'ENERGY' sees the duo step out of their comfort zone, engaging with an array of previously unexplored artists, genres and themes. They have wholeheartedly refined their vision and approach as artists.

[Fragrant World] is a further evolution of the band's interests in Eighties electro and contemporary R&B.

Williams manages to retain the transportative element of his previous work while slightly neatening the edges.

It’s definitely too short, but it’s worth every penny, ‘The Third Chimpanzee’ is a work of innovation and instinct.

Disjointed? Slightly. But who cares. He’s conjured something mischievous and joyful. A record that feels like it’s been beamed in from a distant star, sounding something like a near and possible future.

The trademark visceral beats, scathing lyrics and the general feeling of anger and aggression that peppered his previous albums have been replaced with slower beats and irresistible soul hooks. At first this change in tone, and pace, is jarring and you are waiting for it to kick off, but as the album progresses you get into it and dig this new Tyler.

Sule Skerry is a hymn to the sea, and it certainly feels that way in places: there’s a gentle ebb and flow to its ambient pieces which rarely threaten storm’s break, save perhaps the more urgent arpeggios of ‘Lump O’ Sea’.

At the end of this journey, we’re left not only with a playlist you’re itching to put on repeat, but also with the a much-needed notion of an inspirational woman made much stronger- much more in love with herself- by the trials and tribulations of her life.

'Ignorance' is a well-crafted and heart-felt piece of work that dances seamlessly through the caverns of dark and light, a perfect offering to hold onto with hope.

Overall, the album--filled with as much theatrical swagger as great music--is much more than just a remake as Ferry’s baritone vocals and inventive arrangements make for an album that invokes a lot more than nostalgia; with the ability to attract new fans as well as hold the old.

The band tracked everything live (apart from the odd overdub) and have crafted an exhilarating, hedonistic modern psych album that means the album doesn't just pay homage to a lot of the great influences mentioned, but sounds just as good.

A strange brew of instrumentals both delightfully becalming and playfully boisterous.

An apt step forward, Rave Tapes finds its makers matching grace and irreverence, noise and beauty with the don’t-give-a-f*ck bravado of people who can only know better.

This is an album that grows in grandeur with each listen, layers unravelling with every replay.

It feels like a genuine step up for the duo, and the divine collage of sounds and futuristic atmosphere make it an essential listen.

In The Seams is the most intricately beautiful auditory to coexist with. Just let it in.

‘Black Classical Music’ is a unique experience, a true journey, the musical autobiography of a musician central to the ongoing development of UK jazz.

By the time the record comes to a close, one thing is clear: ‘Traumazine’ is a deeper excavation of who Megan Jovon Ruth Pete is. While the glossy persona of “That Bitch” Megan Thee Stallion is able to roam free, introspective uncertainties linger beneath the surface. ‘Traumazine’ abounds in empowering affirmations but, beneath it all, this is a release that starts to unpack Megan the human.

The Road is at once the antithesis of quick-fire culture and the very embodiment of it: a mixtape, picking and choosing the best bits and distilling them into one heady brew. Bring on Part III.

Lotic has pushed the envelope sonically, and compositionally, to create a brave and breathtaking view of gender in 2018 and, ultimately, what it means to be alive.

A fast-paced, immediate selection ‘Dark Matter’ easily ranks amongst Pearl Jam’s most straight-forwardly enjoyable releases.

More than simply a side project and definitely not just a collection of cast-offs, Oddments Of The Gamble is a remarkably cohesive listen for something assembled over time and without restrictions.

It’s a fearless, intricately crafted and sonically expansive body of work that effortlessly showcases why he’s one of the UK’s most talented songwriters.

It is what it is: a passionate, purposeful and wonderfully presented collection of combustive rock songs.

Memory Streams is mesmerising. It feels familiar, but is ultimately new and exciting.

Front Row Seat To Earth strongly standing as one of the year's most affecting and luscious releases.

Ambitious, anthemic and at times, gut wrenchingly emotional, At Hope’s Ravine is a staggering piece of work.

Spine-tinglingly brilliant.

Long in gestation, ‘Mother’ feels finessed, her technical skills as a producer aligned to a gut instinct for what works in a club environment. Deftly pieced together, this feels like one of 2024’s most assured and enjoyable electronic records.

A bold, kaleidoscopic funnel of sound, Valet's rich return is worthy of celebration.

Raw Money Raps is an exciting audible adventure into progressive hip-hop.

The material more than matches the ambition on these 11 bewitching songs.

At times brooding, at times impossibly bubbling with light joy, this is a release that highlight Mattiel’s musical abilities - easily able to drop one sound for another at a moment’s notice, and doing it all with absolute class.

Why Love Now is a brash ballache of an album that will make you hate yourself as much as it makes you hate the world. Rest assured lads, the bar is now slightly higher than it was a week ago.

