Ultimately Drunk is an impressive record which commands multiple listens as much by its quality as its complexity. It shows off Bruner at the height of his powers as an artist shapeshifting through genres but always leaving his scent in the air.

What is truly special here is that Willner has made an album that will acclimatise itself to your surroundings.

Recorded live without headphones or separate tracks, the sound is intimate and conspiratorial. The perfect polish of a meticulously assembled recording is set aside in favour of a sense of the room and the musicians in it, united in their organic performances.

All Her Plans spotlights the Melbourne-based band as they reach new heights, exuding love, indignation, and indomitability, the essentials of “conscious” punk circa 2023.

She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She is Wolfe’s best album for some time. The album’s music and vocals reflect its underlying theme well.

It's not their best album, but by sticking closely to this pattern, Spiral in a Straight Line is their most cohesive.

The Hum is a shattering, all-encompassing experience; there's climactic rage, broken organs and blank-eyed trance outs. At times it’s like listening to war, but there are also moments of beauty, musical tantrums and periods of bummed out weirdness. The result of all this? Total exhilaration.

It results in a pleasant, but mostly quite forgettable listen.

Despite the changes in their compositional style, their growth, their pain and their heartbreak, First Aid Kit haven’t lost the key element that makes them so distinct.

Modern Nature likely won’t ripple the upper reaches of the album charts or critic lists, nor will it rouse any new fans, but it’s an undeniable a pleasure to those who already are and proof The Charlatans tank is plenty full.

This is yet another reinvention for Crutchfield, but this is the first time she’s so palpably given off the sense that she’s at peace with her own thoughts: stronger and more candid for having figured out how to best to take care of herself.

Ghostemane’s ANTI-ICON is a feverish collection of voices pitted against a genre-blending backdrop of visceral noise. Taking heavy music to a whole new level is something only an anti-icon could do, and Ghostemane’s firecracker of a new record achieves just that.

Reflektor acts as a vehicle through which the band’s established flair can be refracted into a new polarising, pulverising shape.

The four-track offering is a rather wild journey, in that it refuses to offer anything up easily. Instead, it allows its intricate layers to build up to whatever it is they eventually come to stoke inside of you.

With Distractions, Sauna Youth showcase their ability to infuse a classic punk aesthetic with skilful artistry.

There are no tricks on show here, the sound is refreshingly clean, the ethos is admirably simple, embracing the DIY punk spirit and spitting out a beautiful record that will also fill that Sonic Youth-shaped hole in your life.

Praise Ipepac Recordings for allowing these two visionaries to continue to challenge the purpose and the manner of music.

For all the light-headed horns and lo-fi bedroom production, there’s this clarity and precision that ends "Cracking". Jinx is both their misadventure and their healing as intrepid explorers of the New York night.

Just as it really gets going and starts shining, it splutters and finishes, leaving a sort of empty feeling.

This is pop music with complex narratives, and if the masses are willing to listen, they could be the band that recharges the UK charts with genuinely meaningful music.

Twentyears does exactly what a compilation needs to; it shows how Air are arguably one of the last great singles bands, but by delving beyond the hits we are presented with an abbreviated version of a back catalogue of panache and flair. Always engaging, always different, but always Air.

Despite such intense themes, the record manages to stay light and joyful, revelling in the potential that music and dance possess to draw communities together and find resolution.

By the tenth track of verdant metaphors and leafy imagery, it's hard not to wish for the return of some of the angst which characterised The Antlers' earlier works, just to add a bit of bite. Still, with spring just around the corner, it's hard to be churlish. Green to Gold is a befitting album for lazy summer mornings.

Hideous is able to straddle the line between a celebration of sexuality, whilst going beyond themes purely of self-love and physical exaltation that have come to dominate feel-good pop music in recent years.

Love Hallucination ultimately feels like an artist riding on intuition.

This is earnest, albeit loud, songwriting. And that sincerity carries this these (already great) songs further than you'd expect.

The record feels strongest at its scrappiest; when it harks back to the charm of her humble beginnings full of compressed vocals and effortless funk.

Beast Epic may well sound too tame and house-trained to sustain interest. Keep at it, however, and the album is soon likely to cast a subtle spell.

