Although she has not perfected her sound, and her vision maybe a bit more blurred than she believes it to be, there is no denying that Tinashe has the factor and appeal to go extremely far and Aquarius is an exciting first glimpse of this journey.

It's equally beautiful and heartbreaking, a kind of gentle sadness pulsing through it. Anne doesn't dwell in sadness though, instead, it presents a touching and honest glimpse of some of the more unfair struggles we often face that leaves us searching for hope and, more importantly, answers, but it does so in a tasteful and dignified way.

Ellipsis has an air of Moving Pictures about it; an amalgamation of everything that came before it into a cohesive whole, with a couple of new bits added in. It's still Biffy, but it sounds a little new.

Dream Wife is an album inextricably linked with the band’s own youthful energy, as it is projected from every single guitar lick, vocal tick and musical explosion across its 35 minutes. This can prove a little wearing or agitating for those not in the right state of mind, as their brand of pop-rock is some of the most invasive and bolshy likely to be heard on a debut album. However, if you’re looking for an aural caffeine kick, a rock and roll sugar rush or an emphatic “I don’t give a fuck!” then look no further.

It's her sprawling vocal range and smart, sharp songwriting that holds everything together, making Premonitions a thoroughly enjoyable and dazzling collection from one of the more promising artists in recent years.

It's messy and crude, but never predictable. Nearly 20 years into his career, Copeland continues to make challenging and idiosyncratic music that defies conventional boundaries, and it's safe to say there's no chance of him toning things down anytime soon.

Shake Shook Shaken rocks with an infectious confidence as they brim with a determination to survive.

III will bring a needed meditation if your day was rough. All it takes is the antithesis of a pop song to snap you back into reality, but III will hold your head close while it has your attention.

The songwriting is on point and the production subtly augments without obfuscating or distracting.

Chilly Gonzales has shown time and again that he’s a composer worthy of our attention and this is just one more instance that proves him right. Solo Piano III is Gonzales at his most traditional, but with hints of his more disarming inner ego.

The album could have benefited from a further exploration into Barnette’s flirtation with punk and hard rock riffs. Nonetheless, the album still manages to improve on the song structure of the first and show a more mature side of Courtney Barnett and some of her best instrumentals yet.

Someday World shows us our trappings and our mortality, but rather than get overly sentimental, or even revert to doom-mongering, it creates something fun.

While Jepsen has once again delivered a stunning hook-filled record that frankly gets catchier every time you hear it, Dedicated may not quite satisfy our lust for connection.

Boronia isn't going to change the course of music history, but it could just make a night of yours a little sweeter.

All that's left are tightly compacted songs that may not have a reflective gloss to them, but instead light their own way.

Adding in the duo’s pressing commentary about narcissism and digital romance, both of which bear heavy relevance today, Modern Mirror is goth aestheticism for the now and just maybe—the decade to come.

Mushonga’s take on music is globe-trotting and (as per the title) galaxy-spanning. Though it runs the gamut of Afropop, chamber pop, and synthpop, the intention never feels like subgenres are being ticked off. This is soul music, literally and figuratively.

Their take on their influences may seem straight-forward, but Autodrama exudes confidence and the kind of allure that Headbangers lacked, making this an enjoyable and rewarding experience to immerse yourself in.

Even if they might not be able to quite recreate the same magic that they did on their early albums, The New Pornographers still behold a wealth of talent, and when it comes together just right--as it does a fair number of times on Brill Bruisers--the result is truly triumphant.

All of the album’s five tracks share the same aural characteristics of minimalist and pulsating synth drone, languid vocals and swirls and ripples of mechanised undulations and the album feels like a complete body of work rather than a collection of songs.

It's oxymoronic. It's uncalled for and essential. It's ridiculous and severe. It's useless and powerful. It's everything Run The Jewels stands for.

Despite the underlying melancholy throughout, Bonny Doon is by no means a downer of an album, and it’s due to the winning and classic songwriting tropes Bonny Doon have adhered to.

