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

PUP feel stretched and loose on Morbid Stuff. As rambunctious as the songs can be, that wouldn’t be achieved without the seriousness that they approach their art.

The year’s first R&B masterpiece.

Although it is thoughtfully sequenced, Central Belters is more of an anthology to dip in and out of, mainly due to its running time.

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

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

An album that is stacked full of mind-transporting moments, rendered by carefully selected, produced and deployed analogue elements. It’s a lot to pack into 40 minutes, but it ensures that Theory Of Colours is not only a noteworthy debut album, but a statement of beautiful, fascinating intent from Dauwd.

There is a sturdiness to the xx. The band’s innate talents for melody and texture, even when expressed in the wrong proportions, persist.

They’ve experimented with vocals, concentrated their musical chemistry, further polished their production, and tweaked their songwriting so that the transitions between movements in their songs are less sheer cliff-faces of fury and more lithe passages. All this, combined with some of the best songs they’ve ever written, makes Ordinary Corrupt Human Love the band’s most irrefutable credential as a leader in modern Rock.

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.

It encourages you to empathise with the subjects of the songs, and therefore adds some light to the melancholy. It scores highly because it weaves all these scenarios and tales over subtle yet richly varied music. For Mark Kozelek this is yet another career highlight.

Atrocity Exhibition, through assertive honesty, embraces Danny's self-assaulting cycle and this time, he's not looking for any personal help. That may be because he's making the most focused, textured music of his career instead and it's clear he's abandoned any afterthought of possible radio panhandling or herd-minded mainstream appeal.

With Eagle already standing as one of the peaks of modern folk music, we would not necessarily have expected to hear another knockout record from her, but there’s no denying Semper Femina stands toe-to-toe with her opus.

Careful attention to details grounds the story and makes it believable. You know, insomuch as a tale of transangels can be believable.

These are sprightly, assured, gratifying pop songs, pirouetting with enough agitated inventiveness to ensure each run is sunny, surprising, and fluently fun; a damn fine Summer record.

Pink City is a richly lyrical and instrumental tapestry weaving new life into traditional folk music by placing it in a Canadian backdrop which typifies her interpretation.

With Life Metal ... they have minimized those aspects of their sound which were perhaps becoming too comfortable for them, and too familiar for the audience. The result is a work rich in texture, depth and tenderness.

With clear intent, Omoiyari is a strong example of that rare moment when a musician finds their true stride later in their career. Kishi Bashi has offered up a truly essential statement.

While MNIMN's faults lie in its sequencing and filler, Darkest Before Dawn is concentrated and trimmed. And Pusha T, strengthened.

Musically, Mannequin Pussy show off a new-found nuance and detailed understanding that backs up this intricate situation perfectly, spinning the threads of guitar so beautifully that you can mistake the song for romantic, before you’re knocked back to earth by the painful reality of the situation.

We are guests in her world, after all, and Hell-On is precisely the breezy rock record we may need right now. If you need proof, any of the 12 tracks here will suffice.

To be sure, his willingness to descend into darkness, both regarding the world and within himself, is a large part of the man's appeal, but here he seems to have misunderstood, or simply ignored, what makes him truly great.

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.

If Astroworld suffers from any sin, it’s a nearly endless ambition.

The production isn't the only platinum facet of LIZZOBANGERS. Her technical ability is unparalleled. She doesn't just summon narratives or tell stories, she uses pace and rhythm and dialect to shape a song.

There is no ignoring the allusions to the natural world. And with big orchestration and even bigger ambition, the band were able to show just how we are only a small part of something much bigger.

Nilüfer Yanya has managed to produce an album which flits from one template to the next, yet at no time is there a tendency to feel that this is contrived and neither does it suggest an artist scrabbling around for an identity and an audience which then comes with it. These shifts in style always feel controlled, as though the song demands them.

Sivan may indeed only be 23 and while he might not be a gay icon just yet, records like Bloom which clearly and proudly sing about same sex relationships while sounding shiny and polished in all the right places, will certainly help him get there.