That they can create such a heavy sound with just two people is nothing short of genius.

It’s to their huge credit that they have made such an assured and immersive album on their own terms.

Slave Ambient is an amazing record, but it is far from immediate as these songs take time to develop into something tangible.

Their first album was one of the strongest debuts in recent memory and this is an equally impressive follow-up.

At this point in Mogwai’s history, it’d be unreasonable to expect any kind of seismic shift in direction, but what they’ve done with Atomic is refine their methods to create something that could just possibly be the highlight of the career to date.

Gargoyle is yet another fantastic album from Mark Lanegan, and one that points to a new path.

This album is the full realisation of his talent as a bass player, musician and, most importantly, a songwriter. Apocalypse is, in short, a supreme triumph.

This is a magnificent and engaging record from one of our most beloved actors that both jazz aficiandos and neophytes should come to adore.

Present Tense is yet another unusually powerful invitation to savour a few abominable maledictions by these wicked vagabonds.

If you've approached Herbert's music before you'll already know to expect the unexpected. If it's your first time, use all the surround sound you have and revel in the power of free musical speech and a fantastic update of timeless jazz styles.

On The Worse Things Get, there’s not a weak song.

It is consistently fresh, inventive and beguiling, showing a band surely at the summit of their powers.

This is another step along that path of evolution destined to appear on end of year best album lists, and (ducks from those crazed blues-starved fans of old) it’s quite possibly The Black Keys’ own best ever long player.

Whether or not Shit Robot is making grooves and beats that are unique and progressive isn't the point. The whole point of his work is to embrace the glorious past and then push the necessary knobs and buttons that are commonplace today to take it to a wonderfully hip-shaking new level.

Overall, Matthew E White and his Spacebomb house band have created a brilliant debut, one that will undoubtedly have artists queueing up to be a part of this newly established project.

Home Counties is Saint Etienne at their very best, blending breezy observations and harmonies with a deep seated emotion, centred around the need for a place to call home. In these uncertain times, a blast of hot sunshine and a listen to this record certainly make the world a better place to be.

The sound might be ’80s, but this is undeniably now, and Shura a new star in 2016’s increasingly bible-black night.

Iglooghost has succeeded in an enviable task: he has managed to create a signature sound while innovating and progressively adding to that sound, and Lei Line Eon is a fine showcase for this unique artistic vision.

Wall Of Arms is an expansive, confident second album that takes The Maccabees from indie also-rans to genuine contenders.

This is music that has gloriously outgrown its unfamiliar origins and deserves to be embraced wholeheartedly.

Featuring some of the most inventive producers in pop and steered by a singer who knows her way round a catchy melody or five, Don't Stop is one of the best pop albums of 2009.

Let England Shake, Harvey's first solo album since 2007's White Chalk, is a brutal, often difficult and always unflinching look at what terrible things happen to people when nations fight each other.

His versatility serves him incredibly well once again, and ultimately prevents the demons from bringing him down. By laying bare his troubles, Ben Watt has made his finest album yet.

The upshot is an album that is one of the year’s most significant and polished pop performances. There’s not a wasted moment on Something To Give Each Other.

The legend behind m b v, as well as its songs, have created something many will talk about for much longer than it’s taken to arrive.

Unfollow The Rules – the album title was inspired by a phrase used by Wainwright’s daughter – is worth the wait, and across the 12 songs here, we experience some of the finest moments of his career to date.

It's not a totally perfect record, for which we should be thankful - remember what happened to The Stone Roses after they'd released their flawless debut? - but it is an excellent first album, and gives notice that Alex Turner is already one of this country's best lyricists.

From this irrepressible debut, we can deduce that Katy B is a genuinely exciting UK urban vocal talent, the like of which we haven't seen in some time.

It is an album that both looks back and innovates.

Planet’s Mad is an intense listen, a runaway train devouring everything in its path. It’s also an absolute tour de force from an extremely talented producer who is only going from strength to strength.

The music on Field Of Reeds is certainly not easily accessible but, at its heart, this is a supremely evocative album.

Labyrinthes is a jubilant album of experimental indie pop that hold ups to the scrutiny of constant plays. You may not have an idea of what's being sung, but it's a great album which easily transcends the language barrier.

Utterly compelling.

Musically it is arguably the best thing the band have done..

Put simply, it's a deeply beautiful record.

This album and its predecessor are worthy and awe-inspiring tributes to the man and the Malian musical traditions for which he and Diabaté were--and continue to be--the strongest and most compelling of standard-bearers.

