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.