An enchanting listen, her world-building remains absolutely undimmed on this triumphant, bewitching project.

It doesn’t challenge expectation, but equally it does nothing, puts nary a single step wrong, to risk their reputation as a preeminent act of their kind, and of our times.

It’s Buzzcocks-goes-Daniel Johnston, with a little Guided By Voices on the side, erudite and desperate, and everything mentioned above and yet a lot, lot more. And it’s a pleasure to share it, and them, with you.

This newly three dimensional Little Simz--vulnerable and reflective, while spiky and hard--has produced a crafted project, and it’s one of her best to date.

What could so nearly have been overbearing or desperate to be loved is, in actual fact, sincerely captivating and euphorically playful.

Dornik has come out of leftfield to release one of the best quality and most addictive pop records of recent times.

‘As The Love Continues’ is Mogwai at their best, and is possibly their most consistent record since 2006's ‘Mr Beast’. Their mums should be proud.

An album of stunning ambition and outright defiance, Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 1 rips apart everything you know about Foals, a bold transformative work, as inspiring as it is urgent.

Best listened to with the context of Part 1, the way Part 2 rounds the 'Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost' era off makes for the argument that this is Foals' most accomplished body of work to date.

This is not just West's best album, it's a keen contender for the most ambitious LP in hip-hop history. West side story!

With Screen Memories, Maus once again welcomes all that dare enter into his all-consuming, oddball world.

The impact of his earlier existence as a jazz player also noticeably infuses tracks ‘Betelgeuse’s Endless Bamboo Oceans’ and ‘Ode to The Pleiades’, attaching another rich dimension to this record.

Lemonade is Beyoncé at her most benevolent, and her most unadulterated. Treating her blackness not as an affliction but a celebratory beacon, Lemonade is a long overdue, cathartic retribution.

A mix that has 2017 in its pocket.

It’s not easy to write an album about yourself without seeming egotistical, and it’s also not easy to write one which touches on themes of gang violence and poverty without falling into braggadocio or morbidity. On this album, Vince Staples has pulled off both. It may be a short album, but it’s an incredibly deep one.

Clairo is clearer now on who she is and who she wants to be. On ‘Sling’ there is the sense that Clairo is in flight, except this time she isn’t running away from her little ghosts. On this record she runs towards them, even dances with them a little.

The Baltimore duo have somehow gifted us their masterpiece, and though the rain outside has now stopped, new heavens have opened.

A breathless, breathtaking achievement, Chris is a fascinating, infectious, endlessly suggestive work, an ode to 80s pop bombast that uses those splinters to build and then de-construct countless glimpses of Héloïse Letissier. Somewhere in amongst these myriad of definitions is Christine And The Queens, a shape-shifting pop entity perpetually aiming for something greater.

Despite the elongated nature of its creation, Black Messiah is a fluid, confidently cool piece.... A real showcase of his incredible talent.

And so it brilliantly goes. ... These are classic Sparks moments, full of comedy, clever wordplay, deft explorations of all the myriad issues of the world, with arrangements that sound as current and fresh as a dew-soaked spring daisy.

Young Fathers possess that which makes the best British acts truly special: a singular identity born of multinational mixology.

With both these lyrical and sonic accomplishments, Foals have created a fine record with a very solidified sound that will be the soundtrack for the summer.

A potent debut album. Succinct yet packed with stunning detail, it refuses to take the easy way out, and that stubbornness may see Squid outstrip their peers in a head-long race towards a re-engaged future.

Smother does exactly what it suggests but with a poetic fragility and an exacting panache that enthrals and entices like never before. An essential album.

‘Serfs Up!’ is initially impenetrable, but persistence is rewarding as the band sucks you deeper into their tilted netherworld with each listen. It’s by far their most interesting work to date.

With a solid foundation of beats, introspective lyricism and a sharp pen at his disposal, Nas might be the only rapper to have two releases in the best albums of the 2021 conversation. Magic.

Miss Universe is an intimate record full of personal fears and emotions, but these are of wider, universal relevance. They should resonate with us all.

Subversive, non-conformist and melodious, this record has the credentials of a classic rock and roll album. The decision to take a radical approach only works for the few, the possession of ammunition that’s needed to master such a challenge is not for anyone. Fontaines D.C. have it.