Though the topics may be hard-hitting and steeped in despondency, Crookes still finds space to allow the light to shine through, with swooning vocals and infectious percussive beats (“Perfect Crime”). Throughout, vocals remain reminiscent of Amy Winehouse, with gritty yet honeyed intonations detailing intricate narratives.

There is a broad crossover appeal, and there is so much to unpack. They have taken the sounds of their EPs and expanded into something more expansive, without losing what endeared them to audiences. This is a thrilling, evocative debut that lives up to the hype.

Judging by the often mesmerising, genuinely timeless and deeply resonant Evergreen In Your Mind (which ultimately adds up to far more than the sum of its highly commendable parts, especially if ingested in one uninterrupted, focused sitting), Habel’s own steps are inching ever closer to a comprehensive mastery of the folk song format.

Strand of Oaks’ particular synthesis of modern sounds with retro feels is as entertaining as it is uplifting. Just don’t expect it to stir you like the Boss can.

Hoop has been producing thought-provoking, arresting folk music since Kismet was released nearly a decade ago, but this is her most cutting, cohesive, and critical record yet.

Small Changes manages the rare feat of being a beautifully crafted singer-songwriter album in the classic mould without paying audible tribute to any of its classic inspirations, or succumbing to mere tasteful politeness: an album that's informed by the past while sounding unmistakably now.

If NEVER ENOUGH proves one thing, it's that Turnstile has a bright blue horizon ahead of them. The sky is the limit now.

Humble though she may be, Jlin is quickly becoming a staple within an esteemed circle of experimental, inter-disciplinary creators, with this score representing a vital step forward.

This is a strong record, and it shows that Ohmme have safely navigated the pitfalls of the dreaded second album syndrome. Here, they sound mature, focused, well-drilled.

Listening to this record is equivalent to being on a moving sidewalk at the airport with a rocket-powered wheelchair; there are G-forces propelling this tracklist astronauts could not withstand.

Petals For Armor is a display of the multifaceted truth that is ‘femininity’; Williams’ rage is complex yet simple, primal yet now more discrete.

With Soft Sound From Another Planet, Michelle Zauner has moved beyond mourning to a solace far more celestial, communicating her grief through these poignant musical prayers aimed directly at the heavens and beyond.

Magus maneuvres its songs in such a fashion and that patience and allowance for their gradual build shows their skillset as a group with a revering quality, thus placing Magus in the running for one of this year’s most auspicious metal releases

Everything Was Beautiful shows Spiritualized accessing yet another artistic plateau, forging an exemplary hybridization of unshakeable songs and sublimely assembled music.

The songs are proficiently penned, though often devoid of the juggernaut hooks that elevated previous outings, particularly the exhilarating House of Sugar and stunning God Save the Animals. Additionally, the production MO tilts toward the conservative – well-sanded and well-stirred instrumentation.

If she’s toed a contemporary line, it’s been mostly via sonic contexts and a swaggery bent. With Fidelity, she lets much of that go, embracing an old-school R&B MO. It’s a credit to her unflagging authenticity that despite her retro leanings, she’s still chic, modish, and frequently enchanting.

Overall, this is a great project bursting with genre-bending sounds and heart-wrenching lyrics that perfectly capture the times.

The prevailing feeling throughout LOGGERHEAD is one of punk, through its take-no-prisoners sound, and its desire to bring kindred spirits together as a community. “I think I’m just going through an exfoliation of my thoughts and experiences,” Romans-Hopcraft said last year, about his then still-in-the-making debut. Never has that sounded more urgent, more wholly unique, and more fiercely individual.

Sorry remain excitingly unfileable with their third and likely best album to date. Simultaneously, though, they’re fast becoming one of the most reliably exciting pop-indie-rock-whatever bands in the UK today.

When it works (and that's most of the time), FLOTUS proves the wisdom of risk-taking over crowd-pleasing complacency.

Electric Wizard are arguably the most revered band of the doom metal genre since Black Sabbath themselves, and on Time To Die, they remind us why.

The record is truly a fine piece of artistry that has the power to hypnotise the listener into questioning their inner demons.

It’s to [Kevin Martin's] credit, then, that Angels & Devils does such a stellar job of blending the old and the new, and has the stones to shove Martin’s sinuous new ideas to the forefront. It’s that courage and singularity of vision that makes The Bug stand triumphantly apart.