Death is inevitable and we don’t know what’s on the other side, so while we’re here just put everything into it. Bestial Burden is the sound of Pharmakon doing exactly that.

It was written and recorded in only a week and a half, and this is the beauty of it. Harris has managed to capture an emotion and deliver it in its rawest and purest form.

Dissonances and a more careful mixing of the vocals would definitely help propel the band higher up, but what we have right now is a mature trio which you would definitely appreciate beer-in-hand while carefully tapping your foot on a sticky floor.

McDonald, Thompson, and Hellmrich seem more artistically and energetically in sync than ever, reveling in their opportunities and impressive talents.

No Home Record is heavy in its use of experimentation, yet it results in a vividly cutting and complex portrait of what it means to live in contemporary LA, and a superb introduction to the solo Kim Gordon.

Scott Walker is more interested in moving forward than looking back and with the soundtrack to The Childhood of a Leader his music is as unique as ever.

This is a creative and varied set of songs that spiral high and swoop low, sometimes both at once--and there isn’t a weak link amongst them. Mesmeric.

The idea that you can have too much of a good thing is thoroughly debunked with Thank Your Lucky Stars, such is the beauty of the songwriting and their uncanny ability to create an all-consuming mood.

You’re left shrugging, like, okay, whatever. As recalibrations, or simply maturing, goes Cruel World is as mixed and contradictory as her debut.

On the album, the dark, haunting sound and intimate atmosphere of her early work and the muscular '80s inspired synth-pop of Remind Me Tomorrow sit side by side.

he record staggers on into “Fishtail,” a dull trap ballad, and hits a dead-end with “Peppers,” an excursion into rap which is an absolute mess; so incoherent that it's excruciating. Moments like these are baffling because, without them, Did You Know… would compete among Lana’s very best. In fact, in certain gorgeous moments – like during the strange haziness of “Fingertips” or the ecstatic climax of “The Grants” – this is a beautiful album.

When the Cellar Children See the Light of Day is in many ways an astounding album; unflinching in its tales of abuse, murder and death it marks Mirel Wagner out not just as a musician of immense talent, but also as a story teller and poet who’s able to weave gripping tales from bleak reality.

At its core, Lush is partly a remarkable debut, for the solid shape it's delivered in, mostly cohesive, conceptually speaking, but it's true that the cohesiveness of Lush lacks any true dichotomy to "spice" up the album.

If you're a fan of Frusciante's work in the California funk outfit, then there's not much here you'll enjoy, but if you are into electronic, drum and bass then you'll be right at home.

A soundtrack for life’s glorious heights and crumbling nadirs.

While the album may have been crafted during a two-year tsunami of struggle, Isaiah Rashad still manages to sound as calm as an ocean’s gentle waves; sounding so effortless has never taken so much effort.

Underpinned by sharper melodies and, shock horror, notions of hope, they sit comfortably as among the best songs Metz have written so far. If they’re a nod to how the band intend on developing their sound further, we may well soon end up with a record that truly feels like serious change has occurred.

As a coherent album, it’s an affecting listen. The samples of dialogue that occasionally flicker behind the dense aural foliage, Burial-like, provide a human counterpoint to this austere, automated music, organic glows that briefly distract from Lopatin’s caustic waves of electronica.

Her love of hip hop is imbued in the very core of Compliments Please, shirking much of the folkish arrangements of Slow Club for a sound far bolder, and at 16 tracks strong it is clear that Taylor is not short of ideas.

Even if the album largely sets aside the impeccable hook-craft of previous work, the sequence is indeed sonically and thematically compelling.

Majical Cloudz have created a series of crystalline pop songs, which are emotionally direct and powerful; and will surely create a whole new set of subjective responses.

Temple’s chameleonic tendencies make it unlikely that he’ll release an album in this vein again. With that in mind, it’s best to enjoy Be Small for what it is: charming, skilful, and pleasing to the ear.

[The] big pop moments are the most thrilling, moreish moments on All My Demons but there are quieter moments where AURORA also excels.

His most sincere and optimistic record so far.

What follows is a highlight in an album of standouts.

Side Effects is enjoyable, with inspired moments and a consistently danceable feel. It is frequently referential to the band’s previous work, which might make this more of a knockout record for the heads, rather than an entry point for new converts. Sometimes, though, it lacks the drive that reveals itself in the sparkliest songs.

