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English Teacher: This Could Be Texas
New album: An outstanding debut LP – subtle, original and experimental – by the Leeds quartet of Lily Fontaine, Douglas Frost, Nicholas Eden and Lewis Whiting, packed with intelligent, tender, rich, thoughtful, observational metaphor, and broad, inventive instrumentation
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Yard Act: Where's My Utopia?
New album: With continuing appeal, the experimental post-punk Leeds quartet return with their second LP, with highly entertaining, broadened musical scope, frontman James Smith’s agile, candid, conversational wit musing on the ironies of success, the music business, resultant guilt, climate change, and titular worries about the future
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Part 1 selection of 2023 favourite albums
Welcome once again to the annual tradition of Song Bar’s favourite album releases of 2023. This is Part 1, and Part 2 is also out here. There’s no such thing as a chart rundown or ‘best of’ here, and these come in no particular order. This is all about quality and innovation …
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Ben Howard: Is It?
New album: Lush yet innovative, introspective folk-pop by English singer-songwriter and composer in his sixth album, influenced still by John Martyn, this LP is filled with unusual sounds, rhythms and effects and electronica to reflect his shock experience of two mini-strokes in 2022
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The Lathums’ second album: From Nothing To A Little Bit More
New album: After 2021’s chart-topping How Beautiful Life Can Be, the fresh-faced Wigan indie quartet fronted by singer/songwriter and guitarist Alex Moore build on they unpretentious, uplifting, honest, catchy, and wistful numbers
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Pointed lyrics: Yard Act, featuring frontman James Smith
Debut album: Following various singles including Fixer Upper, a set of newer sharp, funny, talky, wordy and witty post-punk-funk debut LP by the Leeds quartet, filled with ironic observation about Britishness, echoing some delivery elements of the Fall and Sleaford Mods
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The Killers’ Pressure Machine
New album: An atypical LP from the American stadium fillers eschews the sometimes nonsense (“are we human or are we dancer”) air-punching pop-rock anthems for more reflective material inspired by Brandon Flowers’ Utah childhood
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Prince in 1983. Master pianist, among many other things
The towering talent of Prince on piano, rural idylls exploded by Suede and the otherworldly Gazelle Twin, peerless pop from Christine as Chris, and the brilliant Beak> are among this week’s massive roundup
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