It’s a staggeringly powerful, and admirably honest, piece of songwriting – one that leaves listeners wrestling with an indescribable sense of hollowness in its wake.

Yes, fourteen years is a long time to wait between records. But, when the end product is this good, it might just be worth the wait.

This stunningly ambitious yet surprisingly restrained album is a personal inspection of Declan’s current life, putting politics (mostly) aside and abandoning grandeur to think about himself for a minute, gifting listeners a vessel for empathy along the way.

32 Levels sees Clams Casino step up a level and make a hugely positive and lasting impression.

On Some Kind Of Peace, Arnalds has once again crafted an genre-defining album that serves as a much needed moment of reflection.

You might call Forever 2024’s ear worm central.

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

Loving In Stereo is a wholehearted triumph for Jungle, yet again delivering something fresh and distinctive to cut through today’s music landscape.

For the most part in fact, the album’s production is curated with Cudi in mind, a sonic bag of treats for those who vibe to the gloomy, celestial exploration of his early material as well as the rap rock stylings he has demonstrated since. ... Whereas the beats on ye sounded rushed and underdeveloped, the beats on KSG have some meat on ’em, crafting a sonic mood board that evokes thoughts of psilocybin mushroom trips, spiritual healing and yes, ghosts.

The result is a blisteringly progressive record - one that genuinely feels years ahead of its time.

Elliott’s latest body of work, the fittingly titled ICONOLOGY, is a taut collection of slinky, self-assured hip-hop that fuses throwback sensibilities with the rapper’s trademark futurism.

Sylvan Esso have always made albums that demand to be listened to at the expense of everything else in your record collection. Free Love is no exception. It’s the pair’s most cohesive body of work yet, and despite its more left-field moments, possibly their most accessible.

Burnished with all the hallmarks that have moulded the band into such a robust songwriting entity, As Long As You Are is a portrait of Herring and co at the top of their game - a collection of taught electro-pop numbers graced with poetic flair.

In seizing control of the means of production, they’ve reached a new peak and have never sounded so accessible. This is music to cry and party to at the same time. They’ll eviscerate you and you’ll thank them for the privilege.

No Cities to Love confirms that whatever alchemy seems to occur whenever the three sit down to make music together remains untouched by the passage of time. To put it simply, Sleater-Kinney have now made eight records, and they are all very, very good

Uninspired choice of featuring artist aside, the artistic breadth and depth of this project speaks to Reyez’s position as an emerging, formidable artist in her own right - someone who knows exactly what a good song, let alone a good R&B song, should sound like.

This record comes four years after Sheezus, and the time and space Lily has taken out has created a masterpiece. Ballads stand side by side with dance beats; rappers, dancehall and afrobeat singers feature alongside production from Mark Ronson, Ezra Koenig and Fryars--yet it all comes together into a smooth and succinct tale of finding your identity after a crisis.

After The Party showcases the band at their boldest and brightest yet.

Glory welcomes everything whether ecstatic or low-spirited, knowing that time, the inescapable spectre, will take it away and leave behind a masterpiece of memory such as this record itself.

Carly Rae Jepsen’s latest doubles down on one of her central messages as an artist--that no force is more potent than the emotions we feel. And while her third LP E•MO•TION certainly established this, on Dedicated, Jepsen’s infatuation with the rush of human feeling soars to dizzying new heights.

[The] band's most streamlined and forceful album to date.

Last Building Burning is, truly, as inspiring, energizing and life-affirming as punk is likely to get in 2018.

For the second time this year, Hey Colossus have succeeded in outsmarting just about everyone.

There’s still something fun and interesting to be found in what the band do and Little Dark Age is proof that they’re nowhere near done with inter dimensional meddling.

By coalescing a number of everyday influences – from Television to John Cale--and adding her own distinctive formula, Crab Day doesn’t really sound like anything else out there.

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.

Imagine This is a High Dimensional Space of All Possibilities is one of those rare records that is very long but doesn’t seem to have an idle moment. The album becomes deeper and more rewarding with each consecutive track.

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.