Not only is Still Brazy, arguably the most sharply produced rap album of the year, emblazoned with the most pronounced storytelling of 2016, YG has un-apologetically used his gunshot as a metaphor for America in the time of Trump.

At just over half an hour in length, this is a stunning song suite of positivity that leaves you yearning for thirty more equally superb minutes.

It's sometimes easy to forget that Mitski didn't technically enter the greater music consciousness until last year, and what makes that worth pointing out is that despite her hitting her stride and turning out the most accomplished album of her career yet, she sounds like she's only getting started.

There are a few truly memorable riffs, notably on 'Hum for your Buzz' and 'Bitter Fruit', it's just that overall, this music feels that bit too slick to deliver the 'unease' and 'winking ennui' that the record label copy promised.

The songs get you moving just enough. The melodies and lyrics gently grab you by the ears.

Recorded in Los Angeles and produced entirely by Tommy English, most expressions of individuality have been removed and replaced with polished finesse. You are left with eleven songs that are entirely devoid of personality and the delivery only emphasises this.

Liquid Cool has a raw honesty to it that comes from stripping back the instrumentals.

The first half may be more instantly accessible but the final three tracks of The Invisible's third album sees them slip into their favoured lane and take the mantle as the most hypnotic and aurally enveloping band in Britain today.

Due to its immense diversity in terms of approach and styles, the rarities CD is a brilliant way of letting us into the multiplicity of colours and shapes that is Air's music.

Sometimes a couple words like "damn good" can suffice and with BRONCHO's Double Vanity, a better description likely couldn't be found.

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.

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.

Each and every track on this album is so jam-packed with garbage pop flourishes that it can get exhausting.

Tooth may not be any less difficult to take in as a whole, but this time around, they've at least offered a slightly easier entry point into the sometimes bleak but fascinating realm they occupy.

A solid effort that has pure intentions, but just doesn't quite hold the attention in the way some of Diarrhea Planet's peers do. Turn To Gold will find a solid niche of fans, and likely just get a head nod of meager approval from everyone else.

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.

Things Will Matter is fine as it is but it feels tantalising, as if there's something more to come from Lonely The Brave.

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

It accomplishes everything you would expect a sophomore album to do: it builds off the promise of its predecessor and sees a band coming into their own and developing their own unique style and sound. Probably the least expected thing about it though is just how jaw-droppingly good it actually is.

A better summertime album will be hard to find this year. You can expect to see Whitney's name on a lot of year-end lists and deservedly so.

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.