The result isn’t just Moore’s finest solo album: this is some of the most remarkable music he’s ever been involved in.

Sudan radiates confidence on Athena, uniting distinct musical elements as if they belonged together all along. It’s an album that sounds like nothing else.

Ultimately Need To Feel Your Love is an unashamedly retro flavoured affair, but it's one that’s worth tasting.

Despite its many strengths, the rest of the album can’t help but feel like a gradual comedown from such a monumental start, but the sincerity and warmth of Glenn-Copeland’s deceptively simple songs is never in doubt.

Be warned: a full appreciation of this album requires numerous listens - it offers little at first glance, but the moment you surrender yourself to this fate, all becomes clear.

Although more than half of the songs on Cellar Door also appear on Massey Hall, there are plenty of fresh-sounding goodies here for the casual listener, let alone the Young buff.

The distant foginess of nostalgia creeps in the background but doesn't overwhelm the record. A hopeful undertone allows that era to be reflected upon with acceptance and the old feelings to shine as clearly as they can through the mist of memory.

Throughout the album, the duo’s sound stretches and bends like pliable dough, somewhat unmoored from any solid foundations, subject to abrupt and unexpected – yet still cohesive – contortions with little advance warning.

It’s the contrast of sparkling melodic effervescence and Mould’s obsidian soul that drives the tracks on Patch The Sky. Here, Mould has turned up the contrast between anger and melody, and found some sense of enlightenment.

It’s so cohesive in its theme that it can become overwhelming.

Following Marissa Nadler from one album to the next is like scraping away at the forearm with a scratch awl, each outing going progressively deeper, and we’re finally at blood and bone.

Though it lacks in the experimentation of Atrocity Exhibition, it compensates with cohesion and undeniable quality. As a presentation of Brown as an exceptional rapper, it ticks all the right boxes.

Lament is testament to the power held in each new day, and the moments to be discovered within, delivered with crushing passion by a band worth standing behind.

Y Dydd Olaf is a marvellously magical mixture of elation, anger and sorrow and is very lovely indeed.

With strong songwriting and stronger melodies throughout, this album is likely a one-off (minor) disappointment, and PUP will equally likely bounce back from it.

They continue to forge gripping narratives and confrontive declarations, their verses ensconced, often straitjacketed, in industrial, hardcore, and metal sonics. In fact, there’s not much “mock” here, just well-crafted juggernaut mixes and volatile cum apoplectic vocals, with touches of pop sensibility thrown in for good measure.

Ultimately, however, the highs triumph over the occasional coasting, even if it's hard to entirely shake off the feeling that there's a killer 12 or 14 track record to top off Wilco's return to studio form on 2019's Ode to Joy lurking amongst this bumper crop of Jeff Tweedy’s songs and Wilco’s telepathic dynamics.

LoneLady has reimagined herself as the star of a glitter laden dancefloor, the lasers excitedly pinging from the mirror balls hanging from above. By doing this, she’s gone and made the finest pop record of 2015 so far.

With its focus on covering most of the canon and the scintillating pace that it moves at, though, Live in Paris won’t just satiate the fans--it could well provide a new access point to one of the great American rock bands for those yet to be converted.

Harry’s House is a good album because it doesn’t care if you think so. It's not trying to appease the male critics chained to the altar of classic rock, and it isn’t showering you in glitter and hauling you onto the dance floor (even though you are still cordially invited).

Not all of it works. .... But the ease the band have in each other’s presence is infectious. Balbi’s propulsive drumming drives the record but never overpoweringly so. Letting those atmospheric synths have their moment in the spotlight, or allowing Hoff’s agile basslines to bring their own mood.

Fucked Up’s personal narrative draws an uncanny parallel with that of Dose Your Dreams. In creating a tale of dreaming big and clinging on to hope they are living out their own script, refusing to be bound or compromise in the creation of their art. The importance of dreams cannot be understated.

Old provides expository context and an origin story of sorts for that voice.

Rather than let heartbreak render the band static and immobile, Superchunk has thankfully turned to their faithful creative outlet of music once again, and the memories and spirit of their lost friends will resolutely live on in the stirring songs they have written to honour them.

Trust is every bit as impressive as The Comet Is Coming's debut. Which is pretty high praise indeed.

