This year, the synth-pop pioneers OMD returned with their dazzling 13th studio album "The Punishment of Luxury" which sees them combine the wistful nostalgia and idealized romance of their previous work while stepping out of their comfort zone. The follow up to the critically acclaimed "English Electric" (released in 2013), "The Punishment Of Luxury" is a daring collection of stylish synth pop and masterful songwriting which will certainly rank alongside their very best.

The soundtrack to the most anticipated movie of the year, Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Starring Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Benicio Del Toro, Mark Hamill and the late Carrie Fisher, the movie is the official Episode VIII in the universe-conquering film franchise. Once again composed by the legendary John Williams.

Four girls packed full of fun - The Big Moon are to release their new Acoustic EP. "We’ve been playing these songs for two years now, and it’s a dream come true to finally immortalise them on record. It’s like having five tiny babies all at once, all with their own little faces and voices and personalities, and now we’re ready to throw them out of our nest and into your ears.”

Crafting seductive R&B, Indie Pop that homes in on the simplest and most mysterious aspects of desire, Nantes, France's Her is the project of Simon Carpentier and Victor Solf. The pair met in high school, where Solf, a German native, was in choir and played classical piano and Carpentier played saxophone. Prior to forming Her, they played in another group that achieved some success in Europe before disbanding.

Father John Misty's Pure Comedy is the highly anticipated follow-up to his internationally acclaimed album, I Love You, Honeybear. Pure Comedy highlights include the title track alongside standouts "Leaving LA," "Total Entertainment Forever," "Ballad of the Dying Man," "When The God Of Love Returns There'll Be Hell To Pay" and "Things It Would Have Been Helpful to Know Before The Revolution." Since 2012, Father John Misty, aka Josh Tillman, has unexpectedly emerged as a singular (if not undeniably, um, idiosyncratic) voice.

A quarter of a century after ‘Out Of Time’ helped break alternative music into the American mainstream and turned R.E.M. into a worldwide phenomenon, the band have announced a special 25th Anniversary Edition. After putting Athens, GA, on the musical map in the early '80s, R.E.M. went on to become one of the world's biggest bands. Fusing folk, garage rock, pop sensibilities, and insightful lyrics delivered with Michael Stipe's inimitable lead vocals, these alt-rock forefathers built a massive indie following, and in 1988 unleashed their major-label debut, Warner Bros. Green. This roots rock tour de force was followed in '91 by the Grammy-winning #1 blockbuster Out of Time, which led to an ongoing stream of masterpieces.

Inna is a Romanian pop star who released a new album “Nirvana”. We’re so excited for “Nirvana” to drop, it’s been a long wait for this album; one that has certainly been worth it as she continues to release promotional singles. These songs are certainly something new and different, showing the tropical direction she has been going in.

The British Metalcore-Band ASKING ALEXANDRIA is back with new-found energy and supplies in the 'new age' occupation, the successor to the successful album 'The Black' by 2016.

Whether he’s playing with Fela Kuti or Damon Albarn, the Nigerian drummer Tony Allen rarely compromises. “I don’t play funk or jazz,” he says. “I play Afrobeat.” This 25-minute mini-album, his first release for Blue Note, ostensibly pays tribute to one of the great hard-bop bandleaders, but Allen still refuses to deviate from his own personal pulse a jittery, back-to-front pattern that sounds like he’s constantly soloing. Allen doesn’t actually “swing” at all on these four standards associated with Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, instead putting each through his own Afrobeat prism.

In the face of their own imminent mortality, our greatest singer-songwriters have pivoted towards that darkness to deliver some of their most profound lines. “I’m leaving the table/I’m out of the game/I don’t know the people/In your picture frame,” Leonard Cohen sang on last year’s swansong You Want It Darker. David Bowie portended: “Something happened on the day he died/Spirit rose a meter then stepped aside” on his final album, released two days before his own passing. Now in his early 80s, Willie Nelson too has his mind turn to the dwindling of days. “Well I woke up still not dead again today/The internet said I had passed away/But if I died I wasn’t dead to stay/And I woke up still not dead again today,” he deadpans on the boot-shuffling “Still Not Dead,” a sentiment to file alongside his 2012 collaboration with Kris Kristofferson and Snoop Dogg, “Roll Me Up.”

Childish Gambino is (and isn't) Donald Glover, a recording artist, writer, actor, director, producer and comic who was gifted his alias by an online Wu Tang-Clan name-generator. Originally hailing from Stone Mountain, Georgia - his Mum was a daycare provider and his Dad a postal worker, where TV was banned in the house - Glover first entered the spotlight as a member of sketch-troupe Derrick Comedy, via a stint working on The Daily Show and the invitation to join the '30 Rock' writing staff by Tina Fey before he'd even graduated from NYU. A succession of mini-albums and mixtapes surrounded all of this, parallel to acting roles ranging from The Muppets to NBC's cult hit comedy 'Community'.

Nicki Parrott plays bass and sings Nat King Cole's songbook with the help of fellow jazzmates John Di Martino on piano, Frank Vignola on guitar and Lisa Parrott on saxophone and clarinet. “Nicki brings clear articulation, beautiful tone, a sense of rhythmic assuredness and a touch of allure to inventive arrangements.” ~ Jazz Times