More than simply aging gracefully, A Bit of Previous suggests Belle and Sebastian still have enough hooks for several lifetimes.

'Eclectic' is the word you want to use to describe the sounds on Where the Action Is, but it feels lazy to put a label on an album that moves the listener in every way a person can be moved. But, if you insist, let's file The Waterboys' 13th record in the box marked 'their best for years'. It really is.

The strained clarity of Zauner’s voice is what makes this album so beautiful, particularly during the contemplative balladry of This House. Moving and inspired, Soft Sounds From Another Planet is yet another lesson in guitar pop perfection.

BadBadNotGood have packed more than a dozen little viruses into this disk, and once you hear it, you’ll be spreading the ill, too. Beyond the voices, the music is rich, textured, melodic, and always groovy.

A varied and highly enjoyable record.

Each instrument is put to use across multiple genres, experimenting with a collection of new sounds. The result is a moment of exciting expansion.

While Deafheaven's change in direction isn't an unwelcome one, there isn't quite the same rush as their previous best efforts, as they adapt to their new surroundings. Minor gripes aside, Infinite Granite proves Deafheaven's mettle and shows you don't always have to shout loud to hit hard.

Nothing’s Real, the finished product in question, is imbued with the type of honesty that lends credence to the former [effacing, tongue-in-cheek hubris].

Opener Belly of the Whale envelops us into a trance, setting the tone for an album gripping at dark corners.

The titular track shines a light up to the album as a whole – fun, endearingly cringeworthy, luxury pop music.

The juncture of influences and styles found across Sampa the Great's new album, As Above, So Below, is tripping and magic and Sampa’s immense ability to play hard and soft is the driving core of the album.

The results are magnificent.

Bird Machine is a worthwhile coda to Linkous’s legacy.

Exhausting, ridiculous and full of life, De La Soul still do it like no-one else.

A Better Life is total fire from the get-go, offering great melody and pop lifts that you’ll be singing for days. Buck-wild and vicious songwriting, not for the light-hearted.

Enjoy this singular album, this moment, while you can--Clementine won’t be holding his breath.

Their control is immaculate, their romanticism timeless.

Boy from Michigan is an unhurried, loping listen; sprawling over 75 minutes with sumptuous synth and a ten-minute tirade on Trump’s America (The Only Baby). Sometimes the laconic style feels repetitive, but there are plenty of perfectly formed moments to bring the album back into focus.

Home Video is intimate, occasionally discomfiting, and, most of all, brave – the sound of an artist choosing to be at her most vulnerable, in front of a bigger following than she’s ever had before.

On Hive Mind, the positive impact of their time apart is quickly apparent. The opener, Come Together is mature and quietly devastating in spite of its perky rhythm, an emblem of solidarity in the face of senseless violence. There’s little else here in the way of political statements, though, to the album’s benefit.

First Taste is the first record of new material in his name this year, and while it doesn’t fully offer the uncharted sounds suggested by its title, it tastes delicious nonetheless.

The madcap experience of Warmduscher is still probably best on the stage, but this album goes some way to proving that given a little time to let their ideas gestate, they can actually produce something that sounds good on the stereo, as well as the back room of a pub.

Her most honest and reflective work to date.

Jumping between instrumentation and production styles, Flora Fauna feels a little disjointed at times, but overall this only serves to add to the feeling of rebirth.

Smith has taken his time, and made mistakes, in comprehending what he’s been through. And Deceiver is all the more honest for it. Impressively, that doesn’t shine through intricate detailing but as something more abstract. Deceiver sounds like that experience, more than it describes it. And there’s hope at the end too.

Elegant and focused, the album was written, recorded and produced in the same bedroom as his first LP--with the same supersonic attention to detail. It's only his ambitions that have changed.

There are hints of the band's more dynamic past on Eucalyptus, Tropic Morning News and Grease In Your Hair. But on the whole, First Two Pages of Frankenstein is an excellent exploration into recovery from depression, passion and addiction and is one of the finest records The National have released in quite some time.

Laus bravely embraces her imagined world through not only sonic exploration but its successful discovery too. She soars through a variety of tones, including lullaby-like ballads, jittery jazz-infused pop, moving midwest emo and, of course, prickly post-rock.