Every Bad is fragile and robust, confidently flawed, and above all evidence that Porridge Radio is in their ascendancy. They are a real force to be reckoned with and a band with a strong chance of winning this year's Mercury Prize.

Saint Cloud, like Car Wheels, finds an artist operating at the top of her game, embracing, as Crutchfield put it, "the contradictions and the unknown" to produce a thrilling and inspirational work.

She continues that upward streak on Walking Proof, where each of the 11 tracks shines with imaginative playing, spirited vocals, and sensitive, literate lyrics. It's truly a kick-ass record.

On Heaven to a Tortured Mind, Yves Tumor clearly relishes his shift to microphone caressing rock star. Whereas on previous albums, he would obscure himself behind the music, here he steps out of his sonic chrysalis, dons some shiny black wings and soars.

It's bold, it's demanding, and it might very well go down as the finest full-length Fiona Apple has ever made.

Better Souls Good Angels was written and recorded well before the pandemic. But the album, with its darkness tinged with glimmers of hope, its rage touched with tenderness, is very much one for our terrible time.

In effect, with Making a Door Less Open, Car Seat Headrest once again achieves that rare feat of musical engineering: the creation of rich environments that foster feeling, not dictate it.

Shall We Go on Sinning So That Grace May Increase? comes a bit out of nowhere and is surely the most impactful release he's ever made, Matmos included.

His ability to purge himself on every track is contagious. You don't have to go there with him to enjoy this album, but don't be surprised if you do.

Infusing Self Made Man with gospel and blues, Larkin Poe reinvent musical tradition to trumpet their standpoints.

To Love Is to Live is an emotional essay in which Jehnny Beth has created one of the most compelling and sincere albums of the year so far.

Great songwriters build fully realized worlds in their songs, but on Punisher Bridgers is often able to do it in just a few lines.

Taken as a whole, Please, Pleasure, and Patience represent Lerche's finest work as a musician.

Unencumbered by the weight of expectation or reinvention, Ware reclaimed her love for making music. In the process, she created one of the year's best records, the rapturous What's Your Pleasure?

Consistently exciting, always surprising, and full of soul, it is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable releases of the year to date.

Gaslighter is bold and incendiary, finding the Chicks reclaiming their relevance. Thankfully, the Chicks rejected silencing as Gaslighter reestablishes their penchant for vocalizing raw truths.

Though All the Time indulges and dissects neuroses, it's not the sound of someone falling off the wagon. Rather, this lush and spacious collection of songwriting shows a hard-fought mental clarity, a deliberate effort to resist the instincts on display on "VV Violence" in pursuit of digging deeper into oneself. Intrusive thoughts flare-up, but they're allowed to wash over, eventually fading away. The payoff is immeasurable.

Deftly indisputable on Heart's Ease, Collins' music acts as a cultural time capsule to preserve legacies.

VOICES employs music as a forum for activism, spreading sentiments of unity, tolerance, and compassion throughout a pensive, sweeping, and goosebump-inducing song cycle of drones, arpeggios, and keyboard figures. In the wake of a surge in anti-liberalism, oppression, bigotry, and bloody violence and unleashed in the middle of a global pandemic, it's a becalming rebuke and a heartening conduit for hope, reflection, and radiance.

Acoustic is a dream, a blissful installment in a career that continues to flourish.

Elverum has been recording the same song since he was a teenager in the mid-1990s, making tapes late into the night after his shift at the record store. Microphones in 2020 might be his apex.

Music may not by itself cure all these ills, but the virtue of superb electropop is that it helps make them seem a bit less insurmountable.

Her most spiritually and musically fulfilling work yet. ... Eno Axis is that rare album that feels timeless. One could imagine these songs emanating from the grooves of newly-discovered dusty 78s with McEntire's hypnotic, ghostly vocals cutting through the surface noise.

In terms of epic grandeur, though, Ohms somehow surpasses even the band's most ambitious middle-period work. If past albums in the Deftones discography defined key points in the story of your life, you can expect to be thoroughly engrossed by the latest chapter in a remarkable musical journey that, against all the odds, just got more compelling.

The combination of Jónsi and Cook may be an unlikely one but it works so well. This, the first release, of their collaboration, has produced an excellent album that is an exciting highlight of 2020 so far.

For what's essentially a bootleg recording, the sound quality of the 47-minute set from 27 October 1968 is surprisingly strong. ... It sits comfortably amongst Monk's finest recorded works.

