Lost In The World

The Avalanches - Since I Left You

Australia's plunderphonicists made a welcome return earlier this year after a length decade-plus wait - but it's their 2000 debut that drags you into a world of disco, jazz, dance, pop, and sun-scorched hip-hop. When people say "look on the bright side", this is the bright side they mean.

Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Kanye's magnum opus is a gloriously overblown hip-hopera crammed with guest stars and ideas about love, life, and loss. It's shudderingly dark in places, but blindingly hopeful in others - Kanye strafes the gamut of human emotion as he double taps us with "Lost In The World" and "Who Will Survive In America".

Glass Animals - ZABA

The Oxford quartet's debut is a balmy, claustrophic, tie-dyed trek through an exotic rainforest lightyears from Western civilisation. Books such as children's fantasy The Zabajaba Jungle and sci-fi classic The Island of Doctor Moreau inspired elements of the record, which is blooming with bizarre lyrics and found samples - the result is an escapist odyssey that dislocates your mind from reality.

Grouper - Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill

Liz Harris' fifth long-player isn't filled with sugar-and-sparkles to distract, but rather catalystic compositions that resonate. There's warmth in Harris' rawness, but it's not overwhelming - this is still a bone-chilling ride.

Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation

The seminal group's 1988 double record is a masterpiece - find solace in the 70-plus-minute epic, which spreads its tendrils through a multitude of genres and styles. If you like extended, effects-laden rock jams, this is definitely for you.

Dan Deacon - America

Baltimore's Dan Deacon has describes this LP as being inspired by US politics, US geography, and "frustration, fear and anger towards the country and world I live in and am a part of." It's a sensory overload with pop, modern classical, and electronica experiments in spades - his sweeping USA suite found within is especially majestic.

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Steve Reich - Different Trains

The contemporary composer's 1988 album is a riveting work inspired by Reich's thoughts about travelling on trains - chiefly the stark contrast to the trips he took to visit parents and the Holocaust trains in WWII. As with many of Reich's works, the repetitive rhythms and motifs make for a hypnotic experience - but it's the chopped vocal samples that set this one apart.

Purity Ring - another eternity

The Canadian synthpop duo will dazzle your senses during their second record - it's not the fluid journey some of these records are, but we defy you to pay attention to anything else when "bodyache"'s chorus hits.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F♯ A♯ ∞

This is one of the finest post-rock albums of all time - it's dark and apocalyptic, not too unlike the real world tbh - with slowly built climaxes and gigantic crescendos erupting as tense threads snap. Take whole with a stiff drink.

D'Angelo - Black Messiah

The R&B star's comeback record is an immersive triumph, seeing him back on top after 14 long years without releasing a record. It's far from your run-of-the-mill R&B record either, with experiments aplenty hooking you in.

My Morning Jacket - Z

Jim James & Co. made some big changes on their fourth LP, but the result is frequently uplifting and wholly enchanting. Slip under their spell.

Bruce Springsteen - Darkness On The Edge Of Town

The Boss's 1978 record wasn't the smash hit people expected at the time, but it's become one of his most beloved releases in the decades since its original release. A classic example of Springsteen's 'four corners' style, it tackles hope and strength - both overcoming obstacles and being overcome by them.