Even when it doesn’t quite hit the mark, they still sound like no other band out there. They remain a curiously compelling act to listen to, who play by thier own rules – chaos remains their lifeblood, for good and for bad.

Whether the stylistic digressions work for you or not is immaterial really, because they’re impressive no matter what your expectations were.

As good as her earlier folk-rock songs were, this new direction is one that suits Rose extremely well.

The songs themselves range from the good (the surprisingly energetic I Can Do It With A Broken Heart, throwback ballad But Daddy I Love Him, the extra textures of the Florence + The Machine duet, Florida!!!) to the somewhat samey but still enjoyable (So Long, London; the title track; Fresh Out the Slammer), to the unnecessary retreads (Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?, The Alchemy), to the truly rotten (Down Bad – which can’t manage to disguise its hollowness with truly beautiful textures, and I Can Fix Him).

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.

Best of all, it’s an album that cuts all the fat – it’s just 11 tracks long and there’s barely anything that feels like filler. Even the more generic sounding rockers like Waiting For Stevie and Running have a palpable energy about them that will no doubt make them firm favourites on the band’s upcoming stadium tour.

It may last just 25 minutes, but One Million Love Songs doesn’t feel half-sketched or incomplete. On the contrary, once it’s finished, you’ll just want to go straight back to the beginning to wallow in this strange, otherworldly gem of a record.

As it’s a debut, she’s still developing her sound, but all indications are that this is a start of a long and successful journey for Nia Archives.

Yummy adds itself to the James canon as an album both for fans and newcomers, a triumph over prejudice and anxiety. Everyone is welcome here.

While Surrender was an album that immediately hit you, Don’t Forget Me takes a bit longer to work its magic. That does, though, bode well to her longevity as an artist. These songs have a timeless feel to them, and seem like ones we’ll be listening to for quite some time to come.

It’s a debut album full of confidence, heart and ambition, with songs that sound both instantly familiar and also like nothing you’ve ever heard before.

While there's no arguments with the quality of the craft on display, over the course of a 12 track album, you may find yourself nodding off sometimes. Yet there's still a warm glow to this album, and anyone who's missed the sound of Knopfler expertly working the fretboard, will find much to love on it.

Mostly, Love In Constant Spectacles is one of Weaver’s most successful albums – it may not have the instant ‘wow factor’ of The Silver Globe or the nods to the dancefloor that her last album Flock had, but these are some beautifully intricate, thoughtful songs that deserve all of your attention.

This record has been a long time coming, as Fabiana first appeared as one to watch in 2017, but with her development as a singer, songwriter and producer it’s surely been worth the wait.

Feels like a jolt to the nervous system in the best possible way. As a soundtrack to the weird times we all find ourselves in, and a potent call to action, it doesn’t get much better than this.

The yearning title track brings to a close an album that is quite probably Harcourt’s best since Here Be Monsters.

In many ways The Sunset Violent feels like the completion of a journey: Mount Kimbie have become a very different act with a sound palette that isn’t beholden to any one genre, and on track after track they prove themselves to be masters of their own style.

A La Sala succeeds in the way that a good AC/DC album does: more of the same, done well.

After just a few listens, it cements itself as the best Vampire Weekend album to date and, much like the New York City to which much of this album is an ode to, there are layers and layers to this record which are a delight to unpack and discover.

There are still a few forgettable plodders on All Quiet – the likes of Baron’s Claw and Be Young seem to be a bit phoned in. Yet while the fire of 20 years ago is inevitably never going to be reignited, this new version of The Libertines seems to be settling quite nicely into a once unimaginable middle age.

Interplay is a consistently fine piece of work, and even though it is a shade too long it has a strong claim to being Ride’s best album since they reformed. Given the quality of the music since that second coming, we can go all out and say they are one of the finest guitar bands in the country right now.

While it’s impossible to fault Cowboy Carter’s ambition, it’s sometimes a bit too sprawling for its own good. Eighty minutes is a long runtime for an album, and some tracks inevitably sag a bit, especially in the middle section.

