There’s not one dud track on it, and each listen unveils something new to hear. Most pleasingly though, in these dark times, is that it’s a whole heap of fun. 2018 may be only a few months old, but we may have its album of the year already.

Their back catalogue is a stunning body of work and arguably each track deserves its own review.

Tiger Blood is the sound of an artist improving on her already high standards.

It’s their best album in years – maybe since The Seldom Seen Kid – and one of those records that will throw up new little surprises on each listen many months from now. Not only one of our most consistent bands, but also one of our most surprising – the national treasure status is well earned.

Disjointed, hyperactive, experimental, whatever. Angles is the album to beat this year.

It all adds up to Stern's most fully realised, most rounded album yet, and a huge step in her evolution as an artist.

Darlings is a record that feels simultaneously cerebral and carnal--and things don’t get much sexier than that.

The album is so intricate, rich and multilayered that it’s difficult to do justice to its overall sound.

El Pintor is sleek, minimalist and brilliantly realised, and is the band’s best work since Antics.

Seeking New Gods is simultaneously thought provoking, questioning, elegant and unsettled – but it is fundamentally a feelgood album. We find Gruff Rhys at his most natural, his winning blend of a slight, endearing shyness balanced by extrovert, psychedelic tendencies.

It’s rare to hear a debut album so confident and accomplished, especially when the artist himself has just turned 20 years old. Yet Psychodrama is pretty close to a masterpiece and raises the bar for a new standard in British rap.

The nine songs gathered on her third record beautifully convey heartache, loss and desolation. It’s not just in the songwriting--although, that is, of course, wonderful. It’s also in the production.

Run The Jewels 2 is one of the best albums of the year.

Overall, Pearson has produced an album with very few weak spots. It’s a record that takes the strengths of Return and builds on them, resulting in a work that, from the very first listen, you know you’ll be going back to again and again.

Fetch The Bolt Cutters isn’t the easiest album to listen to – and in these claustrophobic lockdown times, some may baulk at spending 51 minutes with an album of this intensity. Yet while it’s certainly not an album for background listening, those who are willing to invest some time in it will be rewarded by one of the most remarkable records released this year.

For now, this is an album that establishes Foals as one of the most exciting and driven bands of the generation.

At times, there seems to be almost too much to process in Nikki Nack, and it’s true that this is certainly an album that repays multiple listens and complete immersion. That immersion will pay dividends, for Merrill Garbus has produced yet another deftly thrilling listen.

The Notwist is an apt example of a band that is making good music for no other reason than because making music is what they love to do, which Close To The Glass demonstrates in spades.​

It is a hugely impressive piece of work, and subsequent listens will reveal further layers and melodies you missed first time around. Don't delay the induction a minute longer.

This album shows that there’s plenty of life in this band yet, and they’re changing and developing whilst also addressing the past. But most importantly, they’re still creating interesting, vital albums.

A 1000 Times is an opening track as startling as it is oddly timeless, and if, when it debuted in July, it promised great things of this pairing, the resulting album certainly delivers.

An album which could well be one of the best released this year – and, in its pleas for solidarity and acceptance, one of the most important and vital records as well.

Black Tambourine have finally gotten the treatment they deserve. This is essential listening for anyone who wonders where indie-rock's been, or where it's going. The influence is obvious, and the music has never sounded better.

With every album she releases, Angel Olsen seems to step up a gear. As My Woman will comfortably be seen as one of the best albums of the year come December, it’s a head-spinningly exciting prospect to think where she’s going to go next time around.

An unknown quantity to me before the first listen, by the third play I was already plotting which of my friends I would be lending it to and reprimanding myself for not having come across them sooner.

It never once drags or feels like a chore to listen to, for she pulls you in and keeps you enthralled for the duration. She does this across the entire album.

It's a mightily impressive achievement.

The pedal steel guitar playing on the whole record is breathtaking.

Lovelorn, honest, poignant and emotional in the best way imaginable.

Schneider’s assessment of the impact of digital advances, while pessimistic, is not without nuance. ... Schneider is capable of breathtaking beauty as a writer – unafraid of exploring direct melodic communication and stirring arrangements. There is also plenty of subtlety and nuance in her writing, so this communicates honesty and sincerity more than earnestness.

Particularly impressive is that the music never feels incoherent or thrown together. The band always, somehow, emerge with a compelling and coherent voice, albeit a strange and often dark one.

Yeezus is a divisive album, one that contains some of West’s most inspired samples, collaborations, and racial observations to date while at times being insufferably misogynistic and confoundingly lyrically lazy.

Seeds is destined to grow and grow. Exhilarating stuff.