There’s a balance to be struck between playing it safe and playing it smart, and Lindstrøm leans more towards the latter. If he occasionally veers the wrong way, he recovers handsomely.

This album, short in track numbers but long in duration, fluctuates intensities, whirlpooling on its own without losing its path, logic and coherence.

There's an occasional human misstep reminding us that these aren't robots churning pristine pop, and that they can concoct foibles, but there's no reason we can't just sweep those issues under the rug. It's easy to overlook any small faults, as the rest of the record is so damn glorious.

Fallen Angels is cast in a wistful glow that is hard to resist.

Destroyer feels like a band waking up from the slumber rut that marred their more recent output. There is a distinct sense of urgency here, of the adrenaline felt with a new experience that always seemed previously out of reach. McBean has (fuel) injected an exigency to this project once again, and the results are great.

Though Some Rap Songs may come across as a collection of underdeveloped vignettes of previously covered subject matter, further and deeper listening showcases an economical poet at his most striking self.

While there isn't anything all that distinct about their approach, none of it deters from the fact that Seratones are making some truly fun music.

Where circumstance sometimes has a way of completely crumbling a band, PAWS persevered, grew, and turned out an especially fun and heartfelt release that also happens to be one of their best.

A Humdrum Star is largely successful and in a perfect world will be just one of a great many formal experiments for the band.

By the end, Lost In The Dream is similarly as sprawling and textured as its predecessor, harnessing the affirming, heartfelt sentiments without becoming corny or meek (mostly).

The record with a chirping synthesiser in the background that sounds like the dawn's birdsong. Tomas Barfod may not have produced a perfect album, but then when has love ever been about perfection?

You Only Lie 2wice is a reflection of past mistakes, a declaration of dreams for his family’s future and a time stamp for the strenuous reality of an artist who nearly lost it all on his way to gaining it all.

The music is now lush where once it was loud, layered and thoughtful where it was immediate.

It may be a bit malnourished in thematic ingenuity--it's not as honest as Old or Oxymoron, or as celebratory as Acid Rap--but the allure comes from ingenious, inventive production

The mix of hollow percussion, melancholy synth drone and further bird sounds on ‘Crying Fountain’ add up to a conclusion that seems to aim for open-endedness, but is mostly just half-hearted. This phoning-in is concerning, but the other eight tracks are as good and as interesting as ever.

The depraved and descending post-punk of ‘Down in the Basement’ sets the blueprint for Viagra Boys throughout most of the album, and on some tracks it feels a bit repetitive at times. The factor that distinguishes these tracks from each other are the odd and uncouth characters being described.

It just sounds like a bunch of young men looking to blow off steam, and that is what makes it such an enjoyable romp.

Memories Don't Die (stylized in all caps) feels like everything his debut should have been. Slicing off the fat of a self-important back story, Lanez lets the music speak for itself. When he does chat, it feels pointed.

Sheck masterfully transcends one-hit-wonder status throughout his debut.

Marigolden is yet another triumph, not only for Partisan but for the frozen tundra of America's Midwest.


Skepta has learned to remain steadily himself in the face of hurdling success, while delivering one of the most vital albums in the history (and for the future) of globally accepted grime.

PINS architect and frontwoman Faith Holgate has always stressed the band's desire to maintain a disparate sonic palette and it's an MO that can be felt throughout the first half of the album.

At its best White Hinterland can certainly hold its ground alongside these artists, but it's a much tougher and more crowded scene than where she came from.

Recorded without the aid of computers, its songs evoke great monsters of the '70s in its heavier moments, and '90s stoner rock in its mellower, more melodic moments. Innocence is an album that manages to balance these two styles incredibly well.

Drastic Measures’ kaleidoscope of sound will undoubtedly charm you, as Sellers himself sings “she looks like a go-getter.”

It’s a challenging but rewarding listen which uncovers itself most rewardingly when given full attention on a dark and melancholic night.

