At.Long.Last.A$AP feels epochal. It has the strange sense about it of a new rap monument being erected.
Vulnicura is stark and powerful in a way that Björk has merely danced around for years. Here, in these songs, she has shed all of her skin
Feels Like is the culmination of everything Bognanno has learned about making music and, most importantly, about herself; an album of unflinching rawness full of tight, searing tracks that whizz along at breakneck speed.
Sometimes is the work of probably the best lyricist writing today, and roundly deserves to be an album for the ages.
Like all great Country records, Romano’s is cathartic - your heart aches for him and with him - and it is this emotive sway that makes the record a success.
New Bermuda doesn't quite tear up the script put in place by its predecesser but it does signal a changing Deafhaven.
Me is both a fabulous anthology of boisterous pop songs, and a timely, revelatory album for a lot of people to live vicariously through.
Despite Furman’s own insecurities and wanderlust, Perpetual Motion People sounds like home.
A messy, extravagant, astonishing, beguiling and honest experience: that’s love, and that’s also what I Love You, Honeybear is. Just magnificent.
While not a step forward, What Went Down is a consolidation and refinement of Foals’ artistic strengths and explorations over their previous trio of albums.
GoldLink's And After That We Didn’t Talk is as impressive of a rap debut as there has been in 2015.
Y Dydd Olaf is a marvellously magical mixture of elation, anger and sorrow and is very lovely indeed. With the opening salvo of her solo career Gwenno has added another album to the growing list of this year’s highlights.
In Colour is a record that could soundtrack break ups, facilitate unions, and prompt both soul searching and sweaty debauchery.
Apocalypse, girl is staggering in so many ways; funny, shocking, engaging, musically ambitious and uncompromising.
With a formidable knack for telling an engaging story in the space of a song, Divers is further proof that, as a lyricist, Newsom is second to none.
Honeymoon reaffirms her ability to make important, masterful pop music that doesn’t pay a blind bit of notice to fashion and it's all the better for it.
Effusive, highly danceable and crammed with hooks, Hinterland plays like a greatest hits from a parallel universe.
Elements is as breathtakingly beautiful and poignantly polarised as one would expect from one of this generation’s finest classical talents.
Not only the first album written, produced and for herself, but also remarkably candid in her fear of death, legacy and memory. This is Diamandis at her best.
Musically, Good Sad Happy Bad is both challenging and engrossing. But it's the simple yet subtle investigations into questions and actions that are intrinsic to our daily existence which makes this record so exceptional. It's pop music, but it says big things.
Fast Food isn’t as labyrinthine as her debut – exits are neon-lit fire escapes rather than barricaded doors – but it is just as powerful.
Natalie Prass is a break-up album that doesn’t wallow; it’s the most realistic take on relationships you’ll have heard in a long time.
As with every Neon Indian album, VEGA INTL Night School can feel chaotic, effusive, even overwhelming at times. But, much like the proverbial “bright lights” of the city which provide the inspiration for this LP, it's dazzling, too.
There is no denying the raw power of Viet Cong ... anyone with punk in their heart will connect with this album.
Chin up, eyes out, Shamir looks ever outward on Ratchet, staking his claim as the foremost purveyor of future pop for future people.
Despite its light-handed approach, Carrie & Lowell strikes with a sort of urgency unparalleled across the composer's 15-year career.
By taking a sharp turn into the light, the shades of grey of her older material have been splattered by blasts of glorious technicolour, a move resulting in her best album to date.
He doesn’t claim to have all the answers—from a strictly epistemological stand-point, Jesso Jr. makes note of how little his experiences in the world have taught him – and it is surely the simplicity of the universe on Goon that offers it and the artist their charm.
This album is a vital listen: Scott’s unrestrained emotion, godly technical prowess and a natural gift for just great songwriting make it one of the finest of 2015 so far.
With her newest effort, she takes the sonic pillars of electronic music—big hooks, beats, synths—and warps them to create a disquieting brand of avant-pop, a surreal landscape populated by the tragic everywoman.