The gamble pays off because it's frankly an astonishing achievement for Vynehall and one that solidifies him as one of the more exciting and inventive artists currently making music.

It's an assured album that utilises everything Katy B has going for her, from her love of clubbing to her BRIT School trained voice which is both bewitching and relatable.

This is an ideal sign off for a band trying to showcase their own new sound; not overpowering, but a sharp, pointed and intriguing tune that will still be resounding after the track has finished.

At times, it’s painful, and others, it’s cathartic. The fun, party-filled days of Never Hungover Again may be over, but by the end of Cody, Joyce Manor reminds us that it’s ok to get older.

Piano Ombre proves that by being romantic, intimate and even forward-looking in the way the album positively addresses difficult times.

Each record provides exactly what you want (and a little bit more) and this should be applauded. Whether you're a seasoned fan or only just discovering the band for the first time Rave Tapes deserves a spot in your collection.

Parquet Courts succeed at remaining magnificent, without really exerting themselves.

Like Janet Jackson's Control and Madonna's Ray of Light before it, here is a record that should act as a shining light of how pop music should be done.

Expectations surpasses any you might have had.

Perhaps the relentless vitality and vibrancy of their sound might not be welcoming to all listeners, but for any willing to take the plunge into Althaea, there’s a whole alternate realm to be explored.

PUP feel stretched and loose on Morbid Stuff. As rambunctious as the songs can be, that wouldn’t be achieved without the seriousness that they approach their art.

The most vital strand of Sparks, probably, is its quality.

The Faint have come back in from the cold with the release of Doom Abuse, and frankly it's like they never went away.

Atrocity Exhibition, through assertive honesty, embraces Danny's self-assaulting cycle and this time, he's not looking for any personal help. That may be because he's making the most focused, textured music of his career instead and it's clear he's abandoned any afterthought of possible radio panhandling or herd-minded mainstream appeal.

To say New Energy is a consolidation rather than a progression may seem damning with faint praise, but its palate is so substantial and nourishing that such slight ambition is peripheral. If you’re served a basic carbonara by a Michelin-star pasta chef it’s still a damn fine carbonara.

An auspicious debut for Trevor’s career, Andy Warhol’s Dream’s only faux-pas is that it probably set the bar too high: it’s an incredibly solid, balanced, and overall beautiful album. I can’t wait to see him perform it live.

The blemishes on Rap or Go to the League don’t change the fact that every single song has at least something great about it, which you can’t say about most 50-minute+ rap albums, let alone one made by someone who’s been around as long as 2 Chainz has.

A brilliant debut for Temples.

Unpacked individually, there’s a lot to love about each track and a laundry list of potential inspirations.

Dear is an album so monstrous, so monumentally loud that you can do nothing but let it consume you.

It’s coherent, exciting, and strong, and it gives you an in-depth idea of how you can articulate experimental soundscapes with rough portions of sound that cause commotion.

Many will ding this record for being too subdued, but the matter of fact is Bondy has grown as an artist since his days as Verbena. He’s evolved, more experimental, more in-touch with what drives him, with the decaying America around him and of course, what pulls at his (and our) heartstrings. Enderness is a profound testament to his maturation.

It's really worth putting aside 12 minutes to sit and decide what side of the fence you want to sit on. Or an hour, because the chances are that you will probably have it on repeat.

She’s channelled this tenuous bond into 10 skeletal songs, kissed them with all the warmth in her heart, and released them into the world to blossom and light up the lives of all those who'll listen.

Ultimately, this seems to be his goal on Ruinism; to take you into a world of house and electronic music, where each and every artefact that you thought were held dear can be just as easily crumbled and recontextualised to create a whole new atmosphere. This is where which he wants you to venture, and not look back.

Its songwriting and overall conceptualising is definitely miles above the duo's experimental adolescent triple album. ...And Star Power is not an album - it's an out-of-body experience.

It’s a thoughtful, considered progression by one of the UK’s most thoughtful, considerate producers.

From bird sounds, flutes and screams to pounding techno beats, disco, house and catchy hooks, DOOMSQUAD’s Let Yourself Be Seen creates harmony in chaos, showing a reflection of our times and the necessity of togetherness in finding a release for self-expression.

Earl Grey is a strikingly mature and confident debut album, which acknowledges and consolidates Girl Ray’s influences in a way that doesn’t obscure their own puckish style.

Songs ebb and flow between different styles, motifs appear and recede like roadside landmarks glimpsed briefly and passed in a blur. The result is an album that even in its slower moments seems to be constantly pushing forward, a hazy, dreamlike soundtrack to a classic road-trip movie.

This sense of uncertainty is powerful, and what makes Phox one of the most honest and refreshing albums in recent years.

Yours Truly kept you singing until the moon shined and My Everything will make you want to dance until the sun comes up.

