Isolation works because Uchis displays impeccable command over her voice and her style. She bends genres to her will rather than allowing them to absorb her identity, making for an impressive effort that will only improve as it ages.

It's an emphatic step forward, a gorgeous album that, rather than running from it, reflects our fractured world back at us.

It's a new band, a new sound, but the same old, marvellous songwriting. It's a killer combination.

For both Bedhead fans and casual record collectors, Bedhead 1992-1998 is a fascinating (and comprehensive) look into one of indie rock's great forgotten acts.

Rawlings-Welch are so good and natural in their borrowing that Nashville Obsolete evokes familiar sepia-toned moods almost without ever sounding worn-out or dated, the only exception perhaps being "Short Haired Woman Blues," on which the tempo feels sluggish.

The Wake continues Voivod's musical legacy with a pulse-pounding album that stands alongside their classics.

Emily Alone is a landmark LP, recorded swiftly to perfectly capture urgent beauty and raw authenticity in its purest forms.

Heavy Heavy may be a little too sweet for long-time listeners, but its massive choruses, strong hooks and ecstatic sound too timely and too powerful to deny.

Nightmare Logic showcases Power Trip at their strongest yet, and packs its 30-minute runtime with songs that push everything they have done right so far to an entirely new level.

Smith is vague about where he lands on his quest for contentment, but Where’s My Utopia? manages the old trick of making the personal universal, while hanging on to the righteous fun that drew so many in in the first place.

Roísín Machine is among Murphy's best works, a showcase for one of dance music's most endlessly fascinating figures

This is the kind of music that, in 20 years, we may look back on as a pivotal point in changing the trajectory of the pop music sound.

With Bécs, Fennesz achieves the near-impossible, crafting a musical sequel that retains the energy, vision and flow of its predecessor.

From Jagger's playful banter ("Everything alright in the critics' section?" he asks sardonically) to the band playing quite tightly around Charlie Watts, as he messes beautifully with time and space so that the Stones can transcend them both, the band innocently gave Toronto and the world something incredible to talk about for four decades and counting.

Remind Me Tomorrow is not only a reminder of the power of love but also features some of Van Etten's finest work to date.

Her strongest body of work to date.

Natalie Prass is a beautiful record that does best when it prods the sweet ache of failed romance.

Sturgill Simpson has been running in a different direction for a while, and with A Sailor's Guide To Earth, he's finally arrived in another world.

Are We There cuts deep into the skin of its creator and finds Van Etten more exposed than ever.

This is eclectic, bold, inventive, masterfully played music conceived with a refreshing sense of curiosity and wonder at the potential of sound to invigorate the spirit. Fans of BADBADNOTGOOD should cue up to have their minds blown by this profoundly deep fusion of jazz, world music and hip-hop sensibilities.

He and his band are making truly tremendous guitar rock in a manner that is peerless in this era, and from anywhere on the globe.

It admittedly spends a lot of time in a downer mode--a more light-amidst-the-dark feel would feel nice--but this sophomore effort remains affecting and affirming in its own quiet way

The Longest River sounds like it wasn't written to impress anyone, but impress it does. It's an intriguing debut.

The band have played it relatively safe, changing little from the upbeat pop-punk formula established on 2014's Wishful Thinking, but have still managed to cram some undeniably catchy moments into this new set.

Kacy & Clayton craft timeless and detailed folk songs on Strange Country, an album that more than promises the duo's staying power.

Elaborating on the foundations that have propelled Four Tet through his 20-year career, Hebden allows the sonic palettes from records Pause and Rounds to bleed into textures born from transfigured field recordings and sonic artefacts that epitomize the producer's discography while refining his sonic identity.

Lucinda Williams is an artist with the confidence to say what needs to be said, and the power to back it up. On This Sweet Old World, she might be repeating the words, but she's hardly repeating herself.

On the rich, rewarding Sparrow, the singer has found the perfect marriage of songs, arrangements and performances. In the process she has also crafted a captivating Southern Gothic country-soul masterpiece, one that can stand proudly next to the timeless works that inspired it.