Both artists possess in spades the ability to make affecting, heavyweight emotional music. This emotional intensity and willingness to continuously explore the possibilities of sound (heavy or otherwise) is what May Our Chambers Be Full pivots around over the course of these seven incredible songs.

This is a beautiful album, a lovely complement to the best of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra and a strong statement on the part of the new generation, reaching greater emotional depths and expanding the structures impressively. The penguin isn’t out of its comfort zone after all.

Though scattershot emotional mayhem, this album is a resounding triumph.

It possesses that raw energy that was present in two other exciting debuts, Is This It? by The Strokes and Definitely Maybe by Oasis.

It is perhaps better as it is, providing the soundtrack to the lives and stories of those who hear it, and with any luck, this is an album that will find its way to everyone.

The feelings of isolation that Lanegan has channeled into his music and lyrics are beautifully served by the influences that he’s using, and the result is an album that feels both current and historical. Most importantly, it’s another absolute masterclass crammed with songs that drill their way into your head and stay there.

It feels like the deepest and most soulful album she has made.

Yet by the time the final notes of the acoustic closer I Wish I Were Here have faded away, then you're more than convinced that this is yet another triumph for the Wainwright family.

Hadsel finds Condon reinvigorated and replenished, confirming his status as a talented conveyor and instigator of emotions able to deliver consistently beautiful music regardless of the source.

With Body Talk Pt 1 she's ready to finally take her place at pop's top table of greats. For once, the sequel can't some soon enough.

It is a record that's hard to place, hard to shake and easier to love than you could ever have conceived.

Paradigmes is an album that, whilst recalling a concession of progenitors, has no modern-day comparison.

By creating a world so comic-book vivid, each track stands and walks in its own desolate, saturnine world. But it's a world where the dead want to be alive and the alive would rather be dead. The creation of warped minds, Salem just made a monster.

Frankly, Say Yes To Love is absolutely stunning--a blistering mission statement from a band with undoubtable promise and inextinguishable fire.

Bright Future consolidates the view that Lenker is now one of the most distinctive and powerful voices of her generation and these new songs will only deepen the intensity with which her music is received.

Manson has given his audience a collection of tracks that are stronger, tougher and better than they have any right to be. His ascendance led to the death of the original rock era, but his music is more vital and creative than ever. A stunning work.

Call it the fascinating intersection of jazz, lounge, prog and electro, if you must, but ultimately Tortoise produce music of the most valuable and enduring kind--beyond genres and labels, in a category all of its own.

Bold, bizarre, brazen and beguiling, Madame X is Madonna living her Latin American Life. Brilliant.

Pretentious? Undoubtedly. Overblown? Yes, of course it is, but we expected nothing less.

Local Natives have made a stunning debut, feeling simultaneously familiar and challenging, and presenting a sweeping collection of tracks that are at once cinematic and sonically lush, swelling and serene.

There's going to be a coronation very soon, and anyone who cares to invest will be handsomely rewarded by the future king.

Tomorrow, In A Year provides a complex view of The Knife as unmatched in their daring, their music quite defying categorisation as one species or another.

With only the intriguingly named Snake Oil providing somewhat of an average, doomy, Kasabian type entry in an otherwise exemplary set of songs, Foals have produced yet another outstanding must-have album.

Shields is full of both genuine surprises and moments of transcendent beauty.

Daughters have provided a soundtrack to satisfy our ghoulish intrigue with a rare beast that is both thrilling and wholly singular. Yet, however darkly disturbing You Won’t Get What You Want is at times, its matchless quality elicits awe and wonder, and strangely, that brilliance provides a surprising and curious warmth.

Cover albums can be forgettable and throwaway, but not this one. This is a truly memorable and worthwhile tribute to the quiet Beatle.

The integration of beats, synths, strings and piano offers an uninterrupted, textured suite that is as assured as it is enveloping.