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.