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Rachel Chinouriri: What a Devastating Turn of Events
New album: A very mature and promising debut by the London indie-pop singer-songwriter with a broad range of timbres, moods and dynamics, from breezy pop and rock to soulful, tender acoustic and a title track about a tragedy
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Pet Shop Boys: Nonetheless
New album: Mixing simplicity and lavish orchestration and a classic 80s synth-pop that made them so successful, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe return with their first LP for fours and one of their best for some time, with yet another traditional single-word title
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Favourite LPs of 2023, Part 2.
Welcome once again to the annual tradition of Song Bar’s favourite album releases of 2023. This is Part 2, and Part 1 was yesterday. There’s no such thing as a chart rundown or ‘best of’ here, and these come in no particular order …
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The Pretenders: Relentless
New album: Rolling back the years to their early new wave 80s heyday, a fabulously strong 12th album by Chrissie Hynde and co, packed with strong songwriting, her powerful vocal presence and a top-notch songwriting partnership with the versatile guitarist James Walbourne
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Always clouds on the horizon: Blur’s ninth album, The Ballad of Darren
New album: Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon and co return with their ninth LP, and first since 2015, a reflective, melancholy mostly slow-paced release of vivid, wistful beauty
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Gorillaz’s 8th album: Cracker Island
New album: The eighth studio album by the cartoon personas of Damon Albarn is one of the shortest and most musically coherent, catchy, clever and poignant, with guests including Thundercat, De La Soul, Stevie Nicks, Beck and Tame Impala
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New album: Previously unreleased due to label wrangles, and part of the Brilliant Adventure (1992-2001) huge boxset, this set of revisited 60s songs recorded in 2000, offers fine evidence of Bowie joyfully reworking his past a late-90s swagger
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Run to the record shops, and then to the hills, with Iron Maiden’s new apocalyptic album
New album: Epic, apocalyptically double, packed with changes of pace and power, elements of folk and prog, and filled with references to the ravages and ironies of history, ancient and modern, the time is ripe to indulge in the quintessential British metal band’s 17th studio album
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Ashnikko aka Ashton Nicole Casey
Album review: Like an x-rated character from Avatar, the 24-year-old American singer and rapper Ashton Nicole Casey’s burst-on-the-scene full debut is full of blueness, giggles, sass and sex, admired by guests Grimes, Princess Nokia and Kelis
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Album reviews roundup: This selection features many an eclectic style, from the cartoonish band headed by Damon Albarn with guests, clever hip from Open Eagle Mike, disturbing new sounds by Young Knives and mesmerising beauty from Snowdrops
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Lana Del Rey and her cover for Norman Fucking Rockwell
The latest selection includes a powerful comeback from The Futureheads, an eccentrically fabulous release from Lana Del Rey, and more perfect postpunk dance from Sacramento and New York’s !!! Chk Chk Chk
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Natalie Mering aka Weyes Blood
Exquisite vocals and electronica and female vocalists decorate this weeks list, from Weyes Blood to Jess Ribeiro and Shana Cleveland, plus sharp postpunk from Pozi, beautiful songs by Ratso with Nick Cave, and rare, early Bowie
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Dawn Richard - spreading her musical wings
From an experimental album by New Orleans artist DAWN to a collaboration between Conor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers, as well as a return by 90s shoegazers Swervedriver, this week’s roundup has plenty of surprises
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Paul Weller’s reflective new album echoes English Rose and Nick Drake
A gentle album from the Modfather, punchy EPs from Aphex Twin and Sleaford Mods, upbeat indie from The Good Sax, and compilations of 60s and 70s girl groups and Sudanese music make up this week’s selection
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Modern dystopia: a gif for Gruff Rhys's Babelsberg
Wales and Sweden feature much this week, with interweaving solo artists’ melancholy-pop with the Furry Animals man, Lily Allen and Lykke Li, plus three promising debuts from Jorja Smith, Boy Azooga and Echo Ladies
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