On first listen it feels understated, the low-slung rhythms an easy listen with many melodic and textural high points. Yet as you spend more time with them the frank admissions of the band take on a reassuring quality, sharing our own highs and lows with everyday life and offering a calmly assertive way of dealing with them.

There’s nothing essentially wrong with Evolution, but it just sounds like it’s mostly been written on auto-pilot. It’s always nice to have a musician of Crow’s calibre still active, but Evolution feels more like an inessential addition to her canon, rather than the glorious comeback it was no doubt intended to be.

As the mainstream of club music continues to seek out bigger and more energetic sounds, Logic1000’s relatively mellow approach is intriguing, and Mother certainly shows potential – it just needs some fine-tuning to become the full package.

It’s a remarkable, joyous and life-affirming record, a testament to remaining musically open-minded and progressive, and very much confirms O’Hagan’s under-appreciated genius.

An album which sounds like the beginning of a new chapter for the duo.

Big Anonymous is a deliberately paced album that some may find a bit too bleak to visit often. It’s beautifully crafted, as you’d expect from Sarah Assbring, but at times that darkness can become a bit all-consuming. If you’re in the right frame of mind though, El Perro Del Mar’s world is one that’s well worth stepping into.

It’s certainly a confident step-up from Garageband Superstar and if more of Hibberd’s musical personality is allowed to shine through next time around, she could produce an even better album.

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.

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

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.

By the time we reach closing track Who Brings Me the journey through the cloudscape is complete, sealing an experience that is equal parts head and heart music. It’s an absorbing, cohesive listen that casts fresh light on familiar structures and melds them into new and appealing shapes.

The album does seem to tail off a bit towards the end – as nice as Light It Up and Tough are, they both seem disappointingly sedate ways to bring the album to a close compared to the succession of instantly engaging anthems that preceded them. Other than that, though, there’s enough evidence on Real Love that the fire that inspired Gossip is still burning as bright as ever.

Songdreaming is a big musical event. It is a great place to start if you are less familiar with folk music, opening its arms to ambient and electronic influences while simultaneously celebrating traditional instruments and old melodic forms. It is also a great place to visit if you’ve lived with these forms of music for decades.

While it inevitably doesn’t have the shattering impact of Psychocandy, it does confirm their unlikely status as elder statesmen that a whole new generation can look up to.

While there are no big surprises on Rockmaker, most of the tracks on the album are as instantly addictive as in their heyday.

Deeper Well is an album to wallow in, one for those rainy days inside where you just want to sit and find comfort in music. For anybody undergoing some large life changes, this is an album that will be able to gently guide you through those times.

It’s another long album – if there’s one conclusion to be drawn from this record, it’s that Justin Timberlake desperately needs an editor – but it’s a return to the slinky RnB pop that made his name. The problem is that there’s not much of the sparkle that was evident about 20 years ago.

eternal sunshine also represents a triumphant return to form, sophisticated pop music complementing her distinctive voice beautifully.

While it doesn’t quite have the instantly addictive quality that Pupul’s work with Charlotte Adigéry does, this is still a rich, multi-layered work that serves as both a fine tribute to Pupul’s mother and a compelling journey of grief, loss and the effects of ancestry.

It’s a brilliant record, even without the weight of history behind it, and a classic, true heavy metal album from the same band that practically invented much of the genre. Essential for fans of any of the forms of metal. Obviously.

This is an astonishing album.

If Antonoff can add more of his own personality into songs as beautifully crafted and well produced as these, they could unleash something special.

Sadly, too much of the Easy Eighth Album sounds a bit hollow and empty, the sound of a band wanting to move on, but without the energy to properly capture the old glory days.

This is thrillingly visceral music that could bring Mannequin Pussy ever closer to crossover success.

This is an adrenaline rush of an album, an electric shock in a world of flabby gas. Proof, if any were needed, that it’s possible to reinvent the wheel if you’re committed enough to the spin.

It’s another intriguing step in the evolution of Everything Everything – it ultimately doesn’t matter whether you buy into the overarching concept of the record when the songs are as good as they are on Mountainhead.