As M83 Anthony Gonzalez makes you want to turn the volume up as loud as possible, filling the room with music and reaching for those other worlds and creatures. Fantasy, then, fuels our imagination – just at the time when musical escapism is sorely needed.

It's less digestible but it's tauter, more metallic and yes, industrial.

Love Streams is always on the move. It’s alive and constantly evolving: a slippery beast of a record that you can try and get a hold of, but thankfully you probably never will.

With -io she has made a work that is both devastatingly personal and beautifully generous. Around the time of Reaching For Indigo’s release, she described that record as her magnum opus and no doubt it will remain a high water mark in a remarkable career. But -io is likely to sit by its side, in cosmic grandeur.

Sun Structures is a compelling listen throughout its 55 minutes, holding together perfectly as a whole with strong tracks dotted throughout.

These are songs to fall in love to, to grow along with, and to share with friends in need of a life-change.

One can’t help but be impressed with how every song is critical to Essential Tremors’ progression, each song being placed in just the right spot.

Kingdom Of Rust is a triumph, and the best album the band have ever produced.

It’s a broad net Terje casts here, flitting through myriad styles but he always ensures they’re congealed in order to give the record a cohesiveness and rigidity.

As a soundtrack to watching those flames flicker, it doesn’t come much better than The Past Is Still Alive.

Forget the furore around Fifty Shades Of Grey; this is Tellier's Fifty Shades Of Blue, and it is a whole lot sexier.

A '60s psychedelic, experimental hippie-folk throwback, an invocation of lost, childish innocence delicately constructed with a deft musical touch.

The real glory of this record resides in the way in which Lekman blends his bottled sunshine melodies with droll and romantic word play.

Bleak and broody music has never been quite so thrilling.

Daddy’s Home may lack the more exhilarating, guitar-shredding moments of some of Clark’s earlier work, but it’s possibly her best, most considered album to date. Six albums into her career, St Vincent is arguably becoming the defining artist of her generation.

It’s their strongest record in years. ... A group working at the height of their considerable powers.

You know it's special from the first bars.

Displacing the emotional in favour of engagingly tenuous perspectives, this precariously magnetic album, much like the contents of Dourofs, will absolutely floor you.

With its innate sun-necked nature and social atmosphere, despite its throbbing introspection, Stay Gold is perfectly poised to knock you for six this summer.

There is something new and exciting in Ellison’s bewildering synthesis, and something very original in his seemingly unlimited horizons.

Embracing the participatory rather than lurking in personal mistrust, and supplementing their formerly disconsolate narratives with unusually contented flourishes, these diverse new manifestations substantially demonstrate that Xiu Xiu still exist in a universe of their own design, but that maybe they’re ready to temporarily negotiate ours once more.

One of the most deeply satisfying aspects of this almost wholly satisfying album is the way in which the band succeed in the creation of moods and conveying of emotions.

There are no low points in this relentless record. At times it is beastly, baring its teeth. At others, it’s divinely angelic, St Purple Green and Sky Musings being prime examples.

You probably wouldn’t have started 2018 predicting that a 50-something bunch of grunge-era survivors would produce one of the most startling, exciting and vital albums of the year, but the sheer strangeness of the times dictates that that’s exactly what’s happened.

It's an album of consistently high quality from start to finish.

You can almost feel the wind and rain outside, and this adds to the mixture of melancholia and euphoria throughout, the latter realised most obviously on 'Waving Flags.' And that's the spirit that runs through this fine album, staying with the listener long after the final stanzas of 'We Close Our Eyes' bring it full circle.

Some may listen to Songs From A&E and dub Jason Pierce a one-trick pony. Which may be true, but what a trick he's managed to perfect.

This album is a true and cathartic celebration of music and features some of the most treasured artists and the most hopeful future prospects. It’s all here and its glorious.

It’s this constant shifting of tone and genre that makes Deportation Blues such a delight to listen to. That it comes from such a turbulent and traumatic period in its creator’s life is somewhat surprising, because even though this is an album that has its moments of darkness, there’s an irrepressible spirit and joy contained in almost every single song here.

It's primal, life-affirming and powerfully personal, demanding to be heard.

Best listened to in silence on a home stereo with cinematic projection; this is a remarkable achievement from Johannsson, and a welcome change from the string-drenched sound that has become ubiquitous in modern film scores.

Atomos is an outstanding, thoughtful piece of work which should see their reputation rise to a new high.

