Well, hasn’t it been a bloody big year for music? From Kanye’s most ambitious project yet, the Wyoming Sessions, to a Bey ‘n’ Jay joint record, a selection of corking debuts and almighty returns from Arctic Monkeys and The 1975, our ears have been honey-dripped in 2018. So after immense discussion, plenty of arguments and a handful of temper tantrums, we here at NME have whittled down 2018’s best releases into a list of 100 essential records. Here, definitively, are NME‘s 100 best albums of 2018.

Words by Tom Connick, Rhian Daly, Jordan Bassett, Andrew Trendell, Sophie Charara, Elizabeth Aubrey, El Hunt, Gary Ryan, Sam Moore, Mark Beaumont, Hannah Mylrea, Thomas Smith, Charlotte Gunn and Dan Stubbs.

44. David Byrne – ‘American Utopia’

“The chicken thinks in mysterious ways,” David Byrne informs us on ‘Every Day Is A Miracle’, and you can’t argue with that. The Talking Heads hero turned in a record that, he claimed, was not named ironically – the 66-year-old genuinely still believes in the power of positivity, despite the onslaught of horror-show headlines. Here, he revels in wonder and astonishment at the beauty and bizarreness of the world around him, his wonky art-pop more skewed than ever. This left-field approach (some tracks sound like alternate universe show tunes) is best realised on ‘Everybody’s Coming To My House’, an eccentric ode to the power of community. JB