Such a musical melting pot can easily turn into something inaccessible and lifeless, but that’s never the case here. Skill, knowledge and passion clearly inform what this band do, but what comes across most strongly is a sense of joy, and that makes it difficult to feel anything other than wholly engaged as a listener.

In 1000 Forms Of Fear, we have what is probably Sia’s finest body of work.

The fact that he can produce an album like Bad As Me, with more energy, invention and sheer excitement that artists half his age stands as testimony that Tom Waits remains one of the true giants of music.

By the time the album’s 54 minutes have drawn to a close, you feel exhausted but in the best possible way.

Aforger is one of 2016’s most impressive albums and will most likely be seen as key in years to come when looking at Douglas Dare’s development as an artist.

It’s an album that sums up Bowie as an artist--restless, audacious, constantly looking forward to the next new idea. January may only be a week old, but that ‘Best Of 2016’ list already has a slot filled.

This album of covers brims with intensely organic and engaging moments, breathing new life into songs that could've just hung out like tired old windbags.

Because you’re ready for The Things We Think We’re Missing. It’s yet another one of those albums you didn’t know how badly you needed.

Crack The Skye is a monolithic achievement from a band that never compromises in terms of vision or style. It's easily the best metal album of the last 10 years.

WIXIW is a wonder of an album of endless layers and contrasts to get caught up and lost in.

The Liberty Of Norton Folgate may just be the best thing they have ever recorded.

What is arguably Joanna Newsom’s most consistently outstanding record to date.

What is most startling... is the amount of emotional depth that Turner's injected into his songs here.

Their incongruence makes neither any less brilliant. So powerful is its imagery, and so timeless is its presentation, Lisbon is sure to join High Violet on any shortlist of the most memorable albums of 2010.

Transforming states and changing perspectives are once again the order of the day. Modern Kosmology marks another triumphant evolution.

This is as compelling and coherent a collection as they have ever made. It’s a record that you can delve deep into and really inhabit; everything’s in its right place.

It’s as good a debut as you could hope to hear, a fresh injection of pure brilliance and beauty to a genre that is creaking under the weight of mediocrity and a lack of adventurous inventiveness.

As an exercise in maintaining artistic form, it's an indisputable success.

In short, it’s classic Eluvium and caps another special album, one that sparkles, soothes, and confirms him to be at the height of his creative powers.

Plastic Anniversary is yet another masterwork by a duo that have been on the top of their game for longer than some producers have been alive, and long may their reign over sample-driven electronica continue.

It’s a marvellously un-sobering boisterous beast of a record, and a sparkling début.

It may be nearly 35 years since The Charlatans signed to Beggars Banquet, but for sheer scope and invention, Tim Burgess knows no bounds.

Lie Down In The Light is the sound of a musician at ease, quietly and calming experimenting with his sound and subsequently coming up with his finest work to date.

Wasted Years features another 16 blasters to add to your ‘essential punk’ playlist.

While there are certainly all manner of influences on KOMPROMAT, this is an album of considerable depth and intellect that rewards careful investigation, and a well timed return from a band at the top of their game.

The Randy Newman Songbook Vol 2 is an invigorating celebration of the power of music, and a delicate declaration of the power of one man and his piano.

At the grand age of 72, he’s grown into his voice and can sing with conviction and honesty, but not at the expense of youthful venom.

It may not quite be the equal of records like Exile On Main Street or Let It Bleed (very few are, to be fair), but if Hackney Diamonds really is to be the final Rolling Stones album, it’s one incredible swansong.

A varied and largely successful meeting of minds, this is peer-review done right, and the prospect of it influencing future solo outings from Case, lang and Veirs is golden.

His is a rare talent, demanding to be heard.

In a year where R&B and hip hop have proved the most innovative and original genres Solange has delivered a brilliantly crafted record that places her right at the top.

[A] supreme collection of future-perfect broken nostalgia.

Archangel Hill is another life-affirming encounter with a remarkable artist. Shirley Collins may be British folk music royalty, but this record once again shows her ability to communicate with her listeners as though they are the only people in the room.

Champs deserve to be gracing grander environs on the back of this album, and while that may not happen, Down Like Gold does ensure that they’ll have thousands of eyes trained on them when they make their next move.

Whether stark and menacing, grief-laden or simply plain daft, Lodestar is a triumph of storytelling and sound.

The last album was such a darkly compelling set that it’d be wrong to frame Lamp Lit Prose as a ‘return to form’, but it’s perhaps a return to the light, to uneasy listening of a different sort.

There's plenty of pop tunes here, but there's also enough self expression and leftfield rambling to make this an album of real interest.

