Polly Harvey’s contradictory sure, but the complexities of her character and where she is right now are expressed with an honesty and intensity few artists can ever even begin to think about mustering.

Minimal and huge at the same time, desperately sad in places, thought-provoking and ethereal in others, this is an incredible milestone of a record.

Fiercely intelligent, heavy as fuck, powerful and utterly concise, it's a perfect reminder of the potency of great guitar music and a kick up the jacksy of rock bands everywhere. Yup, it's that damn good.

Intelligent, melodic, poetic and funny, so this is what Now sounds like eh?

'Aerial' towers over the vast majority of even this year's embarrassment of riches.

This is not just an album that can be appreciated by fans of the avant-garde, pop and rock alike but a genuine fuck you to the people claiming modern music has nowhere left to go.

Put simply: there isn't a bad track on 'Blood Mountain', which will be seen as the metal release of this year, on whichever level you care to mention.

I don't know when a voice touched me as wholly as Antony's does.

The album is a parasite, a pollutant, and should be kept well away from children and old people.

'Bang Bang Rock & Roll' is as clever as it is funny as it is entertaining. It's the most original independent album in years.

For the first time in what seems like a long time, here is an album that is going to be deservedly huge.

Confrontational, clammy, brimming with confidence... ‘Royal Society’ is as majestic as its title implies.

This is so good it makes us want to do one of those superlative deploying pull quote things that journalists often stick at the end of their reviews: this fantastic piece of work is already a strong contender for album of the year.

No one musical entity, or group in the world comes close to the sum of their parts.

The band have colonised the rich turf at the intersection of meticulously structured mope-rock and free-flowing three-chord pop, where moments of resignation cosy up alongside twinkling hopes for the future like Winehouse to the sauce.

It is that love, devotion, and unfaltering belief that makes 'Permission To Land' such an essential listen, and such a joy to behold. It is the sound of triumph.

Fierce and noble and fragile and genuinely moving, 'A Rush Of Blood To The Head' is a lovely furnace of searing goodness made by some wonderful contradictory bastards.

This is Mogwai distilled to their essence, and the result is an album of huge power, emotional depth and feeling, with vocals submerged under a claustrophobic blanket of effects and guitars battling with viola, cello, violin and piano. It's just as Eno as it is S***t, and all the greater for that.

No great leaps of faith, no huge style shifts, just more of what we've come to love them for. But a bit more laid back and, erm, druggy? If that's at all possible.

'Mesmerize' is a frantic, frenetic brutal assault on the senses. It mashes up the most intense hardcore, the fiercest fire-starting punk rock with ridiculously complex riffing that’s like amphetamine prog.

The stuff of magic.

A colourful, incomparable colossus, a work of breathtaking, staggering genius and no mistake.

It's all good. Favourites switch with listens, and we can assure you that this record will remain on your deck all year.

This is a genius pop album, one on which pretty much everything fantastic happens.

Picking highlights from a release so well executed and downright ass-shaking is difficult.... 'To The 5 Boroughs' is a triumph.

Akin to Bowie's 'Hunky Dory', in its senseless but brilliant eclecticism.

This album is fucking brilliant – it made me want to cut my hair, paint the ceiling, fuck the postman and burn the disco down. So I did. Then I curled up in a corner, cried, and shat myself.

Elbow have made the most passionate, beautiful and downright special record you'll hear this year.