This album doesn't feel so much like the work of a band trying to make a cereer-high album as much as a band using a great record to remind us why they've made so many in the first place. Most bands would love to end on a high note; DEP actually did it.

It’s steeped in Haitian history, it’s an exploration, an education, and a hugely personal accomplishment.

Taken together, it’s a sprawling, surprising album that proves a heavier sound looks good on her.

While The Patience is less conceptually rounded, and instead, a directive of bottled emotion and frustrations inevitably concluding with an artistic clarity, Mick Jenkins proves his worth goes beyond a label deal. Even firing loose cannons he’s a lethal voice with plenty to say.

Though it feels glued together by the seams, God Save The Animals, like the best Alex G efforts, eventually reveals an almost impossible cohesiveness – a slightly off-kilter haze where a smouldering heart shines for others to lean into.

Dogrel is evocative, meticulous and rich in a love for the character of Dublin, and all the little things that, past and present, contribute to that.

Elwan is pure rock n’ roll. There is an undeniable swagger and an unfettered attitude of resistance here; no pretension or theater.

An album rich in darkness and in texture, finding Low in experimental sublimity, further reminding us that their range has only gotten exceptionally larger and better over time.

Raven doesn’t feature much of the volcanic beats and unadulterated longing of its predecessor, but its minimalistic approach showcases an artist in the midst of her evolution.

While a full band surrounds him, all that functionally matters here is White. The tracks live and die by his presence, not unsurprising given that we’re dealing with a uniquely possessive auteur.

There’s nothing too complex about what Porridge Radio do, but they do it very well, and Every Bad is unlikely to wear itself out soon.

With the potential to be a divisive record amongst his fandom ranks, it pulls from Tyler’s cachet of sounds and themes but often doubles down while introducing new ones ("I Killed You"). In totality, it's as free as he's ever sounded. Where before he was a cultural antagonist, now he’s a matured rapper and entrepreneur with grander visions and grander fears – everything here fits that bill.

Producer Josh Kaufman - New York-based musician, Hold Steady collaborator and member of Bonny Light Horseman and Muzz - has elevated the album, finding the perfect mix of chaotic and smooth.

This longform escapade is the real McCoy, and where the magic happens. The honeymoon period is over.

Sound Ancestors isn’t anything new from Madlib, but it only further cements his status as one of the great producers, artists, and minds in hip-hop

The audience becomes an audibly thrilled fifth member of the band whenever Butterss and Bellerose land on a more steadily rooted groove, which renders the initially hushed, seemingly telepathic exchanges between the musicians into a collective effort to work up a muscular and hypnotic musical sweat.

Heavier than his last offering, this is an album that sees Maltese dissect his psyche during a particularly rough time, and lay it out on a plate. Matt Maltese is an artist bursting with true musicianship and this record demonstrates the versatility that underpins his enormous talent.

“Free In The Knowledge” is a truly heavenly ballad in the mold of “True Love Waits” or even “Fake Plastic Trees”, with a call of togetherness (‘’but if we’re together/well then, who knows?’’) that offers an unexpectedly moving breather from the angst in abundance elsewhere, as well as proving that Yorke can out-emote the legions of lesser songwriters watering down the formative Radiohead formula when it comes to warily optimistic heartache-meets-hope.

The artist’s love for effortless aesthetics may have ironically been brought into a confident big room setting on With A Hammer, but successfully merging thoughtful pop, trip hop, house and everything but the kitchen sink is surely anything but effortless.

They’ve pulled off possibly the most intelligent, involving and profound record since OK Computer.

This is a great entry point into the catalogue of one of Britain’s most inventive, iconic bands--but the shallowness of the record makes it largely unnecessary for anyone that owns the Original Sound compilations, or indeed the albums themselves. ​

Across a mere 20 tracks, In the Orbit of Ra acts as a receptacle for everything that was exciting about Sun Ra whilst somehow managing to be neither wilfully impenetrable nor disingenuously accessible.

Fish is his fortieth release where the folksy fingerpicking comes lightly southern fried and, lyricless, It’s virtuoso playing which tells Michael’s story

This retrospective gives the perfect platform for some of Brainfeeder’s forgotten gems to be rediscovered, too. The vivid textures of Teebs, Lapalux’s dystopian soul and Taylor McFerrin’s retro glow are a beautiful reminder of the unsung heroes that have helped keep the label’s sound moving forward. Not ones to dwell on the past, the second half looks to the future, giving fans a brief glimpse of things to come.

With Your Wilderness Revisited, William Doyle hopes to bring you along on a magic carpet ride through suburban England, where you will find new ways of experiencing pathways, front gardens and parked cars as though they were entirely new concepts.

[An] excellent record: the guitars throughout the album are aggressive and sharp-edged, the bass is consistently robust and roaring, and rhythms are serpentine and oppressive - barely a moment goes by that you aren’t feeling Shah’s own claustrophobia, the weight of her own aging bearing down on your shoulders.

While Forever Isn’t Long Enough doesn’t venture far off the beaten track with its lyrical content, the musical arrangement and writing on each and every song is a joy to listen to. Templeman’s songwriting is unmatched amongst his fellow 18-year-old musicians, displaying both a successful present and a bright future.

From its songwriting to production, its emotive lyrical content to considered vocal performance, it’s a home run of a project. Holly Humberstone is destined for great things, and this EP is just the beginning.