Punisher is funny but serious, subtle yet obtuse, familiar and somehow simultaneously entirely unique. Even if in the final analysis it’s still not massively folky.

Second album Open features a significant amount of fine-tuning and finessing and as a result sees them operating at a markedly higher level.

For a 21st century rock band, there isn't a single moment here that threatens to turn into an 'anthem' to be balled out at the Nestle-Monsanto Rock Festival at a mud-pit near you next summer.

A Certain Ratio’s 2024 model is a lean, mean, fighting machine that delivers one of their very finest albums to date – and for a band who have been in existence for more than 45 years, that really is saying something.

Tunng presents Dead Club may be their darkest album to date but it is arguably their finest too. ... A creative peak even for a band with more than 15 years’ experience together.

They have formed the most remarkable of pairings, crafting an album of such beauty that past reference is made redundant.

The album's not for everyone, but if her sound is to your taste, then it will prove a rewarding, delectable, necessary thing: one of this year's most consistently interesting albums.

As this wildly talented, unpredictable and near flawless young singer and musician bids her farewell with the album's longest track, BaBopBye Ya, this time in cocktail club torch singer style, one can but marvel at the impressive range, ambition (realised) and detail of this deeply polished, professional yet utterly, brilliantly bonkers album.

By the time the spine-tingling hidden track after the closing Wanderer Wandering has faded out, you’ll be convinced you’ve heard one of the best albums of the year.

An album that’s up there with their best, one of their most powerful and cohesive statements to date.

Versions Of Us is an intense listen, dealing with weighty topics, yet thanks to the hooks running through most of these songs, it’s also their most accessible album to date. It’s taken a while, but Lanterns On The Lake may just be ready for the big time at long last.

Chaos For The Fly is a captivating debut that showcases his artistic evolution outside of the post-punk bombast of Fontaines DC. These songs bleed through in their honesty and lack of over-thinking to demand active engagement, to explore their intricacies and contemplate their themes.

Vulnicura feels, overall, as if it is one of Björk’s most successful albums, one where she mostly finds sonic strategies that are well matched with her concepts and themes.

The album sees a succession of warm, hushed acoustic guitar textures provide an accommodating bed in which Nadler's flawless vocals can rest. The hazy sound and crepuscular feel to parts of the album recall fellow vocalist Hope Sandoval, or occasionally a more fragile and more gothic Cat Power.

Narratively cohesive and relatable, it is in celebration of where he comes from that ultimately makes Last Man Dancing the essential, repeatable work that it is.

If you've any common sense, plot a listen soon.

They've succeeded in making an album that does well to second-guess its listener, whilst never disowning the sound that first brought Greene to the foreground. "Chillwave" might be dead and buried, but Washed Out has only just set foot in the water.

Oozing fun out of every pore, this record is the perfect tonic to the increasingly troubled times that 2009 brings with it and will most likely feature on many of those Best Of lists come December.

While The Terror feels at first glance like an exercise in noise and disintegration, repeated listens reveal it to be a dark, challenging, and ultimately rewarding work of genius. It may be their best yet.

Faithfull’s warm gravelly tone imparts a real fullness to each one. Sonorous and calmly delivered, it’s indeed a surprising joy to let the words wrap around you. A large part of that gratification comes from Ellis’s charismatic score. Unobtrusive to the point of almost being fictional, piano keys are soothingly caressed with the slightest of touch, violins tremble thriftlessly and the watercoloured melodies all but turn to vapour.

You could make a fair case for it not even being as good as Funeral – but my oh my, it's close.

Psychic 9-5 Club is a rare, gentle masterpiece, and to paraphrase Kurt Cobain, this album definitely won’t let you forget your ex-girlfriend.

Brothers & Sisters sees him build on these long established musical interests but, importantly, also add new elements to the mix to deliver a compelling listen. It comes out of the blocks impressively quickly, with each track building on the former to create a formidable initial run. ... In terms of musical statements it’s hard not to see it as his most vivid and vibrant to date.

With Dawn FM The Weeknd has demonstrated a vision that the vast majority of his peers would be incapable of, and has executed it with finesse and a slippery, enigmatic charm.

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.

It’s not an easy listen and will send hipsters scurrying for their bobble hats and fake specs, but this is the sound of a band pushing themselves, challenging their audience and making something to be proud of.

This record is fun, it’s exuberant, and it’s diverse--and yet nothing sounds unnatural or feels crowbarred in.

This is an astonishing work, one that highlights Kanaan’s remarkable worldview, that you’ll unconsciously find yourself gravitating back to, time and time again.