This is a spectacular, rich and luscious album made up of a variety of sounds that many listeners will have etched into their minds and hearts forever.

Like low hanging fruit plucked fresh from the vine, the bacchanalian temptations Daniel and collaborators such as Angel Deradoorian, husband MC Schmidt and John Wiese offer are a scrumptious treat in which to indulge.

Simply put, his music seems alive, and utterly modern – despite its clear and obvious debt to The Beatles. ... This is a staggering work, a monumental achievement – and easily eclipses any of Jones’ acting to date.

The quality of Toledo’s songs is gobsmacking; the lyrics are enthralling, the melodies are to die for, the musicianship is raw yet brilliant.

So, from bed-bound broken foot casualty to creator of the finest debut album of the year in just over a year.

With the third in his Essex trilogy Darren Hayman has surpassed himself, creating an album that is intelligent, heartfelt, and musically stunning.

The sound on Welfare Jazz may be more of the same glam-phetamine trash disko bomp that made the first record so distinctive – a ramshackle wad of low-end guitars that spit and burn like chip pan fires and boisterous oft intoxicated vocals with a surplus of undulating sax – but there’s something else that’s been added to their arsenal, something that was hiding in plain sight all along. The protagonist of these songs may not be all that apologetic as he pontificates of his transgressions, but he is at least man enough to put his grubby hands up and forewarn friends and lovers that he’s a little damaged. It’s a good start.

This is an intelligent and deeply human album and it would be no exaggeration to say that it’s already a modern classic.

A sensational album of varying degrees of pleasure and pain. ... Ultimate Success Today is their most cathartic statement to date.

The album could have been a niche critical favourite that marked them out as just curious oddities. Instead every preconception has been firmly smashed. Firmly on track to become the biggest band in the country, Wet Leg are here to shake the post pandemic culture out of its slumber.

This is a magical, magnificent album – one of the best of Sufjan Stevens’ career.

Allo Darlin' have achieved their aim of not producing a carefree record again, and then some--instead, they've created one of considerable, admirable depth and nous, though it retains the warm, personal nature of its predecessor.

A statement for all of the limp new rave pretenders to pack up and fuck off, a return to form rarely sounded or felt so exciting.

Hadestown may have gained her success through her successful harnessing of external inspiration but by turning attention inwards on this occasion she’s delivered one of the quietly outstanding albums of the year.

Olsen, her arrangers and producer (The Paper Chase‘s John Congleton) have created an album that simply bulges with perfection and timeless songs.

WU LYF are a band to celebrate, a DIY tour de force, and their first album deserves a place of reverence in the modern indie-rock canon.

One of the best albums in North America last year and surely one of the best of 2006 for us; Live It Out is sinister, intelligent music for sinister, intelligent people.

A neat album of only 10 tracks. We find her in life-admin mode, clearing out any dispensable trash that she no longer has time or the inclination for. ... Sublime.

Mesmerising as the words and delivery are, the album is also musically excellent.

Shunning a tried-and-tested formula to focus on evolution and experimentation is always a massive risk. But by choosing to embrace their calmer, and often much darker side, the Dubliners could well have given us their masterpiece.

Love Kraft is the greatest realisation of the Super Furry vision to date.

It might take a week, a month, or even a year for it to yield up all its treasures; but after only a week in its company, this reviewer's instincts tell him that Have One On Me is a masterpiece.

This is a fantastic box that will occupy fans for the next few weeks and months, but it’s also a superb gateway into the world of Tom Petty for those who like both pretty things and great music (and have a few bob to spare).

This is out in the margins, removed from 'pop' and 'alternative' genres by the scale of its reach, its bloody and bold ambition. It is complex, multilayered, densely plotted, wordy. It's also scary, harsh and bruised.

Here, Gira shows that the Swans resurgence isn’t a fluke. Not even close.

Fontaines DC wear their influences close to their sleeve, with nods to The Pogues, The Strokes and Joy Division, but these influences are absorbed into their identity, to create something that instantly familiar and accessible, but also thrillingly compelling. ... They’re going to be big, and one listen to Dogrel will convince you of that fact.

Magdalene is an album that, like FKA twigs herself, defies both genre and classification. Yet it’s a late contender for album of the year, with songs that will live you for months to come.

Western Stars is, annoyingly, another fantastic album to add to your rotation. But then it is a Bruce Springsteen album. Of course it’s superb.

Their best album to date.

This is an astonishing debut album, one to immerse yourself in and live with for weeks, if not months – an intoxicating statement which announces one of Britain’s most exciting new bands.