An energetic and vibrant project, that is exactly what the music scene needed in such an uncertain time. One of J Balvin’s strongest projects to date.

They’ve created something quite distinct from their former work. In this regard, Relaxer places them firmly back on track.

Lean, mean and as uncompromisingly focused as its maker, this is an album for everyone's collection, and whilst Weller is perhaps not the man he once was, the man he is now is most definitely still a force to be reckoned with.

The woozy title track seems deliberately designed to unsettle the listener at the halfway point of an album that is in turns both richly emotive and beguilingly, bewitchingly uneasy.

While tracks like 'Beautiful Wreck'--springy, satisfying and by no means a misfit within this gripping offering--seems quite bland in comparison to the rest which boasts a bold sound, the album remains fascinating, never misses a beat and keeps you listening through to the end.

The complete departure from Weezer’s usual formula of distorted electric guitars and pop rock will almost certainly be divisive amongst the band’s incredibly dedicated fanbase. But ‘OK Human’ undeniably contains some of the Weezer’s catchiest songs Weezer have put out in their entire career.

She imparts yearning with such controlled restraint and lightness of touch it’s sublime.

These thirteen tracks, detailing joys and sorrows, love and loss, indicate that The Staves are as vital as ever.

If you like filagree synths and dimorphous melodies, then this is the album for you. The songs are immaculately crafted. The melodies catchy. Lyrics memorable.

Modern music can often be accused of being so predictable and so formulaic that you’d be forgiven for expecting Hakim to churn out a new record without taking a hint of a ghost of a chance – but ‘WILL THIS MAKE ME GOOD’ is a thrilling, timely reminder that true art shines brightest when it emerges from the darkest skies.

The prominence of structure beams through and makes this more of a traditional offering than a novelty. Still unlike anything else, this is time well spent.

Both shockingly immediate and with immense replay value, TYLA’s debut album taps into the emerging energies of spring to produce one of 2024’s most insistent projects.

An emotive, emphatic and often joyous collection of music that plays equally for the head and the heart.

After the swelling synths of the album’s intro track, ‘Adulter8’ opens with a chip-tune alarm sound, and you kick your feet out of bed only to find the floor fall from under you, as shards of a euphoric bassdrum take over and fragments of haunted vocals dislocate you from any sense of direction.

With their frantic live performances and a solid set of tunes behind them, the sunbaked stoners are on to a winner with this ten-track wonder.

It is a personal, self-referential record, then, but one of the tenets of radio is the shared listening experience it provides, the sense of togetherness. It isn’t too much of a reach to say that listening to this album helps to process and make sense of these times and, especially, of the state of play of pop-adjacent electronic music.

Like all Björk albums before it, Vulnicura is the work of many but the vessel, really, for the voice--and everything that means--of just one persistently empowering talent.

An emotionally ambitious 20-track built on pain, vulnerability and self-identity.

Working versions under soon-to-be-changed titles, these sparse arrangements are more than just sketched outlines. Stripped down to their rawest nerve, unfiltered yet purified - they transport us straight to the feeling.

By concentrating heavily on this former and earlier part of Elliott Smith's career, the compilers of An Introduction To... have gathered some of his best songs into a starkly beautiful and coherent album.

Sometimes uniformity is no bad thing at all--when you get the formula right, that is--and Guy and Howard Lawrence prove just that on their debut LP.

Melodies that burrow under your skin and up-to-the-minute production make Tracer a record to savour.

Holy Hell succeeds in pushing Architects’ sound further than ever before. The grooves dig deeper, while the instrumentation is techier.

As ever with this band, it’s sure to be an idiosyncratic but beguiling direction, although there’s no hurry with so much to pick over on this thoughtful latest outing.

Overall, a very mature collection of sing-alongs. Templeman has proven that he is evolving as an artist. This is going to be a big year for this young crooner.

Often accused of being too calculating in his constructs, Mind Bokeh emerges as a spectral funk odyssey.

A record of sustained power, ‘Re-Animator’ manages to pull together many of the band’s finest elements, offering something complex yet accessible.

Undoubtedly this is a record which grips you, taking you on a journey and making you unwittingly invest all of your emotions just from one simple press of a button.

Well worth imbibing.

Rather than crumbling under the pressure of acclaim, Mitski embraces it and is all better for it. These trials and tribulations that birthed Be The Cowboy have not only developed Mitski as a musician, but also act as another sign that she has the potential to be considered one of the best singer-songwriters of our generation.

Perhaps lacking the urgency or unity of the label’s first instalment of 10th anniversary comps, Hyperdub 10.2 nevertheless successfully celebrates the diversity of a neglected side of its output.

Hozier is an authentic portrait of an artist--soulful, spiritual and seductive – and is a deeply impressive first step.

A four-track EP that runs for the best part of 25 minutes and possesses more depth, more intrigue, than most full-lengths running to twice as long.

