New album: Oozing old-world charm with quirky invention and wistful beauty, this second thematic LP in a Swan Songs trilogy, the first of which was last year’s Blood, before the forthcoming Bone, is another delicious mix of acoustic and electronica by London’s Stephen Coates and co
Read moreCourting: Guitar Music
New album: Short, snappy, sharp and caustically ironic, the Liverpool indie post-punk band’s 30-minute, eight-track LP follows their excellent 2021 EP Grand National with biting lyrics, catchy melodies and ferocious energy
Read moreSports Team: Gulp!
New album: The Cambridge-formed London-based band return with their follow-up after lauded 2020 debut LP Deep Down Happy with catchy, strongly written, swaggering guitar indie, bubbling with energy and an upbeat, arch humour aimed at life’s insecurities
Read moreTim Burgess: Typical Music
New album: One of music’s most positive, self-effacing and affable characters – as frontman of The Charlatans and host of Twitter Listening Parties – returns with a inventive, richly adventurous new solo LP of 22 tracks recorded over 30 days with a classy mix of catchy pop, rock and psychedelia
Read moreCrack Cloud: Tough Baby
New album: Eclectic, original, energised and experimental, this is an enthralling third post-punk, pop, rock and thunderous concoction release by the Vancouver collective led by drummer and lead vocalist Zach Choy filled with the passionate and oddball
Read moreDeath Cab For Cutie: Asphalt Meadows
New album: The absurdity and irony of modern life, anthemic existentialism, panic attacks and more come in this 10th fine, witty, wry new indie, rock and post-punk pop album by the Washington band fronted by Ben Gibbard
Read moreThe Beths: Expert In A Dying Field
New album: Deliciously enjoyable new album by the New Zealand indie quartet, with strong melodies, lyrics that carefully balance the melancholy, thoughtful and feelgood, not least the title track which ponders the irony of knowing in great detail someone you are no longer in a relationship with
Read moreSuede: Autofiction
New album: The veteran London indie-rockers return with their ninth LP, one that seeks to recapture the live rawness of their early days, with songs about youth and Richard Oakes’s guitar style comes to fore with a starker, more post-punk flavour
Read moreThe Paranoyds: Talk Talk Talk
New album: Catchy, clever, kooky, sassy and at time space- and sci-fi-themed, a vivaciously engaging second indie pop-garage-rock LP by the Los Angeles quartet who channel The Bangles and Devo with a wry look at the state of the world
Read morePale Blue Eyes: Souvenirs
New album: A marriage of south Devon and Sheffield in the form of couple Matt and Lucy Broad and bassist Aubrey Simpson forms this more elevating, richly sonic indie release that has echoes of New Order, krautrock and Cabaret Voltaire electro-synth pop
Read moreStella Donnelly: Flood
New album: Second album by the Australian brings a refreshingly simple, humorously ironic indie-pop with cutting, personal songs about relationships, provocative but honest lines metaphorical themes of the world
Read moreThe Lounge Society: Tired of Liberty
Debut album: Restless sparking, energy, seething anger and ironic lyrics, intricate, swirling, interwoven guitars, bass and drums, and produced by Dan Carey on the ever vibrant Speedy Wunderground label, this full debut LP by young Hebden Bridge band is more than a breath of fresh indie
Read moreJulia Jacklin: PRE PLEASURE
New album: This third LP by the Australian artist typifies her intelligently written, nuanced, taut, intensely performed dream pop and alt-country, packed with confessional hidden narratives and subtleties, her expressive, fragile voice with stripped back accompaniment
Read moreEzra Furman: All Of Us Flames
New album: The sixth LP by the brilliant, visceral, angelic American is perhaps the finest to date, an impassioned, tour de force, Springsteen-esque cri de coeur for the LGBTQ and Jewish communities, but also stirs hearts of all who feel oppressed or alienated
Read moreOneida: Success
New album: The veteran (25 years) New York indie rock band’s first album since 2018’s Romance is a refreshing bounce back of unpretentious joy, krautrocky rhythms, Ramones strums, and rasping guitar Sonic Youth-type squawls, with and LP that’s a throwback that also feels fresh
Read moreLIFE: North East Coastal Town
New album: A celebration of their home city of Hull by the quick-witted, passionate indie post-punk band in a set of songs filled with humour, anguish and anger, but also a love letter to the area, and even all instruments played were locally bought
Read moreKiwi jr: Chopper
New album: Third LP in three years after Cooler Returns and Football Money by the four-piece indie band from Toronto, with wistful, melancholy, carefully observed flighted numbers packed with images from tales of corrupt mayors, Kennedy curses, sex tapes, and deer rifles
Read moreMax 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
Read moreFlorist: Florist
New album: After 2019’s Emily Alone when Brooklyn singer songwriter Emily Sprague recorded the LP on her own, the band four-piece reunite for a beautiful lo-fi indie folk 16-track album of tenderness, rough edges, woozy sounds and rainy porch acoustic
Read moreGemma Rogers: No Place Like Home
Debut album: Variously compared to Kirsty MacColl, Ian Dury, Lily Allen and more, the London post-punk indie artist’s debut LP is a packed with own authentic style of witty, talky, mischievous lyrics and catchy melodies from the perky to wistfully emotional.
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