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

Smith's observations are insightful, full of emotional depth, but never overly complex. It's that combination that has always made them so appealing, and it also makes this their strongest release since Antenna to the Afterworld.

While it isn't a far cry from Real Friend's first album, it still delivers an emotional punch with a hopeful glimpse of what's to come.

Here there is less pop, more disco, less experimentation, more thought, less anthem, more groove and unjustly more quality, less attention.

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.

Strangers is an astounding combination of styles that takes music that is fairly usual, and turns it into something completely unique that strikes slowly but deeply, and irrevocably.

So while In Glendale is not groundbreaking, revolutionary or gut busting levels of funny, it still provides a humorous, pleasant and suitably mundane peek into the life of a man who has long established himself as a champion of surreal strangeness.

Very few records are able to transport the listener to a different world full of visceral, palpable feeling for even just one listen. A Moon Shaped Pool manages to do it over and over again with the feelings deepening rather than cheapening with each successive listen.

Toledo's riffs could pass for classic rock on speed and make for a heady mix when paired up with such razor-sharp wordplay. The references here are as oblique as they are intelligent.

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

Earrings Off! also features three instrumental tracks, but none of these feel like they add anything to the experience of the album, or its central themes.

His music is meant to be both nakedly honest and cathartic at once, and this is where Skip a Sinking Stone succeeds the most.

They continue to write overwhelmingly catchy and energetic songs full of anthemic shout-along choruses that feel hopped up on one too many energy drinks, and though Kamikaze doesn't differ all that much from Blowout on the surface, the music here comes off a little more raw and crunchy, and also a lot more melodic.

There are glorious moments of reflection to be found throughout The Last Panthers too. Circuitous, sweeping pad interludes that, more often than not, come in the form of unusual and unsettling chord progressions to jolt the beauty that's frequently on offer.

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

Diamonds and company hold on to flimsy synth arpeggios and pop contrivances like a child would an old toy.

Sonically and conceptually, the all-purpose artist isn't interested in coloring in between the lines, but focused instead on offering a vibrant option to things once defined as black and white.

It's an introspective, at times hesitant collection yet in the way most introverts allow themselves to relax within company, the more time you invest in The Colour In Anything the more readily you will discover its qualities.

Will is a triumph--it takes the kosmische regurgitations of Oneohtrix Point Never, the choral, almost religious feel of early Julia Holter and the relentless thirst for finding the new in the old of The Caretaker to make an entirely new statement.

They haven't changed their sound, more developed it. They've kept the rawness, the pop songwriting and uncompromising attitude but pushed it sonically further than many would have ever expected them to.

It shimmers with an enchanting beauty that this writer at least has yet to find in any other song this year.

Low just put out their best album in a decade, and For Good seems to be following the same path.

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.

Tired Of Tomorrow is a bold, expressive grandiose album that proves capital-R Realists can make something just as beautiful as capital-R Romantics.

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.

Without question, Twin Peaks has nailed the mood they strove for with Down In Heaven. Sunken and Wild Onion were solid outings, but it feels as if the group has really hit their stride here with their third and best LP to date.

As we're thrown directly and unmercifully into 'Curtain Twitcher', we're already heavily bruised from the first half of the album, and will have to wait until 'Take It' to finally take a breath.

As If Apart will still add a few gems to your chilled out summer evening playlist, but it certainly leaves a little to be desired in regards to the evolution Cohen was clearly striving toward.

To the gustatory synesthete, listening to Kaytranada's music is probably the equivalent of sucking on a pack of Starburst where all the flavours are orange: refreshing at first, if not a bit sickly in the end.

Although it seems reductionist to place the album so closely with Ellery's other work, it does seem fitting. He writes in a certain style, produces in a certain style and sings in a certain style. LUH keeps everything that made his previous projects captivating and channels them into areas where they shouldn't really work. But that's why this album works.

One cannot help but feel as though, if White Lung had let themselves get a little messier on Paradise, it might have yielded an even more compelling result.

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.