POBPAH's third LP lunges confidently into all the right places, emitting sunshine, glee, rainbows, sugar and sparkles as it goes like a sweaty unicorn running a marathon.

It's catchy without sacrificing heft. It's a behemoth, but also sounds meditative. Furthermore, it doesn't seem to compromise so much as heartily invite the genres it dives into.

To listen to this 69th Kicks is to enter Peggy Gou's home, kick your shoes off, and hear her very past and present, her very process. Sure, you'll end up dancing, but the couch is always there.

You nearly always know what you're going to get with Plaid albums, but equally to miss them, to pass them up, is akin to passing up on some of those curious pleasures that make life so enjoyable, whatever these might be. So, you know what you must do; get digging The Digging Remedy.

The music is calmer, but his flare hasn't left with his anger, thus solidifying the album into the band's pristine legacy.

This is the album that will put Lily & Madeleine in the ears and minds of music lovers everywhere.

soil is an album that delves into the dirt of passion, be that artistic, romantic or religious. For every moment of ecstatic energy there’s another equal moment of debilitating disappointment, for every igniting of love, there’s wilting relationships.

This is not the work of somebody wanting to shortcut their way into making “atmospheric” music by cutting and pasting old ideas. Rather, it’s the mark of someone establishing their unique authorship with the utmost certitude.

They may not always rock as straightforwardly as fans may have wanted, but what’s clear in The Seduction of Kansas is that Priests are out to please themselves in whatever minute ways they can in their wasteland of a country--and you can either join them for the tour or go back to sticking your head in the sand.

At their peak, and not infrequently on Snares Like a Haircut they’re within touching distance, No Age are one of the most thrilling rock bands on this planet.

It is a cliché but it really shows the power of music, Kristian Matsson found himself in an awful situation, processed it through writing, and over the course of one album left you feeling excited for the future.

They can be packed to the brim with the thoughts and feelings of a whole collection of people. For Algiers, it is this ability to connect with hearts and minds that ultimately makes their record among 2015's strongest thus far.

I can't work out what the bloody hell he's on about half the time but there's some kind of of authenticity dripping from every verbal bark and echoey guitar jangle, every driving bassline and intelligent whack of the drums.

Compared to Heartbreaking Bravery, My Best Human Face feels looser, more effortless and this makes for a more engaging experience throughout.

It feels raw, genuine, but most of all, human.

Musically, Perfect Version isn’t flashy, but it sure is pretty. Chastity Belt records have a way of popping out at the listener with their shimmering melodies and catchy hooks, while this album is significantly more understated. But Shapiro’s hushed voice, delivered among reverberating guitars and atmospheric drones, invites the listener back for repeat listens.

It may be a bit of an inscrutable debut, and certainly one that invites critical thinking far beyond a casual listen, but it’s an infinitely rewarding, promising one. You may just find yourself wanting to retire on its shores more often than you expect.

[A] lovingly crafted, adventurous soundtrack that easily stands on its own merits.

While it's endlessly enjoyable throughout, what we have here feels like a placeholder, a victory lap. Nonetheless, in a year full of R&B records bearing so much weight, it can feel a bit light in intent. There's few albums in his lane this year that can beat it for sheer vibes.

The more you listen to this collection of songs, the more it develops.

Tune-Yards latest is a record dominated by the society it both critiques and is a part of.

SASAMI feels like a warm friend you haven’t seen in years, ready to reflect on life: how you’d hoped it’d be, and how it is. It doesn’t feel so bad when you’re together.

Yet for all its overwhelming menace, Congrats is a record that never gets fully lost within the darkness; the band demonstrating a perspicacity to chain one another up when in the past they would have ran feral.

He's a very capable multi-instrumentalist, but at no point does this album feel like his prowess is being waved under your nose. In amongst all the order and logic and the standardised tools he employs, something of a beautiful soul is fashioned. He has made an electronic album for humans.

TEEN has been a solid band for several years, but Love Yes has almost certainly elevated them to being a great one.

It's quite simply a thrilling, white-knuckle ride of a record. Its quieter moments are really just momentary respite from a soaring squall of sonic psychedelics.

Incredibly, they're becoming even less safe, even less predictable, as they near pension age; on this evidence, long live Michael Gira.

With this captivating sequel, The Body & Full of Hell have given us something striking that could only have been realized with each other.

Fin is a mature, if slightly restrained debut.

This album scales back significantly from the relative bombast of the grand Poison Season in favor of a more intimate, simple setting. Stranding himself nearly alone--aside from longtime collaborator Josh Wells--Bejar hunkered down to record the simultaneously unconcerned and emotional splash that is ken.

The stripped down feeling of the record works to Islands favor on each of SIRHAS's ten tracks.

