. But as the soulful, breathtaking inner-city vignette ‘People’ shows, he clearly remains focused on the next great song he hasn’t written yet.

Written in the patient gaze of parenting for similarly patient ears, ‘The Dream Of Delphi’ is by no means as immediate as her previous work. With it, Khan has pieced an intuitive scrapbook of first-time motherhood and, with the turn of every page, uncovers chapters of potential in who her daughter may become. It is a symbiotic symphony to unlocking unknown parameters of love.

The likes of ‘Little Birds’ and ‘Raining On Your Pillow’ are lullingly linear, driven by routine drum patterns and interchangeable vocal melodies. Depending on your perspective, the sparse instrumentation is either ‘minimalist’ or ‘undercooked’, oscillating between the polarities across the course of this languid collection.

Post-Jordan Fish, they continue to be what they’ve always been: a creative force that transcends the personalities of its individuals. It entirely justifies the four-year wait, which already feels like ancient history.

The record fares better when it shoots for genuine experimentation, like on the weird, spacey ‘Lavish’; otherwise, ‘Clancy’ is more often than not the sound of a band spinning their wheels, caught in a strange space where their colourful conceptual ideas are being painted from a beige musical palette.

Throughout ‘Hex Dealer’, Lip Critic prove why they are the band of the moment. A full-on, disruptive force emerging from their city’s underground scene – their music rides high on a bolt of infectious energy.

Throughout, Gibbons and her collaborators maintain a needling sense of unease that, when punctured, allows for fabulous melodic blowouts.

In trying to write an album for herself, she’s made one that will resonate harder than anything she's done before.

‘I Am Jordan’ is a portrait of this artist’s personal growth, with tracks that could shine on any mood-boosting playlist. Ultimately, Jordan’s innovative and uplifting debut gifts us a question: could this be what trans euphoria sounds like?

His signature dreamscapes still melt through his softer, acoustic melodies on tracks like ‘Serenade’ and the crooning riff of ‘Greatly’. The beauty of his work lies in his ability to create something completely unlike anything else, yet still it pulls from universal experiences. Take a track like ‘Nice To Meet You’ – a song about yearning – or the twinkling ‘The Weave’, and see how he elevates these regular emotions to ethereal heights.

This is easily KOL’s most promising, liberated record for over a decade but still surprisingly restrained in places. Can they have fun? Yes it appears, in places, but they could have had a whole lot more.

Opener ‘Black Country Gothic’ captures the spirit of the Midlands duo’s debut and whole aesthetic. Your shouty punk lads and talky artsy bands are 10-a-penny, but there’s a bluesy depth here.

‘What A Devastating Turn Of Events’ – despite its slightly macabre title – is consistently charming, while offering enough range in sound and scope to hint at Chinouriri’s future ambitions. She has worked hard to make it sound this easy.

The album’s beachy vibes feel suited to a festival field’s carefree disposition. You just wish there was a little more to these songs.

‘Affection’, then, feels particularly special for Bullion, a collection of alt-pop that deserves to be heard by the masses.

‘Modern Slaves’ is the only track that reflects the mournful suggestion of the album’s title, its lament of choral voices accentuating a lyrical pain over music that is gently insistent and quietly furious. More often, ‘Funeral For Justice’ is ablaze with energy.

‘Fearless Movement’ feels like more of a personal piece than ‘Heaven and Earth’, leaning more towards humanism than the spiritualism that has so enraptured Washington in the past. The key to his appeal, though, remains unchanged; he makes music that’s apparently limitless in scope and yet joyously immediate, even to the casual jazz listener.

“The album’s aiming for something timeless,” Michael recently told Mojo, and it’s impressive how often this record lives up to that ambition.

‘Teething’ sees the quartet level up their sound without losing what fans have come to love. A swaggering collection of complex-but-catchy cuts, you won’t hear any teething problems here.

[The] duo show a passionate reverence for the album format, from the artwork that took over 18 months to create to the songs that boast both style and substance. It’s one of 2024’s most engrossing listening experiences.

Marrying the street level to the grandiose was always the Pet Shop Boys’ MO from the start, and over forty years into the career, ‘Nonetheless’ is the sublime sound of pop’s standard-bearers continuing to hone their craft.

A brilliantly inventive record that concludes with a bit of sarky musical theatre (which may be aimed at Adamczewski). Saoudi has hinted that this could be Fat Whites’ final album. If so, they’ve gone out on the most surprising note of all.

In ditching the artifice, Annie Clark has made her most generous and open statement yet.

Ultimately this record lacks the genuinely interesting shifts that have punctuated Swift’s career so far, from the lyrical excellence on her superior breakup album ‘Red’ to ‘1989’’s pivot to high-octane pop.

These are some of the most interesting and sonically varied songs of her entire career.

Not only does it showcase Pearl Jam reclaiming the charm that first made them a force to be reckoned with back in 1991, it comes alongside some of their most impressive musicianship yet, as well as a determination to take risks after years of playing it safe.