It's an astounding debut in which he demonstrates the discipline to shape his wildly creative visions into something not only thrilling and compelling, but also focused.

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.

The sound palette of If Anything has been refined and expanded without compromising the band's explosive might.

Subtlety is in short supply on Lost Themes II, with soaring guitar solos, industrial synthesisers and violent percussion throughout.

Pop culture's reigning diva appeared in raw form--a vulnerable mess and unapologetically enraged as she thematically confronted her husband and father's alleged infidelity publicly, through visceral imagery and emotionally loaded sonic offerings.

The Diary's strongest cuts come when Dilla is behind the board.

PersonA is an album based largely around Ebert's continued drive to reinvent himself to appease a particular audience. Unfortunately, the Magnetic Zeros and their brand of music is not one well suited to the audience they were attempting to find this time around.

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.

While Parquet Courts show here that they can tackle lost love brilliantly, some of the more interesting lyrics come from those where they portray the less tangible mental issues that are rife in modern society.

It's a toxic game they play throughout the 30-minute project, without ever garnering the introspection they need until things are too late.

Hawthorne has once again proved himself as a superb purveyor of funky jams that will please the ear and the spirit.

Crab Day is an idiosyncratic and imaginative record, with fresh highlights appearing on every listen.

Whilst SORROW is clearly marked by genius, the scope and weight of this project is so substantial that the individual talent of a virtuoso like Stetson is somewhat buried, stepping back from the centre stage and once again filling the role of collaborator.

The Peace and Truce of Future of the Left is a dark and dynamic listen that's relentless in both its content and its approach, which makes it really quite gripping.

Happily, the quirky musical moments that characterised the London band's 2014 debut Breakfast are sprinkled over Brilliant Sanity, resulting in 11 pleasingly playful songs.

Three albums in, and several world tours under his belt, Bombino's music remains as powerful and vital as the day he first picked up a guitar.

It's a superficial thrill ride but without those evocative moments, that captivating emotional core, it lacks staying power.

The power of Bradley's voice comes not just from the lyrics, but the fact that you can feel the truth of every moment he sings about.

The White Album is a return to a particular state, but it was never going to be a return to form.

It's accessible, creative, and honest- everything art wishes it could be.

This album is earnest and contemplative.

Listeners will likely feel as though they've heard much of this stuff before and, while not of it is bad, that sensation does not exactly make for a compelling listen.

It's hard to decide if what Yeasayer have created with Amen & Goodbye is a case of pop genius, of if the result is a load of over the top, art-rock pretensions. It seems that whether Yeasayer are really the future sailors of experimental indie, still remains to be seen.

Painting Of a Panic Attack, while not their best release musically, may well be their most emotionally mature.

Wells has described Promise as the kind of album that requires patience and time from the listener. But considering how captivating and compelling the music can be, the time is well spent in the end.

Compassion is Lust For Youth's most compact album, with only 8 tracks, and benefits from its trim nature.

What it is, is a nice collection of dark trip-hop pop songs influenced by some great names but without forcing you to remember the name of HÆLOS. A little more substance over style will lead HÆLOS to bigger and better things.

For an album so drenched in sadness, there is a disco for the downhearted lurking beneath its surface.

As Cullen's thought provoking and dark lyricism crawls beneath its music adornment, you must unlock it to really appreciate the contrast.

The Body gracefully don't try to solve the zeitgeist of human suffering one way or the other, but they surely have retained their expert status at describing its pitfalls.

This album might not do anything particularly revolutionary, but as an example of affable, nuanced power-pop, it is hard to beat.

He continues to hold our attention as he makes sense of his own findings on God and race and legacy and perfection.

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.

LNZNDRF might feel a little esoteric to fans of the Devendorfs' back catalogue, but it's a heavyweight enough effort to hopefully ensure that it won't be a one-off.

More Rain is a graceful, though somewhat unrewarding member of that career.

It's the conflict between tension and resolve, the contrast between beauty and ugliness, and the overall uncertainty that makes this such an interesting and enthralling experience, and also one of Porter's most startling and accomplished releases yet.

