With ‘Thirstier’, Torres has delivered her most varied set of songs yet; trying on so many different costumes suits her.

The energy of this debut is tangible.

A collection of the best of what has come before, ‘Draw Down The Moon’ finds coherence in its unashamed madness. It’s pulled together by Connor Murphy’s unique vocal performance, and the welcome dominance of drummer Jon Hellwig.

It might well be his most musically bold but thoughtful album to date, yet another stage in Obaro Ejimiwe’s fascinating evolution.

Masters of their craft, this grand exploration could probably go with some cutting down and honing exercised, but these are fresh faces heading out into the great unknown.

Every song has its own character, with each one further clarifying Will as a great musician and songwriter in his own right, as though there were any doubts.

This delight of an album might bend and warp reality, but it’s also a rare gem because underneath all of its trickery it still projects back a reflection of something completely grounded.

Four Year Strong sees the Massachusetts four-piece at their most refined, eleven tracks that not only succinctly sum up their fourteen year history but confidently remind the world at large that they’ve still got something to offer.

‘Abomination’ is a singular debut and quintessential cultural capsule - of both post-post-punk and gay modernity - from one of the UK’s most fearless off-piste queer acts.

Fair Youth is the perfect example of how to get post-rock instrumental music right.

While Circa Waves are stepping up, they’re just as confident in stripping things back.

Rave Tapes may not see them moving too far from their widescreen template but it’s an assured record that sees them draw from right across their rich palette of textures.

While not all-out riotous slacker-pop, he incorporates particles of honky-tonk rock, wry witticism in an admittedly more muted and seasoned, but still measured, present-day evolution of King Tuff.

He sounds soft, restrained and beautiful.

A fifth album u-turn that few could pull off, Boy King is the sound of a band reborn. The core elements are all still there--that falsetto-baritone play-off between vocalists Hayden Thorpe and Tom Fleming as prominent as ever--but they’re glitched-up and garbled.

Without a doubt an audacious first effort, Adult Jazz have lovingly crafted a record of intriguing, ear-catching pop music on Gist Is.

Miley's seventh era seems to be the one that suits her best, her huge vocals and penchant for penning irresistible melodies lending themselves with ease to big growling rock-leaning anthems.

Beyond what has come before, ‘PAINLESS’ feels like a true representation of its creator; simultaneously delicate, fierce, vulnerable and fiery.

The only sore-thumb is lead single ‘How Can You Really’, which feels far too polished for the lo-fi and experimental feel of the album. Apart from that, though, this is a record of magnificent magnitude and one that’s audacious as hell.

This is a performance, a showcase of crazy that does nothing but dazzle.

It’s a collection of songs that reflects anxiety and paranoia, a distrust of the present but also belief in their own ability. It also presents a band with a future in which they have opened up new avenues for themselves.

What stops the record being preposterous, what keeps it charming and fun throughout, what makes it okay for ‘Mid Century Modern Nightmare’ to rhyme “bourgeoisie” with “cups of tea” is the presence of Gruff.

While Hop Along’s frontwoman’s vocal still acts like a pummelling, emotive and unmistakable instrument, Hop Along’s sound has expanded accordingly on Painted Shut to fully accommodate her storytelling.

iven the excitement that’s put to tape, it’s obvious this has been Jungle’s intention all along; not to be mysterious, not even to be adored; just to be the record that plays while people’s lives are shaped. Something that’s remembered within every pang of nostalgia.

Even if at times the album can be quite esoteric despite its pop veneer, there is a purity of expression that is addictive.

In turning around a painful and difficult period in his life, Ben Leftwich has managed to paint a picture of redemption and growth that’s graceful and honest without drifting into self indulgence.

Hearing Jordan laying bare these experiences that sound more his own than ever over La Dispute’s most impacting collection of songs yet is something that will invigorate the die-hards once more and maybe (just maybe) finally impress the naysayers.

Old Fears makes for a fascinating record, evolving gradually from start to finish and yet doing so in a way subtle enough so as to never jar nor stand out.

The result sees Plague Vendor’s ferocious punk swirl around explosions of synth and thunderous electronic drums, a combination that ultimately propels their ever-present homage to classic sounds into the present day.

Cleo Tucker and Harmony Tividad have already proven themselves as songwriters with a great deal of potential, and their debut record properly only confirms that they’re only just getting started.

It’s a statement packed with masses of future potential, and that’s all you can really ask for from a debut record.

This is perhaps Sigur Rós' most human-sounding album to date, too. Prepped for intimate nights with loved ones and exhausting journeys back home; it's an album that ditches the dramatic and brings in the calm.

