TFCF marks yet another shift in sound for Liars, as Andrew battles with dense samples and new instrumentation to compensate for the loss of former members Aaron Hemphill and Julian Gross. Like some of their greatest records however, TFCF creates a metaphorical space for the listener to explore to excellent effect.

There is undoubtedly more beauty in Ullages, but darkness always seems to linger in the background.

Worm Food takes the form of Skinner's most well rounded and experimental project to date.

Overall, Banks has taken a step forward in her development as an artist, and you can hear this increase in maturity across each album. At times, her evolution is not as convincing as other artists on her level, though the quality of the songwriting here generally makes up for that.

Days of Abandon, like everything before it in the Pains catalogue, will win precisely zero prizes for originality, but there’s a vivaciousness permeating every aspect of the record that breathes so much new life into its well-worn touchpoints. Indie pop at its most sparkling.

The record is certainly clever but feels stripped back in comparison to their 2017 debut, now relying mostly on pointed lyricism that deftly avoids pretension. It’s a move of maturation as they continue to shift further from their Portobello Road busking days of indie hits “Over and Out” and “Light Me Up”. In a strange way it feels as if Flyte have returned to their roots.

What’s most impressive about the Blind Spot EP is not only how deftly Lush have mined the sound that made them a real treasure in the first place, but that they’ve matured without sounding tired, cash-in or merely nostalgic.

With Filthy Underneath, Shah doesn’t necessarily reinvent herself, though she certainly recommits to honesty, vulnerability, and stepping out of comfort zones, all the while documenting an important self-initiation.

It delivers successfully on its objective to keep things light and easy while dancing the night away. It’s not that deep, but it might just be Lovato’s best effort yet.

The ten songs that emerged from that process are a compassionate exploration of selfhood that rewards patience and resists easy answers.

The Blind Hole is nothing utterly mind-blowing or game-changing in the grindcore world, but it’s also not trying to be. Instead, much like a kick to the balls, it’ll remind you of what it’s like to be alive and feel primitive emotion, and sometimes that’s enough.

The album is - as expected - a well-crafted, sonically flawless work. What it lacks in heart (as with all of their albums, there's very little humanity in the sound or the lyrics) it more than makes up for in style and finesse, and it continues the band's run of producing quality records.

Where some tracks edge towards lounge territory, on the most part, this is a an album that surely won’t sink.

Stranger, is a fully formed welcome to the staying power of Lean, and this third chapter is unlike anything he’s done before, while simultaneously being everything he’s done before.

It’s packed with humour, drama, anger and sadness, all brought together by ALA.NI’s artistic direction. ACCA is a one-woman show that will have you glued to your seat – your toilet break will just have to wait.

The Ark Work pays tribute to Hunt-Hendrix’s dogged desire to push listeners’ buttons. Sure, this could all be a massive wind-up, but to these ears Liturgy seem to have melted down the traditional ingredients of black metal and crafted it into something unyielding, unique and ultimately engrossing.

Undoubtedly, Duckwrth knows how to pen a beat, and to keep the party going, especially when the lights seem determined to come on. It can’t be recommended enough to shut the world out and to let SuperGood carry you away on its positivity, love-lorn and big-dream current.

My Morning Jacket – their first album in six years - finds a supremely engaging, often blissfully beautiful halfway point between the glossy eccentricities of more recent MMJ albums and those old slow-burn yet highly combustible 'jam band' dynamics.

In Moon Saloon, Arc Iris have served us an album entirely unconcerned with nascent fads and just as heavy on challenge as it is reward.

Its maximalist aesthetics and musical creativity combine to make something intensely addictive and satisfying, but it’s still inherently hard to put your finger on what exactly it is.

It also works as stand-alone propaganda for our friends north of the border, and album that feeds the imagination and makes you long for mountains, open space, and something a little more natural.

The album closers says “Bon Voyage” in style – with a short but infectious final offering. At just over the three minute mark, sultry vocals dominate – making sure that Viva Hinds is not a record to be forgotten, but sweetly lingers.

And while some songs on this album get drowned out by the grandiosity of its goals, the project – and the man behind it – are as strong as ever. GNX is the blueprint for a new rap zeitgeist, and all we can do is hope that everyone gets the cue.

Kamaal Williams’ Wu Hen knows what it is and what it doesn’t want to be. It pays respect to the music it’s imitating and iterating upon, in all of its many forms and in spite of it, it manages to carve out a space in the scenes for itself.

Producer Josh Kaufman - New York-based musician, Hold Steady collaborator and member of Bonny Light Horseman and Muzz - has elevated the album, finding the perfect mix of chaotic and smooth.

By being both coherent and pleasingly unhinged, bEEdEEgEE more than fills the role of cosmic dance music vacated by Gang Gang Dance.

Self-doubt and anxiety still flow through the veins of the record, albeit quieter and much more introspective, but this time it’s darker, and more matured. A vital record of universal emotions that makes the current global mantra of “we’re all in this together” feel just that bit more believable.

Tackling societal issues and delving into the depths of mental health, the band hold no boundaries when fronted with ‘taboos’ in their most honest, and sonically mature offering to date.