At times, it can feel slightly rushed - with the band seeming understandably eager to quickly follow-up on early hype. ... At it’s best, however, Growing Up is a fantastically multi-dimensional record that presents a shining showcase of four preternaturally talented stars.

The result is a hugely compelling, powerfully inviting album that manages to be simultaneously and seamlessly equal parts intimate and epic, experimental and elementally down to earth – often simultaneously. A perfectly formed gem, in other words.

Most of the material is pleasant at best, and while the lack of overcompensation is appreciated, it makes the group’s lyrical deficits that much more noticeable than on previous records.

The album’s been in gestation for two years, and yet with a few exceptions the ten songs here sound like offcuts. It’s not that Fuse is actually that bad – but it feels like a futile exercise, a series of turns down paths which don’t go anywhere.

Performance is, thankfully, anachronistic to the point of absurdity--if you close your eyes anywhere in this record, you’ll be transported to somewhere deep in the '70s, where there are no genres because nobody really cares about that kind of nonsense.

Nature Always Wins is an ambitious album. From the understated "Meeting Up" to the sprawling and off-kilter closing number "Child of the Flatlands", it’s the sound of Maximo Park not so much maturing, as it is them evolving. And while Smith might well argue it’s the sound of them aging, there’s still plenty of life in them yet.

Goat Girl push the boat out while maintaining, for the most part, a considered and deliberate mood across the 48 minute run time, and the few pitfalls are due to ideas that didn’t quite coalesce more than anything. The finest tracks can feel familiar only to grab you and hold you in entirely surprising ways.

For better or worse, it always celebrates the thrill of what’s to come, capturing the frailty of a mind wrought with anticipation and bewilderment in the face of the unpredictable trials of a world away from home.

Manic revels in the explorative genre-pop bombast, letting the delicates twinkle, and the snarls bare their teeth; yet it's the soul that shines dominantly. It's her most complete work to date.

This is an album that you can feel as well as experience, perhaps the most complete Bon Iver album to date. Justin Vernon’s emotive approach to the album balances the individual and the communal with perfect precision. With a firmer grasp on reality and a new and brighter perspective, a unique mix of creativity and bewilderment remains at the core of Bon Iver.

Miya Folick orbits and sometimes grasps something transcendent about living through unprecedented times on ROACH.

There’s a shagginess to some of the tracks here, and a producer without skin in the game might have taken a pair of shears to the record, but that would be tantamount to criminal damage. The Hard Quartet is like four suburban dads starting a garage band on a whim, only with prime beef musicians and a huge label behind them, and if that’s not charming in this day and age, nothing is.

It’s not polished, but it's chromatic, jagged, yet it jangles. It’s the sort of record that skates across a pond, leaving no marks, but the ice collapses moments after it graces it.

RTXIV was a superb, full-throttle rock ‘n’ roll record, but Electric Brick Wall is a next-level release.

The best album of their career thus far.

If their previous albums were the sound of cataclysmic blasts--of unhewn matter rebounding through the cosmos trying to manifest--then Corsicana Lemonade is the sound of their universe finally taking shape.

[An] intelligently-crafted album that repays repeated playing to appreciate its numerous qualities.

DS2 is a uniformly awesome album, remarkable for the singularity of its vision, and it comes at absolutely the right time, when all eyes are on Future.

Somehow, With Trampled with Turtles combines the emotional heaviness and wounded introspection seamlessly with the palpable, communal joy of playing and singing music in good company.

It is all bark, all bite and Power’s greatest and most consistent release under the Blanck Mass alias, bearing a message that is as crucial as it is necessary.

Exai operates within a comfort zone--one that’s dazzling, but given the sheer length of this thing, also far from easy to stomach as a whole.

While there’s nothing in anyway groundbreaking here, what makes it so interesting is the fact that TOPS don’t just recycle familiar pop tropes, but somehow manage to re-articulate the musical landscape of one decade and revitalise sounds that feel all too familiar. And that makes it an album worth talking about.

For the most part The Curse of Love doesn’t offer any of the pop hooks that made early Coral albums so enjoyable.

Georgia is an album that speaks of youth in urban landscapes, and scenarios familiar to anyone who has hung around South London long enough. It's an area that's culturally thriving, and it might have a new hero.

