At times the lyrical component can leave you cold.

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

Now, they’ve unveiled their eighth collection of poetically punky musical works which carries their fresh momentum to expansive heights.

The album’s lacking that one standout moment to make it a truly transformative experience. Still, the scope and ambition are to be applauded, and it’s a treat to take a voyage around his mind and beyond.

This is an album that deserves big headphones and large sweeping views of grey coastal days.

Employing a dense rack of synths, the opening tracks establish a slightly chaotic fug that the record gradually emerges from. And, once its found its feet, the album treads a pretty glorious path.

M.I.A.’s most consistent work since her debut. ... Yes, her myriad ideas are still tumultuous, but there’s precious few other musicians out there attempting such an ambitious and impassioned collage of words, rhythms and concepts.

It's an optimistic, romantic and frequently lovely record.

That this is both Beirut's deepest and most instantly enjoyable album is obvious.

She continues to rise above our expectations. Producing a sound that would comfortably fit alongside the greats she once listened to on her Walkman.

Deranged and balefully bleak.

Instead of throwing perspective on her fears, anxieties and problems and helping to alleviate them, that context and duality only amplifies them. They become her, and she becomes them. ... ‘Hurt A Fly’ is one of the more optimistic-sounding songs on the album, but even its hopeful tone is laden with the threat and/or promise of everything crashing down. The tender strains of ‘Pass’ also offer a glimmer of hope, but one that, inevitably, eventually burns out and turns to dust.

SBTRKT’s signature sound, which defies genre boundaries and pushes the boundaries of popular music, continues to shine on ‘The Rat Road’.

A record worth savouring, it sits alongside NewGen R&B talent – step forward ChloexHalle, we see you Kiana Lede – while retaining that classic touch.

The music is stark and abrasive but there is a feeling of hope. Lurking underneath it all themes of gender and insecurity litter ‘The Great Regression’.

On the surface, a hyperpop post-punk album should never work. But somehow, by some distorted miracle, Courting pulls it off – in the best way imaginable. In a landscape of so many albums regurgitating overbaked sounds, Courting have redefined guitar music. Instead of using the guitar as a songwriting tool, they use it as a weapon.

‘Portrait Of A Dog’ offers up a compelling glimpse into Yano’s chimerical interior world, deftly and sincerely, unfurling memory after memory without devolving into, and getting lost in, syrupy sentimentality.

Despite having to navigate different kinds of losses to get to this stage, Tucker and Brownstein have emerged stringently triumphant, their bond stronger and more unshakeable than ever.

It succeeds in bringing a 90s aesthetic kicking and screaming in to the 21st century, shedding the nostalgia in favour of contemporary pop pomp, all delivered with Jim Adkins’ trademark optimism and heart-on-sleeve lyricism.

It’s a more grounded and less airbrushed exploration of identity than we might be used to from Hannah Diamond, but one that counteracts an era increasingly obsessed with the perfect image and the false promise of forever.

His drawled, out of focus mumblings drawing you in unavoidably to the patchwork sonics, and though the album can be a little overwhelming on first listen, repeated plays reveal an irresistible talent.

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.

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.

There’s a wonderful rawness to Porter’s vocals, confronting his troubles of the past with his blossoming musical pallet.

Living up to its title, Phantom Brickworks proves a spectral set, a fragile sounding record that confidently conveys the intent of its creator. It may not win him any new fans, and old fans may even be puzzled at the lack of sunny beats seen on last year’s ‘A Mineral Love’, but it still stands as a great escape for those who like to get lost in sound rather than riffs.

All this does is reassert the effortless, enduring power of those original pieces; find the originals and save your pennies for the forthcoming Carpenter tour.

'Ordinary Man' is far from perfect, but all Ozzy Osbourne's solo releases tend to reflect their creator's flaws to one degree or another. It does, however, absolutely succeed on its own terms, serving its purpose by reminding the world just what we'll miss when this titan among titans finally departs us for good.

The act-to-act cohesion is seamless, as is the recreation of rigid techno militancy, and should be met with at least one bouquet brought to the stage.