With lyrics in the languages of Turkey, Kurdistan and Iraq all included, with the express aim of engaging listeners throughout the region, Souleyman’s mission to bring a more positive view of his country, and its thrilling musical forms, to a wider audience continues unabated.

The Myth Of The Happily Ever After doesn’t just stand out, it soars, inadvertently becoming not only Biffy Clyro’s best album to date but one that will undoubtedly stun their critics.

So put aside your disappointment at the lack of squealing guitar solos and take Get Behind Me Satan for what it is - another massive step forward in the evolution of a truly great band.

Bailey Rae sounds like an artist reborn. It may not be what you expect, but it’s all the better for that. Without a doubt, it is the best album of Bailey Rae’s career, and quite probably one of the albums of 2023 as well.

These singles show that Manic Street Preachers have stayed true to one at least one of their ideals – which is to write the best songs they possibly could.

There are bound to be some people that just don't get it. For those that do, you are looking at a sure contender for your album of the year.

While occasionally you miss the humanising influence of an analogue drum, or Void’s bowed guitar or even a voice which sounds more flesh and blood than silicon, the sheer force of will that drives 25 25 batters you into submission.

These songs are her most heartfelt to date, reaching into the depths of her character. The influence of Björk is occasionally audible, but so are inflections from as far afield as Enya and composer Karl Jenkins. Yet Aurora is very much herself, one of the most exciting female singers around – and The Gods We Can’t Touch adds another set of strings to her generously filled bow.

One moment I feel like I am listening to Underworld's frantic blast combined with the Blue Nile's slowly evolving elegance, the next it could be The Pet Shop Boys' sailing in the slip stream of Depeche Mode. I can't nail down the sound beyond the fact that it's breathtaking.

An album of the year contender.

Just like a balloon the music soars to ever greater heights, until finally the listener stands transfixed, observing until they can see no more.

Taken on its own merits, this is life-enriching stuff.

It turns out to be the best thing they've ever done--yes, even better than Silent Alarm.

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

It’s a record that’s testament to going through hell and coming out the other side. It’s also an album that confirms Angel Olsen as one of the foremost singer-songwriters of her generation.

Holy Fire is the sound of a band utterly on form and completely on top of their game.

Ably coaxed on and assembled by Ward--whose input ought not to be overlooked--Volume Two is an outstanding collection of tracks worthy of any discerning listener's undivided attention.

Sex Dreams And Denim Jeans is catchy, fresh-sounding and brilliantly self-referential, with an attitude a million miles removed from a major label star pretending to be like, totally, OMG, mental.

When it hits, as on the wistful Fionn Regan sample on the closing 00000 Million or the breathtaking piano introduction to 33 “GOD” you know that this strange, beautiful, willfully obtuse album is one that you’ll want to live with for a very long time.

Augustines has always been capable of creating rousing songs, but this is an album full of them, and it never once feels too much or overstated.

Dirty Projectors may be a breakup record, and one with its fair share of petty sniping (Keep Your Name’s pointed “What I want from art is truth, what you want is fame” is fairly hard to swallow without the suggestions elsewhere that Longstreth is playing characters) but, cathartic and redemptive, it’s one worth getting to know.

For a dance music album, Swim sounds not only refreshingly organic, but also remarkably downbeat. Most remarkable of all, perhaps, is the way that Caribou have succeeded in marrying up these two things and still managed to make an album that is infused with a rhythm, a groove and a watery loveliness all of its own.

Six albums in and Everything Everything continue to find new ways of developing their art, and yet the feeling remains they still have an enormous amount of potential to fulfil. Raw Data Feel, one of their very best achievements, gives a strong indication they are getting there.

He is now firmly established as one of the UK’s finest songwriters, making an album that should be treasured through the dark winter months. Sadness Sets Me Free offers hope and light for what’s ahead, in spite of the political slurry we find ourselves wading through.

A Common Turn is a questing and provocative record that’s both remarkably dynamic and audaciously exposing.

The Idler Wheel… is a really incredible album, where Apple has quite cleverly developed musically in just the right way, creating something utterly distinct and different to her earlier work whilst still retaining all the characteristics that won fans over to begin with.

An evocative album of considerable depth that beautifully completes the triangle.

After a while shapes form and the structure of this masterpiece become clear - a wash of beautiful melodies and sumptuous chord changes that sit somewhere between George Harrison and Echo and the Bunnymen.

This is a fantastic, passionate and wonderfully eccentric debut album that's also a thrilling advert of what's to come.

It has been a long wait for a British album like this, the kind that transcends age group appeal and inspires cool kids to form bands and geeky kids to lose themselves in music's history.