It’s imbued with a spirit and attitude that only the very best pop records have. Much like Dua Lipa’s incendiary second album Future Nostalgia it’s the sound of not just a step up but a whole leap to a new exalted level of pop excellence.

Overall, Rice has produced a release which equals and perhaps even surpasses his debut, a album that takes you through emotional highs and lows you are unlikely to hear anywhere else this winter.

Lookout Sea paradoxically Silver Jews' most complex and most accessible work to date. Better yet, it improves with each listen, as more and more nuances and links are revealed.

soil is an extraordinary album, triumphing seemingly without making any artistic concessions.

In this globalised but fragmented world, now so obsessed with immediacy, rapidity and digestibility, Ten Freedom Summers is a visionary work of protest and power.

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.

Thundercat has, by skirting around the edges of darkness, created a moody, magnificent, endlessly replayable record that also makes sense in late February.

It's rare to be so gushing about a debut album--yet after living with this album for a few weeks, you'll be hard pressed to find any flaws.

Middle Cyclone is the sound of one of the most interesting, independent, and consistently brilliant artists recording today at the top of their game.

The Promise is what got left behind, and the quality of these 21 songs serves to remind the listener how brilliant Darkness On The Edge Of Town really was, and how discerning its craftsmen must have been to leave so much in the dust.

Night Network may not be the 12 tracks which would shake the person who doesn’t like The Cribs out of their most curious position. But it is 12 more assertions of greatness from a band who you really should like.

It all adds up to a magnificent third album which serves as the crowning point of a career that is, excitingly, still in its infancy.

Songs Of Praise distils the best features of classic British alternative music into a vital band passionate to enervate, communicate and entertain.

To those of you out there who crave immediate, wistful pop music that will make you smile about the future and make you cry about the past, you won’t find a better album this decade.

Prioritise Pleasure is a richly compelling album. It’s also a big, glorious pop record, the sort that Taylor hinted at back in the days of her former band Slow Club’s Complete Surrender. ... It’s the album of Rebecca Taylor’s career, and surely quite comfortably the best record that will be released in 2021.

Japan would go on to at least one better album than Quiet Life, but they would never again capture the same kind of nervous youthful energy they display here. An essential album from an essential band.

Thin Black Duke should be regarded as a genuinely innovative and exciting piece of art.

This album, though not what anybody on the face of the Earth would call ‘fun’, is an absolute classic of modernist architecture. It’s certainly the best thing she’s ever done.

The final results are of such subtle beauty they take the breath clean away.

You Belong There is a genuinely transporting, multi-dimensional song cycle and a glimpse into a fascinating musical mind that demands repeated plays. It’s destined to appear on album of the year lists but its depth and sense of ambition will ensure its treasures last well beyond 2022.

Fur and Gold announces Natasha Khan's Bat For Lashes as a talent impossible to ignore and beguiling to behold, an album that, time and again, plucks one away from the mundane and offers a bewitching alternative galaxy of delights.

It’s an album that manages to remain accessible while still sounding challenging and unconventional, an album that can sound heart-stoppingly beautiful one minute and scratchily acerbic the next and, ultimately, an album that’s impossible to grow bored of.

The National were worried that they wouldn't be able to follow up Alligator, that fans would be disappointed. Boxer proves their fears ungrounded - and that Alligator was no one classic wonder.

It’s a very special second album that will resonate deeply both with early adopters and the wider audience that Ought will surely capture.

Welcome To Hard Times is his most magnificent album yet.

There's not one duff moment during the album's 50 minutes - it's pop music to be treasured, loved and listened to for years to come.

It’s all intelligently arranged, but also in thrall to the energy and swing of jazz tradition--there is plenty of rhythm and blues during the improvising.

Coxon has come up with an album full of raw guitar licks, killer hooks and heartfelt lyrics.

It's a brilliant exploration of the inevitable interaction between sound, the passing of time and the active process of listening.

It is different in many ways, but never neglects the melodic, vocal and lyrical genius that has established, and will continue to establish, his status as one of the all time greats.

Yet, at its simplest and most sedate, Bookish's new work is utterly beautiful.

Ultimately, The Eternal acts as a fitting and timeless aide-memoire of everything this mighty band has ever achieved.

Gallon Drunk are now eight albums in to their storied career, and their strain of narcotic rock is getting more and more potent with age.

Much like their debut, it'll take a few listens to be pulled towards Myth Takes by the force operates at its core.

