There’s not much on this album which will raise the eyebrows of anyone familiar with their previous work, as it falls somewhere between the fuzzy glow of 1993’s Souvlaki and the dispassionate chill of its follow-up Pygmalion. But Everything Is Alive is joyful listen regardless, taking the cloud tunnel bliss of the best shoegaze and adding some pure pop pleasure. Cinema for the ears? More like dream visions for the soul.

By the time Free The Ruler’s soulful loop fades out, we’ve only come to a conclusion in the loosest sense. The listener enters Earl’s world in medias res and 25 minutes later he’s still maintaining, still working everything out, but the journey’s been nuanced and engaging.

This is a good album, even if they’re not quite great yet.

Even the less successful tracks have something interesting about them, and they never flatten the feel-good mode of the album. It’s been a while in coming, but Bunny could be a case of third time lucky for Willie J Healey.

It’s easily Alice Cooper’s strongest album in decades, a testament to the resilience, and seemingly endless creative capacity the man has.

Weedkiller is the sound of an artist actually excelling in multiple fields with apparent ease. In a landscape where rap is diversifying and artists like Ice Spice and Sexyy Red are achieving notoriety, Ashnikko is a leftfield force to be reckoned with.

This may all sound exhausting, but luckily The Hives have the songs to back up their energy.

With Struggler Genesis Owusu has followed through on his potential, and hopefully won’t be getting the boot from listeners anytime soon.

The beats sometimes bang in typical trap fashion, like on Topia Twins or Meltdown, but are not afraid to go surreal and alien.

The streaming era may have killed mixtape culture, but it’s best to come into Magic 2 expecting a more casual affair – Nas is mostly just flexing, surveying his legacy while adding to it.

Punchy, playful and exhilarating, with Euphoric Georgia has regained her artistic verve.

As the album draws to a close, it’s hard not to see I Am Not There Anymore as their most ambitious, artistically progressive offering to date.

This is a fine and often beautiful album, full of sensual delights and productions that vary from wafer-thin to chocolate rich. Throughout the focus is on Lanza and her feelings, which are reassuringly human and grounded. Combine that with its underground origins, and you have a record for the everyday listener.

To paraphrase Public Image Ltd, this is not a love album, in a form that most would recognise. It is, however, a powerful rumination on its presence, absence, and the power, both good and bad that love holds over us. Oxbow understands the power of love.

It’s an assured, charismatic release with a consistency that sets her above her contemporaries.

Compared to Big Conspiracy 3 years prior, Beautiful And Brutal Yard displays more ambition and an admirable desire to experiment, resulting in both career-defining moments and unfortunate missteps.

Overall, The Ballad of Darren is a captivating sonic journey that goes to great lengths to ignore much of Blur’s rich legacy, but it shows that bands – even those long in the tooth – can still continue their musical growth without sacrificing quality.

Over the course of a full album, Potter’s vocals sometimes veer towards being a bit too mannered, and it’s true that some of the arrangements can feel a bit one-note at times. Yet, considering this is a debut album from an artist best known for a totally different medium, Pink Bikini is an often extraordinary change of direction for Sally Potter.

A career-best work that serves both as a tribute to and means of overcoming a life sadly gone.

A beautiful album from a talent very much on the rise.

The Penguin Cafe’s conviction that it will be fine before eleven is clear in this album. Its sunny musical disposition, vibrant rhythms and eloquent melodies make it their best since Arthur Jeffes revived the name.

This all feels like authentic Little Dragon, the album they have been threatening to make for years.

It’s undoubtedly a confounding and unorthodox piece of work, but its artistic integrity and single-mindedness still manages to ensure PJ Harvey somehow comes out of it with her reputation enhanced.

Messy has been given time to come to fruition, and that shows through every note. It’s a fine demonstration of Olivia Dean’s talent, and sounds every inch a marker of a long and successful career.

Although there are a couple of songs on this album which don’t set up camp in your memory, the vocals always astonish, from the sound of Jeff Buckley floating on a soul bisque on It Must Change to the greasy gospel crescendo of Rest.

Stories From A Rock N Roll Heart is a triumphant return, an uplifting listen and a valuable addition to her magnificent catalogue.

He remains an important figure in the rock scene, even if his albums play second fiddle to The Strokes’ material – and albums like this make it still more of a shame that that’s the case, for this is a winner.

It may not be up there with Rumours or Blood On The Tracks, but given the emotion and heart poured into it, Chemistry is a more than decent break-up album.