Private Lives is a killer. ... Although he utilized the studio instead of on-stage performances, it has the feel of a live record. Every song seems to want to break out from the constraints of the workshop in a positive way. This keeps the vibe taut and suggests the promise of liberation.

UNTITLED (Black Is) is captivating from start to finish. ... This is a stellar, uplifting record informed by timeless struggle, solidarity, and pride.

Drift Multiply requires zero thinking or analysis to enjoy. Listen attentively, though, and it becomes apparent that this album is a game-changer on multiple fronts. Consider it essential listening, regardless of your tastes or listening background.

For the First Time maintains a well-tempered intensity refined in its delivery but honest in its angst. Black Country, New Road show us what a "rock band" or "rock outfit" can achieve on their debut. For those bands labeled as experimental, we now have an expectation and a new benchmark.

Her stylish performances are consistent with the excellence found on the rest of the album.

The album is full of bright, poppy hooks as well as interesting, brainy sounds that make for a thrilling and engrossing listen.

Maybe this is their best album.

A comeback that not only beats expectations but has an excellent claim to be the band's crowning achievement (so far).

Their sophisticated arrangements don’t waste a note or make a false step.

Promises is a genius work, a victory for slow releases and the spacious. Sanders sounds as much ahead of his time as ever, while Floating Points again proves the efficacy of well-executed minimalism.

This is music for meditating, for thinking, for relaxing, for dreaming. Each note sounds painstakingly placed and rehearsed but also deeply felt. Toumani Diabaté’s star, in particular, shines in new ways, and the continuities of past and present for him and his compatriots are constantly evident, speaking volumes about each player’s skill and love of performance in Kôrôlén.

Second Line is an important record in that it brings deep humanity and emotion to dance and club music. It’s a deeply personal album, one that brings to mind the soulful singer-songwriter albums of Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, or Syreeta Wright but marries the confessional, candid sentiment with a self-consciously synthetic soundscape of house.

Rare, Forever synthesizes all of Vynehall's musical instincts together into one unique vision. Both beguiling abstract and instantly gratifying it’s as dizzyingly immersive as Nothing Is Still whilst occupying a totally different sonic space.

This is St. Vincent in the '20s and she is glorious. The production value is spectacular; her songwriting/production partnership with Jack Antonoff is more than paying off.

He truly has made his best album to date in the process.

It's the kind of elegant, smart, and literate music that celebrates songwriters and producers who are working just a skosh out of the mainstream. It's pop with deep roots in club culture with subtle influences of underground and alternative soul. The tight-knit collaboration of Jordan and her crew make for an astonishing achievement.

Doomin' Sun is indie music at its most engaging. ... A reminder of how exceptional songwriting and musicianship can be even in the face of apocalyptic anxiety as long it's the right mix of artists.

Black Ants makes for a vastly different listening experience: exciting, angular, and brilliantly inventive. This album sees the Kasai Allstars tap into a new dimension of vitality and points to refreshing new possibilities for the Congotronics series.

The Golden Casket is almost a complete package. Its 12 songs are remarkably tight and focused for a Modest Mouse album, which again feels reflective of the composed, focused headspace Brook seems to be in. It’s another wonderful, soulful release by one of the world’s most singular rock bands and wholly obliterates the retrograde notion that musicians require tortured head scapes to create rich, compelling art.

Hiatus Kaiyote have crafted something brilliant with Mood Valiant – an album that’s effortlessly likable, commandingly confident, and rich with heart and soul.

These are tunes for the head as much as the body and offer a grander perspective on the dignity of human feelings, like putting a still life in a gilded frame. Overall, the songs on the new album are short. Most are under three minutes. However, one can easily imagine extended versions of each as they lend themselves to being set on repeat on repeat on repeat. It’s time to open the disco.

Fire is Martin’s finest Bug album. It distills both the project’s and his philosophy down to its simplest, purest form. In the process, it says something profound and provides a viscerally entertaining masterclass in bass-driven electronica.

Aside from being a gifted musician and lyricist, he also has a gorgeous voice, soulful and thrilling. Building on the excellence of his previous albums, What We Call Life is easily one of this year’s best albums.

The album is sonically and lyrically her best work yet, and proves that any process of healing is never black or white and does not exist on a straight line.

Carlile has been making high-quality music for years, and In These Silent Days adds to that legacy. The songwriting is so good throughout, and Cobb and Jennings’ production is spot-on. ... Regardless of genre, though, this record deserves recognition as being one of the year’s best.

Ray Blk remains an individual, someone who can make mainstream soul music that still shows off impressive creativity and ingenuity.

