By having faith that his songwriting ability would stand up to being thrust into unchartered musical territory, he’s overseen the making of a tight album that has a cohesiveness that belies how open it is to new--and genuinely exciting--ideas.

She didn’t make a record expected of her even by fans of her last LP and, in doing so, has produced something which is strange, chaotic and utterly her own.

The magnifying glass is on everything with this release, and it results in something distinguished and quite frankly mammoth.

An Inbuilt Fault transcends emotion in favour of exploration.

Rather than build on that record’s [The Shadow Of Heaven's] elegance and lightness of touch, MONEY have traded it out for something less polished, that’s often brutal in its emotional delivery. Not an obvious next step, then, but certainly a compelling one.

It's a strong debut that will in no doubt be held in reverence for its musical deftness as it will its personal exorcism.

MITM is an album with depth, and will please both hardcore grime-heads and casual fans. You’d have to be mad in the manor not to love it.

The fact that a band thirteen albums in to their career can still make music that scares their audience is one thing. But the most amazing thing about The Terror is that it sounds like they still have the capacity to scare themselves.

Pop’s going through a renaissance of sorts lately, or more accurately, the chart-dominating pop is, and alongside the aforementioned, La Grange is leading the charge of the nu-pop brigade. Avoid at your peril; the record’s not for missing.

No Home Record is heavy in its use of experimentation, yet it results in a vividly cutting and complex portrait of what it means to live in contemporary LA, and a superb introduction to the solo Kim Gordon.

What better balm for the start of another troubled year than our biggest star making music as good as this?

Majical Cloudz have created a series of crystalline pop songs, which are emotionally direct and powerful; and will surely create a whole new set of subjective responses.

The collection is inventive yet grounded and unpretentious, a genuinely modern interpretation on the tenets of punk that still carry weight.

WARM sees this industrious figurehead of intelligent American rock return to a form where he can balance these two extremes effortlessly and make the deeply personal sound thoroughly universal in a manner that is unlikely to leave cold anyone with a heart that is still beating.

Miss_Anthrop0cene is great. And much of what makes it great are the unavoidable, personal obsessions that Boucher has always carried with her: science fiction, nerd culture, Eastern scales, loop-pedal musicality, and an uncool love for the kind of bass you'd expect to be blasting out at Burning Man.

Neither comprehensively “here” nor “there”, up nor down, eager nor listless, these eleven tales--while perhaps lacking more than three obvious peaks-- betray a quiet confidence and command that will surely see Sea Pinks properly arrive.

Executed with palpable warmth and affection for the musical heritage that hovers behind these songs, what could have been an unconvincingly superficial genre exercise emerges as another winningly inviting Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy album.

Funny, raging, unpredictable and electric, this is a record that feels alive.

Post Pop Depression doesn't really sound like anything Pop's done before, yet it sounds unmistakably, naturally like an Iggy Pop album, a very good and, at its frequent best, impressively alive one, proving that what Pop really needs is a collaborator who understands how best to frame his unique talents.

Her eye for her own artistic point of view has never been sharper. The rest of the record is an equally thrilling ride.

Ultimately, Fragments highlights the solidly sound judgement that Dylan and producer Daniel Lanois applied when assembling Time Out of Mind: despite the merits of many of these alternative versions, you’re unlikely to want to argue with selections for the majestically atmospheric original album.

The ten deft and devastating songs soundtracking this latest instalment flash by in a blur. It’s around the third play that things start falling into place.

It could be a little longer, or more cohesive, but not everyone’s sophomore project is as risky – or, interestingly, as relaxed. Bird’s Eye is a gift, and Ravyn Lenae’s on her way up.

Lux feels refreshing in the freedom and desire to explore new territory, resulting in a win for both.

This record is Jade Bird’s strongest to date, an expansion of her sonic influences and an intimate depiction of the aftermath of a breakup and the trials and tribulations that come with that.

It’s an oddly assured debut, tender and strong at the same time – and its greatest strength is that Rapp is as good of a songwriter as a performer of her own emotions.

Easily overlooking the occasional overindulgence, AudioLust & HigherLove offers no lacklustre moments to speak of. If you love the dancefloor and are willing to expand your tastes a little, this is the album you need to blast on repeat.

A complete throwback to everything that’s been missing for over twenty years, INHEAVEN have blown the cobwebs off and are ready to kick some life back into a stale scene.