There are blasts of harshness (‘Go Ahead’’s fuzzed-out polemic, or ‘Scapegoat’’s bombastic crescendo) but ‘My Back Was A Bridge…’ is still, by some distance, the most accessible thing she’s ever made. Though much of its palette is drawn from ‘classic’ music of the past, however, the record’s brilliance lies in the way it doesn’t retreat from the present.

It’s too early to tell if the record will help the BTS leader achieve his goal of creating something truly timeless but, in this moment, ‘Indigo’ feels like a masterpiece with the potential to be remembered as a classic.

‘Everything Harmony’ plays like the next progression from their promising debut, and what stood out about them then is what stands out about them now. With their fourth album, The Lemon Twigs have honed in on their ability to not just lift from the past but transmute what inspires them into something imaginative and new.

An intense, emotional record.

You have to wade through a lot of plaid-shirted, porch-rocking psychedelia before you get there. The patient pilgrim, though, can look forward to unearthing the widescreen Laurel Canyon-birthed wonder of 'Your Protectors' after one or two plays.

This record isn’t a monument to His Royal Badness. It’s one of the greatest artists of our time carrying Prince’s baton into the new world.

An easy contender for the rap album of 2024.

One of the few certainties we can take from this restless, relentlessly intriguing album is that David Bowie is positively allergic to the idea of heritage rock.

MBV is not really an album at all, but an oeuvre in fast-forward.

As with her previous efforts Olsen’s unique vocal steals the show, but this is the singer opening up all the other parts to her personality. The more we see, the more there is to love.

It’s a return to “full singer-songwriter” Stevens, in a way, but by bringing together sonics from throughout his career and coupling it with frank and intimate lyricism, the gorgeous ‘Javelin’ feels like a fresh take from the cult hero.

Despite the album’s title, Microshift represents not a minor step up but a gigantic stride. On an immediate level the songs sound much bigger, cleaner and more confident. Every component is crisper, from the sharpened hi-hat to MJ’s scrubbed-up vocals.

She is deliciously wry, and in the top lyrical form of her life throughout this record. ... There’s also no sense of her second-guessing what her expanded fanbase might be expecting from her sonically. This is, without question, the most musically ambitious album of her career.

It’s a wildly successful take on the world at large as the band enter a new decade. Far from just indie survivors, it seems like these Jets have still got plenty of fuel left in the tank.

She allows herself to revel in her own possibility of healing, singing directly about her past and who she wants to become, letting her formidable voice guide the way: cool, curious, full of momentum.

‘More Love Less Ego’ is a masterful collection that sees Wizkid beginning to truly perfect his universal pop sound.

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

Whilst 'The Argument' still sounds unmistakably Like Fugazi, it's the sound of an inspirational band, renewed, at play.

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.

Lyrically it's astonishing. [28 Aug 2004, p.55]

Even if Prince, Madonna, Paul Weller, Shane MacGowan, Ice-T and Michael Jackson got together to form a freakish supergroup, they’d struggle to make an album containing as much vitality, humour and invention as Cave and his wizened cronies have.

‘Congregation’ is a fiery, relentless punk blowout that pulls no punches against priests, patriarchy and those who abuse power from the top of our society.

‘Caroline 2’ marks a fully fleshed-out blueprint for a Caroline 2.0: a well-refined octet pushing musical boundaries in their most dazzling release to date.

You can’t fault Owusu’s ambition, nor his ability to translate his furies and fears into a response that feels genuinely reactive and urgent. On his third album, he’s made a truly modern version of a protest record.

Returning with her sixth solo record ‘Bright Future’, the Big Thief frontwoman achieves a newfound lyrical self-assuredness here.

The second album from this perky Philadelphia quartet delivers big on drama and emotion with Frances Quinlan’s voice taking turns between an abrasive snarl and a smooth croon.

‘Secret Love’ is an accomplished, assured effort – like its predecessors, yes, but in a manner that subverts the expectations set up by them.

‘Pain Olympics’ is a disturbing, joyous, cataclysmic listen that travels from claustrophobia and fear into wide-eyed expressions of joy.

It's a collection of enthralling confessionals where stabs of bleakness mean that heavy bleeding dominates.

Uniformly excellent.... Few, if any, British bands are making music quite like this right now.

Low have always sought to make music that can both swell the heart like a gospel tune and capture the amplified absence of a funeral parlour. It's difficult to imagine a more perfect expression of their vision than this.

By being pliable, open and more tender, Mering seems to suggest, perhaps we can save ourselves from the doom that this stunning record finds itself gripped within.

This album's two-hour stretch may seem offputtingly dense at first, but give them time, and Swans will take you to a place that is beyond good and evil.

