The richness of the source material and the deftness of interplay of each member of the band ensures that Your Queen is a Reptile leaves you with a sense of having been a part of something truly special.

It’s a record of successful explorations of musical avenues. The sparingly-used vocals enhance the instrumentation that, itself, moves between the minimal and the more full-blooded. A first rate illustration of growing musical ambition and inventiveness.

It's simply stunning.

Running parallel with Aster’s allegorical fetishism of interpersonal decay, Krlic's music - even at its most choking and hopeless - feels luminous, making for a perfectly-poised accompaniment to one of the most challenging genre films in recent years.

PARANOÏA isn’t without flaw; some tracks work more as spoken poems than as songs due to their slack, unmoving instrumentation. But at almost 100 minutes, Chris’ most astounding work yet expands his craftsmanship to territories surprisingly well-suited for him.

In the end, And After That We Didn’t Talk is as impressive of a rap debut as there has been in 2015. Once GoldLink’s reputation catches up with the quality of his music we may just have a new superstar on our hands.

Ultimately, this deftly intelligent record takes personal and musical themes, and presents them in a way that doesn’t feel like it’s ever been done before. Rina Sawayama is one-of-a-kind, and her debut album certainly isn’t going to be quiet about that.

Kveikur is a record you play for the sheer catharsis of it--a work of art to plug into when grey buildings and greyer skies tower too densely around you, and you wish for nothing more than to close your eyes and feel the terrible greatness of nature swallow you up.

Days of the Bagnold Summer encapsulates the best of Belle and Sebastian whist simultaneously narrating the key themes of the film. The gentle approach of the album and the complementary nature of the band’s rerecording’s and the new tracks are hard to fault. Belle and Sebastian have truly found a beautiful sweet spot on Days of the Bagnold Summer between a film soundtrack and a signature sounding album.

It stands as both a fascinating new direction, and a heartbreaking memoir of a period now sinking into the past.

Her trademark confidence is now tinged with a newfound self-awareness, as if evolving through her experience of the joys and pitfalls of celebrity. ... Surprisingly, the standout track from the record, “Crying in the Car”, is a diorama of nostalgia, melancholy and faith, counterbalancing Megan’s overall ethos of optimistic self-empowerment. ... For listeners, it makes a strong case for the rapper’s longevity within the increasingly fickle world of music.

It’s a huge, sprawling Britpop epic that evokes The Verve, Oasis and even U2 in its scope and power. There are walls of guitars, layers of backing vocals, thunderous percussive blasts.

Delicate and crystalline in sound & execution, what we have here is brave, innovative, unexpected, and brilliant.

It is easily El Perro del Mar's most impressive work to date. In lesser hands, such difficult topics might have been rendered in a cliché, one-sided way. But Assbring manages to deliver a heart rending, honest, multifaceted meditation on grief in a tightly-penned ten track album that demands nothing less than our full attention.

Uplifting, powerful and sincere, Pip Blom deliver a rich, ocean-inspired debut that is instantly captivating. This is the opening chapter to something very exciting.

In true Simz fashion, conscious reflections unfold over the producer’s sprawling arrangements. NO THANK YOU makes certain that every gap is filled tastefully: bellowed vocal ad-libs and melodies (“X”); tasteful guitar tinkles (“Who Even Cares”); or sampled vocal interjections (“Heart On Fire” or “Sideways”).

Turning it up to eleven, PUP’s second album is a tongue-in-cheek rampage through everything that matters. The dream might not be what they thought it would be, but when they’re capable of a record as unrelenting as this one, then it’s certainly not over.

In anyone else’s hands, 30 tracks might feel bloated and indulgent, but Swift tempers length with careful curation, sequencing and a respect for what made the original Red such a superb pop record.

This is an album of Swift at her most knowing, pushing away the tabloid fodder that has often surrounded her artistry and magnifying the talent she's been honing her entire life. The melodies are full of warmth and round-edges, moving and twinkling on her whim as she indulges in one of the most most human and timeless past-times we have.

If Cape God felt like Hughes beginning to create her own universe, Girl with No Face marks her apotheosis as her deity. Still sleeping on Allie X? It’s time to wake up: her spaceship has truly landed.

Every single edition of this release is great value for money, and long-term and new fans alike will find hours of listening pleasure to be had no matter their budget.

Uncut Gems is a triumph. The Oneohtrix Point Never albums occupy almost every different mood the human body is capable of expressing and now Lopatin’s soundtrack work is starting to do the same. We’ve had the moody, anxious Lopatin on Good Time and now Uncut Gems has allowed him to show his more thoughtful and emotional side.

The collective's return gleams with ambition. Packing the same ferocity and awe of a firework display with ebullient lighter moments shaded with synth flourishes, and rapturously prototypical loud darker ones which apprehend and shake you to the core.

In other words, Moderat have stepped up to the plate and then some.

This album is fun to listen to. The songs breeze by. It’s a 20 track album which feels half the length and the Dirty Projectors are now resolutely a band, and a band reborn.

The unstoppable momentum of hypnotic build-ups and genuinely unique, masterfully maintained combination of moodiness and muscular physicality that characterises Feeding The Machine place Binker & Moses far ahead of the combination.

This record is intelligent, succinct in its ambitions, and more than anything, it’s pretty bloody cool.

Its stylistic diversity can be off-putting at first. But the more you listen, the more it all comes together.