The more that you listen to this album, the more affecting it becomes.

On this one, they’ve become a great band. It’s harder to take them seriously here, but perhaps that’s something they’ve never wanted. They’re more than content with being the class clowns, and we’re more than happy to have them.

The main problem with Gallagher-Squire is that it all sounds a bit lazy and predictable. You get the impression that they know this too.

Most importantly, Sadier succeeds in her aim, offering a genuine musical antidote to the cultural scars and traumas we carry from recent years.

There is no radical change from their first four albums, but anyone familiar with MGMT knows that means plenty of musical exploration, a refreshing flick of the fingers up to the norm. There are many lyrical gems, too, VanWyngarden and Goldwasser maintaining their happy knack of writing songs that connect, songs that their listeners will want to hear on repeat.

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

It’s more conceptually consistent, more musically accomplished, more of pretty much everything that she’s ever done before – and what she was already doing was verging on masterly. Filthy Underneath is already a contender for Album of the Year, and it will take something truly exceptional to beat it.

Maya Shenfeld’s towering achievement is to craft a highly effective polemical record with no words, the music saying all that needs to be said: throw in imaginative sound design and a deft approach to pacing and the result is an out-and-out triumph.

By the time we reach the end, Doyle has nailed his musical remedy for the pace and relentless demand on the senses this digital life can make. Ironically he does so with a pleasing amount of analogue input, the music spring-like in the upward looking way it saunters down the street.

We find Omni changing the formula only slightly and having incredible success with it. Highly recommended. Underrate them at your peril.

The Mess We Seem To Make is a remarkably confident, assured debut album – every inch of care and time that’s been lavished on it has obviously been well spent. Crawlers sound very much like a band on the cusp of some very big things.

Blu Wave sounds absolutely steeped in sadness – it’s full of pedal steel guitar, luscious string arrangements and Lyttle’s fragile vocals. It is, in a word, beautiful.

Tangk is sadly, and far too often, a rather boring album by a band who can and should be doing much better.

It would have been very easy, at such a young age, to restrict himself to a particular sound, but What Happened To The Beach? demonstrates an impressive range that bodes well for his long-term success.

What Now is sometimes not an easy listen, but it’s certainly a thrilling and restless journey. Looking at how Howard has evolved from her early days with Alabama Shakes, a more appropriate title for this collection could have been What Next – as whatever does come next is likely to be intriguing.

Each and every song here would sound completely at home as closing credits music for any number of fantastic horror movies. Not necessarily because of the finality of the songs, but rather because they conjure an unnameable, hideous feeling that is generally only experienced after witnessing something terrifying.

The only issue is that, over the course of a 45 minute album, Masics’ style can drag a bit. When his songs lose Barlow’s influence, they can tend to lose a bit of energy, and as What Do We Do Now reaches its conclusion, you may be a bit weary of mid-paced plodders like Old Friends and Hangin’ Out. They’re not bad songs as such, there’s just not too much to distinguish them as more than filler.

It’s a pleasing finish to a rather uneven collection. People often say that the first episode of a sit-com is disappointing, and you should skip to the second, which is exactly the approach we propose for this album.

Widescreen ambitions should never be criticised, and as Prelude To Ecstasy ends with Mirror, a Cheryl Cole torch song with Nick Cave intensity and Bond-theme bombast, you have to conclude that this album is big, and it is clever.

There may be no real surprises on People Who Aren’t There Anymore, but that hardly matters. They may no longer possess the surprise factor that delighted David Letterman so much, but Future Islands remain as affecting and impassioned as ever.

Overall Dark Rainbow is a significant improvement on their last album, but doesn’t quite hit the heights they’ve previously shown themselves to be capable of.

It may only be eight tracks long, but each song contains so much invention and ideas that repeated listens bring their own rewards. As the seemingly interminable wait for a new Radiohead album goes on, The Smile are making music that, at times, is equally extraordinary.

Scott hasn’t quite broken out of cult stardom like Mitski has, but there’s no reason to think What An Enormous Room couldn’t be the album that introduces her to a whole new audience.