3.15.20 is as spell-binding, illuminating and honest as any of the great albums in recent history. Aspects hold themselves as hard and brutal as Kanye West's Yeezus, yet these moments are tempered by ones of beauty and elegance as enthralling as anything you’d find on Solange’s recent records, or Tame Impala’s for that.

Whether or not grime loses its threat in the near future, Konnichiwa will still stand tall as a hard-hitting soundtrack to unfulfilling life in cruel Britain that's achieved by giving a microphone to voices that otherwise wouldn't have been heard.

There simply is no contemporary songwriter that speaks so plainly, yet so devastatingly, to the darker matters of the heart as Sharon Van Etten. Her intimacy is so palpable that the silence in the room once the record stops is jarring.

On Heavy Lifter they continue to find catharsis while moving in reverse as the bronzed halos of nostalgia meld with the intimacy of their blazed slow-core.

With these two albums [All Mirrors and Whole New Mess] she’s proven the vast range of her songwriting, and that she could go just about anywhere with what she does next.

With this effort Shauf successfully portrays the complicated smogarsbord that is youth by capturing in its crudest form at a party, with its hedonism and heartbreak, and in doing so propels himself miles ahead of his singer-songwriter peers who have tried to do the same.

Horse Lords fare even more impressively with the minimalism that sets in during the second half of the album.

With just one track over four minutes and only ten cuts overall, Light Upon the Lake is the kind of record you could easily find yourself blazing through three or four times in a row without even realizing.

Removed from the narrative of the series itself, every emotion is given the space to take its own form – and the result is as mysteriously powerful as the world that it hails from.

2018 is barely halfway through, but Harlan & Alondra will have to be crowbarred out of end-of-year lists come December. An absolute triumph.

Offering a stark depiction of inner-city life, the East London wordsmith expertly taps into the modern conundrum of social malaise, his unflinching lyrics touching on a gamut of hopes and fears that will resonate acutely with those struggling to find purpose or make ends meet in Tory Britain.

This album makes you work, forces you to hit repeat not to relive sweet, instantly gratifying thrills, but to let it root into your brain to understand it better.

Complex yet surprisingly accessible, Dan’s Boogie doesn’t necessarily break a huge amount of new ground. It does however, see Bejar successfully refining his craft even further with superb results.

The album details not just a break-up, but a shift in how relationships and human connection work in modern times.

While Crooked Wing finds These New Puritans at their most refined and fractured, the album won’t be for everyone. Its refusal to deliver easy pleasures might leave some cold. And for all its inventiveness, there are moments where the almost academic precision threatens to override the emotional core. Yet, it’s exactly what it feels like, a requiem for the mechanical age, a love song to decay, and a stark reminder of the beauty that can be found in the shadow of ruins.

It sounds like they’ve given kautrock an intense, life-threatening electric shock, while simultaneously floating through 41 minutes (or your entire lifetime, dare you interrupt the endless loop) with the elegance and unpredictability of a kite in the sky.

case/lang/veirs is an understated triumph, and a stunning addition to all three songwriters' discographies.

Be Your Own Pet burned out from having too much fuuuuuun, but by playing around with old influences, Mommy shows they're still nothing but a good time.

From the very outset, they exceed expectations, such is the quality and compositional depth of the material here.

It’s a work that’s in a constant state of flux, the flow giving and yielding just like our emotions. A sense of healing and growth radiates from it, with the sparkling pop feel of “Yellow of the Sun” bringing the album round to a complete and circular ending.

It’s The Avalanches’ efforts that make this album, although the deeper forays into hip-hop on "Because I’m Me", "The Noisy Eater" and even the poorly-received comeback "Frankie Sinatra"--much stronger in context--lend a nice variety and harder edge.

Off the Record is a magnificent treasure chest built for deep dives and repeat visits.

Young Fathers had nothing to prove in 2015, which makes White Men Are Black Men Too such a start to finish joy to listen to. Even the tail end of the record is packed with surprises.

She has a knack for building tension, crescendoing her voice and emoting her words to a point where it almost rings as euphoric.

While these tracks aren’t necessarily bad by any set definition, it’s worth looking at them through a critical scope and for grand moments like these that once carried so much weight early in their career, we have to begin asking ourselves just how many times can a group reduplicate their sound before their efforts simply become white noise.