Although the production looks outward, the recording of these songs is up close and personal, playing up the physicality of Van Wissem's playing as much as the notes themselves. Each string slide and pluck is heard perfectly across much of the airy phrasing.

Mount remains an exceptional musical craftsman, who continues to shift and change and toy with his formula, which is proven to result in fun listens like Summer 08.

Too eerie to be a comedown album, too scary to be a soundtrack, Kiri Variations is rich in weaving a tapestry of Wiccan ideals, of woodlands and innocence and dreams of suffocating entrapment, which combine to produce an album of unsettling pleasure.

Dissolver is a confident and comparatively focused outing for Younghusband, one that sees them further developing their musical interplay and tightening their already sturdy sense of songcraft.

People will certainly be talking about Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino in the short term because of how much of a surprise it is, but it will be interesting to see how it will be talked about in the long-term.

Throughout Mirrors the Sky, Lyla Foy's warm and comforting voice remains the focus.

Some may miss the more rock-influenced days of the group's debut, but Pharrell's more recent taste rules here. It's for the better. NO_ONE EVER REALLY DIES plays like an album length party, with no groove that won't make you want to get off the couch and dance.

An Obelisk is not quite as statuesque as it wants to be, though it does demonstrate the band’s ethos in a tightly-wound package, and is a solid addition to a repertoire that continues to make a Titus Andronicus release unmissable.

If you're paying attention, there's a minor treasure at hand. Ease on in.

Their efforts were actualised in a catchy album that makes you want to dig deeper and discover what they are trying to say lyrically and musically.

While it was a throwaway reference earlier, the contrast between Girlpool and LCD Soundsystem exhibits why Before The World Was Big is such a refreshing listen.

Phantastic Ferniture’s chemistry, then, is convincingly smooth. Their new self-titled LP dashes through fields of warm riffs and detailed melodies, scooping up a bouquet of wildflowers whose imperfections only add to its beauty.

Even if parts of Ad Infinitum might not come off, it's worth remembering that Lerner had to teach himself how to play half the instruments featured from the ground up. Still in his 20s, it feels like the project is another string to his bow as a musician, rather than a defining turn of direction.

Your Need is an impressively produced, immaculate-sounding, often beguiling record, whose slightness and concision are its only real drawbacks.

While this album is being heralded as a triumph by many, to this writer it feels more akin to an in-between; furtive steps in a new direction that will almost doubtlessly be mined even more successfully next go round--assuming our hero doesn't veer in yet another direction. What's sure is, we'll never be bored.

The result is an album that pays proper respect to some of the classic duets Beam grew up loving while also hinting at a promising partnership between he and Hoop.

Even if one may argue that stylistically there's not a massive divide in the progression between the two albums, a thin yet omnipresent veil of inquiétude covers most of Hypnophobia's tracks, turning the ensemble of the LP into an almost visual exercise of self-induced trance.

Yolk In The Fur proves Wild Pink as a band that proclaim a strength in authenticity that is matched by a growth in character.

Forever Neverland is an illustration of how modern pop should be--full of character, colourful and 14 tracks full of pop hit after hit.

Year of the Snitch elicits the same anxiety-ridden feeling as having two dozen browser windows open at the same time. In its sensory overload, its embrace of ugliness and beauty, of chaos and calm, of proficiency and slackness, and its willingness to by turns troll and impress the listener, it reflects the complicated, frustrating nature of the Internet in 2018.

It’s clear that with Venus in Leo, HTRK have taken a step higher, using desolation to their advantage. With an eye for detail and fondness for obsessive downward spirals, they have made their first album in five years comfortably fitting of their sensual and aching mystiques.

Dying may appear to have a ominous bleakness about it on the surface, but it soon becomes clear that this is an urgent, cathartic and downright exciting listen.

Nothing here really transcends nor even builds enough momentum to leave a lasting impression, but none of it prevents Midnight from being a subtly pleasing experience suitable for any time of day.

