Serendipity is one of my favourite things; a couple of weeks ago I spontaneously ended up at an Amaroun show - also one of my favourite new discoveries this year so far, please have a listen - and just so happened to bump into Annie (a.k.a. Austel). Talk about right place, right time. After a quick chat my interest was piqued on what the project would sound like, especially after later finding out that Annie has worked with a number of varied artists beforehand. All I will say is that I was not disappointed...



As delicate as Austel's vocals sound in portions of "Crows", the strength of her voice and the message of rising above uncertainty had come through clearly by the end. After attending her debut full band show in London yesterday, I can confidently say this is a name you'll be hearing again soon. I would have never imagined that this was their first time performing live together. Austel's ability to convey emotion and float seamlessly between hard-hitting and quiet comtemplative moments in music is stunning. You can hear a little taster of that during the bridge on "Crows" and you'll without a doubt be hearing more examples of this on any releases to come. Austel's EP entitled Unfold is due to be released later this year and I can't wait.

After finding out about Charles Dixon in 2015 here it's been a long road of grafting and evolving to get to this point but if you were wise enough to stick around for the ride you'll be able to hear that this EP is an exciting step forward for what is set to be a promising career journey.

Opening up the floor with the track "4 Chicks", Charles' flow is very reminiscent of Giggs' with the same witty delivery and killer beat to match. The initial trumpets set me up for a completely different vibe before the bass pulled the rug out from under me. Guaranteed to have your head nodding before long. Also the little snippets of conversation dotted around throughout make it clear from the start that Charles is no stranger to creativity in production.

The creativity in production becomes all the more clear as the last three tracks blend seamlessly into one another showing pockets of what we might be able to expect from a full length record. Closing out with "All My Life" on a softer note, you can expect to see some visuals for this track in the very near future.

Despite his presence on the scene over the past few years, this EP is built to make the listener stop what they're doing and take notice, and it's clearly a strong start out out of the gates. Charles will definitely be making waves with this EP 2018 and beyond. True Stories EP is out on Spotify and Apple Music today - give it a listen for yourselves!

Overall Rating - 7.5/10

If you'd have told me at the beginning of the year that this album would be closing in on my top 10 albums of the year I wouldn't have believed you. I probably would've said something like "honourable mentions maybe", but after just one listen I knew that this would be a hard one to top. In at number 12 is Denai Moore with We Used To Bloom.

Not to be misconstrued, I've been a fan of Denai's work for a while now but until this album she was more of a "one to watch" for me. Well thank God I did keep watching because this sophomore record is glorious. This album manages to balance stripped back with powerful almost effortlessly. The addition of horns, strings and backing vocals from time to time lifts the album up where necessary and adds a fullness I can't explain. The album keeps its tone fairly consistent throughout and some may even criticise it for seeming "samey" but the album levels out seamlessly. It's almost necessary because had there been more experimentation, this may have resulted in some of the message being left behind.

Big time favourites of mine at the moment are "Leave It Up To You", "Bring You Shame", "Does It Get Easier?" and "All The Way (fet. Kwabs)". A lot of the tracks on this album feel cathartic -like both listening to it and creating it act as a release for emotions relating to anxiety, political fears, societal woes, depression or all the above. Every-so-often while listening I'll find myself picking up on a particular lyric that just says everything that I didn't even know I wanted to say before. "Does It Get Easier?" in particular was an elevating moment for me on this album - the kind of song that makes you want to just throw your up in the air in agreement.

The album finisher "All The Way (feat. Kwabs)" made it very clear to me why there was only one feature on the whole record - a match made in heaven - leaving the album on an emotionally satisfying note.

So many of the best albums of 2017 have come from British artists and almost just as many have been debut albums. In at number 21 just on the cusp of the top twenty is debut solo album from British artist, Loyle Carner with Yesterday's Gone.

When Loyle started coming up a couple of years ago he was everywhere - every festival line up, every typical venue for up and comers, every magazine - his promo was insane. Rightly so, his voice is so distinct, and it's the kind of typical London voice I wouldn't expect to say that about, but it's a voice that you could pick out of a crowd nonetheless. In those first few months where Loyle was everywhere I went along with the hype and really overdid it a little bit and so when the time came for him to release this debut, I thought that I was over it. The excitement had worn off and I was a little bit bored. But when I actually got round to listening to the record, it still surprised me. Even the singles that I'd already known and loved sounded refreshed in the context of the record.

