The emotional gravity carried by its brevity and simplicity, a quantum leap from last year's self-titled EP, is nothing less than astounding.

Though Sick Scenes is unlikely to win the band legions of new fans, it’s a record that sits comfortably alongside the rest of their canon while acting as an affirmation as to why, in 2017, a decade after their debut, Los Campesinos! are just as important now as they were ten years ago.

Here is an album that embraces every fibre of your being; generous in its awe-inspiring and beautiful moments. It’ll keep you guessing every minute of its hour long run. It’s uniquely Pumarosa and there’s nothing else quite like it.

Arc Iris is traditional music thrillingly positioned at the nexus of the old and new.

It’s Blur at the top of their game, as they had been, as they should have always been, as they deserve to be.

Though many of the band's distinct hallmarks show face – heavier than ever, even – somehow their latest record sounds miraculously and hideously new, proving their aversion to any mindless repetition.

["Heels" is] a track capturing the whirling chaos of a turbulent time, and the intensely liberating experience of charging through to its end--battered but unbeaten. This turbulence rocks the rest of the album as well, but it’s now a bumpiness that Sir Babygirl rides like a pro.

Whether it’s cheering the night off with friends and family or spent in reflective solitude, I’m Bad Now is something you want to experience and get lost in, and if you don’t come back for a while, it’ll be just fine.

Love And Compromise was written as an album for everyone; on those terms, it's an unqualified, joyous success.

Wild God is a markedly widescreen offering: the album very literally features both bells and whistles. However, maximalist palette is applied with rare subtlety and appreciation for the alluring spaces between notes, and The Bad Seeds rhythm section (including the inimitable drumming of Thomas Wydler, back in the fold following health problems) infuse the proceedings with an earthy, robust pulse.

Easily strong enough to act as an ideal entry point to Chapman's extensive discography, and quite likely the veteran's definitive statement, 50 deserves to reap all possible plaudits.

It’s to [Kevin Martin's] credit, then, that Angels & Devils does such a stellar job of blending the old and the new, and has the stones to shove Martin’s sinuous new ideas to the forefront. It’s that courage and singularity of vision that makes The Bug stand triumphantly apart.

Its grief is visceral, and most disconcerting of all, most listeners will find themselves identifying with some ogre held within these tracks. Listening hangs you upside-down, bat-like, to cling to the darkness with them, which is in turns deeply uncomfortable and oddly cathartic. A brilliant and awful trip.

What A Boost is Rozi’s best, most interesting and experimental album to date. It’s what happens when her introversions gather the worldliness and confidence to let others in. There’s all the same tenderness, all the same familiarity, but it’s never sounded this good before.

Throughout the album, Broderick conveys the sense that he has a confidence in his songs to the extent that a hitherto unknown (to him) band can bring out their quality. It’s a risk, of course, but the rewards are at times startling

We know Amyl & The Sniffers can do highway-caning punk, but being able to intersperse a critical takedown of cynics with a hook so infectiously catchy proves there is another angle to the Melbournites that, when unleashed, it creates something even more powerful than a well-timed sucker-punch.

With Scream from New York, Been Stellar have announced their presence with a gem that’s sure to fire them into wider consciousness.

Apart from a few exceptions, Yeule had yet to offer a multitude of songs as successful as on this opus. The whole of The Glitch Princess is a continuous demonstration, while being rich and varied.

This is one of those rare records that starts off strong and keeps getting better, more deep and resonant, with each track.

This is the most diverse record put out under the Parquet Courts banner. ... It’s no enormous stretch to say that Savage is possibly the finest lyricist working in rock and roll today, and he’s certainly one of our most engaging vocalists.

They've created something cinematic, pragmatic, and above all, fantastically like nothing we’ve heard from them before.

The Faint have finally hit upon the idea of letting all of those varying sounds simply collapse in on one another, only to arrive at an album that sounds the most like them, even if we’ve never quite heard it before.

The album is undoubtedly going to end up on many writers’ end-of-year lists, and it’s only February. Remy and her co-conspirators have truly set the bar for great records in 2018, by drawing from the best elements of nocturnal power from bygone eras. It’s all here--just wait and see.

The past few years have seen Dev Hynes become one of the most prominent, important voices in pop. Negro Swan builds upon this legacy.

By taking dubstep’s ideas and expanding them, one of the icons of that half-beloved, half-derided era has made a kind of a time capsule; granting longevity to an era of music which had liberation at its heart.

On What’s Your Pleasure? though Ware sounds simply like a serious star, on an album where she finally has the confidence to commit to her most theatrical tendencies and cut loose at the same time. The effect is liberating in the way disco always intended.

Though it may confound the fans who want more of the yelping renegade of old, this is Brown’s most personal and cohesive record to date; difficult, timely, and necessary. To the man’s credit, he can drop so many of his signature tics and tricks without becoming any less captivating an artist.

Twentyears does exactly what a compilation needs to; it shows how Air are arguably one of the last great singles bands, but by delving beyond the hits we are presented with an abbreviated version of a back catalogue of panache and flair. Always engaging, always different, but always Air.