Yet as her sounds grow bolder, her lyrics become more intimate. Mesirow is in confident control of an inviting world that’s all her own.

There’s confidence, and then there’s this.

They're having their own sonic keg party here: coasting through the fuck-ups on the basic likeability-- the sheer shaggy melodic charm--of the hosts.

Throughout, singer Bid's smooth baritone paints intriguing vignettes ("He was the best thing that you've ever seen in Swansea", goes 'When I Get To Hollywood'), adding colour to an already rich album.

Assured and unapologetic, it’s charged with a dark, smirking wit that’s impossible to turn away from, and achieves an incredibly impressive feat: not only does Self Esteem detail the fear, uneasiness and anger of being a woman – keys clutched between our fists – but also manages to make us laugh at the sheer absurdity of being forced to navigate a world that has, quite unbelievably, normalised misogyny.

These sparsely arranged folk songs are hauntingly pretty. [19 Mar 2005, p.59]

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

The album suitably builds on everything that ‘Going…Going…Gone!’ teased, re-confirming Udu as one of the most flamboyant and honest artists in the pop space right now.

Always intelligent but never too clever for their own good, Here We Go Magic finally break into a huge, dumb guitar solo on 'News'. That's where they are, making the challenging accessible, a band forging their own path at last. Never mind, Be Small, this thinks big.

Audio, Video, Disco's success is in its album-wide consistency, and a contemplative depth of sound that outshines the expectations of their disco-biscuit crowd.

The result is a fulsome, heroic thing.

The crepuscular glow of this quartet should be embraced.

This record heralds her as one of the most enticing acts in R&B’s contemporary canon, near-guaranteed to become a bonafide star in her own right.

Whether or not you'd want to listen to it more than once depends on your pain threshold, but those 45 minutes will be among the most terrifying of your life, guaranteed. [13 Nov 2004, p.56]

Less teenage kicks, more teenage contemplation.

It’s a beautiful, unnerving experience that rattles on long after its final notes fade.

In making this (undoubtedly scary) leap away from what’s expected of them they’ve pulled off the second album reinvention of 2010.

Easily as good as the last Chemicals album and often snapping at the heels of Daft Punk's 'Discovery', 'Machine Says Yes' is as broad in its retro reference as it is happy to revel in the futuristic.

Ultimately, despite all its self-defeating limitations and annoying, fey affectations, this remains a superb record.

I Made A Place is a soft, sumptuous delight. It’s a cult classic, not a bestseller, but we’re pretty sure that Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy wouldn’t have it any other way.

This album is a huge leap forward for Baoi. The record teams with hope, which couldn’t be more apt for a moment in which a new political era dawns and light, albeit slowly, finds its way through the darkness.

They have a way of transporting you to a precise moment or emotion. It’s why ‘The Ballad of Darren’ is so memorable and touching: you can feel it, everything, in every line sung or note played.

Mura Masa has again pooled disparate guests and sounds to make a record that is somehow both steeped in a sense of curation and individual to his artistic identity.

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.

‘Laughing Gas’ is a lush paean to ‘80s precision pop, all snaking funk basslines, synth claps and reverb-addled drums.

His trademark woozy laments and waltzing rhythms are present, but buried beneath layers of tumbling horns they seem much richer, with the charming languor of his voice twisting the mariachi saunter into something dark. Strangely, it’s the synth-pop gems of second EP Holland that seem the most foreign.

Cohen’s obvious enthusiasm for his music humanises the man behind the headlines.

An astoundingly honest, and at times brutal, listen, ‘PREY//IV’ still ends on a note of hope.