Essential Listening: The best new releases as chosen by Skiddle

Her Majesty's 'Platty Joobs', a tense vote of no confidence for Boris, the epic new series of Stranger Things... How much more exciting can these times get! Alas, there's still much joy and elation to be found, especially within the realms of recorded music.

Almost every day we're spoilt to a deluge of new records, flooding in from artists from across the globe; both big and small, sometimes bad, sometimes good. And when you consider the sheer volume you'd have to sift through to find those tracks worthy of your taste and time, you'd need a dedicated team, neigh, an army of listeners to help you to succeed. Lucky for you, you've got the Skiddle team on your side. 

Bringing together an always varied playlist of the very best new releases out there for consumption, our Essential Listening playlist can contain anything from the more mainstream of artists and genre categorisations, the likes of pop, indie and hip hop, to the oddly specific and irregular classifications, such as folktronica, neurofunk and doom rock. There's quite literally something to appease all needs.

Plug in, press play on the playlist below, and head out on a sonic journey through some of the finest new music known to humankind. 

Check out our What's On Guide to discover even more rowdy raves and sweaty gigs taking place over the coming weeks and months. For festivals, lifestyle events and more, head on over to our Things To Do page or be inspired by the event selections on our Inspire Me page.