His thoughtful truisms and sonorous songwriting arm them with the required soundtrack. To quote the man who started it all, “The great challenge of adulthood is holding onto your idealism after you lose your innocence.” No one has risen to this challenge with such success, humility, and brilliance as has Sam Fender.

Valentine delivers on the hype and proves—in case there was any doubt remaining—that Lush wasn’t a whip-smart fluke.

A soul-baring journey of the blues, mainly through the lens of soul and hard rock, in all its complexity, beauty, darkness, and glory. ... Gov’t Mule is at their best when they plug in, reach back to their roots, and dig deep into their soul.

It’s this blurring of electro and acoustic that makes Space 1.8 such a special debut. Nala Sinephro certainly pays homage to the golden age of spiritual jazz, but her sonic range is unparalleled, and her vision is startlingly unique. Her first full-length album is one for the pantheon of cosmic jazz classics.

It’s a work of complex, unified brilliance that will leave you chomping at the bit for a Bloodmoon: 2.

Imarhan have always been strongest for their subtleties, and never more so than on the immaculately crafted tracks of Aboogi. This group amplifies their and their neighbors’ local experiences as Kel Tamasheq citizens of the world, and the music they make in doing so dazzles every time.

The disregard for conventional structure and instrumentation, combined with the adroit, sincere lyrics, makes Ants From Up There one of the richest and most emotionally-honest albums released by a young British band for quite some time.

While Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You is indeed a lot of things, if it’s anything in particular, it’s a flex. It’s a reassertion that the band can essentially do no wrong, and even when they get close, it’s easier to interpret them toeing the borders of brilliance.

It’s a testimony to Shamir’s breathtaking talent that he can put together an album as emotionally and sonically complex and ambitious and still deliver a concise, smart, and cohesive album.

Albeit brief, with Crystal Nuns Cathedral, Pollard and co. have struck gold once again, delivering a hi-fi record that proves itself to be just as virtuosic and inventive as any indie rock album of recent memory.

Drug Church’s ability to pull off this multiplicity deserves huge praise. In doing so, they’ve bent the aging punk and hardcore genre into new shapes whilst also becoming tighter, sharper, and more accessible.

MOTOMAMI is experimental in a way that does not sacrifice function over form. These songs have a pop purpose: they are fragmented, but they are laid in catchy hooks and enthralling beats. MOTOMAMI doesn’t fail to entertain.

As an entry into Destroyer, LABYRINTHITIS succeeds in a plethora of ways, but where it works the most is in transforming a notoriously prickly artist into one with the unforeseen capacity to retract his spikes.

Electricity thrills from start to finish, yet another well-crafted work from a band that continually shows itself to be unbound by categories of space, time, and genre. This is past, present, and future funk all rolled into one and ready for a fantastic time.

The moments on Chloë and the Next 20th Century that seem normal and traditional are executed so perfectly that you can’t fault Tillman for simply making a pop album of the highest order. But when the album delivers surprising, sometimes jarring episodes, it’s a reminder that Father John Misty is an important, unique, and undeniably brilliant artist.

Chiu and Honer’s interpretations of this space build a sense of place at the intersection of their lived experience and the unique geography of the archipelago, and it’s this sense that they share with us on this new release.

Fear of the Dawn reveals a mature White who is not only at the height of this prowess as a guitarist whose effects have formed a unique signature he both hones and transgresses. The album finds him reaching new heights as a producer and creative experimenter.

The vast creativity and breadth of this project are impressive. Along with the great music, a suite of short films operates as a gorgeous visual interpretation of the music. Though, Röyksopp have sworn off releasing “traditional studio albums”, judging from Profound Mysteries, this new stage in their career is exciting and captivating.

On Timbuktu, Oumou Sangaré continues to prove how much work she puts in to maintain her reputation as a musical force and yet how open she is to worthwhile sonic change. There’s not a sound or note wasted.

This is the Congotronics series at its most invigorating and collaborative, and it’s just plain phenomenal.

Far from the pitch-perfect storytelling of good kid m.A.A.d city or the exquisite poetry of To Pimp a Butterfly, Mr. Morale feels intentionally haphazard, even provocative. The double album is lengthy and prickly, its immediate pleasures counterbalanced by its confusions and difficulties.

On an album that, through its title, implies intimacy and solitude, Styles shows there are no four walls that can contain him.

Renaissance derives its meaning through its diverse soundscape, which, due to Beyoncé’s astute curation, becomes a statement about letting the music speak for itself.

