Mug Museum, her third full-length, is as wonderfully weird as any of its predecessors. And there’s now sparseness in her music, plus a cool, controlled confidence that showcases her knack for the surreal more than ever.

Always Ascending is, everywhere you look, a record driven by vim, vigour and ideas, and plenty of Kapranos’ idiosyncratic way with a lyric.

Danger Mouse and Black Thought remain firmly in their comfort zones, and though the record constantly delights, it rarely surprises. It seems a little churlish, however, to criticise two greats for simply living up to their own high standards. ‘Cheat Codes’ is brilliant.

Still as sharp and impactful [as 2023's self-titled debut] but focused more on the spaces in between her stories than the plots themselves.

‘Sincerely,’ sometimes meanders – six woozy minutes of ‘Lose My Cool’ is too much – but more often, it matches the dreamy intimacy of Uchis’ stunning 2020 smash ‘Telepatía’. Here, her music shimmers with confidence even when her lyrics hint at deep-rooted insecurities.

Open Your Heart is breezier and more tuneful than its predecessor, but this is very relative.

Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1 is a triumph; a good-time album of wall-to-wall hits with a carefree, funky tropical feel and more than enough cool points to see him embraced by the hipster crowd as well as holding on to the pop kids.

Ultra-lo-fi, but an album nonetheless stuffed full of rich melodies and arch lyrical observations.

The result is an album that dovetails beautifully from party anthems to vulnerable confessionals. The production is tight and cohesive even when songs like ‘Pay You Back’ and ‘Splash Warning’ feel unnecessary. Meek is angry but eloquent.

The future sound of 2012 is mating here with the current sound of Yates’ wine lodge, and quite possibly creating the sound of 2018.

Effortless and fearless, Sunflower Bean’s latest is a breakneck showcase of the trio’s talent. With each tune a high-octane chunk of the bold, New York indie the band have honed, it’s a triumph.

This is the band’s sixth album in an 11-year career and it feels at once fresh and self-assured, bearing its painstaking complexity with a striking nonchalance.

Once again, SAULT demonstrate the power of words and just how impactful music can be. It’s impossible not to feel affected by the stories being told. But, despite ‘Nine’s sadness, SAULT channel optimism and hope for a brighter future into their songs.

Love Is Dead manages to balance hopeful, utopian pop with a darker, gloomier undercurrent.

They’ve made one that sounds like it was recorded without a care in the world.

There’s a rare moment of foreboding on the briefly gloomy ‘Feather Man’, but the likes of ‘Shining’ and the Avi Buffalo-style ‘Only The Lonely’ are representative of an optimistic and sprightly record.

London-based collective Fanfarlo’s debut is a carefully orchestrated treat.

There’s little hope in ANIMA. Little in the way of joy. It sounds exactly like a record trying to say something about 2019 should sound. ... Fittingly, there’s shades of the 2007 videogame Portal here. A bit of Blade Runner.

The astonishing thing is that on any other record, the two above low points [Snaps and Invincible] would be stand-out tracks. With Tinie, only the best will do.

‘As Long As You Are’ maybe an unexpected handbrake turn for Future Islands and it may not be as hit-laden as its predecessor, but it’s a refreshing record in its own right and one that throws up plenty of existential quandaries.

Tove Lo’s fourth album sees the star largely stick the formula that made her successful in the first place, but that’s no bad thing: it features some of her best work in years as she boldly embraces new sounds and unusual collaborators. Exhilarating and fearless, Tove Lo has ensured she’s stayed relevant with a bold, brash and at often quite brilliant record.

As California dreamin' goes, this is almost as good as heading for the hills, reaching for a hand-tooled native American bong and calling yourself Moon Unit.

Their imagery may be impenetrable--all "teardrops on the wires" and particles "falling into space"--but the tunes haunt the mind long after they've faded.

Despite being Segall's longest, packing 17 tracks into just under an hour, it’s also his most focused.

Everyday Life regularly steps to the left-field, proving that Coldplay are more adventurous than they’re often given credit for.

Metz deliver the same righteous anger that informed much of their favourite music in the early '90s.

The most promising debut of the year so far.

Hymns finds a fully-in-control Okereke, still tangled in the electronics of his solo albums (“Rock’n’roll has got so old, just give me neo-soul,” he admits on ‘Into The Earth’) fusing with Russell Lissack’s spectral shoegaze guitars to steer one of the century’s most pioneering underground bands into more mature and absorbing, if murkier, waters.