‘Pink Noise’ is steeped in liberation, not bitterness – it isn’t just a heartening comeback, but an absolutely sparkling pop album.

With soothing production, enveloped with numbing vocals, she leaves you in a state of utopia. This surprise album of 2019 was something we didn’t know we needed.

We Are Not Your Kind is an astonishing record, a roaring, horrifying delve into the guts of the band’s revulsion, a primal scream of endlessly inventive extreme metal and searing misanthropy.

The tension created by the lyrics and music is wonderful and uneasy, ensuring that The Idler is endlessly fascinating and unlike anything else you're likely to hear this year.

Merriweather..., their psych-pop pinnacle, shares the simultaneous relentless complexity and instant simplicity of the best Of Montreal albums, but where Kevin Barnes’ last effort got lost in its clever-clever weirdness, shifting rhythms and textures in a way that felt like standing onboard a bus going down a mountain, Animal Collective’s is an easy, good-natured beast.

Their world - sexual, drug-filled, and occasionally paranoid - has become progressively darker, and as such we find them nothing less than guardians of the rock flame.

‘On Bright Green Field’, in all of its weird, frantic and fantastic glory, they’ve gone above and beyond.

A rich and varied album that courses from atmospheric instrumentals (‘Interlude : Dawn’) to the smooth groove of ‘SDL’, on ‘D-DAY’ Agust D is an unstoppable, thought-provoking force, wrapping up his trilogy in peak form.

It’s a shame that on The Mindsweep, Shikari's message is occasionally lost among the madness.

Listen to the beats and you'll find The Neptunes' best work in years. [27 Jan 2007, p.31]

If you want to know about the Glasgow scene which spawned Franz Ferdinand, 'Push Barman To Open Old Wounds' is pretty much essential. [21 May 2005, p.66]

By breaking from what the world might expect from them and letting themselves do whatever the hell they want, they have produced a record that’s experimental, soothing and vulnerable; it’s a thing of great beauty.

‘Folklore’ feels fresh, forward-thinking and, most of all, honest. The glossy production she’s lent on for the past half-decade is cast aside for simpler, softer melodies and wistful instrumentation. It’s the sound of an artist who’s bored of calculated releases and wanted to try something different.

It’s an insane and challenging, ambitious and exceptional work of art.

Expertly curated, every single song in ‘Valentine’s relatively restrained 10-song tracklist feels like a fully-realised gem.

War Music is the best album Refused have ever made. It has more in common with the violent swing of a sledgehammer than any punk record we’ve heard this year.

Slightly less lo-fi than previous efforts--although as it blends together Slayer, Japanese noisecore and warp-speed prog intricacy, sound recording fidelity is a relative concept. [5 Nov 2005, p.45]

Across 10 air-tight tracks, meticulously crafted and elegantly delivered, it’s an absolute triumph.

The confidence in her voice gives you no reason to doubt her. All the way through this album, the pop star is in the driving seat, both behind the scenes and in the situations she describes in the lyrics. ... ‘Future Nostalgia’ is a bright, bold collection of pop majesty to dance away your anxieties to… if only for a little while.

Divers, her unusually tight fourth album, is full of lofty concepts (‘Waltz Of The 101st Lightborne’ sees time-travelling soldiers wage a futile war on their own ghosts) but her crafty tales, signposted by ornate folk arrangements, rarely outpace your imagination.

Though this is her most creative record to date, the lyrics stick to safer territory.

In the hands of someone less witty and schizoid, a near three-hour epic would be unforgivable, but Merritt at play is frequently magical.

The immediate reference point would be a Swedish Coral to the power of ten--but it's more mental, more hippy and psychedelic. [14 May 2005, p.67]

This is wild music, a celestial cabaret that absorbs and unsettles.

Bad As Me has to rank as a disappointment, since there are no surprises to match Real Gone's sepulchral funk or Orphans'... breathtaking sweep.

An album of eerie, elusive beauty.

In Masseduction we already have both Dorian and his portrait: the fox on the album’s cover, all rampant neons, stockinged legs, and taut flesh, and the inner ravaging--material just too good to keep in the attic.

When positioned against their previous releases, ‘Formula Of Love: O+T=˂3’ paints a picture of a masterful act, one who has learned to wield their talent and concept into one cohesive banger after another.

Dear Science cuts through genres like a laser through a music encyclopaedia, making strange connections, but always with pop clarity as the ultimate aim. As ever, Sitek’s production shines.

The production throughout is nothing short of exceptional. With the full backing of an orchestra, there is a richness to the sound overseen by seminal producer Inflo. Their chemistry is apparent throughout as the vocals and production coil around one another egging the other on to new heights. ... It’s not hyperbole to suggest that this canonises her work forever, elating her to be one of the greats.

Lyrically, then, it’s a record characterised by its pessimism, yet musically it’s among their most joyful.

Odd, addictive, unsettling and beautiful. [8 Jul 2006, p.41]

The record stands as an all-encompassing culmination of Tyler’s ever-varying sound, showing that growth isn’t always linear and that artists can be a multitude of things. On ‘Call Me…’, Tyler cements his place as a generational talent, one in fine form and continuing to push the boundaries of his vision and kaleidoscopic sound.

