PERFECTLY NORMAL

Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

lush, powerful, heartfelt

This album combines the unique voice and emotion of GREY Area with lush, enveloping orchestration. It feels like music as therapy; using it to convey an artist's life experiences, and everything which brought them to the moment they're in right now.

Danny Brown - Atrocity Exhibition

unhinged, chaotic, spiralling

This album explodes with a wild, freewheeling, chaotic energy on every track. It captures not just drug highs, but spiralling crashes. It took about 5 listens before I even decided I liked it, but now I can't get enough of it. It's the ultimate feel-bad album. It's the Climax of music.

Radiohead - Kid Amnesia

cold, hypnotic, otherworldly

Yeah, this is kinda cheating, since it's a double release. But it's hard not to listen to these two albums back to back and think they were always meant to be together. Kid A transports you to another planet with its cold alien soundscapes, and Amesiac lulls you into a hypnotic state so that you never want to leave. (Plus, Radiohead was already taking up enough slots on this list.)

Grimes - Art Angels

captivating, entrancing, unexpected

In one moment you'll hear fairylike vocals on soft, low-key soft pop songs like California and Belly of the Beat, and in another Grimes is screaming her lungs out in the battle-cries of Kill v. Maim. This album is just exploding with personality, and I love it.

Sufjan Stevens - Illinois

conceptual, orchestral, personal

Listening to Chicago for the first time was a pretty special experience that I don't think I'll soon forget. It forms the centerpiece of a beautifully realised concept album which feels like it dives into Sufjan's history and trauma as much as it does the state's. Has brought me to tears on more than one occasion.

Radiohead - In Rainbows

textured, blissful, passionate

Maybe the most beautiful, entrancing, blissful album I've ever listened to. Reckoner, Weird Fishes and Fifteen Step are some of my personal favourites (all three landing easily in my top 10 Radiohead tracks), but there's not a single weak point across the entire album.

Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

nostalgic, timeless, swansong

A glorious, layered, timeless tribute to music. Touch easily my favourite song of all time. It's tragic that Daft Punk separated after this, but at the same time they couldn't possibly have gone out in a better way.

Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon

atmospheric, empathetic, immersive

I think it's a shame that this album is mostly famous for its cover art and one or two well known songs, because it's loaded with amazing tracks throughout. Much like Random Access Memories, it feels like I'm being taken on an epic immersive sonic journey when I listen to this album.

Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's

transporting, nostalgic, psychedelic

This album is such a fun, contained experience, and when I listen to it I get to travel back in time for an hour to a time I never experienced. Also, I can't listen to 'Good Morning' with a frown on my face.

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

regretful, empathetic, introspective

Like Dark Side Of The Moon, this album is conceptually dense and rich, full of immersive and transporting sounds, and lyrics which are simple but carry immense emotional weight. (Also, fun fact - for a really long time I thought this album came out very recently, because I thought the guy on the right side of the cover was meant to be Donald Trump - not my most cerebral moment.)

Radiohead - OK Computer

dystopian, futuristic, immaculate

I love this album so much, the fact that its title is derived from a throwaway line in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy isn't even in my top 10 favourite things about it. Stands ahead of Kid A and In Rainbows for overall consistency (although both those two albums have high points which I prefer).

Daft Punk - Discovery

uplifting, danceable, euphoric

Absolute peak, unmatched house music. Wish I could wipe this album from my memory and listen to it all over again (and really wish I could forget the fact that the first time I listened to ""Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger"" was the Pentatonix version).

PJ Harvey - Let England Shake

chilling, etheral, harrowing

The tracks on this album manage to feel unique but still captivating. They steer between quiet introspection and righteous fury without ever feeling disconcerting. This album doesn't jump out at you; it pulls you in.

Beatles - Abbey Road

immaculate, warm, classic

Although it's not my #1 Beatles album, it probably has my #1 song (Come Together), and is still an absolute masterpiece every way you look at it.

Little Simz - GREY Area

aggressive, attitude, personal

This album feels so personal and heartfelt, like Simz is exploring her emotions and experiences through the music. It also feels so varied despite its short length, with some tracks like Venom having such an angry and vengeful delivery, to slower and more melodic tracks like Therapy and Sherbet Sunset.

Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool

melancholic, slow, introspective

This album holds a special place for me, as the first one I ever really fell in love with. It's slower and more understated than most of Radiohead's albums, but no less beautiful for it. The music is easy on the ears, but heavy on the heart.

St. Vincent - Daddy's Home

nostalgic, soulful, personal

Yeah I've overused the word 'nostalgic' in my 3-word descriptions, but this album encapsulates that more than most. It's a wonderful throwback to a different era of music, and continues St Vincent's trend of somehow doing something totally different in every album and still nailing it.

Grimes - Miss Anthropocene

heavy, terrifying, captivating

Although I prefer Art Angels, I still really love this album. It merges Lovecraftian horror vibes with a really strange but captivating beauty, and it has some of my absolute favourite Grimes tracks.

Goat Girl - On All Fours

dreamlike, transfixing, entrancing

Listening to this album, I feel like I'm sinking into its melancholic and dreamlike atmosphere, drowning in heavy synths and soundscapes. It's like a fairytale which enchants you into its pages, never to return.

Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

scrappy, punky, riotous

The angry, anxty, punk-rock energy of this album is pretty much unmatched - not just by post-debut Arctic Monkeys, but by most every indie rock band. And it's not just bangers; the nuanced and mature storytelling on this album belies the band's youth, and the fact that this was just a debut.