These tracks are like messages in glass bottles, making their journey from one continent to another, across a calm sea. Pure serenity. ‘Flora Fauna’ is proof that a woman can be many things.

Although it takes more than a couple of listens for Loud City Song to feel like a cohesive album, the reward once you do is well worth the outlay.

If ‘RENAISSANCE’ doesn’t convince you that a star with nothing to prove continues to produce sprawling bodies of work that are editorially precise, prismatic and rhythmically audacious, nothing will.

With Closer to Grey, the group have created a near-perfect piece of 21st century pop escapism. So, the next time world’s weighing you down, you know what to do. Reach for your turntable. Chromatics have got your back.

Semper Femina matches Laura Marling’s personal quest to unlock facets of her identity echoing with the wider struggle to clear a space for the feminine voice within society itself. With a triumphant new album it seems that this songwriter has found a room of her own.

A record that feels incredibly refined, ‘JAGUAR’ is an expert piece of R&B engineering, with each individual part interlocking perfectly. It’s a wonderful experience, with Victoria Monét’s stellar artistry balancing the sensuality of sound with a killer lyrical flair that aims straight for the heart.

The OOZ is undoubtedly another thought-provoking entry into the discography one of Britain’s most exciting and challenging young artists. An intense, yet rewarding listen.

With his debut album he firmly establishes himself as one of the leading lights in UK rap (if there were any doubts), and in a year where some of the scene’s heavyweights are also dropping albums, it won’t be a surprise if AJ’s project is rated as among the best of them by the end of 2019.

This compelling and provocative record is a haunting echo of a seemingly hopeless vignette of Britain today, where slowthai offers the slightest glimmer of optimism for a potentially brighter future.

Suffused with an indefinable sense of melancholy, the likes of ‘I Can Change’, ‘Home’ and ‘Dance Yrself Clean’ instil the rubbery electro with a tangible soul - whilst ‘Drunk Girls’ delivers a giddy hit of bony post-punk.

Power drifting through the gears and with cutting-edge in hand, this is a shoe-in contender for house album of the year--clear and distinct, all the way through.

Arab Strap are back with a vengeance. And it’s fucking glorious.

Outrage! finds them actually enjoying the process of writing and experimenting with the potent formula they concocted back at the start of the millennium.

It’s very much a record that stands on its own two feet. These are excellent songs. Not only that, but given the isolation and anxieties of life in 2021, it’s easy to find commonality in these tales of hope and strength amid troubling uncertainty.

There is a modern, angry masterpiece in here--just skip the manifesto.

The variety in the instrumentation is only met by the variety in her voice; going through registers, accents and even characters, 'Warm Chris' is an album covering the complex and enigmatic voices of a supremely singular talent.

While the duo may have expanded their sonic palette, it’s Alice Merida Richards' distinctive vocals that give the record depth and weight.

‘Tableau’ sees the The Orielles venture into the unknown, with the sole ambition of testing their limits (or lack thereof). They succeed, resurfacing with new vision, and setting an example of what can occur when artists have the opportunity to revel in full, untethered, boundless creativity.

Dirty, loud and intimidatingly sexy, Blood Pressures is the result of a year spent apart - Hince's adventures in sound provide the album's thick production, while Mosshart's stint as Dead Weather frontwoman instils further confidence and swagger in her provocative lyrics.

The production is absolutely masterful. The conviction is assured; the weightiest of subjects: that of 'life' and 'death' are tackled and shackled by Zola exper

This latest 4-CD/5-LP boxset is a treasure trove for both hardcore fans and music buffs in general. The first thing your hard-earned money gets you is a beautifully crisp 2021 remaster of the original album, every solo, and cymbal crash, never sounding so unspoiled. Being a deluxe album set, you've naturally got the kind of material that only a lunatic would revisit regularly.

Albanese joins a select group of modern classical artists able to offer so very much without the need for words.

As both a treatise and a sonic testament, ‘COWBOY CARTER’ is its own triumph; unmoored in form, space and time, it’s the work of a preternatural talent painstakingly poring over every word, stratified vocal, sample and stylistic flourish.

It’s difficult to envisage anyone else but Remy conceiving such a record. This is exemplary, political pop music executed to near perfection.

Three decades after forming, hitting the reset button has unleashed this iconic duo afresh, demonstrating an insatiable ability to forge the perfect dance track, whatever the era. Go get your rave on.

Live up to the hype? The short answer is ‘yes.’ The slightly longer answer is ‘yes, but not as you’d expect it to.’ Funnily enough, the record packs something of a slow burn effect.

There’s a profusion of standout tracks that invite you into Teyana’s world of emotions, sex and vulnerability. ... This a grown woman ready to continue her reign over R&B.

An exhausting and thoroughly absorbing set.... It is a record that everybody should own. Meticulous, majestic, momentous.