She might not want a pedestal, but there aren’t many songwriters who’d make better use of it.

There’s tonnes of fun to be had from absorbing the duo’s fury, and El-P’s sci-fi beats are as thrillingly big ‘n’ bad as ever.

PJ Harvey's best album since 1991's 'Dry', a return to the feral intensity of that remarkable debut.... The clarity of the electric guitars played by Harvey, Rob Ellis and Mick Harvey is enough to make you fall in love with elemental rock all over again.... You could quibble Harvey has absolved her responsibilities by making an album earthed in the New York sound of 20 or 30 years ago. But when rock is so invigorating, so joyous about love, sex and living, all arguments are null and void.

Bits of it rule.

Just as on her recent EP of ’80s cover songs, ‘Aisles’, Olsen approached the decade’s tropes with care, and at no point does ‘Big Time’ descend into parody. Though it uses them in the same way those aforementioned greats did, to access the deep and real emotion at a song’s core and open it up to her listener as something irresistible.

This is a smooth, sleek band with their eyes on a bigger prize and they undeniably lose something in the process.

Prince: Originals is at its best when Prince lets loose and embraces his cheekier side. ... Although the camp synths and indulgent guitar solos present on a lot of these tracks are clear by-products of the decade that gave us cone bras, Super Mario and The Goonies, this music also sounds prescient.

Everything from psych-jazz, electro-funk, soulful house and the occasional rocker gets a look in here. In lesser hands it’s a right old mess, but not in Howard’s.

Elegant and elemental, quietly confident and masterfully understated, Designer feels like a breath of fresh air in a time dense with noise and algorithmic hiss.

By its close, FKA twigs is an unstoppable force of nature.

A powerful synthesis of past and present, ‘Letter To You’ shows us the strength that can be found in sorrow. The result is Springsteen’s finest album since 2002’s ‘The Rising’.

While this is clearly not the record Smith intended to make, it's still an immensely gripping and cohesive piece of work. [23 Oct 2004, p.47]

By its close, 'The Blueprint' has eloquently mapped out life's foundations: laughter, tears, joy and pain, and has marked the Jigga as the complete rapper.

Even when things get musically darker on the shimmering alt-pop of ‘Posing In Bondage’, there remains a prioritisation of pop melody; the fat is trimmed from all 10 songs on the record, leaving perfectly formed three-and-a-half-minute pop songs that want – and deserve – to be blasting out of your radio.

Once again, SAULT demonstrate the power of words and just how impactful music can be. It’s impossible not to feel affected by the stories being told. But, despite ‘Nine’s sadness, SAULT channel optimism and hope for a brighter future into their songs.

It may be titled From Kinshasa, but this record could easily be from the future.

Sonically, it was staggering.

Undoubtedly the one Sleater-Kinney album that everyone should have. [21 May 2005, p.66]

[A] brilliant album.

With ‘King’s Disease III’, the New York rapper has put the seal on a strong album trilogy that proves that, three decades in, he’s still a force to be reckoned with.

Despite having elite lyricists such as Pusha-T, Killer Mike, Yesin Bey and Black Thought among the guests, Gibbs never sounds second-best. Bandana should mark the moment the Indiana emcee starts to truly be considered as an elite rapper.

It’s a well-crafted debut from a worthy new artist, but it’s competent rather than compelling.

By trading nonsensical time signatures and atonal bursts for fluidity and stadium rock, they've subtracted from their former wretchedness.

Through her boundless ‘Orquídeas’ albums, Uchis blossoms into a fearless pop ambassador at the forefront of breaking down the divide between music in English and Spanish.

Everything about Joy As An Act Of Resistance is just so perfectly realised.

By embracing the pop orthodoxy, you might argue that Boucher has sacrificed some of what made her seem so alien when 4AD debut 'Visions' emerged from the ether back in 2012, but rest assured: she's still laughing and not being normal, only this time, it's all the way to the bank.

Dawn FM feels like the first steps on a journey for The Weeknd to find peace with himself; perhaps next time we hear from him, he’ll be fully embracing the light of day.

This is murderously good stuff. [25 Sep 2004, p.64]

Guaranteed to leave you speechless, one way or another. [12 Mar 2005, p.58]

Those in search of a tightly cohesive album knitted around a single concept have probably come to the wrong place entirely – but for a sprawling answer to the band’s two huge 2019 breakthrough records ‘Two Hands’ and ‘U.F.F.O’, then look no further.

A harmonious hardcore Dispute.

There is a fatal flaw with 'Arular' which means it never makes the step up from 'solid debut' to all-time classic. MIA clears her throat, grabs your attention: and then has nothing to say. [16 Apr 2005, p.49]

You’re Dead is a madly inventive record, one that takes hip-hop and jazz as starting points, beats them both to death and then brings them back to life in an almost unrecognisable form.

'Remedy' is probably as good a dance album as anyone from these Isles has produced this decade.

