A record that stretches the boundaries, ‘UTOPIA’ feels like his finest hour.

It embraces you like a hug from a friend you haven’t seen for a while. Musically Ellis has created understated gossamer soundscapes that emphasise the emotions of the poems but don't draw the attention from Faithfull’s voice.

The oft-explored worldwide sensualist feels newly alive here, ‘Fountain Baby’ a prime exemplar of mind-expanding afro-pop alchemy that revivifies the weary spirit.

Antiphon is going to divide opinion, but give it a chance--it might just be the best thing they’ve ever done.

Touches of R&B, the nostalgic beats and the impeccable harmonies that the four produce offer comfort with their familiarity and still manage to feel progressive with the 2020 take on these classic elements of an iconic music era. ... Near perfect pop production.

Hopefully we won’t have long to wait for the next instalment but before that let’s just bask in the beauty of this beautiful album.

In context and execution, Songs Of Praise is one of the most daring, scorching, seethingly intelligent, and at times downright funny British guitar albums to come our way in years.

‘Praise…’ feels like a completed maze, a finite and full creation, and cements Tumor as an extraordinary explorer.

Oh My God is Kevin Morby’s attempt at crafting his own post-modern American Songbook. The sound of a succinct vision--executed precisely as intended.

She's brilliant, sometimes inspired, and this tenth studio album finds her gifts undiminished.

Serpentwithfeet teaches us to be ourselves, to endure and be happy and love each other, and it’s rare to hear these simple, well-known things being delivered with a power and strength that can transcend the medium of music itself, turning it into a pure magic.

The Portland-based psych-rock outfit’s second album is an absolute triumph.

Offering up a mix of pop, hip-hop, R&B and a sprinkling of trap and neo soul for good measure, Lizzo covers all bases and serves the perfect introduction to her world for mainstream audiences.

They’ve come out the other end with a truly talismanic record that will live long in the memory for any who experience it.

This isn’t mere voguish reinvention but a masterful insertion into the most indecipherable of back catalogues, and its reliably mutable, endlessly wandering creator.

This album serves up Summer Walker’s best work yet. It’s brutal, yet romantic, it’s fun, yet flirty, it’s everything any listener could be wanting. A rollercoaster of emotions and she’s not even finished yet.

It’s not as shiny as ‘Nevermind’, nor as raucous as ‘Bleach’; it’s not as sensibly realised as it would have been has DGC had entirely their own way, but nor does it completely kick against Cobain and company’s prior achievements.

He draws on the many splintered facets of UK rap – and other sonic traits besides – while somehow transcending them. Literate, wise, and emotionally devastating, ‘We’re All Alone In This Together’ places Dave at the absolute pinnacle of British music.

A dystopian masterpiece.

He sounds freer than ever. ‘The House Is Burning’ subverts expectations. ... Rashad’s music is like a sonic encyclopaedia of Southern rap reference points.

[Gloss Drop] is one of the most startling, visually emotive albums we've heard in years. Vividly audacious.

It's heavy, but so very beautiful.

Thankfully, they’ve saved their finest ideas for Tomorrow’s Harvest, which burns as brightly as anything they have accomplished thus far

As his main band disappears into "indefinite hiatus", console yourself with the knowledge that Birgisson has just made the best record of his career.

‘SIGN’ is an album that doesn’t just get under your skin, but in your head. If you give it enough time it will own, you and you will feel better for it. Autechre have returned and the wait was definitely worth it.

There is just Nick Cave, stripped to the bone and robbed of a future. It’s impossible to turn away.

What will keep you coming back to Film Festival is a profound desire to dissect further, to unpack the lyrical and instrumental proficiency to such a degree you feel so in on the joke that Mike and Paul aren’t just collaborators and flawless music makers to you, they’re friends.

Dublin in the rain belongs to Fontaines D.C., and rather than being too real this album is just right, it is a ragged delivery. The trick lies in the seemingly un-filtered rawness combined with its stark poetic reality. The three components help secure this album’s position as an example of authenticity; authenticity in its most concentrated and truest form and expression.