The band’s most musically ambitious and diverse record yet.

Whereas Ryder-Jones' old band inhabited a colourful, self-contained world of soft drugs, spaghetti westerns and Scouse jabberwocky, his own sonic nook might seem smaller and more earthbound by comparison, but it's no less personal or poignant for that.

The result is a densely orchestrated record that is as solid as it is sprawling.

As disarmingly brilliant Mutant can be at times, it’s still deliberately obscure.

It’s a worthy follow up to last year’s excellent, sprawling fourteenth album Revelation’.

Retaining your sprightly playfulness while making a mature comeback isn't easy, but Sky Larkin straddle the two with ease.

Often catchy and always from the heart, ‘Killjoy’ is a deeply human debut. Their polished sound benefits massively from the odd punk outburst, and other parts of the album feel destined for boisterous end-of-gig singalongs.

They might be reaching into the past for inspiration, but Savages are pushing restlessly forward.

With little allegiance to one particular sound, expansive love for their heritage and bold statements in each track, ‘Chai’ is a bright declaration from a band forging their own sonic path forward all while acknowledging where they came from.

This latest project succeeds by further propelling the rapper’s soaring momentum even while in lockdown.

So while ‘Something Beautiful’ probably isn’t Cyrus’s most hit-packed album, it does feel like a fully realised artistic statement. This post-genre pop star has pulled off another pretty big swing.

Whatever way you look at Kingdom Of Rust it’s a magnificent rock record, one which will delight the faithful and also surely see them pick up new devotees.

Though ‘fun’ isn’t necessarily the first adjective that comes to mind taking stock of these finished covers, it’s evident that Angel Olsen had plenty of it delving into the emotive guts of each song. At times you miss the cheese of the originals, but this is a solid concept, extremely well-executed.

...a spontaneity here that replaces the formality of tradition with something more vital. Like a snapshot's moment captured, the gap between composition and recording seems to have been reduced to nothing, and it's here that the group hit their mark.

The lead single has been switched more times than a Sugababes member and the tracklisting has been mercurial. But, oh boy, was it worth the wait.

This is a remarkable later-in-life debut, and one that proves that it’s never too late to make the record of your dreams.

This Brooklyn band, completed by Dale Eisinger on drums and electronics, strike a thrilling balance between extreme industrial sound and remarkable artistry.

Movements is full of urgency; songs struggling to keep up with everything thrown at them.

This is a no-flab 20-song cinematic suite in four movements, featuring Hart’s weather-beaten Bowie-like semi-falsetto in all of its majesty.

Don’t come to Modern Ruin looking to be cheered up then, but if it’s catharsis you’re after, there’s nothing more fitting.

The songs compiled here were the public face and sound of that--all-inclusive, heroic and, for the most part, bloody catchy. As eulogies go, it's not half bad.

Yes, ‘Viva Las Vengeance’ is a very different Panic! At The Disco album, but it stays true to their devil-may-care attitude.

Frank Carter used to be a stick of dynamite. Then a stick of dynamite with a longer fuse. Now his music is much more akin to a firework display. Long may he ignite the sky.

Wall Of Arms sounds mostly effortless and unstudied.

Cold Spring Fault Less Youth is not entirely faultless, then--but it comes close.

It’s a shimmering, mournful gem.

Every so often a record pops up that seems to exist in some alien world, unscathed by hipster fads and driven forward only by its own gorgeous mindset. With 'The Violet Hour', The Clientele have made a beautifully haunting album of music to take drugs to make music to take drugs to.

It’s underpinned by a sense of homecoming for the rapper. On ‘E3 AF’, he marks his territory, coming back to a sound he grew up with while tipping his hat to the future. He recognises his enormous contribution while reminding everyone that he’s not done, not yet.

An album scored through with a vehement beauty that, with each listen, becomes all the more acute for its unwillingness to shy away from life's bleaker, more painful moments. [25 Sep 2004, p.62]

So, ‘Clor’: an antidote, should you want one, to the let-it-all-out emotional blokeism of Oasis and the oak-lined authenticity of The White Stripes; the sound of a group goofing off because sometimes that’s what life demands.

War & Leisure lacks the obvious identity that has marked out Miguel’s previous three albums, but that’s no fault. By comparison, this is 
a compelling collection of poptastic R&B tracks made to soundtrack your night out.

‘Headful Of Sugar’ sees the band more confident and more in control. Using those feelings of helplessness as fuel for the fire, this album is full of enough strength, empowerment, resilience and joy.

‘Warnings’ is a brooding, beautiful contemplation of life’s flaws. With this album, Lindén and Balck have strengthened their mastery of atmospheric music.

