This latest iteration of Lan McArdle and Owen Williams’s Joanna Gruesome turns their lush vocals, guitar heroics and recent heartbreaks into melodic gold

Completed by her brother after her accidental death in 2021, the experimental pop producer’s second album is among the most inventive records of the year

Named after their Nashville studio, hit by a tornado in 2020, the duo’s first album together in 13 years picks its impeccable, old-time way through personal and social upheaval

The Run the Jewels rapper follows up last year’s Grammys-sweeping Michael with an album addressing a tumultuous few months

An impeccable mix of haunted earworms, zinging lyrics and dancefloor delights that end too soon, the American superstar’s third album seems to pull back from tantalising new horizons

Beth Ditto-fronted US indie trio Gossip’s first album in 12 years feels strongly personal and political. Musically, though, it pulls its punches

On this textbook collaboration that’s anything but, the Oasis singer and Stone Roses guitarist rearrange the DNA of their former bands to intriguing effect

There’s less seething, more singing as the Bristol band’s fifth album finds them evolving musically, artistically and emotionally

With strings and psychedelia added to the mix, Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood’s ever-evolving side project feels as dynamic now as their day job

The ribald charms of theIsle of Wight duo’s first two singles have been replaced by indie rock about rubbish exes on their surprisingly conventional debut

Taking raw emotion to the next level, Adele relives the year her marriage fell apart on this self-flagellating powerhouse of an album

The Glaswegian trio use horror film tropes to explore fame, double standards and battles closer to home on their intense fourth album

After two brushes with death last year, the Manchester rapper has a lot to process on his starkly honest second album

Shabaka Hutchings and co’s urgent fourth album lifts the spirits and feeds the soul

Channelling 70s New York funk and her father’s release from prison, the ever brilliant Annie Clark loosens up on her soulful sixth album

Marie Ulven’s debut album is a quietly confident declaration of intent

With global events confirming their long-held worldview, the Canadian prophets of doom sound angrier, sadder and more beautiful than ever

This poppy, life-affirming ode to gay domestic bliss is a paean to black people ‘living their damn life anyhow’

On this strikingly assured seventh album, Del Rey reflects on fame, love, loneliness and the solidarity of fellow female songwriters

The grief remains, but Cave’s hunger for retribution is back too, heightened at every turn by Ellis’s strings, on this wild, writerly masterpiece