Views, made up of twenty polyrhythmic and eclectically curated tracks, is Toronto's ethos and identity in sonic form, an inside joke between Aubrey Graham and the city he's championed since the start.

Twerk-inducing and loud; 'Goddess' is the game-changer for Iggy Azalea and the glistening cherry on top of the immaculately produced, lyrically creative gem that is The New Classic.

There are times when the album feels like it starts to tread the same ground, but there is also sign that Jungle have it in them to do things that are different.

Leaving themselves with no room for filler, the band set out to deliver on the promise of their singles, and we're thrilled to report that they've succeeded. Stardom beckons.

By starting from scratch and going in with aim to create something that is a direct reaction to the onslaught of modern music, Hemsworth has created a piece of music that lives in an environment of its own making.

The result is dense, hard to categorise, and an exhilaratingly beautiful work full of blinding light and doomy shade.

Real High is a considered, mature statement for Nite Jewel.

Ben Frost has pulled off something quite remarkable with A U R O R A in making a record that's pretty terrifying in places yet so utterly irresistible.

This album is never afraid to speak its mind and voice its elastic relationship with love, pulled close only to be pinged apart.

For now, we’ve been gifted a damn fine collection of songs and we would be remiss to not soak them in.

A$AP Rocky has always been an innovator and his creative attempts have always been bold. At.Long.Last.A$AP is no different there.

Vagabon is clearly searching, and she's managed to create something of a shelter for all of us within her new work. It's difficult to listen to Vagabon and not feel at home.

This is the most rewarding album from the project yet, as it only seems to unfold further and further as you delve deeper and keep replaying.

It may not be perfect but it's another solid release from a project that even after all these years still has plenty of promise coming from all sides.

In Better Oblivion Community Center, Oberst and Bridgers have made a true collaboration, finding a middle ground between their experiences and styles that is truly fertile. All of this is to say that the surprise of Better Oblivion Community Center may only comprise a few genuine surprises, but even what’s predictable about it is utterly lovable and well worth your time.

Compactness aside, the tracks here don't give up on lyrical imagination.

With Hope Downs, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever have adroitly taken their trademark sound and expanded it into a thoroughly enjoyable album--and they’ve done it in rapid time.

What it sometimes lacks in immediacy and depth it makes up for in a number of moments of genuine transcendent beauty. Not the definite article then, but increasingly the real deal.

Their homemade studio occasionally shows its flaws, but this is simultaneously heartening. King Gizzard are easy to forgive and fun to like, showing that it’s more than a record about reliving psychedelic music’s prototypes.

Though it offers only one "new" song, Pond Scum freshly adds (even more) depth to the Bonnie 'Prince' Billy cannon as if it were another studio album.

Painted Ruins is the result, a natural, unhindered expression, an album made for the audience they already have.

Gang Signs & Prayer is as insightful as it is extravagant, gracious as it is haughty, and divine as it is gritty, which is both a blessing and a curse depending on whether or not you were looking for more gang signs than prayer.

It demands your attention, grabbing your head by the hair and forcing you to listen.

Based solely on intuitive improvisations between musicians, he has produced an engaging interpretation of the ominous air and electricity Schipper creates. Victoria, and its music, seizes the beauty and terror we find within those moments when we throw ourselves into a new, uninhibited context.

I Don’t Run can be misread as an album of fun alternative rock songs, but under the surface, it is so much more. Every instrument feels perfectly in place to create a wide range of songs. Varying emotions and a distinctly more mature Hinds.

Relatives in Descent, right down to its title, is an enigma of free thought and aggressive, yet powerful sentiment.

Sex & Food gives the audience a closer look at the chaos-wrapped disco frenzy inside Ruban’s mind.

The album works best when listened to as a whole, and this is something that Sascha Ring’s later output as Apparat has in common with itself.

Notably shy of repetitive stadium-sized singalongs, it's a more intimate and mature affair on all accounts. By quieting things down, Justin Bieber may just drown out the noise.

Throughout Lung Bread For Daddy, Du Blonde sounds as if she is constantly on the verge of losing grip of her emotional and mental torment, but because she weaves her feelings and contemplates the woes of her life like someone three times her age, Du Blonde’s latest offering emits surprising clarity and winds up as her most refined work to date.

It may not be as bold or as striking as TRST, but as a solid sophomore release, the band has definitely gained our trust.

Wildheart is a leap in the right direction but Miguel hasn't shed off all of pop's restrictive trappings just yet.

It doesn't stray very far from this template, but does just enough to suggest Genders has a few more strings to his bow.

Somersault is an exciting display of growth without feeling like a compromise. They might not yet be great, but this album indicates a band on the verge of a breakthrough.

These aren’t bad songs. They’re very good songs that narrowly miss being great, mainly because they rush or nix the endings.