Seven have never been released before, including heartfelt opener ‘Separate Ways’. Over Levon Helm’s solid but minimal drum line comes a chorus up there with Young’s best, as melodic as it is thoughtful, as pensive as it is powerful. ... The freewheeling ‘Vacancy’ is the last ‘new’ song here, an instant classic (if you can call 46 years trapped in the vaults ‘instant’).

He leads the listener on an amazing journey, making use of cosmic, symbolic, mythological and religious images in perfect conjunction with his explorations of blunt everyday reality.

It’s a record that’ll please newcomers and existing fans alike, but, given the backstory and heart poured into ‘Wait Til I Get Over’, the record existing for Jones feels like a triumph. Whether or not he brings these sounds or elements back to the group is yet to be seen, but this record will shake the walls of Hillaryville and beyond.

A career-best statement of Shah’s songwriting prowess, where inner struggles are rendered with maturity and relatability, supercharged by a fearless, expansive sonic palette.

There are blasts of harshness (‘Go Ahead’’s fuzzed-out polemic, or ‘Scapegoat’’s bombastic crescendo) but ‘My Back Was A Bridge…’ is still, by some distance, the most accessible thing she’s ever made. Though much of its palette is drawn from ‘classic’ music of the past, however, the record’s brilliance lies in the way it doesn’t retreat from the present.

It’s too early to tell if the record will help the BTS leader achieve his goal of creating something truly timeless but, in this moment, ‘Indigo’ feels like a masterpiece with the potential to be remembered as a classic.

‘Everything Harmony’ plays like the next progression from their promising debut, and what stood out about them then is what stands out about them now. With their fourth album, The Lemon Twigs have honed in on their ability to not just lift from the past but transmute what inspires them into something imaginative and new.

An intense, emotional record.

You have to wade through a lot of plaid-shirted, porch-rocking psychedelia before you get there. The patient pilgrim, though, can look forward to unearthing the widescreen Laurel Canyon-birthed wonder of 'Your Protectors' after one or two plays.

This record isn’t a monument to His Royal Badness. It’s one of the greatest artists of our time carrying Prince’s baton into the new world.

One of the few certainties we can take from this restless, relentlessly intriguing album is that David Bowie is positively allergic to the idea of heritage rock.

MBV is not really an album at all, but an oeuvre in fast-forward.

As with her previous efforts Olsen’s unique vocal steals the show, but this is the singer opening up all the other parts to her personality. The more we see, the more there is to love.

It’s a return to “full singer-songwriter” Stevens, in a way, but by bringing together sonics from throughout his career and coupling it with frank and intimate lyricism, the gorgeous ‘Javelin’ feels like a fresh take from the cult hero.

Despite the album’s title, Microshift represents not a minor step up but a gigantic stride. On an immediate level the songs sound much bigger, cleaner and more confident. Every component is crisper, from the sharpened hi-hat to MJ’s scrubbed-up vocals.

It’s a wildly successful take on the world at large as the band enter a new decade. Far from just indie survivors, it seems like these Jets have still got plenty of fuel left in the tank.

She allows herself to revel in her own possibility of healing, singing directly about her past and who she wants to become, letting her formidable voice guide the way: cool, curious, full of momentum.

‘More Love Less Ego’ is a masterful collection that sees Wizkid beginning to truly perfect his universal pop sound.

Whilst 'The Argument' still sounds unmistakably Like Fugazi, it's the sound of an inspirational band, renewed, at play.

Lyrically it's astonishing. [28 Aug 2004, p.55]

Even if Prince, Madonna, Paul Weller, Shane MacGowan, Ice-T and Michael Jackson got together to form a freakish supergroup, they’d struggle to make an album containing as much vitality, humour and invention as Cave and his wizened cronies have.

Returning with her sixth solo record ‘Bright Future’, the Big Thief frontwoman achieves a newfound lyrical self-assuredness here.

‘Congregation’ is a fiery, relentless punk blowout that pulls no punches against priests, patriarchy and those who abuse power from the top of our society.

The second album from this perky Philadelphia quartet delivers big on drama and emotion with Frances Quinlan’s voice taking turns between an abrasive snarl and a smooth croon.

‘Pain Olympics’ is a disturbing, joyous, cataclysmic listen that travels from claustrophobia and fear into wide-eyed expressions of joy.

It's a collection of enthralling confessionals where stabs of bleakness mean that heavy bleeding dominates.

Uniformly excellent.... Few, if any, British bands are making music quite like this right now.

Low have always sought to make music that can both swell the heart like a gospel tune and capture the amplified absence of a funeral parlour. It's difficult to imagine a more perfect expression of their vision than this.

By being pliable, open and more tender, Mering seems to suggest, perhaps we can save ourselves from the doom that this stunning record finds itself gripped within.

This album's two-hour stretch may seem offputtingly dense at first, but give them time, and Swans will take you to a place that is beyond good and evil.

Simz’s storytelling is deft and full of range, gliding between generational trauma (‘Broken’) and faith and the grind (‘Who Even Cares’) with ease. The album’s sonic palette, meanwhile, takes on a mellower and less grandiose tone, with Inflo – the producer behind her last two records and the mysterious musical project Sault – and collaborator Cleo Sol bringing a warm, homely base for Simz to nestle in.