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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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Ben McElroy: How I Learnt to Disengage from the Pack
New album: Sparse, haunting, lo-fi and truly beautiful and transcendent new LP by the Wirral-born Nottingham-based folk musician, featuring bright beautiful guitars, strange drones, field recordings and gorgeous fiddle playing
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FKA twigs’ CAPRISONGS
New album: Cheltenham’s innovative Tahliah Debrett Barnett returns with a fourth LP that’s more a mixtape of sensual, sexual musical sketches, her distinctive voice and style also very much reaching out to a more R&B mainstream
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Hop Up by Orlando Weeks
New album: Mellow, ethereal, and with Talk Talk as an musical influence, the former Maccabees frontman’s solo follow-up to A Quickening emanates carefree, floating joy with light funk-pop electronica and his high, soft vocal delivery
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Grace Cummings
New album: A truly outstanding voice and second album to match on this second LP by the Australian singer-songwriter and actress, her primal growl and guttural power combined with ethereal purity in this gorgeous folk release
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Elvis Costello’s classic sound on The Boy Named If
New album: Classic Costello, with a vigorous new LP that rolls back the years, recalling all the the sharp, fast, clever punk-pop of the late-70s, 80s and 90s albums with the Attractions, including old friends Steve Nieve on keyboards and Pete Thomas on drums
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Bonobo: Fragments
New album: The moniker of Simon Green returns with an eclectic mix of electronica, dance, ambient and clever sampling, with guest appearances from Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Kadhja Bonet, Joji, O’Flynn, Jamila Woods and Jordan Rakei
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Niffit’s debut album Fuse
Debut album: Fabulous crash-bang post-punk from the Japanese underground scene in this debut LP by the quartet from Nagoya with stop-start rhythms, sharp, gunslinging guitar riffs and witty, shouty vocals that unleash a ball of electric energy
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Spector’s Now or Whenever
New album: The third LP and first since 2015 for the London indie band presents a more thoughtful, melancholy, and often slower set of songs than their more youthfully exuberant previous releases, but includes reflective, strong material
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Dawn FM
New album: Canada’s hugely successful R&B and darkwave artist Abel Makkonen Tesfaye’s new LP is a form of concept - light-themed afterlife through the prism of a fictional radio station that generates inventive smooth and clever 80s-style synth pop and disco
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The prolific Deerhoof’s latest as ever original LP: Actually, You Can
New album: Released late in 2021, San Francisco indie-prog experimental quartet’s 18th studio LP is a frenetic, pace-changing, daredevil record, challenging social and political norms, laced with interwoven and blistering guitar, bass, and drums alongside Satomi Matsuzaki’s distinctive vocals
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Decorated with one of his own paintings, Michael Hurley’s The Time of the Foxgloves
New album: Gorgeous new LP by the veteran 80-year-old American folk singer-songwriter, cartoonist and painter, whose first album was released in 1964, and this latest still employs his trusty, hissy four-track recorder, as well as duets with guest singers
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Starkly beautiful: The Crooked Carty Sings … with artwork by
New album: The Miraculous Mule frontman’s December solo album is a beautiful, tender, haunting, intimate, country and blues infused collection of “bastardised folk songs, murder ballads, traveller tunes and sea songs” variously with new lyrics and arrangements
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Agnes
Album: Released in October, a fabulously stylish LP of retro pop by the Swedish Agnes Emilia Carlsson, her fifth, but first since Veritas (2012), rich in orchestration and with echoes of ABBA, but with a result far superior to her forbears’ own 2021 return
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Favourite selection part 2.
Favourite albums of 2021 – Part 2: Welcome the second instalment, following Part 1, which can be found here. A huge number of excellent releases, of which again this is just a selection many of which were written during, and about lockdown, but also saw many outstanding voices emerge as well as innovative sounds developed
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Take your pick. Are your favourites here? Also check out Part 2 coming soon.
Favourite albums of 2021, part 1: Another difficult year for everyone, but from soul and jazz, electro-pop the experimental and avant-garde, an outstanding one for music releases, perhaps in part because out of diversity comes great art. Also feel free to explore Part 2, which is now available to view here.
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Mario Batkovic: taking the accordion to new places on Introspectio
New album: A mesmeric, magical fusion of boundary-pushing electronica, saxophone and organ by the Swiss virtuoso solo accordion player born in Bosnia now based in Bristol, with guests including saxophonist Colin Stetson
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Laura Cannell & Kate Ellis
Multiple release: Less an album more a uniquely special project of 12 monthly EP releases of beautiful, ghostly folk and experimental instrumentals, vocals and spoken stories by the violinist and cellist, with guests, capturing the changing seasons
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Neal Francis’s In Plain Sight
New album: Stirringly upfront new rock-pop album by the Chicago singer-songwriter and pianist about honesty, resilience and sobriety following a big relationship breakup following his 2019 album, Changes
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From the cover of Parcels’ new album Day/Night
New album: Released in last month by the Australia-Berlin electrofunk/disco quintet, a superbly catchy package of sounds, styles and danceability based on a 24-hour concept across a truly diverse 19 tracks
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