The sounds are pure alchemy and result is pure magic. The only complaint is the length--too short at just under a half hour.

It may be shrouded in shadow, but Acts of Light is a hopeful record, rooted in intense feeling, nostalgia and desire to connect the past with the present. Woods’ talent for communicating these emotions commands a solemn and sublime respect.

In fully owning their anguish and collective past, present and future, HEALTH have yet another essential record to their name - one which fully and flawlessly embraces savagery and sincerity in equal measure.

Punisher triumphs in the joy and pathos that’s to be found in returning to its stories, where like Donna Tartt’s A Secret History, there’s always new depths, clues and answers that make you want to dive right back in.

Scott Walker is more interested in moving forward than looking back and with the soundtrack to The Childhood of a Leader his music is as unique as ever.

Wrapping the messiness of post-breakup emotions into rule-bending pop cuts, it once again proves that nobody does heartbreak anthems quite like FLETCHER.

Nature Always Wins is an ambitious album. From the understated "Meeting Up" to the sprawling and off-kilter closing number "Child of the Flatlands", it’s the sound of Maximo Park not so much maturing, as it is them evolving. And while Smith might well argue it’s the sound of them aging, there’s still plenty of life in them yet.

Fin is a record of intimacy and confidence, a rare and sumptuous combination that Syd has pulled off quite remarkably.

It’s hard to single out a standalone track from this impressive debut and this, in itself, is testament to the LP on the whole.

This is twenty seven minutes of searing punk rock, blistering guitars, brilliant singing, incredible drumming and there’s never a dull moment or weak point.

Stars Are The Light drifts unassumingly in a dreamlike state and although the key component of all of their albums up to this point is relegated to atmospherics, it’s a transition which has been made with ease.

Whilst Bowler Hat Soup does come across as a little mashed-up at times, that’s its charm.

It’s steeped in Haitian history, it’s an exploration, an education, and a hugely personal accomplishment.

This is a record that is highly sonically ambitious, and even the moments that don’t quite come together are carried by Beyoncé’s vocal talents and sheer star power.

for you who are the wronged is a beautiful, at times overwhelming, journey through a cruel world that robs and violates us all of something. It doesn’t passively sit by and let the worst happen though – it comes bearing offers of strength, hope, and companionship to those in need.

It’s safe to say Wilson is feeling a little bit country, a little bit rock and roll on Dixie Blur, and as with his other albums, the stylistic tweaks fit him like a glove.

The six-piece have retained a strong sense of the wonderfully free spirit improvisers they are on stage, but with Youth and Ben Hillier on production duties there is a more refined focus to their output. 100% Yes in turn deserves greater focus from the world at large.

On Sunset could be viewed as an album reinstating Weller as the keeper of mod musical tradition, but it’s also an album that sees him taking a rare glance into the rear-view mirror as he speeds into the '20s.

Tracks are also structurally diverse. Fans expecting an album stacked with back-to-back bangers, as Nights Out (2008) and The English Riviera (2011) are, will be caught off guard. Instead Mount gives his creative muscles space to flex wide, sandwiching catchy hits between mysterious soundscapes and zany instrumentals.

The album details not just a break-up, but a shift in how relationships and human connection work in modern times.

Ghostemane’s ANTI-ICON is a feverish collection of voices pitted against a genre-blending backdrop of visceral noise. Taking heavy music to a whole new level is something only an anti-icon could do, and Ghostemane’s firecracker of a new record achieves just that.

The musical tailoring is both electric and refreshingly liberating, with rich textures and stark contrasts. Always perfectly balanced, with a minutely tuned on and off switch that also leaves room for silence.

7 Days takes care of business, providing 11 tracks of club-ready beats, guaranteed to get any crowd hyped.

Much like its predecessor, GENE fuses flights of accessibility in parallel with the unorthodox, achieving a split-tone depth that at once evokes a murky, warbling uneasiness and in equal measure boasts splashes of untroubled psych-pop brilliance. Earworms deployed in quick succession, Dust helms familiar inventiveness and ingenuity that can sometimes feel a rarity.

t's ultimately perhaps telling that the most compelling departures from set templates are more naturally aligned with the territory of Washington’s past triumphs.

Ironically for an album so deeply immersed in the past and the all-enveloping shadow of a famous parent, the album provides that Dury’s talents require no piggybacking on anyone else’s fame: this is the real deal.

Remain Calm’s 13 tracks pass in a brief 28 minutes, the shortest of these contorted vignettes lasting just the same number of seconds. Each is it its own entity, a different shade of light and colour, a different lifeworld entirely.

It definitely helps that You and I are Earth sparkles with Savage’s most direct, open and unabashedly beautiful music to date.