In breaking the tides of what was once familiar, Anna Von Hausswolff revels in the abundance that she fully embraces.

The instrumentals of Ooh Rap I Ya are a feat of surrealism in songcraft, ebbing waves of synths and overblown drums soundtrack much of the run time, but in increasingly more abstract ways. It isn’t long until the mastery of the pop form displayed in the first half of the record devolves into the spare parts of a song: 90s hits deconstructed and remade in the most obtuse yet enjoyable ways.

The music on Big Inner is so wondrous that it seems entirely obvious that we’ll always find that peace, joy and contentment in music rather than anywhere else.

While the sombre tone of these 15 tracks may result in some listeners skipping through in search of something energetic, what lies at the end of this record for those with patience is a truly beautiful collection of stories built through pensive soliloquy as a means of exploring abrasive subjects.

Big Time is really a remarkable and intimate display of growth on the part of the woman who made it, thread-bare and unashamed, competing with the new Kendrick Lamar album for new heights of self-flagellation, and glorious self affirmation; made all the more intense of course by that voice of Olsen’s, masculine and feminine at the same time, and frankly criminal wield with material this naked and bare.

On Benji, and even more particularly on some of the live versions featured on the additional disc that accompanies the first ten thousand copies, Mark Kozelek is at least as piercing and persuasive as in his best output over the last two decades.

It's easy to get sucked into darkness and despair, Heart Under proves that so, but thankfully, Ball's voice oversees that listeners only merely toe into these bottomless, murky waters.

Many of these songs have been in the band’s live repertoire for years. But after recording them on lo-fi equipment and scrapping the results, it turns out to be a great pleasure that the band decided to embrace the opportunities of a new studio environment and produced the fantastical and empiricist take on their trademark noise rock sound.

Any Shape You Take attempts to connect the dots, unafraid of expressing the depths nor the heights of a life lived with supreme sensitivity.

Everything Everything have their cake and they’re eating it too--Arc proves that they can keep their zany shade of indie and still be taken very seriously.

Stubborn Persistent Illusions finds Do Make Say Think returning as restless and reaching as they’ve ever been.

It's an emphatic 42 minutes of contentment, of genuine happiness that is so rare within music.

The Greater Wings joins Sufjan Stevens's Carrie & Lowell and Ghosteen by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in the ranks of minimalist yet multi-layered, masterfully realised albums that are unmistakably rooted in loss and grief but ultimately transcend their painfully personal origins by blooming into life-affirming, universal beauty and resonance.

Bleeds is a concise and heavily focused record that can proudly sit in and amongst his best.

This is a great record. Talk Normal are clearly indebted to the foundations of post-punk and no wave, but crucially they never feel like a throwback.

The album just takes you to the place in your brain where everything is just fine.

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.

In its own way, Quietly Blowing It is great just like how the first few Paul McCartney solo records are great, or Tom Petty’s Wildflowers and Bob Dylan’s New Morning are great, or even albums by contemporaries like Laura Marling and Waxahatchee are great – it’s just pure, no bullshit emotional sincerity made for folks who need to feel a little connection to the wider world, to a greater consciousness. Best enjoyed often and amongst friends.

With Time Indefinite, William Tyler offers a fresh and uniquely compelling way to affirm that it’s OK not to be OK: these are humbly majestic anthems for our anxious age.

Algiers crafted a unified, cautiously optimistic record that rises above the vitriolic din.

From the terrifically bombastic opening of “Intro” to the chiming finish of “A Party” the entire album twists and turns between bursts of energetic pop-punk, frenzied expressions of lust, calmer reflective honesty, and sharply observed moments of uncomplicated joy. American Hero sounds very easy and fluid.

With Multitudes Feist has entered a new era in her artistry, one in which she makes space for reverie. Her grand realizations are beautifully stated.

Along with the help of his session-artist buddies, Ty Segall has rebirthed himself on an album of both biblical proportions and grand artistry. Segall’s voice has never sounded so necessary.

The songs that work best as standalone statements outside of the album’s narrative still have themes of resilience.

Treays has outdone himself by biding his time and doing what he always does – injecting his music with a slightly abstract but absolutely authentic sense of himself.

A record that is as self-aware of the pressures of romance and stardom as it is a bare, naked representation of the singer’s heart and soul.

With the totally triumphant Course In Fable, Walker has devised the ultimate two finger salute to anyone who has ever pinned him down as an artist chained to vintage inspirations: this exciting, moving, beautiful and complex album sounds only and exclusively like Ryley Walker music. Listen to it with the attention it so richly deserves, and rewards.

The album is heart-warmingly straightforward and honest in its lyricism with no attempt at being unnecessarily complex for the sake of it; smartly made with a finite tale to tell.