The sense of freedom that comes with being unapologetically herself must be exhilarating – it’s definitely infectious.

It's less playful than before but feels like an evolution rather than an adjustment. There's a more textural feel than before, edging closer to the muted space of Phoebe Bridgers' Punisher, or Antonoff's work with Lana Del Rey, and it suits Swift well as this point in her career.

While this might not be among the (minimum) of three absolute masterpieces he’s created over the last two decades (pick your own), it deserves your full attention, indulgence and sick laughter all the very same.

An album that retains much of the vitality and vigour of the band’s previous releases, but where those albums were coloured by a fresh-faced excitement and in the invincibility of youth, No Grace is the sound of band who’ve discovered that life is fleeting, so they’re taking it for what it’s got.

They never really embrace as much lyrical darkness as they did on their debut album, though, and they don’t exactly reach for the occasional glimpse of light either. As a result, All Your Happy Life is a lightswitch that keeps awkwardly flickering, intentionally making the mise-en-scène as unsettling as possible.

Fans of garage rock will be familiar with the fuzzed-out results, at its best highlighting the band’s trademark guitar distortion, although at times muffling Grote’s vocals slightly. But their sound has evolved considerably.

Perhaps what’s most striking about Birding is how cohesive it is for a debut, every swell is intentional and carefully placed without ever feeling clinical. There’s warmth and space while including all the finely crafted minutia needed to give songs genuine depth and the band have resisted the urge to overcomplicate things.

MØ’s debut LP is an exquisite collection of synthpop, dance and gushing, heartfelt emotions.

An experience that's exhilarating, frenetic and gratifying.

In excelling at hoping to convey music--or in this case, a suite--with a deliberate emotional arc, Pearce has re-established himself as an auteur to be reckoned with, delivering one of the very best albums of the year in the process.

EYEYE feels like a piece of magician’s silk that just keeps going and going, but it’s still the same piece of silk. Unlike Wounded Rhymes, this is not an album to put on at a party, but if you’re going through any kind of heartbreak, plug yourself into this immersive and impressive album and let it all out.

Ultimately, with Guitar, DeMarco is working against the friction of his inescapable audience expectations to declare where he stands now: wiser and more intent, although still victim to tedium.

Its gentle musical cacophony is tipped over into truly scary territory by the lyrics of sole constant member David Thomas--all delivered in murderous mumbles and frustrated, elongated moans--transforming Lady From Shanghai from a run of the mill quirky rock album into a thrillingly worrying piece of art.

Rex’s true feelings have been told marvellously within this sonic journal. Through his own unique artistry, Rex has created an album that is wonderfully creative. This third album cements his status as a nascent national treasure.

It’s a dramatic stretch on life’s road map, on which Local Natives have captured their true spirit once again.

It shouldn’t all work together, but the record has a beautifully cohesive groove, the many disparate parts seamlessly fitting together in typical Rostam fashion.

1000 Forms of Fear is a anguished pop album for our uncertain times, crafted by an artist who is conflicted and torn by her celebrity as well as her vulnerable heart.

It’s playful, dark, and produced well enough to settle the most pedantic of audiophiles. It’s clear, however, that putting meaning to Matmos’ sounds here only rehashes tired ideas of neotribalism and criticisms of late-capitalism.

Groove Denied is lesser than Sparkle Hard, and greater. Not so happy, yet much happier.

That the new stuff doesn’t make you pine for the comforting certainties of early solo classics à la ‘Naked as We Came’ at all is a sign of just what a successful evolution Ghost on Ghost is.

Cold Moon is an winter morning. Not a dark, brittle winter morning, but a happily futile winter Sunday morning, where the a few snatched hours of watercolor sunlight feel all the more precious for their scarcity.

The sense of place that Yumi Zouma finally seems to have found on Willowbank brings an album that’s bristling with energy, albeit one that does feel overstuffed. And yet, even in the face of that, it’s hard not to be swept away by Willowbank.

Stylistically it continues the sounds explored on Cranekiss, perfectly fusing moody dreampop with massive pop choruses, although the monochrome of her earlier material still lurks darkly during proceedings, she splatters the pallet with sprightly moments of pop sensibility in a campy pop gothic stew.

Her earnestness makes for both difficult and comforting listening, as she vocalises some fairly morbid tales while offering comradeship through the strife.

Thrilling and unexpected, Somewhere Beautiful is triumphant at retrofitting and perpetuating the best of The Chills, while the unreleased material marks promise for their forthcoming full-length.

While it’s a rich topic [unhealthy romantic relationships] to explore in song, a sense of repetitiveness does ultimately set in as Teitelbaum circles around the same themes of codependency and falling in love with questionable men against one’s own better judgement. .... When Teitelbaum looks elsewhere for subject matter, some of her strongest songwriting comes through.

These are not songs which will not change the world, and they will probably never be a huge band--but songs as beautiful and honest as these will always be huge for some people.

Edge of Everything is not for the faint of heart: it’s non-conformist and confrontational. Being industrial techno there’ll be a propensity to dismiss this as the sound of pots and pans falling down a steel staircase, but delve beyond the layers of harshness simply reveals one of the best techno albums of 2019.