Far from the fools of their name, Dumb are onto something pretty magnetic.

Against Justin’s increasingly interesting way with words, it feels like the purest Vaccines album yet.

A a good, clean indie-pop record, it’s a solid foot in the door for an act with a prosperous future ahead of them.

It’s a frankly overwhelming listen first time around, with everything tearing along at a hundred miles an hour, but it’s all fizzing and crackling so exhilaratingly that you’re happy to let her sweep you along.

The resulting back-and-forth between herself and Ellery - her honeyed tones set against his unmistakably raspy roars - is enthralling, and holds up regardless of musical backdrop. There’s low-key moments of genuine menace (‘Black Sun Rising’, the disquieting churn of ‘Serenity Says’) and some major key nods towards anthemic territory, too.

Though different in style and construction, they all succeed in doing in giving you the chills, in a whole new way.

Blessed with a beautiful, halting falsetto and a way with words, he is a very sad man, and this is a very sad album. It will make you want to lie down in the dark for a while and think about things.

Anybody arriving at this album expecting 13 ‘Milkshake’s will be sorely disappointed, but everyone else will hear Kelis at her most effortless.

While the album is certainly softer in sound, it never plays it safe - experimental pay-offs are peppered throughout.

Tommy’s aware of her strengths, and she’s not afraid to brandish them: ‘goldilocks x’ is a little weird, a little dark, and it’s just right.

It’s a heftier beast that still reaches all-guns-blazing crescendos like it’s no biggie, but for the most part is slower, louder, and easier to lose oneself in than its rapid-fire younger brother, resounding proof that Spring King are still on an upward trajectory with no signs of slowing.

After years of reflection, this is a steady steep back towards the future.

From a band capable of biting social commentaries and intense concept albums about the First World War, this latest, fluffier episode in the Field Music saga is a solid record that does everything you’d ever hope a Field Music album would do.

Where Asher Roth left house-party hip hop (or just got a little high and wandered off) Chiddy Bang pick it up but bring a whole new focus, a pop-sensibility and a very nuanced delivery.

Through lulling endless days to fretting thoughts about the future, they remain the same bunch, capable of making the impossible sound almost too easy.

'Dear' has a refreshing simplicity and endearing vulnerability that will gatecrash your soul and render your skip button impervious.

For all of Before We Forgot How To Dream’s subtle touches of production, it’s Soak herself who stands out the most.

This record was defined by never being in the same place at once--each song was recorded in a different location--but there’s a glue holding everything together.

It is a work that demonstrates how sheer and utter horror can be turned into music, and while that may not appeal to the majority, the fact that someone is brave enough to do it is really quite brilliant.

Sure, there’s fewer marimbas on offer here, but Dutch Uncles have still served up a finger-lickin’ feast.

Pop-rock deconstructionist, art-rock godfather, Portland father and family man: all these elements come through here and it makes this album a triumph.

Dark and light, sweet yet savvy, layered but not overproduced--Foxes has created a work that embodies all these dichotomies and walks the line between them perfectly.

Powers throws just enough of his own inquisitive character to find his finest moment. He does it time and time again on this record.

Despite this fervent distancing of themselves from party politics, Dog Whistle is a brutal, impassioned flag-in-the-ground for the disillusioned in New York and beyond.

It is often difficult for dance producers to go from making one off tracks and remixes to producing a full coherent and lucid album, but it is a jump that John Talabot has made effortlessly.

It packs a ferocious punch without compromising subtlety, operating with coiled concealed restraint. With their offering, Mogwai prove once more that, after more than twenty years, they’re a constantly evolving beast of a band.

PVRIS might have been to hell and back, but a new era is here, and it’s utterly brilliant.

This album is one of empowerment and regained vitality.

Lewd, bulshy, and gaudier than a kitsch ornaments warehouse with a sprung glitter pipe, Rub is a return to form, and hideously brilliant, garish good fun.

It feels darker, somehow, deliciously shadowey.

They use a quiet/loud formula to epic create drone-filled symphonies, which rumble, crackle and erupt perfectly.

‘Bunny’, for the most part, justifies why Healey’s little black book is quite so heaving.

The album could stand to bear more of the inventiveness that was so rife on her debut, but Laufey’s crystalline voice and effortless charisma make this album into a gorgeous display of a unique talent.

A bright, well constructed and boldly vivid first outing, showing a first rate ear for instantly osmosing melody, this debut is written for the Christine in everyone.

Super is confirmation of their position at the head of the pop pantheon with an album brimming with excitement and fizzing with energy.

