They’ve experimented with vocals, concentrated their musical chemistry, further polished their production, and tweaked their songwriting so that the transitions between movements in their songs are less sheer cliff-faces of fury and more lithe passages. All this, combined with some of the best songs they’ve ever written, makes Ordinary Corrupt Human Love the band’s most irrefutable credential as a leader in modern Rock.

Gunn is a highly skilled rapper, but he doesn't quite bring Supreme Blientele together to be the street epic it could’ve been.

Although it brings nothing new sonically, Jellies is a magnificent example of how a déjà-vu doesn't have to be a mere repetition: it constructs instead of occupying, pays tribute instead of mimetising, carries on instead of resurrecting.

Whatever the expectation might have been ahead of the album, Wet Will Always Dry is, all in all, an extremely Blawan album; wall to wall club bangers with no fuss and no fanfare.

So Sad So Sexy is by no means a bad record, but while the Li of previous records was refreshing and stark showing us her vulnerability, the slickly produced nature of this means that’s often lost and in its place is cliché as Li tries to hang onto the weighty romance of youth.

It is a (relatively speaking) stripped back effort that brings Florence grounded firmly to the earth and perhaps is her greatest achievement to date.

It’s not that Scorpion is bad music - it’s exactly what you’d expect, and too much of it. Its maximalism offers plenty for the converted (and the charts), after all, this far in, nothing is going to turn those set against him. For those of us with more complicated relationships with Drake’s music, there’s also nothing here to overwhelm the sense of stagnation dominant since Views.

Freddie is an easily digestible trap album, not revolutionary or underwhelming but average considering Gibbs’ catalogue of work.

Gleams and glances of Albarn’s potential are almost omnipresent, yet never really come into fruition.

These are sprightly, assured, gratifying pop songs, pirouetting with enough agitated inventiveness to ensure each run is sunny, surprising, and fluently fun; a damn fine Summer record.

Year of the Snitch elicits the same anxiety-ridden feeling as having two dozen browser windows open at the same time. In its sensory overload, its embrace of ugliness and beauty, of chaos and calm, of proficiency and slackness, and its willingness to by turns troll and impress the listener, it reflects the complicated, frustrating nature of the Internet in 2018.

Between horns, strings, synths, guitars and all the rest this record is definitely an attack on the senses and shows Urie's knack for constructing a radio-friendly hit, but delve below the surface and it doesn't have much to offer. Certainly not enough to justify diminishing returns for a long running act, definitely not enough to keep me coming back for anything but the first few beats.

The somewhat dated soundscape presents the album one relative weakness, but truthfully, sticking to her guns serves Allen and No Shame just fine, with the clear spotlight allowed for her vocals.

While Kazuashita might not be a completely perfect album, it is as close as you can get to perfect when it comes to fulfilling the potential of the album as an artistic concept. Every piece fits together, it has a message without pontificating, and it’s absolutely crucial to experience it all at once.

Across the sixteen tracks that make up this entire project they’ve by and large avoided the awkward moments that have made listeners cringe on previous releases, they’ve finally nailed how to produce and mix Reznor’s voice so that his still somewhat heavy-handed lyricism doesn’t distract attention from the considerable craft that’s gone into the music, and they’ve found a way to organically explore new sonic avenues which mean that, while Reznor might feel like he’s trapped in a loop, doomed to continually find himself back where he’s already been, Nine Inch Nails are no longer simply repeating themselves.

Smith curated these tracks to showcase her insecurities to fans that will relate to the transparency of her work. Lost & Found is a strong foundation for the up-and-coming Smith and her R&B fused experiences. The gushing warmth of her emotion resonates into a digestible, easy listening album.

This isn’t an album of ‘Crazy In Love’ or ‘Drunk In Love’ successors. It’s an album of love, and all the forms it can take in and outside of you.

OIL’s resonance and bravery--underlined by its acutely mapped volatile and enrapturing production--is inspiring, and the conception and execution of its testimony remarkable.

NASIR is the weakest of the recent Kanye output, though perhaps more consistent than ye it fails to put a dent in the current hip hop conversation, feeling especially limp in comparison to the sudden arrival of a one-time nemesis and his wife.

Immersion do well to paint imagery in the listeners mind with, “The Humming Sea” rising up with an ocean of analogue synth pad like sounds representative of this image as though it is a reality. It is this ability to create an easily interpreted image of the sounds that make this album so easily accessible to a listener.

With Hope Downs, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever have adroitly taken their trademark sound and expanded it into a thoroughly enjoyable album--and they’ve done it in rapid time.

The gamble pays off because it's frankly an astonishing achievement for Vynehall and one that solidifies him as one of the more exciting and inventive artists currently making music.

Unpacked individually, there’s a lot to love about each track and a laundry list of potential inspirations.

Beautiful things take time to properly come to life, and this is no exception; although this reading obviously comes in the aftermath of her accident, Bon Voyage sounds like a rebirth of sorts for Prochet.

Uniform pull their weight but it feels like they’re (smartly) saving their strongest material for their upcoming third LP. As for The Body, they’ve shown they can play well with others, but here they feel like they’re indifferently inserting themselves into Uniform’s world, and Uniform was fine with it. It’s an album that aims to make you uncomfortable, but it feels too comfortable with itself.

soil is an album that delves into the dirt of passion, be that artistic, romantic or religious. For every moment of ecstatic energy there’s another equal moment of debilitating disappointment, for every igniting of love, there’s wilting relationships.

While it undoubtedly packs in a humongous swath of influences and touchstones from today’s pop culture, the overall piece created is completely unique, unreplicable and ultimately undescribable.

Too often there doesn’t seem to be a definite roadmap. Other than a few brief moments, this record feels like a missed opportunity.