An enlightening journey through the mind of an outsider, but an entirely relatable one.

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

While nostalgia does play a prominent role in ‘After The Party’, the record manages to avoid getting bogged down in it thanks to its ability to keep one eye looking forward.

Armed with some equally intriguing sleeve notes, This Ain't Chicago is more than just a collection; it's a journey.

With Face Your Fear, Harding has given us a captivatingly concise project brimming with soulful and pensive reflection.

Lucky Shiner is one of the most innovative and mind-melding albums of the year and one that just keeps on giving.

A long time coming, ‘Heaven knows’ is a debut album that was well worth the wait from PinkPantheress, and a sign of a promising career from the singer.

The result is an album of intimacy, introspection and incredible beauty; a communion with the sands.

There's nothing here for the existing fan base but enough to entice new arrivals and strong enough to furnish a fresh interest from them.

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.

In fairness, we have heard the duelling solos, galloping Guitar riffs and Dickinson’s operatic Rock vocals all before, in that sense there’s nothing particularly new in form of style (but that’s no bad omen). Upon The Book of Souls the band do, however, sound tighter than ever, offering a raw atmosphere that makes the album sound as though it was almost written in order to be played live.

It's an album in the true sense, each song a building block on an overall journey.

Production-wise especially, this is The Weeknd’s strongest project yet, and deserves all the recognition.

Serious though he may intend to be, through the combination of Williamson’s Mr. Angry rants and Andrew Fearn’s tinny keyboards, Sleaford Mods do have a tendency to sound like a bit of a novelty.

Indulgently arresting stuff.

Little Fictions, in the end, though a welcome sign of elbow gently progressing with their formula, is a step forward feels too hesitant.

The Incessant has a wealth of great ideas baked into the sediment of a wholly unremarkable collection of songs but boasts enough personality to still be worth giving the benefit of your doubt.

A record that spirits the listener along at quite a pace, its already relatively concise thirty-five minutes stirring a melodic whirlwind.

'Air Con Eden' is an album that knows what it is: a story. Although it may be a surrealist story, something difficult to penetrate, it’s a delicate and genuine debut, filled with warbled and gentle soundscapes.

‘Mind Hive’ will be remembered as an album that reminds us a price tag still can’t be put on our integrity – artistic or moral.

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever have produced an album that dangles a carrot of the possibilities of exploration at the time of the impossible, but they are absolutely better off for doing so.

An album that leaves a profound impact in the softest manner possible, ‘A Quickening’ thrills with its pin-prick intensity, with its phantom-like layers of sound. In documenting fatherhood, Orlando Weeks has emerged as a songwriter renewed.

Some fans may be disappointed by the more subdued nature of ‘Someone New’. Yet her ability to combine woozy guitars with killer synths and endlessly catchy melodies hasn’t disappeared, only softened and matured, as the title track, the brilliant ‘Pale’, and ‘Dog’ prove.

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

Clocking in at less than quarter of an hour, the ‘Perfect’ EP is another jukebox roll through the band’s quieter and louder moments, both of which are largely on target from start to finish.

It won't appeal to those who prefer his party anthems and vibrant disco, but for those who want to see yet another side to this most prolific of musical minds, it's a voyage worth taking.

A hugely effective partnership, Curren$y’s raps – weed, women, the trappings of fame – don’t dwell on subtlety, but it’s the manner in which they are presented that affords ‘Continuance’ its depth.

Ibeyi has continued to present the bejewelled depths of their spiritual and ancestral heritage with great success; it's clear that their source is not only deeply personal but boundless too.