The Betas were a formidable live band, and the radio session tracks here are as good as, and sometimes better than, their studio counterparts. There’s little in the way of actual rarities, though.

As always, Wild Beasts' songs are unusually intimate, and the electronic evolution of Present Tense captures their characteristically microscopic explorations of human interaction.

While ‘My Name Is My Name’ was a great album, this is a masterclass in design: in contrast to the 20+ track albums of this streaming era, Kanye’s ruthless editing ensures every song, every bar and every sample have purpose.

While DRIFT’s production values remain solid, a few tracks would have needed more time to be fleshed out. ... Even then, you can trust Underworld to play to their strengths. ... By taking all these ideas and running with them, Underworld has rushed in where most artists fear to tread.

‘Kitchen Sink’, is once again political, but is about women’s place in the world, the infinite different lives they lead, and the difficulties of being a strong female. While it goes to some dark places, Shah is able to have a lot more fun as she embodies all these different female experiences.

Overall, a very mature collection of sing-alongs. Templeman has proven that he is evolving as an artist. This is going to be a big year for this young crooner.

From understated bedroom pop to innovative troubadour, Skinner’s new record is truly a gift.

‘Loud Without Noise’ is brave in its honest lyricism and empowering in its sound while still paying homage to the angst-fuelled, punk spirit that first grew them a following. It is a nostalgic mixtape that will make you shed your inhibitions, let go of those social anxieties and, at least for the 20 minute duration, feel a complete freedom that you may not have ever felt.

‘Black Classical Music’ is a unique experience, a true journey, the musical autobiography of a musician central to the ongoing development of UK jazz.

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

The great just gets greater.

In returning to the project that best suits his sense of adventure, James Murphy has done nothing to tarnish what has gone before. American Dream is a darker, more diverse record than its predecessors and a more human one too.

It’s an album that’s somehow halfway between DJ mix and a greatest hits compilation, and arguably the best of The Avalanches’ trio of releases thus far.

There's no doubting the commitment in delivery though, with solid musical cohesion and a thrusting triple-guitar assault that has an astounding clarity and is expertly choreographed.

Richly melodic and possessing a classicist pop sensibility, this is rock music with soul.

‘Blue Rev’ is a magical, twisty excursion to a crossroads where the band simultaneously reflects on yesteryear and explores the turbulence of divergent realities.

‘New Long Leg’ feels a world apart from the staleness of so many groups tagged with the term ‘post punk’. Indeed, as a complete aesthetic statement, the debut album from Dry Cleaning hardly merits contemporaries at all – suffocating, surreal, and exploratory, it takes chances other groups could scarcely envisage.

As an album, though still swinging from one place to another with glee, The Underside Of Power feels important, and very, very serious, as a body of work. It is one of the year’s very best albums, and sets out Algiers as one of the decade’s very best bands.

Patiently moving into a new era, ‘Happier Than Ever’ is shrouded in a transformative darkness.

The project includes a host of features from some of the biggest names in the genre, who provide welcome (but somewhat unnecessary) co-signs as she herself manoeuvres with a standout level of artistry that leaves you in no doubt that she is indeed here to stay.

Even at it’s bleakest, All At Once is sheer rock’n’roll joy from start to finish.

Individually the songs are great, vibrant and bouncy. However, together it can get a bit too draining. Now, I’m not saying that this much pop is a bad thing – the album is a delight to listen to, but there is a lack of variation in both sound and texture as it’s all so IN-YR-FACE.

It’s a confident and powerful statement, and one that underlines his complete and utter dominance of the genre at this moment.

It's easy listening, while thankfully having nothing whatsoever to do with the much-maligned genre of the same name--and the sort of fascinatingly layered album that appears demanding and austere from the outset but is in fact home to a set of beautifully realised songs.

A fantastic release, ‘SICK!’ pushes Earl Sweatshirt into a new chapter of his work, while adding further context to what has come before. The production work is impeccable, its dizzying imaginative flurry the perfect hinge against Earl’s lyrical precision. Short but emphatically creative, it presents an entire universe to explore, with its finer details laying in wait for repeated listens.

Self-possessed and uncompromising, this is a record with regal bearing.

It all combines to create a record that asserts Horn as an incredible and innovative talent both within the folds of folk and also at the forefront of the genre.

She’s broken the curse, she’s woven a spell--and the self-described ‘luckiest little Scottish witch in the world’ is safe to cackle back off into the night, having created possibly the best album we’ll hear all year.