Standout new tracks on this one for me are "No Worries" and "Mrs C". Old favourites of mine however have to be "Isle of Arran", "Damselfly" and "Florence". I overplayed "Florence" so so much when I first heard it and thought that when I got to the record I'd be bored of it but no, it's still an amazing track. One thing that always shines through in Loyle's music is his love for his family. He's definitely not the first rapper to rap about family but it's a clear theme in his music and his live shows and the way that he keeps it down to earth and authentic has set him miles apart from a lot of the "popular rap" buzzing around at the minute.

Being nominated for a Mercury on your debut album is no small achievement - however a lot of the artists to have that happen in the past (e.g The xx, Ghostpoet, Alt-J, etc) have gone on to huge things and still continue to put out quality work. I'd expect nothing less from Loyle Carner after this one.

I've just realised that this is the first time that this has band has made it onto this list since their album in 2012 and I'm stunned. Each of their albums since then seem to have grown and grown on the last. This album is no different. Back on the list with their fourth album You Are We is While She Sleeps.

There is not one track on this album that I didn't like. I always feel like starting an album with your title track is a bold move because being the title track, you'd normally expect it to carry the most weight and so I'd be wary of it leaving the rest of the album in the dust. None of that here with WSS. Although "You Are We" is still one of my favourites on the album, it's joined by a fair few others.  In fact to name a few - "Feel", "Wide Awake", "Silence Speaks (feat. Oli Sykes)", and "Hurricane" are my currently filling up the list.

This might just be their most versatile album yet - mixing in different sounds and influences, like the influence of prog rock on "Empire Of Silence" for example, or adding in a touch more melody on tracks where they might have shied away in the past. I feel like this record has really stretched their songwriting capabilities and as much as they've always been phenomenal at executing instrumentals (both live and on record), and curating the right tracks for an album; this record stuck with me more as a whole than Brainwashed did after This Is The Six. Brainwashed had some stellar shining moments on it but this album just shines all together. I think the fact that fans crowdfunded the album may have influence their process. It's clear that they have put a huge effort into not only giving fans what they want but also keeping the album meaningful to themselves.

While She Sleeps never seem to do anything half arsed and You Are We only made it more evident to me that these guys are underrated. They're getting a lot of recognition but not the amount that's due in my opinion. Consistently solid band and in a climate like today's where fear and uncertainty are on the rise, a record like this couldn't be more welcome.

Continuing on the countdown at number 25, another Mercury nominated album - Love In The 4th Dimension by The Big Moon. Another debut making its way onto my list of top albums this year and another new discovery actually. I caught "Cupid" whilst listening to the radio earlier this year, and had to shazam it because I was enjoying it so much. Now, several months later here we are, with a whole record full of shazam-able tunes.

After doing a little more research on them I have to say that I was pretty shocked that they were a new band. Although they don't sound super polished per se, they gel together so well and so naturally; I would've been less shocked if this was their third album. It's been a little while since I've listened to Indie/Alternative music like this that's really stuck with me, and this year both TBM and Marika Hackman's (also very fantastic) records have been on repeat quite a bit.

I was lucky enough to catch the ladies' set at a Sofar Sounds gig a few months ago, and often I find that stripping back an artist's songs is an easy way isolate the parts of their songs that you like the most. It also means that there is no prduction magic to hide behind. This is where the album really shone for me. I knew I liked it before but some of the songs came across as even more powerful as acoustics. It's almost impossible to choose favourites on the album, it's just jam packed full of bangers. Each one has an innovative lyric or an infectious riff, something that just sticks in your mind even after first listen. So instead of favourites, here's a list of the tracks I think that I've played the most on the album - "Sucker", "Pull The Other One", "The Road", "Bonfire".

I'm just happy that I can say that this is really only the beginning for The Big Moon. I suspect that I'll be seeing a whole lot of them over these next few months, and may even see them on another list of mine in the next few years.