Zauner is absolutely in her element here and it goes without question that while this is undeniably her year, she’s also just rebranded herself as one of today’s top-tier indie visionaries.

Two Hands is a great record, and a stunning artistic accomplishment – a reminder if you needed one that this is Lenker’s THIRD album in twelve months – but it’s also devilishly clever in that it isn’t a perfect album. If it was, they’d have nowhere to go on the next one.

Nastasia has turned her harrowing experiences into genuinely beautiful songs. At first, the bluntly matter-of-fact tone of the writing and simple melodies seem almost artless and first-draft rough. Over consecutive listens, the cumulative hypnotic pull and elemental, harsh beauty of the songs and especially their lyrics becomes evident.

On The Invisible Way Sparhawk has managed the rare trick of rendering that language not only intelligible but lustrous and attractive to even the staunchest naysayer while simultaneously steering his band around a fresh and perhaps uncharted musical turn.

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.

Allie X's debut, 2017's CollXtion II, was a fun, if simplistic outing, but Cape God is an album undeniably made by a woman truly forging her own path however she sees fit. Not to mention championing the wickedly bright future of avant-garde, ascendant music.

Bea is a beacon of nostalgia for '90s kids who wished they were born a decade or two earlier, donning their Walkman, listening to cassettes, swapping out one grunge gem for the next. Bea provides a much-needed trip down memory lane, but not so much that it’s a pastiche to the era, rather an ardent nod, an ode to.

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.

Granted, introspection is nothing new for the Newham MC, whose past works have tackled cancer, colourism and voting abstention—but here he lays bare his own story with disarming frankness.

A rich texture of sounds and concepts, masterfully weaved together by an artist at the top of their game. By rights, it will become essential modern listening - a thought-provoking and utterly compelling collection of tracks, delivered with understated yet captivating style.

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

Precipice is that rare album that brings together vulnerability, self-reflection, and the trademarks of a mainstream milestone: super earworms, coolly cosmopolitan sonics, and a voice that grows more compelling with each track. Precipice is De Souza’s “arrival” album and a singular addition to the contemporary pop canon.

There’s an underlying recognition here, particularly on the part of Miller: parties end. The most opulent train can go off the rails. It’s this juxtaposition – brashness and vulnerability, abandon and a recognition of impermanence – that makes No Hard Feelings an arresting sequence.

Williams has created something that exceeds even her finest, most vital work. In short: a masterpiece, then.

What’s so beautiful about The Passionate Ones is the simmering afterglow in every song, enhancing his mixture of chillwave, Arthur Russell, and SWV. Brown’s more spacious arrangements have helped him eloquently articulate his compelling words, catching your unsuspecting attention whenever the music lulls.

In embracing a formlessness, he may have found a new, truer form for his work. In making this album, he has in fact created a world; perhaps not one you would want to inhabit, but one inspiring awe and dread in equal measure.

By its end, Thrice Woven not only serves as one of this year’s most promising metal releases, but it also stands as something purely monolithic and even transcendental--a collection of songs, showcasing a band’s evolution that leaves you in full levitation, locked in paralysis, and at a moment’s notice, you dissipate completely wondering how you made it home.

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.

Golden Sings That Have Been Sung manages to catch the restlessly churning, improvisatory lightning of Walker's live shows in the studio, whilst wisely cutting out any idling that could grate in home listening.

A work of breathtaking beauty capable of connecting us more deeply to our truest selves and to the world around us.

A Walk With Love and Death re-frames the Melvins’ legacy with newfound aplomb. Whilst perhaps unlikely to win over anyone sitting on the fence up until now this is not merely their most impressively realised effort in many a moon, but also one of the most rewarding listens of the year thus far.

Whereas the sound of Skying suffered at times due to a muggy recording, Luminous is given a full pop sheen, an approach that’s resulted in a much wider sound.

It boasts some of her strongest singles ever, and, coming at the end of a four year break and a two year pandemic, it’s not the theatrical Welch who shows up here; this is a woman and a songwriter, no forest-sprite.

Total Strife Forever is breathtaking. It might get tough sometimes, lonely and desolate even, but Doyle’s catharsis will hoist you by the bootstraps into lusher pastures.

Hawk writes like a poet, and as such you often have to dig harder to find his meaning, or even better apply your own. But these are everyday tales dressed up in finery that will embed them into your mind.

An electrifying and utterly unexpected treat, it’s packed with the kind of nourishing and warm music we would do well to turn to for sustenance and uplift when times get tough.

Alvvays’ record is a hard-hitting, multi-faceted anthology of awesome, and sits pretty as one of 2014’s brightest debuts.

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