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.

This might sound like hard work, but in Hackman’s hands, dark and troubling scenarios are anything but. It’s testament to the sheer brilliance of her songwriting that can address difficult issues and still manage to make them sound positive and hopeful.

The Joy Of Sects is exhilarating, witty and addictive, which blends perfect pop melodies with raw punk energy. It may not appeal to everyone, but it’s the perfect album to dance into the apocalypse with.

It’s not a perfect album – you get the impression that Packs as a band are still figuring out their sound, and they’re at that stage where plenty of ideas are going to be thrown around.

It’s been one hell of a journey for Sleater-Kinney, but Little Rope is a fierce demonstration of a band back on track.

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

Pink Friday 2 is very much a grab-bag of a record, its 32-minute version sounding no more coherent than the 70-minute version that was released on streaming. But if the best songs sustain her legacy, Nicki Minaj will most likely see it as mission accomplished.

Black Dog might not be a comfortable listen but its unrelenting power and undisguised starkness demands attention and makes it impossible to ignore.

I/O marks the return of one of this country’s premier musicians and, as befits a project with this long a gestation period, contains songs that stand alongside Peter Gabriel’s finest.

Just as André 3000 isn’t as good at singing, acting or guitar playing as he is at rapping, he also isn’t as good at playing wind instruments, going some way to justify the disappointed reaction to this record’s announcement. That being said, the fun he’s having through experimentation is undoubtedly infectious, and at various points the musical ensemble create such an otherworldly vibe that one forgets the main artist is famous for something very different.

These are expressive pieces that fit together to form one overarching musical meditation, exploring the extremes of emotion experienced in a dark and treacherous world. Because of this Songs Of Silence is not for every moment in the day, but when you listen it carries great meaning, in spite of the lack of words.

Quaranta is not nearly as explosive as XXX – released around the time Danny Brown turned 30 – but we have engaging lyrics, head-nodding beats, and another quality record from one of Detroit’s best musical exports.

Rockstar is, at heart, a well meaning, fun spirited album. It just pushes the joke just too far. There’s still time for her to make a great rock record, but this isn’t it.

Formentera II is an album that can easily work as a stand-alone record, but it makes an equal amount of sense when paired with i

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.

For a debut album, Quarter Life Crisis is a remarkably confident, assured record, even if it does feel a bit front-loaded by putting most of the more immediate pop bangers in the first half of the album.

This was undoubtably an excellent night out if you were lucky enough to be in the audience, but as an album it’s a mild diversion at best, which will probably end up directing you back to the Dylan original.

The overall take out from I DES however is of an artist continuing to play to his strengths, delivering another slowburning set of songs full of delicate beauty and affecting warmth.

What she does best is create that sense of urgent euphoria, and that is all still present and correct on The Comeback Kid.

Even at 54 minutes, Los Angeles never seems to run out of steam, and there more than enough excellent moments to hope that a second volume may be in the offering. Although hopefully with a less cumbersome band name next time around.

She’s adept at building a vibe with subtle unfurling layers but the songwriting is sometimes less of a priority, especially in the second half – this stops the album being as dynamic as it could be. Nonetheless we have sparks of inspiration, an appealing vocal register and more infectious rhythm sections than one can shake a stick at, which surely portends a warm reception in the club scene.

They may not define the zeitgeist as they did 20 years ago, but God Games proves they can still hit those old heights more often than not.

They still have plenty to give, plenty to say – and Bauhaus Staircase stands up there with the cream of their electronically harvested crop.

Danse Macabre becomes a career retrospective of sorts, earning credit by not going down the obvious ‘best of’ route. However, to work it needs the different elements to complement each other, and on that score its success is extremely limited.

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.

Mainstream R&B fans may be baffled at various points, but there will be few more engrossing albums this year.

As well as the unexpected guest stars – Damon Albarn! Chaka Khan! – there’s also songs about arcade games, an instrumental, and experimental tracks based on vocal repetition. It’s a far cry from the band’s usual breezy guitar pop, but it works beautifully well.