Whilst openly influenced by the past, an album that bears the capacity to pioneer into the future--eloquent and elegant.

With Eternity, In Your Arms, Creeper have torn up their own sonic rulebook, giving them licence to roam musically wherever they please. It’s a fresh page in a new story for a band who are really just getting started.

Essentially, this is a cheaper, condensed version of last year’s ‘Singles Collection’, a deluxe wooden box set that housed nine 7” singles and which contained all the singles from those two albums, in addition to the songs found here.

Simultaneously depressing and uplifting, evil and camp, it's an inspiring, majestic paradox of an album.

What ‘Septet’ really does well is show how accomplished Kirby has become in his writing. The music is fun, with a joyous bounce, but also hints at a deep melancholy. It’s not sad, but it’s also not happy.

All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us isn’t a sonic leap into new pastures, rather it’s the sound of a band nailing their sound and operating at the very top of their game. In a genre as crowded as metalcore, Architects have managed to craft a sound that’s instantly and recognisably Architects.

A nine-track opus of gorgeous musical exploration on their own terms.

They write hooks, they’re inventive, they’re passionate, they can do uplifting and they can do poignant, and on ‘Sick Scenes’, they do it all with panache.

The devil’s in the detail, and it makes for a brilliant record.

Lykke Li seems to have made it work for her.

Loud, hypnotic, vitriolic solos, mordant melodies with biting lyrics. It’s everything we’ve come to expect.

Transcendental trance with some fierce poetry and song? Colour us impressed.

Each ["sides" of the double LP] is so good, it’s a toss up between which incarnation you'll end up liking most.

Dirty Projectors [is] a disruption, but a pleasant one at that--it affords listeners the space to grapple with the loss of Dirty Projectors in their previous form, while dispensing enough nurturing, boundary-breaking tonic to ensure that the first run-out for the project's next chapter is shrouded in optimism rather than dissolution, unforeseen obstacles and all.

While his distinctive voice and keening melodies are as enchanting as ever, Wilson has added a cinematic heft that neatly avoids being saccharine.

Two years spent reconstructing and re-dubbing has clearly paid off for the pair; an essential for all the late-night dub heads out there.

‘Wicked City’ is just a tiny slice of what’s to come, leaving a super sweet taste in our mouths.

Romance Is Boring is another step up for the Cardiff seven-piece; avoiding the shoutier, brattier elements of debut ‘Hold On Now, Youngster...’, the band bring to their latest effort a much darker atmosphere, with similarly desperate lyrics.

Sweet Baboo’s gloriously eccentric back catalogue has nevertheless often hinted at the capacity to deliver a truly special record: a glorious, emphatic collection of songs showcasing his truly affecting vocal and knack for ridiculously insistent hooks. No further hints are required for, with The Boombox Ballads, Black has got there.

In 'FLOWERS for VASES / descansos' Williams belts the stapled vocal range she’s praised for in notable tracks, ‘All I Wanted,’ ‘Feeling Sorry,’ and ‘Ain’t It Fun,’ and completes it with comforting acoustics, simplistic key work and alluring songwriting.

Whilst ‘Night Gnomes’ embraces a plethora of new sounds and concepts that make it distinct from the aforementioned album, it still maintains an overarching complexity and sonic ambition that listeners of old and new can revel in.

All discussion of technique aside though, there can be no doubt that with Brute, Al Qadiri has invoked her own personal brand of protest in a world in which discussion over that right has become ever more charged.

In all its floaty, seductively numbing glory, 'Good Morning It’s Now Tomorrow' is an exceptional work of chamber-tinged indie songwriting.

On OCHL they’re keen to take risks, side step that familiar territory and play with the formula. That consistent need to innovate and grow is what makes Deafheaven so divisive, so unpredictable and so extraordinary.

Occasionally the momentum wanes, but only the cold-hearted could fail to forgive the odd misstep from a band taking risks, shaping their sound and refusing to stand still.

While Delorean captured the spirit of summer with 2010’s Subiza, now they’re aiming to nail the soundtrack to the end of it.

‘Further Out Than The Edge’ is a creatively rich and inspiring debut from Speakers Corner Quartet, an emblem of their sixteen years spent together as a community of musicians.

The combination of having finely crafted compositions and a relatable, poetic voice is effective.

‘Hellfire’ is at once goofy and high brow. A volcanic eruption of serious silliness.

It’s rare that an album is ten years in the making, and honing that much emotion and experience into roughly 41 minutes is a monumental task. Chloe Foy accomplished it.

‘The King’s Disease’ finds Nas grappling with a raft of contradictions, contrasting the opulence of his lifestyle with the need for vitality in his message. It’s not perfect, but it’s less an end product, and more the search for creative process – by the end, you become convinced the Queens rapper has found his throne.