As both a candid portrait of introspection and an exciting step forward with his musical talent, Michael Kiwanuka's Love and Hate beautifully captures the artistic power of vulnerability.

The collaboration between the film and the music is so successful, in fact, that it is hard to describe the music without noting the scenes.

Though a record of torn emotions, veering from elation to desolation even with a single track, Reiði is far from directionless. Resolute in its delivery and steadfast in its ambition, Black Foxxes have delivered an album that’s both hauntingly fragile, aggressively unapologetic and arguably one of the strongest releases of the year.

Seven Horses is an ambitious soundtrack experience which works perfectly and will leave you moved, inspired, cleansed and a little afraid.

Home Counties have firmly asserted themselves as some of today’s brightest musical minds.

This is an album that rewards both careful listening and submission to its ravishing atmospherics.

Made In California does a great job of confirming just how much more there was to The Beach Boys than sunshine and girls.

While Shade certainly holds no surprise, it’s an album that brims with substance and Harris’ longtime base won’t skip a beat in welcoming these tracks.

Richard D. James is back, and he’s still absolutely untouchable.

Very few albums are worth such a long wait, though, but blackSUMMERS’night is one of them--it’s an album that should live forever, purely because it sounds so detached from time.

Hot Snakes are as dry, dented and slightly demented as ever.

Toledo’s 13th album as Car Seat Headrest, captures inherent self-loathing and turns it into something to be proud of.

At times, Narkopop moves surprisingly fast and the senses struggle to absorb all the nuances of sound. Other moments are more traditional mesmerizing GAS offerings. Either way, it is a complex, beautiful and terrifying experience.

Running parallel with Aster’s allegorical fetishism of interpersonal decay, Krlic's music - even at its most choking and hopeless - feels luminous, making for a perfectly-poised accompaniment to one of the most challenging genre films in recent years.

There’s not an ounce of fat, not a wasted moment, not a single beat that doesn’t suit its purpose to the letter. It’s a monolithic testament to a rapper tired of being treated as both the victor and the underdog at once. It’s undeniably clear just which one he is here. King’s Disease II is a victory lap that nonetheless never lets up its pace.

Process is an impressive curtain-raiser to what is sure to be an equally impressive solo career.

The Night Chancers is Dury’s most accomplished work, its self awareness and innate understanding of genre and language shows the songwriter to be in the prime of his creativity.

These are world-class songs, thoughtfully sequenced into an endlessly replayable record. DEACON is, quite clearly, a complex, rich and elegant collection that points at one very simple truth: love is central to a life well lived.

Big Conspiracy is an album that certifies J Hus as one of the most influential artists in UK music.

Run the Jewels not only surmounts Charybdis, but does so head held high, able to be considered--and enjoyed--upon its own merits.

With every track a souvenir of good ideas taken up throughout an illustrious career, and every lyric a hard-earned proverb, Night Palace could easily be defined as Elverum’s wisest release. It contains the breadth of a career and of a life spent in dedication to compatible wavelengths, of sounds in the new.

On their new album, they maintain this dive into pop, but with songs that are nothing like as captivating as their back catalogue.

Marling has delivered Once I Was an Eagle with a charisma lacking in most of her peers, and the poise of a far older hand.

Showing no desire to even the scales or to polish the extremities of his vision, as we near the end of this decade (Sandy) Alex G has re-established himself and one of our most inventive and intriguing voices.

As a whole it's a fine addition to the Foo Fighters catalogue – but that’s not the point of this album. .... This is a reminder that the Foo fighters are a band bigger than any individual member - including Grohl. They're a rock band that, even when the going gets tough, know that there's a job to do and there's no better way to deal with life than throwing together some ringing chords and belting the dark clouds away.

Bird Machine is a resonant final word from an enormously talented singer-songwriter. While Linkous clearly struggled with depression, his music often feels as if it’s soaked in light and infused with love, even as it evokes melancholy and apprehension.

At times he delivers just that [a huge and definitive work].

Promises matches the patience required for the project’s realization. Built on a sparse keyboard figure, the composition at the core of the collaboration can initially seem underwhelmingly slender, even repetitively monotonous. Repeated listens gradually reveal a different story.