With NOT TiGHT, however, DOMi & JD BECK take their impromptu jam sessions and make a greater leap toward notoriety with support from some of the hottest musicians on today’s scene. The duo has achieved high-flying musicianship status at a break-knit speed, similar to the tempos they traverse.

They excite, inspire, and energize, but also soothe, amuse, and comfort on this incredibly varied album, leaving practically no time to get bored. So whether Hot Chip continue in this finely-crafted-pop mode or not, it was definitely worth investing in that new recording studio.

On As Above, So Below, just as on The Return, she makes music with incredible clarity of purpose and affirms a sense of interconnected self and heritage that makes her writing, arranging, sampling, and guest list all the more compelling. Sampa is soaring, and she’s not afraid to let everyone know.

I Love You Jennifer B is provocative and ambitious, testing attention while operating on a fine line between listenability and overkill. The way Jockstrap play with expectations keeps listeners on their toes. Trying to anticipate the next 180-degree turn or sudden zero to a hundred acceleration makes them an exciting listen.

Joe Strummer 002: The Mescaleros Years gets to the heart of this matter comprehensively, dishing up all three albums and a modest peek behind the curtain. The packaging is lovely, and the Mescaleros never made a bad album.

The work here is as intricate as it is impassioned, with neither form nor feeling sacrificed as Ejstes builds a multidimensional musical world. Whether or not you’re familiar with Dungen’s previous work, this is a phenomenal display of their collective skill and penchant for a rich and genre-bending atmosphere.

It allows Swift to do what she has always wanted: make an album for its own sake that is received primarily as a work of art instead of a commercial entity or tabloid fodder.

The indefatigable tracks are softened by more ruminative numbers, affording respite and retrospection amid the jungle-thick maze of emotion and mood. Ultra Truth is both a danceable and listening collection that packs a corporeal punch and a spiritual cleanse.

The outward textures here are not raw rock but processed pop, more maximalist than anything the band has put forth since. Still, the bones are the same; this is as sincere a face of the group as on any of their international commercial releases, no matter how surprising its sounds. Tinariwen, it turns out, fares well in a number of different aesthetic frameworks, and Kel Tinariwen serves as a testament to their artistic strength.

Strays reveals Price’s strong talents as a musician and a human being.

One Day equally recalls the strengths of Fucked Up’s critically acclaimed second record, The Chemistry of Common Life (2008), which received the 2009 Polaris Music Prize. ... One Day is in keeping with this spirit of invention and reinvention, by expanding the group’s sound while still maintaining an ethos of ongoing collaboration and collective commitment.

Yes, goddam it, Cracker Island is as good as Demon Days.

Black Belt Eagle Scout teaches us, guides, and inspires us, all the while dazzling us with lush atmospheres, seismic rhythms, and a voice that unfurls from another and perhaps a better world.

Meg Remy and her collaborators have channeled her recognition of the communicative depth of dance music with creative, nearly flawless production. The result invites us to consider and embrace this blessed mess that is our bond and is an early frontrunner for consideration among the year’s best albums.

Whether calming you with lush numbers like “Aerodrome” and “The Coming Days” or tickling the edges of your mind with “Thorn”, the result is another stunning record, no matter who’s pulling or plucking the strings.

Your Mother Should Know is an artist at the peak of his powers, interpreting the songwriting of a group of musicians whose music will last long after we’re all gone.

93696 weighs in at nearly 80 minutes, and its numerological conceit does make one suspect even the song lengths might be perfectly poised elements in some delicately balanced scheme.

The fuzzed-out lead guitar, the languid vocals, and the unbridled backbeat that keeps it all together nail this resemblance down, recalling Bug-era Dinosaur from the late 1980s. ... Tracks like “Wishing Well”, “Cheewawa”, and “Bainmarie” from that LP are beautifully rendered.

Especially remarkable about Maal’s work on Being is how thoroughly his ethos as an artist and human permeates every piece of the production. His support of younger artists feels organic amid modern electropop sounds, an essential element of his overall emphasis on collaboration.

Pain remains a fertile ground for compelling art, but the brilliance of Rat Saw God lies in how the band also captures the resistant luminance within that pain. The characters in these songs suffer, but Hartzman draws them from places of empathy and honesty.

The results are every bit as sublime as anything he and his partners in collective aural immersion have ever released.

These are deeply personal songs that chart the different kinds of emotions he’s working through, whether it’s to do with the affairs of the heart or the turmoil of the outside world; it’s also a wildly ambitious record that takes its musical cutes from Black American popular music. The sum of all these great parts makes for a thrilling listen.

Crowell proves in The Chicago Sessions that both his pen and voice are still as vital as ever.