Immerse yourself, revisit, peel back the layers and thoroughly dissect Thundercat’s artistry before reconstructing it again--you’ll find one of the year’s finest experimental pop albu

The Source is a work that showcases a great rhythmic and tonal diversity throughout, floating between a myriad of influences and arrangements.

It may be less vital and refined than Daytona, but It’s Almost Dry feels far more expansive and is arguably more instantly enjoyable than its predecessor.

Brimming with eclecticism and highlighting Bock’s emotional range, Giant Palm is a stellar debut and one of 2022’s more distinct releases.

Beyondless largely speaks for itself. It does what Iceage have always done best: it challenges everything you thought you knew about them. It could be viewed as their most accessible album yet (it features guest vocals from Sky Ferreira, after all), but it’s not as simple as that.

Young Fathers have not so much captured their sound as they have chiselled it afresh from the Earth’s core.

Harperfield shines brightest when Pollock allows big emotion to weigh her tempo down.

Whelm is a Herculean debut.

Making experimental music is certainly a noble calling. Sneaking the adventurous spirit of improvisation into a relatively conventional song-based record such as Eyes On The Lines, however: that's truly radical.

Their fifth album is one that doesn’t deviate away from their usual template. At the heart of the songs lies the same exuberant energy and youthful abandon found at the core of their debut Waited Up Til It Was Light.

The title track stomps and spins with strands of the Turkish music influence the ensemble collected with their 2013 album, Dalmak. The almost-finale “Northeast Kingdom” pleads for peace and respite, but Mechanics of Dominion is aware of how uncertain any meaningful resolution appears.

Thankfully, despite everybody and their dog comparing Baxter to legendary musicians and writers, he has managed to make an album that not only does justice to those comparisons, but actually warrants them.

Devour overall is a punishing, malicious force of a record, one focused entirely on the eradication of any sense of self and musical procedure, with no room for reprieve. It perfectly captures the raw, hemorrhaging nature of Chardiet’s thematic intention, and live performances and in this way it is nothing short of an unbridled success.

For those who already love the album, the remix works best when Litt’s touch is relatively light. An intriguing aspect of the remix is the renewed focus on Stipe’s vocals. ... The remix aside, this reissue should be a chance for those previously sceptical of Monster to give it another try.

The widened musical palette helps to pull you in while the songs are digging in their hooks. Pollard's production is astute enough to know when the most potent thing to do is to fade away.

After a string of EPs, Chinouriri arrives at her first full-length with confidence and ease. Devastation has never sounded so fun.

Radiosoul understandably doesn’t pretend to be radical in style. His identity remains in the mist, a potent star yet to arise, a minor upgrade from the debut as he suggested in the press.

More careful explorations of Cascade’s less instantly obvious depths suggests that Shepherd may well have found a method for seamlessly blending the widescreen, unhurried explorations and subtle variations on a theme that characterised Promises with his foundational roots and ongoing interest in the simple joys of surrendering to hypnotic repetition that drives the pummelling physicality of dancefloor-friendly electronic music, most recently sampled on 2019’s Crush.

While Margolin still leads with a raggedy blend of indignation and yearning, she also seems more resolved in facing long-standing grief and/or lingering PTSD. There’s fury here, floods of it, but also sorrow.

It’s astounding stuff from a modern master.

Crunchy, ethereal, and odd in its harsh beauty, PAINLESS is a record of contradictions that Yanya spectacularly weaves together. Allowing us to see more of Nilüfer Yanya – as a person, as a musician, as a lyricist – each part is as intriguing and rewarding to dive into as the last.

An uncommonly diverse yet still seamlessly unified album that is audibly conscious of traditions without ever becoming beholden to them, Odyssey seems destined to be counted amongst the landmarks of the ongoing creatively fertile Brit-Jazz resurgence.

Ethel Cain’s debut was a feat of artistry. This is a feat of musicianship.

Drumless and bassless, L’amour is as intimate as a late morning lie-in--bum notes (and there are an endaring few) are left completely in tact, you can hear shirt sleeves swipe against guitar strings, and the almost wordless vocals sound almost like Lewis is too scared to make his feelings known.

placeholder is the sound of Hand Habits hitting their stride, and playing to their strengths before anyone listening even realised what those strengths were. The guitar heroics of Duffy’s time in Morby’s band have yielded to an inspired flair for arrangements, piercing turns of phrase and the sound of an artist—and a person—truly finding themselves.