Without doubt, this is Kate's heartbreak album; candid in its inspiration, both musically and emotionally

Noisy, riotous, anthemic and bristling with excitement, INHEAVEN is an album to rage along with.

Tracks such as ‘Answer’ contain more light, pop-ridden sensibilities, yet it’s with the grittier, heavier-sounding choruses where Phantogram are at their best.

Though the duo sometimes return to the comparative safety of moping synthetic orchestras, and soul-reflecting mirrors lying conveniently on the Camberwell Road pavement, for the most part, there’s a new sense of fun to Hurts.

In and out of the studio, Ryley Walker has been one of indie rock’s more colourful characters for a while now; ‘Course in Fable’ only reinforces that view.

While single ‘Angel’ uses the simplest, scrappiest riffs and Beth’s sonorous tones to make something more than the sum of its parts. Du Blonde continues to be one of UK guitar music’s best kept secrets.

The Districts end up finding an in-between, where emotional songwriting becomes the selling point, without being overdone.

Sprightly, desperately alive and joyously nostalgic, Plumb sees Field Music waving an exultant goodbye to the shipwrecked post-punk revival they'd always been wary of and sailing into classic art-pop waters.

It’s an album that feels rich and invigorating, and proves they’re still one of our most treasured bands for a reason.

Imbued throughout with a fusion of Pa’s Gambian heritage, and life growing up in Coventry (“COV, #cityofviolence” introduces ‘Informa’), it’s a varied, confident and cinematic trip through where the performer finds himself.

The most complete archiving of everywhere Nine Inch Nails has been, but more than that a jaw-dropping preview of everywhere it can go.

Arlo emerges with a newfound directness, finding a sound and voice that fully represents the multifaceted complexities of the world outside the bedroom.

Records like this always sound deceptively simple when done properly; if it were as easy as Adult Mom makes it sound to write pop gems this endearing in their honesty, everybody would be doing it.

Ultimately, there’s a charming purity that runs through ‘New Long Leg’, and a sense that Dry Cleaning wasn’t the product of a masterplan. Instead it’s the by-product of the lives they were already leading which gives an uncompromising human quality to this debut.

Dumb Blood’ is an ambitious record too--and best of all, on every single count, VANT have nailed it.

Her first record as Self Esteem allows her songwriting skills to flourish in all their flawed glory--at once assertive and vulnerable, her take on pop flirts with high-end glossy sonics but still holds roots in the slow-building atmospherics that fuelled her past work, as well as some leftfield R&B influences.

Meiburg and the group have swapped the muddy tranquillity that kept them muted and unheard for a daring dose of starry eyed wonderment that really should unleash the groups collective wings, enabling them to fly higher than ever before.

Here and Nowhere Else is relentless in the best possible way.

With Holiday Destination, Nadine puts a critical magnifying glass over why we should do just that [fight for something better than what we currently have].

Depth is assured by some strong variations to the established formula.

Committed to tape with the help of Rich Turvey, on ‘Now Or Whenever’ Spector strike between the two eras of their sound, tempering all out alternative bravado with yearningly bittersweet baritone-crooning ballads.

While he continues to be less elusive, his music continues to thrive from his stark directness.

'Breakup Song' manages to hone and control their more outré-moments into a more cohesive structure than before without every compromising the band's predilection for sheer bonkers-ness.

There are playful moments - a self-referential take on Cat Stevens’ ‘Pop Star’, in which the 80-year-old icon declares his showbiz intentions, chief among them - but the album is best when it embraces the singer’s age, experience and stature.

Songs pound onwards, elliptical guitar lines wrapping round and round, and there's an all encompassing feeling of travelling vast distances. Relentlessly, confidently and quite, quite spectacularly.

Young Fathers haven’t done what was expected of them on Cocoa Sugar but in dodging expectations once again, they continue to triumph.

Less wildly daring than its predecessors, yet remaining totally assured in its vision, ‘Seeking New Gods’ stands as another finely-crafted addition to Gruff Rhys’ illustrious repertoire.

It’s a creative, deeply introspective record that makes up for in depth what it doesn’t quite reach in soaring heights.

It has the potential to be an outstanding listen, and it would have been if ‘Other Language’ and ‘In Blur’ had a slightly stronger sense of direction, but Deafheaven has still crafted a record to get lost in. The metal purists crying sellout will sorely be missing out.

This is an album polished enough to see your face in, and yet it’s probably--and this isn’t necessarily a criticism--the most disjointed Holy Fuck album to date.

Tape Two sees them moving further away from a classic De La Soul template into something deeper and darker.