It can be a little exhausting having to process so many conflicting and volatile emotions welling to the surface at once, but, like The Sunday Gift, Darker Than Blue isn't without its beauty either. Those moments can feel hard won though, especially considering all of the turmoil surrounding them.

After The Disco is an unashamedly brilliant pop album that might just be the right kind of stuff to get you through the remains of winter.

Sometimes, plucking a dandelion from between the cracks of the sidewalk, "just because", is transcendent. And Seraph is one of the prettiest damn dandelions in quite some time.

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.

There is song crafting of an exceptional variety as Sermanni delivers ten solid songs, the longest just a touch under five minutes, that all have an important story to tell.

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.

As a result of this restraint, his latest record is a more challenging proposition, forcing the listener to question the vintage of everything they are hearing, and blurring the lines between all of the various pictures he chucks together.

ANIMA isn't an overly kind record. It is, however, eternally honest.

A snappy, hilarious, disturbing, damnably catchy, but most importantly, complete showcase for one of the most exciting young musicians to emerge--in any genre--for some time.

Dark Days + Canapés is quite simply Ghostpoet’s most accomplished record to date. As lyrically smart as his debut, and building on three albums’ worth of musical experimentation, it feels like Ejimiwe has finally found his niche.

It feels less like album and more like a smorgasbord of everything Kimbra loves, and not in a bad way at all.

Channelling the vivacity of the Beatnik poets in her hurtling metre and arrestingly forensic imagery, Tempest unravels a modesty in the metaphysics all the more powerful for its naturalism.

MCIII is a great record because it gives us a scattered, messy, but uncompromisingly honest portrait of Cronin himself. Nothing is overthought, nothing is too considered.

The album closes with appropriately titled 'Come Down', a sparse and intimate song with earnest vocals and harmonies that ease the reader out of an intoxicating album-induced daze.

With Seek Warmer Climes' slight redirection, Toubro and Lower offer mantras to live by, beguilingly presented and difficult to ignore, but with a serious sting in the tail.

Stranger to Stranger is a pleasure-filled exploration of rhythm, melody, instrumentation and lyrical themes which has joyful experimentation at its heart.

Wiley has curated a project that binds the generations of Grime and acts as the final confirmation of the genre’s return.

With a release drowning in possibilities, Floating Points' latest is a humbling work of art, ridden in environmental discoveries, alongside an empowering sense of mental stability.

The imperfections and the what-ifs are exactly what make it so intriguing as a glimpse of where Holley could take things. It’s an album which poses more questions than it answers. It gets under your skin like a tick. It leads you to the river but never forces to drink. It leaves you wondering what Black Foxxes are trying to say, but never gives you the answers. The scab of the question itches, and you’re left wanting nothing but to scratch it.

His debut album experiments with intense sincerity and captivating subtleties in the lyrics and melodies respectively.

Useless Coordinates is not perfect, and there are some flat moments, such as ‘Unwound’ which is very artrock-by-numbers, but overall this is an album which kicks arse and promises much for the future from a band clearly enamoured with the idea of challenging themselves and their audience.

Much like its cover art, Cocoon Crush can be recognized as something familiar, but you’re unlikely to be able to glean just what that is. It lies, distant and in waiting, ready to challenge you, with Objekt ever-seeking to open, both for his listeners and himself, new possibilities.

Throughout, the vocals are natural and organic which allowed an artistic endeavour like If I Was to even take shape. Growth is the life force of any artist. If I Was is proof of this.

Minus Tide is a record that lets you recall the best moments from vacations both real and imagined in a way that's better and brighter than the original experience.

You can’t say that Two Hands is an overtly hopeful album, but it is far from hopeless. Rather, it is realistic and grounded. Big Thief’s restraint in adding the production wizardry they showcased on U.F.O.F. is a key move to making the songs of Two Hands really hit their mark.

It's a thrilling ride.

uknowhatimsayin¿ may not immediately shine as brightly as the grandly ambitious and fearlessly experimental XXX or Atrocity Exhibition, and some of its tracks and vocal hooks are a little undercooked, but Brown’s latest reveals itself more and more with each listen.

The Far Field is a triumph--it shows Future Islands refusing to buckle under newfound pressure, and instead creating another stellar record to add to their burgeoning catalogue.