Deeply cohesive, conceptual and considered. Controlled while still being unexpected. Comforting within confines, placing a new level of distance and boundaries between her personal life and her fans as she focusses on feelings over stories.

This is an album that further cements their legacy and feels like it captures elements from across their 20-year career into something wholly new and exciting.

Although the album is full of brilliance, album opener ‘Marina’ stands headstrong above the others in terms of scope and grandeur, a dirty distorted guitar solo coupled with an African style instrumental and tribal chorusing sees ‘Fever’ go from commendable to a masterpiece.

The great just gets greater.

On Shangri La he has captured everything cleanly and sparsely to really let Jake’s storytelling shine. The resulting exposure makes for a mature and remarkable album.

Some of the riffs are quite incredible ('A More Perfect Union'), and the general effect of the whole album is that the listener will want to weep and dance simultaneously. Simply brilliant.

By working with a producer who sought him out and by letting the songs lead the way, he has delivered a timeless album.

Tthese songs are as focussed, refined and honed as anything Spencer has ever done, yielding some of his most infectious guitar lines and arguably some of the finest tracks of his lengthy career.

Every track gives you something new and exciting, while holding tightly on to Emilíana’s flawless voice and melodies.

Heavy is the Head absolutely hits it out of the park. It’s the same winning mix of grime bangers and radio friendly singing as last time, but, crucially, it’s better at making sure they work together on the same project. 16 tracks might seem like a lot, but when almost every one is a classic, it’s so hard to care.

Passion is a puzzling thing, expressed in myriad manners. But it can never be fabricated, and Ought’s heated brand of it is amongst the most bracing sounds anyone can encounter in 2014.

V is the record that has finally given The Horrors a set identity. Perfecting every element they did so well on their four previous records, V is a pure and unadulterated celebration of The Horrors.

Not only is ‘I Came From Love’ the best album that Okumu has released but it’s one of the finest albums of the year so far.

A commanding and sincerely fascinating listen that stands tall in a catalogue already awash with magic.

Ultimately 'Under~Between' is the work of an artist serious about his music without being a Serious Musician.

This sophomore LP does a bit of everything, but this time around feels more refined, consistent and polished: exactly what a follow up should be. And on a label roster saturated with enormous amounts of talent, Rina Sawayama is making a pretty good claim to being the ruler.

‘Living Human Treasure’ is a wonderfully exciting and enjoyable album. Italia 90 have and axe to grind and grind it they do.

It’s not clear if this is to be the last instalment of the man on the moon franchise, but what is clear is that Kid Cudi is back on track, and with this release, has made his best solo album to date.

This music really doesn't need any window dressing because it's as good a collection of songs as she has put her name to in ten years.

'R.I.P.' is both an update on the bass explorations of restless Britain and perhaps a timeless thesaurus of blistered tones and ideas that younger producers will beg, borrow and steal from for years to come.

‘Melt My Eyez See The Future’ finds Denzel Curry sitting in a lane of his own. A unique, unified experience, it’s a boundary-less work of endless fascination.

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.

An unconventional masterpiece.

The record is the most realised and singularly minded vision yet from the Moor Mother project, a documentation of venomous rage, yes, but also one in search of a means of escape, one found through the redemptive power of community.

A sensational record, ‘for you who are the wronged’ burns with a fire though quiet is righteously undimmed; poetic, and explicitly emotional, it’s a challenging yet enriching experience.

After the delicate beauty of previous albums, this is the sound of an artist unleashed.

Boarding House Reach is easily one of the most layered and compelling releases of 2018, which furthers White’s legacy as one of the few remaining mavericks in music.

An early contender for album of the year.

These songs may be scorched with an unavoidable yearning quality, but they find her standing at a new creative peak: ‘The Gypsy Faerie Queen’, co-written with Nick Cave, might rank among the best songs either have written, while ‘Born To Live’, her piano-led paean to departed lifelong friend Anita Pallenberg, speaks of our corporeal impermanence with a calm but unswervingly frank honesty.

For most of its running time, you won’t want to move anywhere, either. Maybe don’t stay that way forever, but frequent returns to Ruins in the coming years are guaranteed.

On the strength of this ballsy behemoth of sound, they're easily holding onto that crown while adding yet another shining jewel. 'Hushed And Grim' is a reminder of what makes the band so beloved while boldly stepping into a new chapter. They've never sounded so good.

Jazz-heavy, experimental but rooted in beats, Migration plays with your emotions in a way that befits a post-break up period--and is yet another fine offering from the Ninja Tune mainstay.

Fiona Apple on a career of highs might just have produced her finest work yet. An album that we will surely look to as a cultural text, with its cutting commentary of contemporary culture and its feminist narratives.

It's predictably brilliant; another display of Dear's dazzling musical imagination.

Raw artistry paired with rich heritage makes for a magnificent, spine-tingling first album for Rina Sawayama.

‘God Don’t Make Mistakes’ is a stunning, multi-faceted achievement.