As with some modern art, you may find Silence Yourself leaves you whispering, “I appreciated it, but I didn’t love it.”

Specifically speaking, Elbow have retained their crowns as everyman kings.

Divers, her unusually tight fourth album, is full of lofty concepts (‘Waltz Of The 101st Lightborne’ sees time-travelling soldiers wage a futile war on their own ghosts) but her crafty tales, signposted by ornate folk arrangements, rarely outpace your imagination.

The album is excitingly dynamic as it cycles through its varied but unified vibes – whether that’s the uptempo, dancey ‘Hips’; the spacey, seductive ‘Like Sweetness’; or the moody ballad ‘Trouble’. There’s a maturity to the lyrical content here, which by no means undercuts its playfulness.

It’s the sound of the genre at its most bonkers, with the scene’s most brazen producer churning out never-before-heard sounds that range from the acid-ghetto-house of ‘Acid Bit’ to the footwork/jungle hybrid of ‘I’m Too High’. Impressive stuff.

Get Awkward is relentless, riotous and raw.

A brutally romantic record.

Who'd have thought the best Americana record of the year would come from two Swedish siblings?

The Bake Sale is way too good for posturing.

He has an uncanny feel for the triangulation of folk, jazz and blues that came from the fleet fingers of Bert Jansch and John Fahey back in the ’60s.

At 16 tracks, 11:11 is definitely a little long, but there’s no denying that Maluma creates a mood that suits his persona every bit as effectively as Drake does. Stylish, sexy and right-on-trend, this album should generate some heat from Bogotá to Bognor.

Their personality is bold throughout, an excess of top-shelf distortion and a cast-the-crutches-aside sense of euphoria.

‘Gold Record’ finds him ploughing firmly against the grain. As the wider world collapses all around him, the prolific singer-songwriter has released the warmest, wittiest and most comforting work of his career.

This is the sort of chorus-heavy stoopid punk-rock record that makes you want to punch children in their silly faces from the sheer joy of being alive.

It’s tempting to say that ‘Deceiver’ truly excels at its heaviest, given that these moments – the pitiless, piledriving chorus of ‘For The Guilty’; the heaving last gasp of feedback that roars through ‘Acheron’ – are the record’s most memorable. But it’s actually the more fragile moments on ‘Deceiver’ that ultimately prove to be the most emotionally resonant.

There's nothing too complex or alienating about anything on this record; it is lowest-common denominator rock'n'roll painted in broad, primary coloured brushstrokes. [29 Jan 2005, p.57]

'Guero' represents a very clever man being clever enough to recognise what he's good at. [19 Mar 2005, p.58]

The bastard lovechild of Tori Amos and an Eastern European touring circus. [15 Apr 2006, p.35]

Early Fragments is exactly that--a bit fragmented, given that none of the songs were written to sit alongside each other. But as ‘Seer’ suggests, there could be quite a future for Fear Of Men, and this release could start it all.

Although album five lacks the narrative that made ‘Konnichiwa’ so compelling (a victory lap for grime’s commercial renaissance, it also reasserted his DIY credentials), this sounds like a record from a rapper with gallons of creative juice in the tank.

It’s rich with Afro-centric grooves and dusty drum breaks, the spirit of James Brown weaving in and out of the pro-Black messaging, which emphasises hope and progress but still acknowledges the pain and suffering endured along the way.

Nothing on ‘A La Sala’ feels phoned-in or anonymous. Khruangbin occupy a unique lane that satisfies obsessive crate-diggers and casual festival-goers alike.

So Surf continues--infectious, light and upbeat, but never inane. It begs you to feel included, and wide-awake.

He’s made an engrossing, highly original album with disarmingly simple tools.

It may tail off towards the close, but genuine warmth emanates throughout. A partnership that’s charged with ideas, this feels like a collaboration that’s only just getting going.

Country, spiritual, rock both voodoo and drivetime; it’s a masterfully messy mash-up, yet the contemporary grime and gravel caking Crosseyed Heart is quintessentially Keef.

There's always something heartwarming about a band discovering pop well into their career, especially when it sounds as good as this. [1 Apr 2006, p.43]

Much of the reason for bothering with BYOP lies in the absolute glory of hearing Pearl succeed in making every lyrical couplet she spews forth sound as if she's been drinking cider since birth and is ready to hurl... anytime... now!

Death From Above still pack a punch, but the bruise is a lot more colourful this time. ‘Is 4 Lovers’ is surely the band’s best work since their debut. And while they may never feel that vital again, they make right now feel like one helluva rush.

