Take Me Apart doesn't feel desperate to reach for anything, it is comfortable, prepared for whatever may come, much like its bearer. Greatness hasn't sounded this natural in this arena for some time. This is everything.

In some of its explorations of dance music’s sub-genres it is less successful, and can come off as a bit too cheesy for its own good, but it’s all produced, performed and sequenced with such careful consideration and bountiful charm, that its few shortcomings in pure songwriting terms can be overlooked.

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

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith looks at life and sees the endless possibility. It’s a sweet thought, and a compelling journey.

There's plenty of fun to be had here, even if it can't help not quite measuring up to past hype.

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.

Rather than betting the farm on a couple showstoppers while keeping everything else relatively muted and inconspicuous, Frost pushes himself further and further and creates an incredible experience.

With this album, The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die has stepped up to the challenge of their name (as well as their previous lyrics riffing off the name), and show that they are willing to fight to make it a reality. While this battle may be a substantially uphill one, Always Foreign stands as an impeccable call to arms.

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

More than ever, the human experience is tangible through their music, and they manage to create those unmaintainable moments of joy that can, in a moment or a movement, dissolve into something else entirely; a memory of something long forgotten, a vision of your inconsequentiality in the world, a realisation that everything is temporary. Fortunately, they are not always downers, moreover it just feels comforting to have those feelings quantified so stirringly through music.

Haiku From Zero offers up plenty of mesmerising moments, but they come with a damaging amount of baggage and ultimately the record falls a little short of the tropical dream that it envisages.

After years of delivering on her promise, it comes as no surprise that Hiss Spun is as good as it is. The instrumental tracks dance around Wolfe’s soaring vocals and ultimately collide with them perfectly to create a collection of songs that are a joy to listen to.

Ultimately, The Spark presents a baffling listening experience. Almost every song on the album poses as an unremarkable backdrop onto which the band fiddles with elements of everything from grime to orchestral arrangements with virtually no successful results.

It’s still a functionally and otherwise dazzling work, one that sits nicely among the band's compositions.

Brick Body Kids Still Daydream is the very definition of a slow burner. It lacks a track as instantly iconic as ‘Doug Stamper’ off Dark Comedy, but it reveals its layers and details gradually.

Aromanticism is an album that is heartfelt and heartbreaking, and, from the opening chorals to the closing moments of ‘Self Help Tape’, is an album like no other.

The band rarely have anything interesting to say.

Dedicated to Bobby Jameson picks up where the late Bobby Jameson left off, solidifying his name as an inspiration for one of the most impressive indie-rock records of the past decade.

Through their highly freeform but affectionate collaboration, the trio consistently accentuates the potency of the passion in the songs.

Native Invader is a step back from Unrepentant Geraldines, but still boasts enough quality to suggest that she has another stellar album in her.

Cameron’s reach for the stars will be a divisive listen. He pulls no punches in creating this character, and the ugly language used to do so, will be viewed as unnecessary by some. But it all hangs together pretty well to create a set of songs that largely transcend the lame pastiches that they can stray close to being.

It’s perfectly plausible that the record will age just as well as VanGaalen’s best stuff--we just gotta give it more time to let its shapeshifting flowers bloom into something as beautiful as his animations.

At its best, Antisocialites is a raw effort from a band who swears they've been around longer than they have, composing a handful of very good songs, with a majority of flukey, bored-out-of-my-fucking-mind songs that seem to drag one after the other. Alvvays' main flaw remains their lack of authenticity, a tragedy for a band with this much potential.

We’re left with many songs that could have used some voices, or ones where the voices dominate proceedings, taking the focus away from the creators.

The music as a whole isn't as immersive as you would expect it to feel at first. Instead it works on a more subconscious level, gradually drawing you in with a subtle pull. That seeming lack of immediacy does nothing to take away from how enjoyable many of the highlights here are, and the album is well-paced in such a way that it never lingers longer than it needs to.

It’s short, powerful, and set to turn your insides out.

It’s the best National album since Boxer; and for argument’s sake, Devendorf’s drumming hasn’t been this vital for ten years.

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.