While the scattered poetics of Anna Mieke’s lyrics are indeed dreamlike, the mesmeric artistry of her second album, Theatre, means that Mieke’s images, her sense memories, start to feel like your own.

There’s no shortage of killer hooks deeper into the album – a commitment to bangers matched by BLK’s wise words about personal damage and heartbreak on songs such as the excellent title track.

An album that improves with each listen, with an accomplished, ornate warmth.

This debut LP is lit up by an imagination as huge and outlandish as her onstage wigs and it makes for songs that bloom.

A brilliant, highly original album.

Bridgers’s second album under her own name, Punisher moves forward confidently from her 2017 debut, Stranger in the Alps.

Impressive, but weirdly hard to enjoy. Into the Blue is similarly promiscuous, but more frequently dazzling.

If anything, the interplay between Jarrett, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette is freer and more beguiling than ever.

Bleak but compelling.

What’s never in doubt is the authenticity of the “missteps and redemption” detailed in its songs, or their engaging, personal delivery.

Wisely, they don’t ape the original, choosing instead to retain its core components while adding snatches of flutes and strings. It is these new details that give the set its charm, whether it’s the winding solos, the glorious interplay or the ravishing spoken interlude that emphasises music’s universal power.

The vocals--female rappers such as Chicago’s Tink make a strong impression here--are what fix us in the present moment: the party talk, posturing and sexual provocations pose an interesting counterpoint to the sci-fi soundscapes.

The guests on Trouble Will Find Me are equally impressive (Sufjan Stevens, Sharon Van Etten), but the National, no question, are the real stars of the show.

This low-key treat finds space both for subcontinental rigour--classical Indian ragas are often categorised by times of day--and effortless prettiness.

An ambitious album (it comes with an 8mm film and several quirky videos) from a unique artist.

A refreshingly short, focused piece of work.

Perhaps this generous album’s biggest theme is the passage of time, and recognising distances travelled.

Deradoorian’s world is as dreamy, hippyish and hipster as her album title suggests and it’s deliciously easy to get lost in it with her.

The production of his debut is appropriately epic, its echoing acoustic guitars and yearning, Fleet Foxy vocals mixed with cowboy cattle calls and Pawnee chants.

Delivering this mix of melancholy and optimism with their trademark storytelling panache, the band have created a compelling and moving record, with Enter Sylvia Plath and The Party Line offering an unexpected Europop divergence from their roots.

If these songs are more off the cuff than before, nothing here sounds unprofessional. Some lyrics have not exactly been sweated-over – “I love you forever, even when we’re not together,” goes Forever – but they chime with people feeling acutely separated from loved ones.

The music is set to do-not-disturb, but Jones has found a nuanced, emotive way to discuss loss, lies, regret, indecision and depression, along with the value of protest and defiance.

Melodies emerge strongly from these simple musical settings and there's little to distract from his lyrics, which explore solitude and regret--those hoary old staples of US road music - in rich and inventive ways.

Over 10 tracks, Heavy Heavy retains the band’s urgent energy – the yelps and driving drums of I Saw and sub-bass breakbeats of Shoot Me Down – but that vitality works in service to an overall, infectious optimism.

Lamar's major-label debut, probably the year's most significant hip-hop release, proves his talent to be as prodigious as his online output.

The somewhat mainstream arrangements are meticulously crafted and played, but it's Cash's emotional, engaged vocals that carry the record.

Pleasingly, their debut album suggests there’s enough musical substance to back up their fighting talk.

Prolific songwriter Ty Segall and Californian rock/art collective White Fence are far from shy about their influences on this bold, brief (30-minute) outing.