Simz’s storytelling is deft and full of range, gliding between generational trauma (‘Broken’) and faith and the grind (‘Who Even Cares’) with ease. The album’s sonic palette, meanwhile, takes on a mellower and less grandiose tone, with Inflo – the producer behind her last two records and the mysterious musical project Sault – and collaborator Cleo Sol bringing a warm, homely base for Simz to nestle in.

Let's Stay Friends arrives as a startling cannon-shot message of brain-thawing intent.

It’s not an easy listen, but a brave, beautiful and affecting album--an attempt to find order in chaos that, as she wishes for it, offers a “crutch” to the heartbroken.

It marks the dawning of an era of British music that isn’t just for the casual petrol shop consumer, but stuff so important that you can give yourself to it completely. This is the album that’s going kick open the door for all the great British bands that’ll sweep through in their wake.

Ctrl’s strength is how it doesn’t strive to be one thing over the other. It effortlessly winds between narratives and genres like it’s child’s play. This isn’t a star in the making, it’s a fully-fledged talent who’s practically showing off.

‘Edna’ is proof that he’s the unmistakeable, global ‘King of drill’, and much more besides.

It flows in a way that makes it a treat to enjoy from start to finish rather than dipping into songs at random. ... Thought-provoking and full of fresh new flavour.

Written around the time Tillman got hitched to this girlfriend, it's a hugely ambitious, caustically funny album about the redemptive possibilities of love, and being heartily sick of your own bullshit.

He’s mastered this stylistic skittishness and you’ll do well to find much dispute about his talent.

While Be The Cowboy hears Mitski traverse new sounds, new voices, and the anxieties of growing older, it’s clear the wisdom was already there.

It's strange that such a traditional set-up (drums, bass, keys, guitars, voices) has resulted in one of 2009's most unique debuts.

Waves of unidentifiable noise, dulcet vibraphone pulses and singer/guitarist Jonsi's ethereal singing (more like some ghostly instrument than any conventional vocal, borne out by Jonsi's fictional 'language', Hopelandish, which he often sings in) mesh to create an elegant, grand music that's equally ambient and epic.

It is wonderful to once again hear a Deftones record as heavy as molten lead, as furious as an enraged honey badger.

It rushes with liberating, infectious joy that makes you want to grab your own partner-in-crime and speed off on an adventure to find somewhere that’s, as ‘Angelica’s mantra suggests, is “good times all the time”. With Wet Leg as your soundtrack, it seems inevitable you’ll find that place.

By assembling a cast of their favourite musicians and delving into their adolescent memories, Daft Punk have created something as emotionally honest as any singer-songwriter confessional--and a lot more fun to dance to.

A record with the bleak-yet-redemptive spirit of REM's 'Automatic For The People' and the musical magnificence of a 'Deserter's Songs'. But also a record that - as much as 'London Calling' or 'What's Going On' - holds a deep, dark, truthful Black Mirror up to our turbulent times.

Although the record is vivid, striking and thought-provoking – with nearly every song on this album a deep, pensive sonic sulk – the south Londoner’s voice is beginning to slip further away from a generation he intended to represent: one that’s done overthinking and just wanting to feel.

It's a gripping darkness that doesn't often lift. It's hard going, but it's worth it, and that is undoubtedly their point.

Lana Del Rey is large – she contains multitudes, and the way she balances and embodies them on her fifth album is nothing short of stunning.

Epic in sound and vision, its sprawling Americana and gritty rock’n’roll taking in the big themes.

Powerful, potent and bloody good for dancing to, In A Poem Unlimited might just be the soundtrack to the revolution.

Cocoa Sugar isn’t a filtered version of what came before. Instead, it cements their status as riled-up oddballs determined to reinvent the wheel.

The Suburbs isn't anything as simple as back to basics--they're a much more accomplished, musically interesting band now.

Less has always been more with Smith, and the success of In Colour lies in his gift for melding together very few elements to create songs that are original, surprising and highly effective.

They can still write the most incredibly beautiful songs. [23 Oct 2004, p.49]

It’s maturer in sound and ideas, but retains all the hallmarks of what made Fleet Foxes so great in the first place: rich and studied folk compositions, unrivalled harmonies, stories that strike to the core of nature and human existence, and a dedication to art that emotionally lifts you off this planet.

MIA innovates club music, art music and pop music at every turn.

A playful record imbued with a sense of mystery and occasional glimpses of autobiography, slowly revealing itself as the cracked mirror image of ‘Róisín Machine’’s bruised optimism.

Nobody is making music quite like Harding, she is a special, singular artist. Just be sure to take the same approach to interpreting her lyrics as you would to any great work of surrealism; the joy is in the wondering, not the knowing.

Really, this is a piece of work to dive into and consume whole.

Sonically, it’s his most polished record yet. London producer kwes delivers a soulful, melancholic sound that helps Carner move from dynamic, multi-syllabic storytelling to a more honest, reflective voice.

