This then, is a solid album of phenomenally crafted songs.

This music is restless but keenly aware, finding common ground and intersections between a range of source material and contemporary contexts and, most importantly of all, delivering these songs with honesty, conviction and genuine feeling.

Safe In The Hands Of Love is a fascinating synthesis of rock, plunderphonics, bass music and noise from an artist that remains stubbornly undefinable.

The recordings here are ideal for longtime fans, whose only gripe might be paying for material that they already own. But this is not a big problem when you consider just how many rare tracks you get for your buck.

What makes Shortly After Take Off work is the attention to detail, both musically and lyrically.

Anchoring the album with his own painful history and never admitting defeat, Balfe has scripted a exhilarating album that contends with unimaginable loss whilst warmly celebrating persistence.

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.

Occasionally the sparkly pop stylings and dependably profound poetic musings give the record an air of interchangeability, but this minor parlour trick merely invites an opportunity to explore the contents further at a pace comfortable to the listener.

It’s true to say that Chris seems to run out of steam a bit at the end, with only the beautifully reflective Make Some Sense really standing out during the album’s last few tracks. Nevertheless, this doesn’t stop Héloïse Letissier’s second record being one of the year’s most intelligent, enjoyable albums, and cements her position as one of our most intriguing, interesting pop stars.

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

There’s no pure pop moments like Losing You and she may never generate the same amount of press inches as her elder sister does on a regular basis, but this third album is an endlessly compelling one.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

This is a remarkable album, even for an artist as consistently strong as Susanne Sundfør has been to date. It reaches into the centre of the human heart with primal connections that probe at its very existence. It is another striking addition to the discography of a singer who just keeps getting better and better.

The fact that Nastasia has documented this period with such honesty, empathy and beauty makes Riderless Horse feel like a small, healing triumph of sorts, a quiet personal victory against overwhelming adversity.

This new album shows that they are capable of not only subverting the expectations of the audience, but subverting expectations of the music world in general.

A priceless archival exercise: these eight sides of vinyl represent both the holy grail of New Zealand indie rock and proof of its insidious journey to a wide world. [Aug 2014, p.100]

As the album draws to a close, it’s hard not to see I Am Not There Anymore as their most ambitious, artistically progressive offering to date.

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

What Folklore ultimately achieves in its narrative of escapism is reinforcing the notion that Swift isn’t one of the greatest twenty-first century artists because her work is autobiographical, or because she leaves cleverly crafted clues leading up to her albums (although these are all interesting elements) but rather because she is, first and foremost, a storyteller. Folklore is sad, beautiful, somewhat tragic, a little bit off the wall, but most of all it feels free.

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

Song For Our Daughter is a return to what made her so widely admired. These are songs of undoubted depth and longevity that can provide moments of relief and solace to those in need.

This vibrant, audacious collection of pop bangers signposts the way.

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

It might not be an easy listen at times, but make no mistake, this is a vital an important record and one that needs to be heard in order to make sense of it. A definite contender for album of the year and one whose impact will stand alongside Lou Reed‘s Berlin for years to come.