Adele is sincere, poignant and affecting throughout; the emotive 'Someone Like You' closes the album magnificently.

Young, yet somehow void of naivety. Vibrant, yet artistically matured.

That a record so dark and ripe with nuance can also harbour such blatant pop sensibility belies the duo’s young age while serving as a testament to their rampant eccentricities.

Further proof that The Arcade Fire may indeed be the best band on the planet.

An awesomely designed underground rising.

This is mood-manifesting music of exceptional quality, experimental electronic fare of substance and, crucially, heart.

Brilliant stuff is still very much spooling out of Thom Yorke. His voice is revelatory on these tracks, better than ever, a peerless instrument; buttery and mellifluous in falsetto, snide and viperish on the growly bits. His magpie instincts for a tart one-liner remain razor sharp.

The music is engaging, yet thought provoking. It sounds unlike his previous three releases, but there is a continuation of ideas throughout. It’s an album from an artist who doesn’t pander to trends and goes his own path.

It’s majestic and beautiful in ways I never expected black midi to reach, let alone attempt.

The album's arrangement of serenading beats and jazzy undertones has genuinely proven that Kehlani is a force to be reckoned with.

Intimate and endearingly honest, This Old Dog is Mac DeMarco’s most essential chapter of slacker gospel yet.

‘Good News’ is a triumph, and a late contender for Album Of The Year.

M.I.A. stands alone in her own world of pop firing out her mercurial messages, which are as complex as they are captivating. MAYA is a towering work that makes a mockery of rivals and genres.

It’s a statement of intent from Billy Nomates, unbalancing sonic scales and weaving this into a force to be reckoned with.

Whilst the initial surprise felt on the original ‘Saturation’ may have subsided, the erratic excitement and experimentation on that album has been executed more confidently on each subsequent chapter. The LA group are everything progressive rap music should be; forward thinking, energetic and perhaps most importantly, exciting.

This is an album to get lost in. Rosenstock is one of the most important songwriters working, in any genre, at the moment. You’ll love exploring ‘HELLMODE’ like Craig in his creek.

10 tracks of soul-bearing introspection swathed in layers of rich reverb, icy chill and ephemeral echoes of 30 years of synth pop.

An attempt to filter out the parts that truly matter, it’s a triumph, and perhaps the finest album yet in his storied career.

The duo have created something extraordinary here - something that definitely needs to be heard.

‘Javelin’ is an outstanding record, technically brilliant, and emotionally bewitching.

The group feel more at home with the methodology of early prog or post-punk, with a sense of the abstract rippling beneath those crystalline waves of perfect sound. Shine on, you diamonds.

On ‘Ignore Grief’ they’ve done it again as the album is the most powerful and uncompromising album they’ve ever released. It’s also one of their most playable. This is down to the dense music. Every time you listen you hear something new that gives the song a different context. This is the mark of a, and I use this word properly, class.

It's a masterpiece.

A grand, cinematic record, it seems to burst past the edges of the widescreen limitations it utilises. Terrific space rock that feels utterly untethered from its sources, ‘Everything Was Beautiful’ easily ranks amongst Spiritualized’s finest achievements.

The friction between these two worlds is rife throughout the album, creating moments of explosive hyper pop euphoria (Bites on My Neck) and complete emotional vulnerability and devastation (Friendly Machine).

Tom Misch’s vocals return towards later in the project for stunning standout ‘Last 100’. The piano chords brighten the mood whilst a raspy yet soft vocal line glides down, with quick-fire guitar peppered throughout, while album closer ‘Storm Before The Calm’ rounds off the mood with bittersweet nostalgia.

‘Cry Sugar’ may take the cake for dance record of the year; that lighting-in-a-bottle moment we’ve all been waiting for.

A nerve-jangling experience, it could well rank as their masterpiece.