Both parties benefit from the collaboration on Ali: Touré gets to paint the songs he loves with a wider palette without diluting the power of the source material, and Khruangbin’s add some welcome grit to their smooth and hazy signature sound.

Exploring his spiritual side, Kevin Morby has shown us the light, and it’ll lift you up, comfort, and enlighten.

New Gods is an unusually good album.

Whether The Early Years will turn out to be a document of Girl Band’s development at a particular time like France 98 appears to have been (the title certainly hints at it), or whether we can expect the album to expand on this particular minimalist palette remains to be seen. Either way, it’s an astonishing starting point.

Those who aren’t invested in live performances may find Everybody Scream less compelling. The deeper the record goes, the more dependent it is on Welch and co’s theatricality that can sometimes only be appreciated by seeing it seep into their stage presence before your eyes. .... Luckily, there are just enough tracks on the album that emanate with such radiant energy even on stream, beckoning you to lose yourself in the restorative and ever-expanding coven.

This album has it all, and listeners who crave forward-thinking, statement-making pop will find homes with “Gay Agenda”, “Cisgender”, and “Abomination”, while those less involved can relax with the jams of “Cold Brew", “Nuclear”, and “Stability”.

A powerful tapestry of sonics ranging from mellow to rapid that permeate with soulful purpose, Dance, No One’s Watching is a joyful outpouring of enthusiasm which harnesses a deeper, yet fruitful, meaning.

Matador is a great record, the sound of an artist following his own singular path--an artist who becomes more interesting with each release.

Castles moves from darkness to hope, and ends not with a conclusion, but possibilities.

There’s a balanced mix of wistful folk, and rockier, more radio-friendly offerings which lure in the casual listener, ensuring an enduring record that warms the cockles in these frosty fledgling weeks of 2013.

While it’s likely Perri has an endless queue of tracks just waiting in the wings, we have to applaud his efforts to refrain from gifting them all at once. By doing so, under his simplistic, unhurried touch, Perri humbles us once again, reminding us that patience is assuredly a virtue.

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.

What sets Kiwi Jr. apart from their peers though is their madcap view of the world and Cooler Returns establishes them as a band too confident to conform; a band who have all the skills to match their lyrical smarts.

Kannon certainly won’t be delivering any Christmas number ones, but what Sunn O))) have managed to deliver is an exhilarating, colon-shaking song cycle of pitch black metal that will perfectly complement those approaching January blues.

Each of their songs still contain enough depth of cultural heritage to fill several essays. Persisting too are those harmonies: one of the most distinctive sounds in music today, muscular and powerful when necessary, graceful and hushed otherwise.

On Hers, both the words and the music often make you stop in your tracks, raising a smile or prompting a gasp.

Even if dented in places by swings of irony (this is, after all, a band that named their first album Nirvana), there’s an undeniable positivity underlying 10000 that rises above the din.

Despite only being seven tracks long, this album is substantial and will keep audiences invested.

TANGK adds something else to the conversation. A level of fragility that has not yet been displayed by IDLES, it is an album that swaps brash vocals with more tender notes. Love is the thing, and it seems like it is here to stay.

Thirteen albums in, and the Brian Jonestown Massacre may have just delivered their most impressive album yet. Clear heads prevail.

I can see many listeners of all ages finding comfort across its eleven songs, bridging angst and hope as they navigate personal crises. Not only did Pierce The Veil understand the assignment, but they delivered it with almost flawless execution.

It’s simultaneously consistent and assorted, richly individuated without any overwrought attempts to appear authentic.

I Loved You At Your Darkest dips in and out of musical splendour, changing course and reference, and while not necessarily black metal in a full labeling sense, nor rock-heavy alone, it’s a rather accessible hybrid.

On You can’t kill me, 070 Shake’s pursuit of new musical frontiers is as intense as ever and even though some parts of this project let down the rest, it is overall a thrilling experience that signals growth from an artist who has a lot more to give.

Even though it’s a short record in terms of both duration and the number of tracks, this is very much a kaleidoscopic work, examining what it is to be a woman from a variety of cleverly-realised access points.

At its core, What Now is a love letter to music, warts and all. About the romance, the emotional release and the sheer joy it can bring when everything feels so doom-laden.

Despite the subtle shift in tone from beginning to end, this record is consistently imbued with a shifting, evocative sense of place.

Madonna is not merely returning to her origins on this fourteenth album, a regenerative fervour thrives on Madame X, traversing a gamut of disparate genres, stirring curiosity and wonder with rhapsodic intensity.