If the career plan was to go to the lowest of lows before releasing an album of resurrection and real substance, he ought to be applauded for conducting the whole stunt to perfection.

It’s fair to say that long term fans will greet Nothing Lasts Forever with warmth and delight but even when assessing it with a more critical eye, it’s hard to avoid thinking they’ve rarely sounded better.

It has an astonishing level of clarity about it.

Like all the best albums, it keeps you on edge, never quite knowing what’s coming next.

Pain Is Beauty not only shows Wolfe’s penchant for atmosphere but for stylistic diversity.

Beautiful Thing works so well because it reminds us of that fact without losing its own emotional resonance.

The result is surely one of the best pop albums of 2020, and is possibly Ware’s finest to date. A sensual delight, What’s Your Pleasure? is the ultimate in post-disco gratification.

This Stupid World sees them further consolidate their position as alternative treasures.

These are truly wonderful songs that deserved to be poured over and analysed for months to come.

Half Japanese have once again smashed it out the park, this time with a bewitching assortment of rubbery love songs and caustic noise, all centred on the subjects we truly wanna hear about: celebrities, Hollywood monsters and unrequited love (often between celebrities and Hollywood monsters!).

Even though Falco, Haliechuk and their Hairpins cohorts appear to be cramming in influences from almost everywhere (acid house, new wave, funk, punk, psychedelia and more), the whole album is incredibly coherent, lucid, and most importantly it’s the of thing that might just define a summer spent outside. Assuming that’s ever going to be possible this year.

Campbell’s ideals are distilled into a tight nine-track album in which influences are evoked, grafted onto fresh numbers and cut loose to scratch insistently at the listener’s ear.

If you admire The Knife’s music for its incredible unpredictability and off-the-scale inventiveness, you are likely to consider this to be at least amongst their best work yet.

This is, therefore, a searing, no holds barred album, uncompromising in its delivery and unstinting in its musical language.

It's absorbing and enchanting without having to resort to formulaic song structures, pop thrills or radio-friendly catchiness.

It’s different enough from its predecessor to show marked progress, but with all the original essentials present and correct. The bar was set high; All Pigs Must Die have set it higher still.

This is a record with so much swagger, poise and confidence it could have been recorded by a band twice their age.

It pays to listen to the originals, to form a full appreciation of just how much Jones brings to the table in each interpretation, expressing more emotion than he probably has at any point in his career. The instrumentation is the icing on the cake.

In an interview once, she admitted, “I see things in my head. I dream in colour”. This posthumous addition to her near perfect catalogue confirms that statement, expertly revealing how attuned to the universe she was and how vibrantly her imagination shone in the dark.

Clever but debauched, silly but serious, this is the best album of their career thus far.

That they emerge victorious is a tribute to the strength of these fine songs as well as some seriously glamourous production attitude.

This is a staggering record, displaying not only a golden streak of songwriting but also a band newly energised to their cause - making it a return to form of near biblical proportions. Highly recommended.

Where an artist as eclectic and unpredictable as this might go next is anybody’s guess, but on the basis of this quietly spectacular album, it’s likely that listeners will be more than happy to follow him into the unknown.

This is a brave but captivating debut album, exploring the inner parts of the mind, and proves a very strong addition to the Brownswood canon.

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.

This is very much an album that feels necessary right now--one that packs a political punch without being didactic or evangelical--and offers positive thinking, including a clarion call of co-operative and community responses to global issues.

The Year Of Hibernation is a powerful bit of emotional alchemy, arresting and enchanting in its naked simplicity, and Powers has accomplished a tour de force far beyond his bedroom walls or his 22 years.

Field Report’s debut maintains a wondrous sense of ambiguity while still creating an unbelievable urgency.

Julianna Barwick is crafting gorgeously effecting sounds in a way that nobody has quite heard before, far beyond the snickering Enya comparisons or the reductive ties to Eno's ambience, this isn't music for thinking or studying, this is just music for living.

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

An album that sits comfortably in the 4AD canon of excellence.

The soundtrack brings together the two phases of Walker, so to speak: the rich, sweeping orchestral one heard from The Walker Brothers and through the solo Scotts 1-4, before morphing into the avant-garde, claustrophobic, doom-laden one from 1995’s Tilt onwards.

Weezer have made one of their most catchy and insightful records to date.

Complete Strangers is one of those collections where over the course of several listens each song enjoys time as being considered the highpoint of the album only for another track to supplant it soon after. Whisper it, but Vetiver may have just made one of the albums of the year.