Beyond Belief is somewhat less guitar-centric than Along the Way, but otherwise it is more in most every other way.

Fearless is releasing the best material of his career.

Clearly five CDs is way too much musical despondency to take in on one sitting, but this compilation does comprehensively show that for a genre known for an insular outlook, there was a surprising amount of scope musically from the bands involved.

There are a few moments that miss their mark--recent single “Someone” has a forced keychange that belies its soaring effortlessness--but for the most part, Lovers is a slick, listenable debut with a strong sense of direction and poise.

Funny, raging, unpredictable and electric, this is a record that feels alive.

Everything Maltese conveys feels like a direct connection to the mind that bore it. It feels filterless, and with the music playing its part perfectly, we're all privy to the cool, calm and collected, swooning and crooning, world that Matt Maltese sees. And we're all the better for it.

Since the very beginning of his debut, From Here We Go Sublime, Willner has remained a top-tier stalwart and in one grand, sweeping gesture secures the reality of being one of the very few who continually sound like no one else while expertly giving little in return.

Rich in texture and enveloping atmosphere, Any Random Kindness unfortunately lets its lyrical content fall to the wayside. While this gives more space to let the incredible soundscapes breathe, it also feels like the real emotional punch to back them up is lacking.

Incorporating a sense of scale and sounds that highlight the ingenuity and curiosity that sits are the heart of the trio, Horizon is a celebration of the trio’s vision and collective experiences. Wherever it takes them next, let’s hope it continues to be as enthralling as this.

It’s safe to say Wilson is feeling a little bit country, a little bit rock and roll on Dixie Blur, and as with his other albums, the stylistic tweaks fit him like a glove.

Unfortunately, despite the gravitas, at times it feels a bit like you’re listening to a late-night free jazz jam. When it hits the mark, Rose Golden Doorways rears its head and roars in a concrete wasteland, but there are moments of chin-stroking weirdness that fall flat of the eldritch dread Rochford and co are trying to create.

The record makes constant reference to dreams, with the theme appearing in seven of its eight songs. At times it symbolises a joyful disbelief, at other times a moment away from a heavy reality, and at others still a world shared between two lovers. More than anything, the recurring idea of dreams softens the edges of the earth-shaking changes to Bonnetta’s life, letting him drift gently between real life and the inside of his head in search of a view of it all that makes sense.

A.Swayze & The Ghosts prove that songs with substantial lyrical content don’t have to be preachy at all, and Paid Salvation is a confident debut from one of the more impassioned and exhilarating bands around.

Some of Creeper's tricks may have become repetitive and predictable, but whichever direction they take after the SD&IV cycle, they probably can't go wrong as long as there are plenty of Greenwood's vocal contributions. The interludes create smooth transitions, guitar crescendos build a gorgeous cinematic effect, especially on the EP's centerpiece "America At Night" and the anthemic "One Of Us", which sounds a bit like Green Day.

Marriage is an impressively balanced album with highs and lows, and songs to make your adrenaline rush while others make you feel perfectly submerged in pensive emotion. The evidence is clear, Deap Vally have really come into their own here, encompassing everything you could ask for from a rock album - ego and bravado diluted by cold hard self-reflection.

Both parties benefit from the collaboration on Ali: Touré gets to paint the songs he loves with a wider palette without diluting the power of the source material, and Khruangbin’s add some welcome grit to their smooth and hazy signature sound.

Eloise is an artist that’s been an exciting prospect for some time, and Drunk On A Plane has delivered what we were all hoping it would.

Like the tracks themselves, the album as a whole contains a breadth in the way of sounds and styles, but less so in depth. Confused and trying on more hats than a grandfather at a beachfront souvenir shop, Cautious Clay flickers with interest and leaves without a second thought.

The entire EP clocks in at just under 15 minutes. Despite this, this has ensured quality over quantity and makes up for the potential disappointment felt by listeners due to Club Shy’s speedy turnaround. The synths are fat, Shygirl’s voice steps into places she rarely visits, and it's absolutely everything you could want from a Shygirl club cut, soaring as it takes a victory lap around what has played prior.

Even though Thee Black Boltz may fall short in comparison with the band’s best records, it still offers flashes of brilliance and maybe even some comfort if you’re going through a difficult patch.