All in all, When The Night Comes is unsettlingly monitored and controlled--but that kind of discomfort makes for a pleasantly digestible experience.

HÆLOS may still look toward the past, but their sound continues to push towards the future, heaving up their influences and dragging them all the way into whatever bleak tomorrow the band sees ahead. Any Random Kindness is an album of a generation lost, looking for humanity, gripping to whatever feeling they’ve managed to retain.

It would be unfair and disingenuous to Mew to say that each song follows a template, but the band have become so proficient at producing affirming, soaring pop-rock music that it's easy to forget just how much is going on in each track.

Rainbow Mirror is immersive, exhausting, and decidedly flawed. However, the strengths are more than enough to carry it forward, and the flaws are just a reminder that Fernow is at his best when he’s not holding back.

In the face of so much uncertainty, it’s tempting to think that armageddon is the only answer. Whilst not standing toe-to-toe with the very best of McComb’s discography, Tip of the Sphere is as good a soundtrack to The End Times as anything he’s done.

Heyoon accomplishes what many fuzzed-out, shoegaze inspired bands strive to do--create an album that is heavy, sludgy, experimental and equally precise; musical, catchy.

It might not be the ideal starting place for those unfamiliar with The Field (should you be wondering, going in order is your safest bet), but it’s a worthy continuation of one of the most reliable discographies in our time.

Midsommar may offer limited mileage when it comes to daily listening. Still, it accomplishes its goals with deadly conviction, and for those with a penchant for unnerving listening sessions, you may just discover a dependable companion here. It's a nightmare to linger within.

One feels that the band's lid has to blow at some point with so much emotional pressure bubbling beneath the surface, but for now, the group remain solid crafters of beautifully tense music.

Sonically, Assume Form might be his most approachable album to date, but its emotions are anything but simple.

Joan Shelley remains a largely satisfying record with some moments of true magic, despite not ostentatiously breaking any new ground.

Lookout Low provides 10 outstanding tracks, each one making clearly apparent the effort put into creating this album was not in vain. This album is certainly going to be tough to beat.

None of these influences are worn on Young Fathers' sleeves and Cocoa Sugar is further proof that when the band puts something out that you can prepare for a unique, engaging listen.

ALASKALASKA are refreshing, listening to just one album sounds like listening to ten. The Dots is a long record and at times their weirdness washes over you, but over time, like the ocean over stones, something subtly changes.

His fifth album is the most grown and mature.

Few albums in the Oh Sees catalogue are as emotionally intimate as Memory Of A Cut Off Head.

Though it may take a few listens to reveal itself, Throws is a playful and inventive album that reveals little rewarding moments with each spin.

Magnificent, opulent, bizarre, and wholesome, Go To School is unlikely to be remembered as a hit-filled album (opposed to Do Hollywood) but as an important stepping stone in the rock'n'roll rite of passage instead, the one that unmistakably distinguishes good musicians from one-in-a-million geniuses.

This album is earnest and contemplative.

The movement and progression of sound of >>> is a simultaneously lucid and absorbing achievement, and for this reason and many more, Beak> remains one of the very best at subverting genre conventionality.

Love + War is a flawed yet no less exciting debut from a talent who deserves every success in the world.

No More Normal is uplifting and wholesome, packaging a definite homage to UK music through the variety of artists included.

The EP serves as a solid little collection of Segall recent and new.

Girl With Basket of Fruit proves there is no one quite like Xiu Xiu, and because their musical uniqueness may rub listeners the wrong way like a piece of sandpaper against the surface of aged metal, they are better and particularly special for this reason.

Like the rest of her discography, Hour of the Dawn a short and sweet collection of music for and from the heart, only this time around it's played right from the guts.

It transmits a message in a coherent way and addresses social criticism of the current times, all of which places their new album among the year’s unforgettable ones.

Boat is a self-assured, mature body of work with a set of songs that sit beautifully together. The album has space to breathe, alter direction and progress over its duration.