The band have responded by unleashing their ballsiest selves.

‘Use Me’ is the sound of an artist flexing her muscles, making sense of and peace with her past and, most importantly, embracing a new future.

Miraculously, it feels in no way forced: it’s a joy to witness her glide into any genre and totally own it.

Twigs has successfully shown that the connection of music, movement, mind, soul and body can be converted into sound, weaving these elements into a cohesive and transcendent artistic experience. She brings her own assured sense of creativity and spirituality and combines it with her ability to materialise the intangible.

Their most focused, energetic pop record since 'Radiator'.... Certainly, 'Phantom Power' shows up Radiohead's timid adventures, while giving The Coral something to aim for too.

It’s the otherworldliness of 22, A Million that makes it soar.

Her wildcard authenticity and fiery free spirit is the reason all eyes are on her now.

Their remix of Blues Explosion's 'Mars, Arizona' is the best record of the last five years, no question.... The rest? Merely brilliant. [15 Apr 2006, p.33]

‘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.

Let England Shake is an album that only the Polly Harvey of today could have written.

Whereas Murphy's wise enough never to let his showing off spoil the fun, he can't avoid investing these songs with heart and soul.

‘Heavy Heavy’ is a passionate, soulful and often mesmerising work that will stick around long past the first listen. Succinct and underpinned by a catchy melodic structure, it continues Young Fathers’ peerless run of singular albums and further cements them as one of the more unique acts to exist today.

During the album’s second half, the energy increases even further as Murphy and Sheffield-based collaborator Crooked Man (aka DJ Parrot) throw the party of a lifetime.

Crossing boundaries of pop music and chasing transcendence, SOPHIE achieves the rare feat of making abstract, difficult electronic music that hits you straight in the heart.

Here, Simz is stripped to the root, healing in real time. Raw, flawed and deeply human – this is what blooming really sounds like.

It's as if Garbus is powered by primal, wrong-righting spirits that click like a force of nature.

Remind Me Tomorrow, then, serves not so much as a nudge, but a forceful and playful shove to remind listeners just how special Van Etten’s talent is on both a lyrical and musical level. Don’t call it a comeback, but it may well be her most intoxicating and impressive work to date.

‘Audio Vertigo’ is their best record in years, and one to blow the cobwebs off some sleepy arenas this summer.

It could easily be a self-pitying album, one ready to dwell in the wreckage of incidents, but instead keeps picking up and moving on; providing a guide to how to keep on keeping on even when it feels like whatever you do is going to end in devastation.

It's easy enough just to drift off and let these tracks gently massage your eardrums like a hover of trained hummingbirds. But if you choose to look beneath the surface, each track audibly vibrates with ideas.

Van Etten tackles heartache with refreshing sharpness, distilling complex sentiments into something beautifully simple.

Ultimately, ‘Tension’ plays like a fun, flirty night out with an old friend who isn’t the kind to burden you with her problems. Whether you’ve known Minogue for a lifetime – or just since ‘Padam Padam’ – you’ll want to lace up your dancing shoes and join the party.

Bon Iver is the sound of a man making peace with the world, saxophones and all.

Where’s My Utopia?’ marks an outlandish yet assertive second chapter for Yard Act, going toe-to-toe with the peculiar world that we find ourselves in.

Kiwanuka has brought in the production heft of Danger Mouse, as well as up-and-comer Inflo, to seriously up the ante.

The Blackest Beautiful is a strong, focused record from beginning to end.

For now though, this is a very fine record. Not Herculean exactly, but certainly something that NME loves.

Syro is amazing: bug-eyed, banging rave that sounds quintessentially Aphex while not quite sounding like anything he’s done before.

Most tracks last over five minutes and the longest comes in at 12. It gives the impression that Toledo is doing what he wants and making the music he wants to hear. You can’t help but love him for it.

Part of this brilliant record’s charm is its potential to be a low-stakes, high-quality one-off – a curio waiting to be discovered somewhere along the way.

Her UK debut album manages to piece together many of the elements of her chameleon-like career (Robyn is essentially a Best Of collection) and come up with what is the most inventive pop album you’ll hear all year.

With ‘Kings Disease II’, he has delivered a masterpiece of monolithic measures, completing arguably the best two-volume series in hip-hop.

‘This Music May Contain Hope’ is RAYE firing on all cylinders – and then some. It’s showstopping musical maximalism at its grandest, while still being grounded in relatable experiences and unbridled emotions.

Process might not be as bold or as inventive or as life-changing as some of the other records Sampha’s had a hand in during his career, but it does have a quiet, dignified impact that suits its maker. He hasn’t stepped out of his shadowy, background world; instead, he’s invited us to join him there.