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Hot Chip return to reach out with Freakout/Release
New album: This eighth LP by the London synth-pop band of Alexis Taylor, Joe Goddard and co is filled packed with Prince-inspired funk, and catchy melodies, and though not as wild as the title suggests, is still a slick, liquidly fun release that ticks the Hot Chip boxes
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AHudson Mohawke: Cry Sugar
New album: A vibrantly energised otherworld, an innovative concoction of experimental electronica, trash-pop to classical, gospel, 70s soul, house and more by the prolific LA-based Glaswegian DJ and producer Ross Birchard in his fourth LP and first for seven years
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Cheat Codes by Danger Mouse and Black Thought
New album: A superb collaboration between two hugely influential innovators – producer Brian Burton and rapper and co-founder of The Roots, Tarik Luqmaan Trotter – packed with fabulously sharp hip hop, soul and funk samples and guests, including a lost verse from the much missed MF DOOM
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Kokoroko: Could We Be More
New album: Variously mesmeric, chilled, smooth, staccato, slow then pacy, after many gigs and smaller releases the eight-piece London jazz and Afrobeat band finally have an LP of stirring (mostly) instrumentals that mix a variety of influences from Lagos to London
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Max Pope: Counting Sheep
Debut album: Smooth, finely crafted, lyrically thoughtful fusions of funk, pop, bossa nova, blues, jazz and rock with a cleverly summer, lazy understated feel by the 27-year-old singer-songwriter from south London and Brighton
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Lil Silva: Yesterday Is Heavy
Debut album: Strikingly innovative electronic and funk full debut by Bedford’s Tyrone Jermaine "TJ" Carter, who has been releasing singles and EPs for over a decade, but here includes guests including Sampha, Little Dragon, Ghetts, Serpentwithfeet, BADBADNOTGOOD, and Charlotte Day Wilson
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Steve Lacy’s second album Gemini Rights
New album: Effortlessly cool, sometimes oddball and infectiously laid-back funk, soul and 70s-style pop in this second LP by the guitarist, singer and producer from Compton, California, with some distinct echoes of Stevie Wonder and Prince
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Lizzo’s back with her album, Special
New album: Back with a bang (there’s no other way), the wonderfully charismatic American star Melissa Jefferson returns with a mixture of disco, funk, pop, soul and R&B, with bags of attitude, fun, female empowerment, and music to make you dance
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Sunflower Bean’s third album, Headful of Sugar
New album: The smart New York indie-rock trio return with their third album after 2018’s acclaimed LP Twentytwo In Blue with a diverse set of new sounds and songs created mainly in a home studio over lockdown and perhaps their most innovative yet
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!!! (Chk Chk Chk): Let It Be Blue
New album: Nic Offer and the Sacramento dance-punk band return with their ninth, but while they remain one of the best live acts around, this LP offers their bigger range of styles from acoustic to electronic, house, fun to Latin
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Toro Y Moi’s seventh album, featuring his fun new Filipino jeepney truck
New album: A wonderfully eclectic, playfully stylish seventh LP by the American singer, songwriter, producer, and graphic designer Chaz Bear, who integrates wonky and squishy funk, pop, psych, rock, and electronica, and his rich Filipino and African-Columbian heritage
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Red hot in lights: Unlimited Love
New album: The LA rock band have had their ups and down, bu this, a double LP, is their best for some time, largely perhaps due to the return of guitarist John Frusciante, key to their heyday albums, that one captures much of their original chemistry, funk and energy, if at times slightly mellower
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Hedonism unbound: Warmduscher
New album: New sleazy mischief and hedonistic humour at the hands of the British krautrock-style disco-pop funksters fronted by the engaging American drawl of Clams Baker Jr – the gang with something that certainly is, as billed, crunchy on the outside, smooth on the inside
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Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul: Topical Dancer
New album: Super-sharp electro-pop by the Ghent-based duo, packed with crisp, inventive sounds created in Soulwax’s Deewee studio and clever lyrics about race issues, political correctness and cultural identity
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Melt Yourself Down: Pray For Me I Don't Fit In
New album: This fourth LP by saxophonist Pete Wareham, Mauritian vocalist Kushal Gaya and co is perhaps their best yet mix of fabulously stompy, staccato, dance-punk, Afrobeat, jazz, with Egyptian and another influences, buzzing with frenetic fervour
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Raveena; smooth, cross-cultural blending
New album: Eclectic, striking mainstream label debut LP for the 27-year-old American pop artist Raveena Aurora who mixes rhythms and more from her Sikh Indian heritage with traits of R&B, soul, funk, 00s trip-hop and ambient electronica
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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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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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Anderson .Paak and Bruno Mars
New album: Something of a perfect pairing – two superstars come together with a shared niche passion for 70s funk and soul, and with guests including bassists Thundercat and Bootsy Collins, this brings rich, scintillating results
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