It may feel a little bittersweet set to the current backdrop of global self-isolation but a record as richly textured as this, and with its focus on communal connection, makes it a ripe world to explore in trying times like these.

Wrecking Ball [is] a triumph.

MM flash their heavy roots on ‘Miracle Temple Holiness’. They come close to pop brilliance, however, when they go full hillbilly hustle on 'White Sands.'

It’s unlikely that you’ll often listen to it in one bout, but whether beguiled one day by its exotic petals and blooms or the next by the less showy trees in the background, Have One On Me is an Elysian record that you’ll return to again and again.

In terms of melody, Femejism is a more outwardly pop-leaning record than their debut, but the duo are still as heavy as Black Sabbath when they want to be.

Opening up the definition of rap-rock, TheOGM and Eaddy prove that you can hold yourself to the same intricate lyrical standards of rap, while sounding closer to the rockstars they grew up falling in love with.

Bayston’s brilliant at producing these repetitive but nuanced melodies, most of which knot themselves inside your brain and won’t let go.

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.

‘Gemini Rights’, which feature his most direct compositions yet, will make the ‘cult artist’ tag surrounding Lacy increasingly redundant.

Sure, in terms of quality, Rap Or Go To The League isn’t the classic album that 2 Chainz craves, but--on this evidence--he’s not far from delivering one.

Oh My God is a dense listen and though there are more immediate moments (the raucous ‘OMG Rock n Roll’ and the shapeshifting ‘Hail Mary’ are two examples), you can let this album wash over you and wallow in its most intense songs, for they are the ones that will linger longest.

Thirteen-minute finale ‘Through The Knowledge Of Those Who Observe Us’ is the crowning glory of their career best album.

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a more hook-laden and enjoyable catalogue of breakdowns and anxieties this year – this is arguably the definitive 2020 album.

It’s the most sophisticated project yet from a preternaturally talented vocalist who keeps getting better. Whatever you take away from it, ‘Eternal Sunshine’ definitely isn’t an album you’ll want to wipe from memory.

Not since The Cure’s ‘Faith’ has a group pulled off such a feat of heavy, heady melancholy.

It’s a scattershot album gelled together by Mensa’s emotionally frank lyrics, which reveal a complex persona.

Hope In Dirt City is the most soulful and hazy he's ever sounded.

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.

‘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.

Overflows with pristine melodies, sugary harmonies [and] a barely-definable sense of heartbreak. [3 Jun 2006, p.33]

Every bit as stark, foreboding, but utterly singular as 'Tilt'. [6 May 2006, p.33]

‘Hallucinating Love’ cherry-picks fresh blooms and euphoric alt-pop melodies to enhance what we already know and love about Maribou State.

From underground hero to untouchable force, Playboi Carti cements his spot as rap’s feral frontrunner.

DAMN. is by far his shortest release to date – but the ideas, thoughts and feelings it contains are massive, weighty things, from sexual tension to deep, dark depression.

Remembering, reinventing and emerging with a record as joyful as it is tear-stained, Twin Shadow has crafted something that's understatedly, subtly, almost perfect.

Yes, there are lows: the mawkish ‘Why’ is as sticky as treacle and slushy ballad ‘Perfectly Wrong’ is an unwanted lull as the penultimate track on the album, but these are in the minority. In general, Shawn Mendes is a bright and bold new direction for the 19-year-old singer, as he leaves behind sickly choruses for brazen, guitar-ridden anthems; he sounds all the better for it.

These People is the solo record most aligned to Ashcroft’s Verve peak, right down to employing the same string arranger and bunging on one gigantic romance anthem, ‘This is How It Feels’.

A brave, ambitious and nuanced album that looks to lead the band’s fans down the rabbit hole on a new, macabre adventure. Turning their backs on their punk roots was a gamble, but it’s paid off.

The Murder Capital may have arrived with a shout and a fist but they’re soaring now with nuance, ideas, a whole lot of heart and the first great guitar album of 2023.

As debut albums go, it's terrific.

It’s bolder than before, and easily their best-executed album yet.

‘On To Better Things’ bottles up that teenage angst as perfectly as the golden age of pop-punk music.

Some Rap Songs may be a brief exercise, but its ambition and the--largely successful--execution of its ideas demonstrate that the enigmatic Earl is as fascinating as ever.

["Knife In The Heart" is] one of the most entrancing bops she’s made in years. .... Here’s hoping she’s got at least another round left in her.

It feels like the ravishing opium dream of a Victorian gentleman explorer, trying to recreate the exoticism of a long trip abroad through a prolonged period of narcosis.

We should all count ourselves lucky that that role fell to a man willing to be this open and viscerally honest, and to translate it into music that salves the soul.