Bird Songs of a Killjoy is a soft filter through which to view the world. It is a record to lean into, a brief respite from the daily grind to catch your breath and find your own peace and understanding.

Perfect Version rivals no Chastity Belt album and its nebulous delivery causes its songs to often slip through the listener’s hands. However, none of that is really the point of the album. ... A clearinghouse and a reset button, Julia Shapiro needed Perfect Version and we need the album precisely for that reason as well.

This is an album of bold, aggressive regeneration that does not fall short.

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.

Western Stars is simply a classy record from a man growing increasingly comfortable with his status as an elder statesman of classic rock. And I absolutely cannot wait to listen to it in a car.

This feels somehow lower-key (less in-your-face) than the other two, and it feels much more cohesive as a result. ... The main problem with Doom Days: the more you put into it, the less you get out.

A truly interesting album that is sure to maintain Rakei’s notoriety amongst artists and listeners.

This is a world-class band seemingly ending a chapter, clearing the board and resetting the clocks. This is the sound of a world-class artist, with his world-class band, at once unifying and annihilating his own history, putting a concept on a fire and letting us hear it burn.

The songs here are elegantly crafted, and keenly constructed, but there is absolutely nothing on the record that you haven’t heard – done better - elsewhere. Your enjoyment of the album will depend entirely on just how much soft-focus, meandering indie music you can stomach.

Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest isn't perfect. Its sprawl lacks the tight focus of Dream River, and a few of the tracks drift in and out of focus. Give it enough time to cohere, however, and this largely successful attempt at rebooting Callahan's songwriting soon acquires a hypnotic pull.

It is an album as confident as its predecessor and just as able to deliver upon it. It is Aksnes’ finest release to date and guarantees the essentiality of her artistic duologue.

Testament to its addictive charm, Erotic Reruns leaves the listener yearning for an extension to the album’s near half an hour running time.

By leaning into their maximalist tendencies on Lust For Youth, the introspection that really marked this project out is lost among a smorgasbord of other people’s sounds.

For all the thrills that Pixx’s precocious ambition offers on Small Mercies, it’s Hannah Rodgers’ vulnerability and restless search for comfort within herself that drives it.

Overall, there is something deeply satisfying about the majority of the album, anchored by Skepta’s unique vocal delivery and a sonic playfulness that he has long perfected. Skepta has proven himself a pioneer at several points of his career, now it’s just good to him hear at the top of his game.

The album confidently moves between playfulness, tenderness, and grit – often all in one song, as with stand-out tracks “Lose Our Heads” and “Wake Up”. The combination of Jarvis’ gorgeous, versatile vocals, clever lyricism, and the killer beats provided by drummer Robert Mason creates something unwaveringly epic.

Uplifting, powerful and sincere, Pip Blom deliver a rich, ocean-inspired debut that is instantly captivating. This is the opening chapter to something very exciting.

There’s Always Glimmer isn’t perfect, but that's appropriate really: trying to sort out your feelings in trauma's wake never is.

Run Around The Sun retains much of that same flavour [of Strike A Match], continuing to base the duo’s agitated progressions at the core of their sound.

Though taken as a whole, YU is a wonderful record. Okumu and Lowe are a dream partnership, and along with the rest of London’s modern soul players present on YU and hiding amongst other projects, have way more to give us over the next few years.

Reward shows Le Bon harnessing a reinterpretation all her own--stretching her range with layers of idiosyncrasies while remaining at the helm as one of today’s most sui generis anomalies.

Doused in the kind of mysticism that drenched the original psych scene, oblique lyrics about being the sun and a cascading approach to influences, Levitation still manages to retain a lot of the expansive wonder that so much modern psych has neglected.

An album that makes for pleasant easy listening, with frequent traces of genius.

The resulting LP is a record that sonically dwarfs its predecessors, boasting a sound bigger and more fearless than ever before. ... In Plain Sight’s greatest weakness is its refusal to abandon the obvious and lean fully into the successful realisation of its more experimental moments.

It’s a collection of songs, yes, but a demonstration of excellence and restraint. ... It’s evidently, demonstrably and obviously a flawless work of genius, and may just be one of the best albums this writer has heard this decade.

As music made for the “Ah! I knew I’d heard that before” crowd, it’s successful. As a synthesis of old and new, it’s successful. As an album of dance music, it’s incredibly successful, and leaves no room for any cynical raised eyebrows as soon as it gets going.

I can't imagine there will be too many rap albums this year that better Injury Reserve's debut. This is a band who can achieve the same volatility and straight-up ingenuity of BROCKHAMPTON, on less than a quarter of the manpower.

They’ve come out the other side with a debut that rips and tears with a whole lot more force. The band hasn’t lost any of its wildness, any of its chaotic energy, though it does feel like they’ve gone through a bit of development: they’re now a full-sized, frothing rottweiler, instead of the growling pitbull pup they were just a few years ago.