There's nothing particularly wrong with Mass Gothic. There's clearly a compelling artistic voice in there.

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

This is Shearwater taking a leap out of their usual rustic world and it's a world in which they could thrive in the future. If they don't come back here again, Jet Plane and Oxbow presents a wonderful snapshot.

The rest is beautiful, sure, and there's moments that are truly intoxicating where you just want to stop what you're doing and let it wash over you, but it's also an album that, once it reaches its end, sort of fades away. There's nothing here that really sticks with you for any longer than the album's duration.

Unlike its predecessor, the new album is expressed with a confident ease rather than pent up frustration.

Feeling comfortable is not something neo, and by extension So Pitted, is concerned with. Instead, exploration of the darkness and sickness of life are the key drivers and if neo is any indication, it is pretty compelling material.

Operator is a very strong and interesting record, mixing glittery platforms with darker horizons. It is also a very "safe" one, for it sounds very calculated and lacking in risk.

Flashy records are always exciting, but the merits of a solidly constructed and alluringly dreamy album like Life of Pause should never be underestimated.

A Season in Hull is a cast-off gem, another diamond in a career of low-key marvels.

Hiccups aside, Begin is an otherwise highly enjoyable album, one that sees Lion Babe fearless in their willingness to experiment with various styles in order to see what works and what doesn't, and it's through that process of discovery that they will eventually find their groove and hopefully the hit singles they are striving to create.

After seven manic albums attempting to prove his perfection, Kanye is seeking penance on The Life Of Pablo. Here, he delivers 18 heavenly hymns.

There may be simple logic behind the phrase quality over quantity yet here there is clear cohesion and thought.

The marathon middle section paves the way for the record's standout final songs. 'Padova', in particular, slows Plaza's propulsion peacefully and formlessly.

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

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.

His intensity is consistent and his affinity for recognizing his fans favor is respectable. He doesn’t change things up much sonically, which is a welcomed critique.

Grasque sometimes manages to make average pizza from excellent ingredients. When COYB are tenacious enough to boil a track down to a workable size, the result is a triumph. Often it can resemble unleavened music, stripped of the necessary rise and fall.

This is a lush, intellectual and brilliant collection, constantly teeming with sounds, innovations and ideas.

What it lacks, though, is a sense of purpose, which is the precise thing this new version of Bloc Party needed it to have; they needed to make a convincing case as to why they still deserve your attention. Instead, they picked the worst possible time to lose their nerve, and turn in something so bereft of conviction and new ideas.

Songs in the Key of Animals lacks the focus of A Love Extreme, but then again, we're talking about an album that was supposedly written on the fly.

SVIIB is an utterly beautiful piece of work that is all about finding joy and hope in even the darkest of times. Supported by bold synth pop tunes in their own right, it's a record that you're unlikely to forget.

This is a gratifying song collection.

The comforting warmth of cassette fuzz binds itself to the entire work, making the gamble an intimate experience akin to anything that Nils Frahm has laid his hands on. This has allowed nonkeen to find the perfect balance between experimental and familiar.

Though as a collection Moth is both fascinating and fun, demonstrative of what can be achieved when you focus on substance over style.

After a three year album hiatus, Rih has rendered her most profoundly authentic and effortless act of rebellion yet – she’s making the music she wants to make without a singular fuck. Anti-pop, anti-album, anti-industry, anti-expectation, anti-perfection.

Whilst not enjoying the same amount of attention or hype as her first few releases, My Wild West finds Lissie experimenting but still within the confines of her slick pop writing. It's an album made by an artist who is still top of her game.

Daughter--and Tonra in particular--have elegantly lowered their defences with Not to Disappear. Emotional literacy and gripping theatricality lie behind the wall.

The year’s first R&B masterpiece.

The Waiting Room is Tindersticks on ravishing form. For die-hards and newcomers alike, it's hard not to be drawn in by the lush facade it creates.

Certainly their best record since 2001's Standards, here Tortoise sound revitalised--concise, playful and sharp. They may move slowly, but when they do, it is always with renewed purpose.