Mesmerising. The melodic sections are so strangely beautiful, and Deftones always manage to make the bangers hit and hit hard. I think I prefer this over White Pony, but only just.

Favourite Song: Sextape

Best: Diamond Eyes, Royal, CMND/CTRL, You've Seen the Butcher, Beauty School, Prince, Rocket Skates, Risk, 976-EVIL,

Worst: This Place Is Death

Absolutely deranged from start to finish.

Favourite Song: Sugar

Best: Suite-Pee, Know, Suggestions, Spiders, DDevil, War?, Peephole, P.L.U.C.K.

Worst: Mind

I still cannot comprehend how someone can type the word 'colour' without a 'u', but nonetheless this album is detailed, laid back and good for the soul.

Favourite Song: Don't Wanna Fight

Best: Sound & Colour, Future People, Gimme All Your Love, This Feeling, Guess Who, Miss You

Worst: Gemini

The definitive way to listen to Moral Panic, the complete edition combines the Moral Panic II EP with the main album to create a meaty 16 track serving of greatness. The sequencing seems a little strange at first glance, but when listening to the whole thing through it all falls into place pretty well. The EP was my least favourite project that I'd heard from the band, but on here four of the EP's songs have grown on me immensely. I still think that 'If I Were You' is a grand dollop of cringe, ... read more

Nirvana just isn't for me. Sorry to everyone who has ever listened to music.

Favourite Song: Heart-Shaped Box

Best: Rape Me, Dumb

Worst: Scentless Apprentice

Sentimental beeps and boops for the ages.

Favourite Song: The District Sleeps Alone Tonight

Best: Such Great Heights, Sleeping In, Nothing Better, Clark Gable, We Will Become Silhouettes, This Place Is A Prison, Brand New Colony, Natural Anthem

Worst: Recycled Air

I had absolutely zero expectations going into RENAISSANCE due to a very mediocre lead single and because I'm not exactly a die hard Beyoncé fan, but damn if this isn't one of the most stacked albums of this year. Fantastic mixes of dance pop carry this thing through an hour of seductiveness from Beyoncé, with great production and solid vocals. I don't like the more tone deaf moments like with BREAK MY SOUL and THIQUE, but when the blends of dance and disco mix with the harmonic ... read more

Infinitely charming yet sensitive, Soviet Kitsch is a great mix of humour with passionate storytelling. Regina can occasionally be a little irritable instead of funny, but these moments are often drowned out by the minimalist beauty of the piano work.

Favourite Song: Us

Best: Ode to Divorce, Poor Little Rich Boy, Carbon Monoxide, The Flowers, Ghost of Corporate Future, Chemo Limo, Somedays

Worst: Your Honour

Everyone has that one artist deemed as underrated and great but they just don't see the vision for, right? Well that's Denzel Curry for me. After three albums, I cannot comprehend any of the greatness that everyone seems to be labelling him with, and how this is even considered conscious hip hop when others do his job tenfold better is beyond me.

I decided this year I'd listen to albums that I'd think I would enjoy instead of forcing myself to listen to anything 'acclaimed', and so I ... read more

Raw, unflinching, but a little untidy, NO THANK YOU unsurprisingly adds yet another win to Simz' recent streak of solid albums. I really enjoy how intimate this album is, similarly to the attitudes of Grey Area, but how it still manages to take some of the grandiose production decisions from Introvert and weave them between the hard hitting wordplay. There's a vast array of topics from Simz's perspective discussed, and each feels powerful in their own ways, from love, to mental health, to ... read more

Fun! But 1901 is better than every other song on the album by tenfold.

Favourite Song: 1901

Best: Lisztomania, Fences, Love Like a Sunset, Lasso

Worst: Rome

This is a lovely hyperpop album with a greatly emo and glitchy nature. Brakence's voice is sugary to listen to, especially on the catchier choruses, and the production (albeit a little samey at points) keeps you interested with a cool variation of beats, incorporating stuff like drill and even some little midwest emo riffs. It's such a weird sensation with this album though that a lot of the songs feel like powerful singles, but they need to be in an album format to properly listen to them. ... read more

I would complain that The Strokes just kept making the same song in the 2000's, but damnit when every song is so good you can't help but ignore the lack of diversity. This album is essentially 'Is This It' but with less overall quality.

Favourite Song: Reptilia

Best: What Ever Happened?, Automatic Stop, 12:51, You Talk Way Too Much, Meet Me in the Bathroom, Under Control, The Way It Is, The End Has No End, I Can't Win

Worst: Between Love & Hate

Name one modern pop artist who would not be improved from being produced by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross instead of Jack Antonoff. Come on Olivia Rodrigo, embrace the nails.

Favourite Song: Bells in Santa Fe

Best: The Tradition, Easier Than Lying, Lilith, Girl is a Gun, You asked for this, 1121, honey, Whispers, I am not a woman I'm a God, The Lighthouse, Ya'aburnee

Worst: Darling

Holy balls I was INCREDIBLY wrong about this album. My first impressions earlier this year about this album was that it was good, but nothing memorable. But after (regrettably) being swayed by TikTok to relisten to Deftones, something just suddenly clicked. It went from being repetitive to strangely orgasmic, and Change especially clicked so damn hard upon a revisit. That song is literally the audial equivalent to the greatest sex known to mankind. Utterly sensational. I still think that ... read more

This is a fun little EP combining rock and R&B smoothly with some touches of soul and emo on the side too. It's such a colourful and creative palette of genres and sounds, and for such a short project this comes across really well. I'm honestly not sure how I stumbled across this band late last year, but I'm sure glad I did.

Favourite Song: fallback

Best: nightlifetypebeat, fool me once, no pleasure

Worst: hard for me

American Idiot toys with politics, emotions and concepts at a strange time in the 2000's, and does so wonderfully through its compact track list that never seems to truly slow down until the very end. Although the pop punk tracks get very samey after a while, there's enough variation in lyricism, themes and in tonal paces (especially with the more sombre tracks) to ensure that the album keeps changing and raving in the way that the band wants it to. It also sucks that on streaming some songs ... read more

It's far too long, but it's a glorious grunge experience.

Favourite Song: Black Hole Sun

Best: Let Me Drown, Fell On Black Days, Superunknown, Head Down, Spoonman, Limo Wreck, The Day I Tried To Live, 4th Of July, Like Suicide

Worst: My Wave

It's pretty cool to hear Quadeca go from pop rap to an experimental folky hip hop hybrid sound within the span of a year. Everything on I Didn't Mean To Haunt You is positioned greatly in the track list, and I massively enjoyed the diversity on display especially when comparing it to his previous album. My problems with his lyricism being a tad corny and lesser thought out still kind of stick but the production, just like his last album, is on point. A mixture of ominous strangeness and ... read more

I've never had distaste for Coldplay as much as the general online public, but they're not exactly a favourite of mine either. As I was a radio pop listener for the large majority of my child and teenage life, they've always stuck around as a somewhat decent singles band, but geez I can't even comprehend how they managed to make this thing. It's a detailed and emotional, yet still accessible, pop rock album that takes the britpop formula and then warps it around Martin's impeccable vocals and ... read more