A strong, engaging return to form, Mechanical Bull is made to ride. Strap in and enjoy.

Amongst the army of incredible contributors, all unified by melancholic production drawn from the ether of another age, David Lynch's star shimmers brightest.

Four is an accessible album, filled with heavy questions about what love really means, posed through sensitive and dramatic arrangements.

An unassuming and bewitching masterpiece.

We're New Here is a psychedelic atlas with which we can all sonically voyage upon. A great way to start the year.

Fragile yet utterly destructive, this wolf in sheep’s clothing will hurl you five ways and leave you hovering over a bleak abyss. In a great way, obviously.

In its relentless fixation upon youth Light Upon The Lake seems to have stumbled across the timeless.

A cohesive, immersive listen that heartily repays repeated listens.

It’s a multi-faceted and mature second album from an artist that a lot of people wrongly assumed could only work in one narrow lane.

‘Unfollow The Rules’ feels like a gentle stroll through the various stages of Rufus’s career; far from creating the impression of Rufus covering his own back catalogue, the effect is like a timely reminder of everything that’s wonderful about Wainwright.

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

A stunning set of songs, this is an album that whispers its impact long after the last note has finished.

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.

A long time in the making, Royksöpp have birthed an engaging, expressive multimedia universe suspended in digital mystery, a sum of many components meticulously executed. ‘Profound Mysteries’ truly captures the imagination.

A stunning work of self-analysis, it’s Jamila Woods’ finest record yet – high praise in itself – one of the most absorbing, illuminating records you’re going to discover this year.

These tracks are like messages in glass bottles, making their journey from one continent to another, across a calm sea. Pure serenity. ‘Flora Fauna’ is proof that a woman can be many things.

Although it takes more than a couple of listens for Loud City Song to feel like a cohesive album, the reward once you do is well worth the outlay.

If ‘RENAISSANCE’ doesn’t convince you that a star with nothing to prove continues to produce sprawling bodies of work that are editorially precise, prismatic and rhythmically audacious, nothing will.

With Closer to Grey, the group have created a near-perfect piece of 21st century pop escapism. So, the next time world’s weighing you down, you know what to do. Reach for your turntable. Chromatics have got your back.

Semper Femina matches Laura Marling’s personal quest to unlock facets of her identity echoing with the wider struggle to clear a space for the feminine voice within society itself. With a triumphant new album it seems that this songwriter has found a room of her own.

A record that feels incredibly refined, ‘JAGUAR’ is an expert piece of R&B engineering, with each individual part interlocking perfectly. It’s a wonderful experience, with Victoria Monét’s stellar artistry balancing the sensuality of sound with a killer lyrical flair that aims straight for the heart.

The OOZ is undoubtedly another thought-provoking entry into the discography one of Britain’s most exciting and challenging young artists. An intense, yet rewarding listen.

With his debut album he firmly establishes himself as one of the leading lights in UK rap (if there were any doubts), and in a year where some of the scene’s heavyweights are also dropping albums, it won’t be a surprise if AJ’s project is rated as among the best of them by the end of 2019.

This compelling and provocative record is a haunting echo of a seemingly hopeless vignette of Britain today, where slowthai offers the slightest glimmer of optimism for a potentially brighter future.

Suffused with an indefinable sense of melancholy, the likes of ‘I Can Change’, ‘Home’ and ‘Dance Yrself Clean’ instil the rubbery electro with a tangible soul - whilst ‘Drunk Girls’ delivers a giddy hit of bony post-punk.

Power drifting through the gears and with cutting-edge in hand, this is a shoe-in contender for house album of the year--clear and distinct, all the way through.

Arab Strap are back with a vengeance. And it’s fucking glorious.

Outrage! finds them actually enjoying the process of writing and experimenting with the potent formula they concocted back at the start of the millennium.

It’s very much a record that stands on its own two feet. These are excellent songs. Not only that, but given the isolation and anxieties of life in 2021, it’s easy to find commonality in these tales of hope and strength amid troubling uncertainty.

There is a modern, angry masterpiece in here--just skip the manifesto.

The variety in the instrumentation is only met by the variety in her voice; going through registers, accents and even characters, 'Warm Chris' is an album covering the complex and enigmatic voices of a supremely singular talent.

While the duo may have expanded their sonic palette, it’s Alice Merida Richards' distinctive vocals that give the record depth and weight.

‘Tableau’ sees the The Orielles venture into the unknown, with the sole ambition of testing their limits (or lack thereof). They succeed, resurfacing with new vision, and setting an example of what can occur when artists have the opportunity to revel in full, untethered, boundless creativity.

Dirty, loud and intimidatingly sexy, Blood Pressures is the result of a year spent apart - Hince's adventures in sound provide the album's thick production, while Mosshart's stint as Dead Weather frontwoman instils further confidence and swagger in her provocative lyrics.

The production is absolutely masterful. The conviction is assured; the weightiest of subjects: that of 'life' and 'death' are tackled and shackled by Zola exper