It’s not just that Toro y Moi is becoming more sonically ambitious with each album. He’s getting better, too. With Boo Boo, even retreading old ground is somehow an exercise in innovation.

An enjoyable if low-key listen that consolidates rather than shakes Stables’ current status.

An album that captures the rise and fall of restless youth in a fluorescent, dazzling city.

The beats are heavy, spare, and hard. Lamar demonstrates the versatility of his flow.

Featuring guest stars such as Joey Santiago, Teri Gender Bender and Anna Waronker, A Walk With Love and Death is like a one-stop shop of everything to love, hate and feel infuriated by about Melvins.

Hug of Thunder ploughs through emotional highs and lows with an empathetic grace, sometimes decorating its more dramatic moments with swells of brass, ditto its out-and-out rock’n’roll cuts; elsewhere they just let everything hang loose on a light robo-funk groove.

Every Valley is lush and symphonic, more interested in expressing the human spirit of the mining communities than aestheticising the conditions in which they toiled.

The songs have a feel of personal strife, but are so vague that they can fit into just about any explanation you care to apply to them. But these criticisms are unimportant when faced with the simple catchiness of the music.

The problem is that, elsewhere, the album rarely transcends its position as a soundtrack and, after watching the vivid--at times stunning--film it accompanies, listening to Mister Mellow solo feels decidedly less colourful.

What is clear is that Ride's fifth album is something of a triumph and infinitely better than many a fan could have hoped for. Almost 30 years on those vapour trails show no sign of fading just yet.

Dust breathes so easy at times, its beats are almost loose. ... Highly recommended; this time around there’s nothing to fear.

An album steeped in depth, warmth and positivity.

Most of Popular Music built around thrilling tracks like the classic punk-tinted Membership Man, in which Green mocks a ‘right wing cruiser’, and the frantic masochism of Electricity. Late-album track Beautifully Skint unwisely slows the pace down, proving that LIFE are best when they stay angry.

Ultimately, this is an important record at a time when galvanising young people to protest is needed perhaps more than ever. While it's presumptive to assume Algiers have succeeded, this record definitely won't hurt the effort.

The band took all the wrong lessons from the success of their last album, and doubled down on the syrup. Turns out too much sugar really can make you sick.

The overall charm is undeniable, even if it does feel very familiar.

Nostalgic, dramatic and not exactly short on synth, Iteration is the kind of album necessary to help us battle through the rest of 2017.

The Nashville Sound isn't a bad record by any estimation, but there are flat moments.

Overall, Black’s latest effort proves nothing less than a markedly ethereal romp beyond the traditional boundaries of pop, as its comic hints of electronica and rolling melodies lend it a profoundly cosmic air.

All told, Death Song might be their finest hour.

Americana is an album you’ll want to make friends with. If there’s ever been a moment in your life that Ray Davies or The Kinks made better, you’ll find joy here.

More candid but just as magical, City Music is another magnificent record from Morby.

At one extreme, you sense Anathema want to be taken seriously (in the way that, say, the aforementioned Mogwai are taken seriously); unfortunately, however, there are times they can sound a bit like Deacon Blue or Tom Odell, which is not to be wished for.

Fake Sugar is a real reinvention for Beth Ditto, but it’s not so much of a reinvention that her signature traits are unrecognisable.

She pirouettes into the upper echelons of her register during Rooting for You, conveying the affection and apprehension contained in the line 'you’re the only thing I’ve ever truly known'. The low scoops on Hell to the Liars are another, as if Reid’s digging in her heels to stand firmly against 'the righteous ones'. But these are rare instances of genuine feeling amongst what otherwise feels like palatable but empty theatrics.

Cigarettes After Sex ends up overstaying its welcome. Most of the tracks retain the same languid pace, drifting through slowly like smoke lingering in the air.

Big Thief aren’t the sort of band that will always hit you suddenly, such is their subtlety and restraint, but on Capacity they prove that when they do it’s powerful and memorable.

While The Guillotine's second half doesn't quite hit the peaks of its first, it still remains an enthralling and embittering listen.