While their debut album favoured a shadowy and mystical aesthetic, For Ever makes for a far more personal affair.

Crutchfield’s vocals strain with emotion against the stripped-back instrumentation here often, the result feels like this is one of her most personal musical interpretations to date.

As the album’s title implies, this is transcendent stuff.

From the booming piano-tinged ‘Opener’, through to its more touching moments like ‘She’ & ‘Queens’, you’ll feel an overwhelming sense of love and light oozing out of every pore. This optimism and energy is endearing, and further proof that 2018 is proving to be a stunning year for the great dance LP.

It’s a moving and important work, and one that reminds us why MNEK is the pop star we need in 2018.

McCartney’s always been about inclusivity and openness, but this latest glimpse into his life feels like a particularly enlightening one.

There is great humanity to And Nothing Hurt, a collection of wistful, wounded observations, the work of a person wearied by the world, but no less in love with it for that. There is hope and joy and naivety here, even as Pierce sounds like he’s been kicked in the groin before recording another cracked vocal.

Take a deep breath, lay back and soak in the technicolour empire Maribou State have crafted on this album--you’ll feel at one with our world for it.

This is an album of extremes, but they’re all bridged by bold and fluid movements of an artist refusing to be either man, woman or victim--always the hunter.

If it’s your introduction to them, there’s likely just about enough to convince you to dig a little further. ... But if you’re a survivor of the ‘00s indie scene, there are no new tricks here that’ll stump you. The by-the-numbers feel of ‘Four Leaf Clover’ makes us feel like the unlucky ones, and ‘Tesco Disco’ should have been left in the reduced section.

This time round, there’s a more coherent theme to Lande’s songs. ... It’s all fascinating. Inspiring. Warm. Funny sometimes. All of it will make you feel better about the fragility of the mind.

Despite its delivery, Kamikaze is very resolutely an old-fashioned album: 45 minutes and 13 tracks long.

Everything about Joy As An Act Of Resistance is just so perfectly realised.

Here, Sivan has created an album that does away with any apology; instead it sees him seize happiness with both hands.

The album’s about accepting that joy often stands side by side with pain. No, it’s not a wild departure from its predecessors, though it’s no less powerful for that.

Marauder takes the punchy, warm sound of 2014 predecessor ‘El Pintor’ and folds in some much darker, more menacing flourishes.

Some may tire of Honne’s romantic lyricism, but it’s undeniably what they do best.

At times, Negro Swan crosses over from album and into a radio station from a world just outside ours; Dev Hynes has created a fabulous collection of cascading sounds.

They were always one of the most metal band of the alt.rock boom that emerged from their Seattle scene in the early 1990’s, but on Rainier Fog; there’s a beauty and an expanse--as well as a major chord or two--that sees the band evolving.

Go To School, feels less like a night on Broadway and more like being dragged along to an amateur performance at your local village hall. It’s charming and full of heart, but you’ll be grimacing all the way through it.

As it is, it’s good, but not as consistently great as we’ve come to expect from him.

It’s a pairing that, on paper, makes sense, given that Depper’s talents with a synthesiser leave Thank You for Today feeling like a more polished version of 2011’s ‘Codes & Keys’. Yet the wide-eyed freshness of that new songwriting pairing leaves things feeling a little too shiny.

Ariana’s core fanbase are bound to find an instant, sugar-rush of pleasure in this fascinating side-step from an artist who – until now – has made her name by stomping down the traditional pop path.

Musically, Acts Of Fear And Love is the most accomplished of Slaves’ three albums, switching things up and pulling off new sounds without losing sight of the band’s DNA.

Songs like ‘Backstroke’ and ‘Pirouette’ show flashes of experimental tendencies, but are bogged down by repetitive melodies that’ll briefly make you wonder why you even bothered moving out here in the first place.

This one was originally an art piece performed live at the Borscht Film Festival in Miami, with attendees absorbing the sound and images simultaneously. Divorced of that context, it belongs only in the sea.

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.

Lighting Matches is a record that makes Bedford sound like Hollywood. Whether he gets there on this record, time will tell. But there’s enough class and promise to at least meet his ambitions halfway. He knows what he’s doing.