New album: Dayton Ohio’s prolific Robert Pollard and band return with another in a long line of albums of muscular fuzz-guitar rock decorated with ear-catching, oddball, original lyrics and powerful riffs
Read moreBlur: 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
Read moreBeing Dead: When Horses Would Run
New album: Mischievous fun by the Austin, Texas experimental indie and art-rock band of songwriters Falcon Bitch and Gumball, packed with fantasy, satirical settings in this debut full LP
Read morePalehound: Eye On The Bat
New album: Brooklyn’s El Kempner returns with a new selection of passionate, intelligent, punchy indie-folk with songs about illusions shattering, the before and after, raw nerves and propulsive instrumentation
Read moreSnõõper: Super Snõõper
New album: With shades of early-80s Delta 5, a fabulously entertaining, sprightly, short ’n’ sharp, stop-start punk, post-punk full debut LP by the Nashville band who combine a fun DIY girl garage-rock interspersed with electronic beeps and random conversations
Read moreJulie Byrne: The Greater Wings
New album: Gorgeously delicate, serene, thoughtful, intimate acoustic folk by the ethereal, breathy-voiced New York singer-songwriter, her third studio album and first for six years capturing a variety of moods and emotions across times of isolation and change
Read moreLittle Dragon: Slugs of Love
New album: An inventive, very eclectic, enjoyably experimental seventh studio album by the Gothenburg quartet, mixing electronica, soul, pop, hip-hop and R&B with guests including Blur’s Damon Albarn and East Atlanta rapper JID
Read moreVarious: The Endless Coloured Ways - The Songs of Nick Drake
New album: An enthralling collection of 23 cover versions of classic numbers by the legendary British folk singer who tragically died in 1974, featuring diverse artists including Fontaine’s D.C., Emeli Sandé, Aldous Harding, Guy Garvey and John Grant
Read moreKNOWER: Knower Forever
New album: A third jazz-funk tour de force LP of outstanding musicianship, infinite energy, humour and invention by the LA duo of singer Genevieve Artadi and genius drummer and multi-instrumentalist Louis Cole joined by a host of brilliant players
Read moreANOHNI and the Johnsons: My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross
New album: Taking a new direction the last LP, 2016’s Hopelessness, the artist formerly known as Antony Hegarty releases a gorgeously tender soul album inspired by the sound of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On
Read morePJ Harvey: I Inside The Old Year Dying
New album: Seven years after The Hope Six Demolition Project album, Polly returns with mysterious, experimental, beautiful, alluring release in which she adapts poems from her book Orlam into songs immersed in the otherworld-underworld of her home Dorset countryside, laced with local dialect and unusual acoustic instruments
Read moreAngelo De Augustine: Toil and Trouble
New album: Beautiful, acoustic otherworldliness aplenty in this fourth album by the California singer-songwriter in a realm of tender songs of gentle fingerpicking ethereal, whispery falsetto, glass xylophone, flutes, mellotron, oddball sound effects and animation
Read morebdrmm: I Don't Know
New album: With elements of krautrock, and echoes of Mogwai and Radiohead, the Hull experimental rock quartet’s new album has a dark, yet uplifting, mesmeric momentum, moving between stormy guitar ferocity, to wistful shoegaze and meditative electronica
Read moreDo Nothing: Snake Sideways
New album: Wonderfully offbeat, playful, original, witty post-punk with superb, sweeping melodies, warped experimental guitar, swinging, alternative rhythms, and laced with wry, clever ironic lyrics in this dynamic debut by the Nottingham quartet
Read moreBen 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
Read moreGrian Chatten: Chaos For The Fly
New album: The Fontaines D.C. vocalist releases a strong, sensitive solo album leaning more towards gentle, wistful, reflective folk, including some echoes of Nick Drake but retaining his strong Dublin flavour, and produced by the brilliant and prolific Dan Carey
Read moreLYR: The Ultraviolet Age
New album: A beautiful, profound, utterly absorbing second LP by the trio of current British poet laureate, Simon Armitage, singer-songwriter Richard Walters and multi-instrumentalist and producer Patrick J Pearson
Read moreM. Ward: Supernatural Thing
New album: Short but sweet, this 12th LP by the Portland singer-songwriter Matthew Ward (alongside several with She & Him) mixes gentle folk with upbeat rocky numbers and includes guest appearances by First Aid Kit
Read moreSwans: The Beggar
New album: This 16th album in just over four decades by the veteran American experimental band fronted Michael Gira brings brooding, dark menace, written in lockdown, a moving, powerful contemplation of mortality that’s oddly stirring
Read moreDjango Django: Off Planet
New album: A 21-song mega-release by the innovative, experimental London-based art-rock and pop quartet features a variety of great guest vocalists with music that plays around more in the electronica-dance genre and various world music beats, but overall feels more like four EPs
Read more