What was previously disarming in its honesty, we now expect and prepare for. This doesn’t mean that the quality has suffered, it has just softened.

[The] spirit of reflection bleeds into Every Country’s Sun, their latest effort, which draws and borrows themes and styles from across their career to build a whole as monumental as anything they’ve achieved so far.

The first half of All of This Will End hits with some serious force. The lyrics are forthright and clear, , and the arrangements are stripped back to their grungiest essence. ... With the arrival of the title track, the back half slides into a (relatively) mellower mood. ... The lyrical sharpness is still there, especially on absentee father-based Always (featuring some choice yells), but there's more reverb and layers to the arrangements now.

There is a certain messiness that he has managed to pull together throughout the record, giving an overall impression of authenticity, as well as multiple formidable creative sources colliding.

On G_d's Pee AT STATE'S END! Godspeed has created a perfect soundtrack for these strange times.

OK, this sort of retromanic pop writes its own logical criticism in a way (repeated formulas, looking backwards instead of forwards, etc etc), but when it’s done this well, it’s a timely reminder that the true logic of pop is music that communicates directly with the head and the heart.

A few later tracks don’t quite land the punches that others do. Still, the band's maturity is audible for all ears, as Pale Waves continue to carve their own path and embrace their best fiery and forthright version of themselves.

There’s new ground covered in the disco funk of Evan Finds the Third Room and the slow dance of album closer Friday Morning. Mostly, though, Con Todo el Mundo is a celebration of what shared creativity and influence can bring--something the world needs a bit more of these days.

The back half loses steam a little, but even mediocre RE is well-written and easy to enjoy. Victoria is an Alex Bleeker-led song with a bit of pedal steel twang, Airdrop throws in some synth and Freeze Brain has bongos for some reason. But these little affectations rarely distract from the uniformly gorgeous arrangements.

On Supermodels, Claud combines humour with pure heart throughout, cultivating the ultimate soundtrack for summer and beyond.

As they’ve progressed through their career, that quality undoubtedly still remains, but their sound has morphed into something much grander and ambitious than a previous dose of radio rock.

This album continually bends and warps, jumps and starts, fully absorbing its antedecents and regurgitating a masterstroke of contemporary electronic music.

Chubb’s lyrics are so sharp they could pierce the skin like a sword. Embodying the ethos of punk, All That Is Over mirrors the horrific state of humanity that the world has found itself in.

It's a fascinating second album from a band that feel genuinely unpredictable.

Access All Areas is an assertively, confidently, confoundingly surface level record that succeeds in presenting their lead singles with various wigs on for 45 minutes and change.

Poem 1 is a return to form; so much more focused and well-defined, but moving forward too, showcasing herself as a great songwriter amidst the ambient wash of her earlier work.

Viagra Boys are still copping from the William S. Burroughs playbook when it comes to surrealism and degenerates, but there's a confidence and heft throughout Cave World that keeps it sounding fresh.

It's not perfect (Hugs and Kisses is something of a misfire) but it certainly stands alongside the best of what Rouse has done before.

Over the course of sixteen tracks here, we get a glimpse of both the glorious past and promising future of the Bandits.

Letherette manage the notoriously tricky second album by delivering a reworked and revitalised version of the style with which they have made their name.

This is perhaps not as immediate a record as Faith In The Future, the narratives of which were foregrounded in the song titles a little more, but it stands up to repeated listening just as well, and confirms his status as one of American music’s best storytellers, in the same mould as Leonard Cohen or Lou Reed.

While The Age of the Understatement's exuberant candescence came from just a few very obvious influences tossed together (and was then pigeonholed as a Scott Walker tribute by the music media), this record ranges wider and finds new pockets of surprise while paradoxically seeming less out-of-the-blue.

Perhaps this new album doesn’t match the immediate wow factor of Whack World – few albums ever could – but regardless, we should be thankful Tierra Whack is out there doing her thing; making mainstream hip-hop interesting.

An arresting blend of ecopoetics and meditations on grief.

It’s a sensation that sneaks up on you, a kind of mania at once funny, alarming and harrowing, and it all adds up to something unlike anything else you’ll hear this year.

[Bundick’s] in his element here, embracing the improvisational jazz of The Mattson 2 as together they pry open your third eye and flood your mind with their cosmic apparitions.

More notable for its meditative atmosphere than blockbuster tracks, Rebound isn’t the sort of record that will blow anyone away, but that’s never been Friedberger’s MO. When it comes to neatly capturing knotty feelings and subtle changes of mood, she remains one of indie rock’s masters.

Here Is Everything presents a band laid bare (the whole record crafted together in drummer Fern Ford’s spare room studio). And, like the Harvest Moon casting its welcome glow, it’s a beacon of endurance and survival. Celestial magic.