Even aside from the tragedy that frames its arrival, though, it stands up as Architects’ very best album. ... Architects have emerged more powerful than ever--building on Tom’s legacy, rather than riding on its coattails. It’s a wonder to behold.

‘Yesterday Is Heavy’ is a bold and inventive step forward from an artist who has been threatening to make this kind of artistic statement for some time.

He might not be the steeliest careerist, but the lad from the Wirral has clearly thrown everything at this masterful record.

What you have in ‘This Could Be Texas’ is everything you want from a debut; a truly original effort from start to finish, an adventure in sound and words, and a landmark statement.

What's finally made it is an expansive, guest-packed 57 minutes that recall the Southern hip-hop bounce of 2003's 'Speakerboxxx', but with an added twist of maturity.

In exploring himself on Psychodrama, Dave has produced a masterpiece. This 20-year-old has lost in some ways and won in others, and asks us to listen as he tries to find some answers. The lessons you learn with Dave are sure to live long in the memory.

The result is some of the most pristine songwriting Bridgers, Dacus and Baker have ever penned. ... This debut is a gorgeous testament to what can happen when you allow yourself to fully be seen.

This is a brave, vulnerable and ambitious work that asks us to recognise and celebrate our own grey areas. It’s an album full of possibility and startling scope, and which, ultimately, finds peace among the pain.

The angriest, least compromised, most utterly justified pop record in years ?

By balancing progression with consolidation, technology with tradition, MMJ have created a work of stunningly expansive ambition. [15 Oct 2005, p.36]

Clark’s readiness to be freakish and alone has translated into her songwriting, which is bolder than ever, and out to connect.

Cranking the urgency and confrontation of last year's self-titled debut to neck-breaking intensity, RTJ2 is an urgent, paranoid album for a violent, panicked time.

Soul music full of remarkable sonic ideas.

'Since I Left You' is proof that while being a vinyl junkie might not make you a teen idol, crafting a joyous, kaleidoscopic masterpiece of sun-kissed disco-pop definitely will.... Cool? Sure, whatever. Brilliant? Undoubtedly.

Though the pain she’s exploring here is less immediate and stinging than the thwack of being screwed over, it’s explored just as expertly.

Every day is Halloween with Creeper, in the very best way.

As with each of his albums to date, Kiwanuka navigates the past and the present, skilfully making sounds and subjects appear both classic and contemporary at once.

Dylan's voice is the star. [26 Aug 2006, p.43]

‘That! Feels Good!’ is a maximalist tour de force of glossy pop sounds. A liberating collection that seeks to paint a three-dimensional picture of Ware – as “a lover, a freak and a mother”, as she sings on ‘Pearls’ – this album sees her embrace a Sasha Fierce-like alter ego in a celebration of dancing and female agency.

Quite frankly, LEGACY! LEGACY! is one of the albums of the year. It’s a confident and self-assured project that affirms Woods’ own place alongside the historical greats she praises.

It's a blessing that the surrogate mum to the hip-hop youth of America is out there pushing for sounds as deranged, commercial, newly kinetic, and socially risque as those licking your ears in 'X-tasy' and 'Slap! Slap! Slap!'.

Easily Mike and El-P’s best work to date, ‘RTJ4’ is protest music for a new generation; they’re armed in the uprising with a torrent of spirited rallying calls.

Conceptually, ‘La Vita Nuova’ is an astonishing feat – but even better than that, it also oozes an intensity of feeling that punches right in the gut.

From the raucous nu-metal to glittering R&B, ‘SAWAYAMA’ is an honest, genre-exploding self-portrait.

The five tracks on M3LL155X feel like parts of a whole, musically and thematically connected in a way you wouldn’t necessarily expect from a between-albums EP.

‘I Love You Jennifer B’ is the product of a voracious appetite to find the gaps in between the familiar, a record emblazoned with such pristine, disorienting, unsettling originality that at first, you don’t quite know what to do with it.

A truly unique gem. ... The band have said they want ‘Heart Under’ to feel like the experience of driving through a tunnel with the windows down. Through deliciously inventive musicianship they’ve created something even more thrilling.

Ultimately this record – her best yet – is about finding a different kind of love: the quiet self-examination after the dust of a break-up finally settles.