New album: Silky, soulful new work by the falsetto-smooth London-based New Zealand-Australian musician, singer-songwriter and producer with a sophisticated cocktail or perky pop, jazz, and R&B
Read moreJordan Rakei: The Loop
Jordan Rakei: The Loop
Stevie Toddler: Last Time Forever
Stevie Toddler’s sophomore album, Last Time Forever
New album: So good it garnered two Songs of the Day this year before release, a sophomore LP packed with sublime bass lines, infusions of brass, a unique experimental blend of voice and instruments mixing pop, jazz and classical by the Bristol artist
Read moreKamasi Washington: Fearless Movement
Kamasi Washington: Fearless Movement
New album: The acclaimed jazz saxophonist returns with a genre-hopping emphasis across funk, hip hop as well his excellent big band, an overarching spiritual theme, and collaborators including George Clinton, Thundercat and André 3000
Read moreFat White Family: Forgiveness Is Yours
Fat White Family: Forgiveness Is Yours
New album: Lias Saoudi and co return with their first since 2019’s Serfs Up, one with that despite the troubled departure of founding member Saul Adamczewski during its creation, is an entertainingly sharp, ironic, aesthetic, literary release packed with stylish reference points, soundscapes and tunes
Read moreShabaka: Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace
Shabaka: Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace
New album: After 2022’s mini-album solo, Afrikan Culture, the acclaimed and prolific British jazz saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings, known best for Sons of Kemet and the Comet Is Coming returns with a reset – swapping reeds for flutes, with an LP of delicate, experimental beauty, and featuring guests including Moses Sumney, André 3000, and Saul Williams
Read moreLucy Rose: This Ain't The Way You Go Out
Lucy Rose: This Ain't The Way You Go Out
New album: The English singer-songwriter returns with her fifth LP, following 2019’s No Words Left, with a triumph-against-adversity comeback of beautiful piano-based songs fuelled by difficulty and yet also hope
Read moreKhruangbin: A LA SALA
Khruangbin: A LA SALA
New album: After the more energetic last LP, Mordechai, a return to slower, feathery, easy, seemingly effortless instrumental funk-jazz grooves from the super-cool American trio of bassist Laura Lee Ochoa, drummer Donald Johnson Jr and guitarist Mark Speer
Read moreStill House Plants: If I Don't Make It, I Love U
Still House Plants: If I Don't Make It, I Love U
New album: This third album by the truly alternative experimental avant-garde rock-jazz trio brings them stretching to an even more unique sound, oddly free-forming, woozy, otherworldly, and abstract
Read moreKelly Moran: Moves In The Field
Kelly Moran: Moves In The Field
New album: A beautiful, graceful and in some ways surreal seventh LP by the New York pianist, experimental composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, here adorned with an unusual self-duet - playing alongside a programmable Yamaha Disklavier programmable piano
Read moreBlue Whale: Last Immediate Images
Blue Whale: Last Immediate Images
New album: A brilliantly angular, experimental, partly instrumental prog-post-punk and jazz sophomore release by the Belfast quartet of riveting cross-rhythms, innovative guitar and bass work creating an oddball but ornate aural tapestry
Read moreJulia Holter: Something In The Room She Moves
Julia Holter: Something In The Room She Moves
New album: One of the most inventive, experimental musicians around, the Los Angeles artist returns with dream-like songs of gentle pitter-patter percussion, woozy bass, flute, whispered vocals, atmospheric, tinkling synths, and twittering woodwind summoning a surreal, twilight feel
Read moreHannah Frances: Keeper of the Shepherd
Hannah Frances: Keeper of the Shepherd
New album: A beautiful, brilliantly experimental folk fifth album by the Chicago singer-songwriter, with seven songs of alternative structures, guitar tunings, grief, loss and dizzying displacement, intimacy and energy, lyrical images of caves, shepherds, sheep, ribs and rivers
Read moreKahil El’Zabar’s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble: Open Me, a Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit
Half a century: Kahil El’Zabar’s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble: Open Me, a Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit
New album: Celebrating 50 years of recording, the veteran Chicago jazz percussionist and vocalist returns in his trio of sax and trumpet, and here also with strings, brings his rich vocal tones and infectious with a selection of classics and originals
Read moreMoor Mother: The Great Bailout
Moor Mother: The Great Bailout
New album: The American poet and musician Camae Ayewa returns with with a pointed, powerful release aimed at Britain’s murky, slavery-profiting colonial past, with a vivid, profound, visceral, declamatory narrative and soundscape that charts many injustices about wealth and compensation
Read moreYOVA: Dreamcatchers
YOVA: Dreamcatchers
New album: An alluring, breathy, sensual, supernaturalistic LP by the duo of Jova Radevska and Mark Vernon, with a theme delving into the unconscious, for lost and unrealised dreams and ideals, and how they are nurtured, then realised, abandoned or destroyed
Read moreGhost Funk Orchestra: A Trip To The Moon
Ghost Funk Orchestra: A Trip To The Moon
New album: After 2022’s A New Kind of Love, the dynamic New York group return with wonderful cinematic concept album of funk, big band jazz and psychedelia featuring samples of Apollo mission transmissions, and songs from the perspective of a woman wondering when her astronaut partner will return
Read moreBrittany Howard: What Now
Brittany Howard: What Now
New album: The Alabama Shakes singer and guitarist returns with her second solo album after 2019’s superb debut, Jaimie, with an equally brilliant but wider scope of styles, from soul to funk, jazz, but also dancefloor energy, and more than a dash of Prince
Read moreVera Sola: Peacemaker
Vera Sola: Peacemaker
New album: Oozing style and sophistication, the smoky, velvety-voiced American singer-songwriter returns with a follow-up her 2018 debut, Shades, with a sublime set of vivid, poetic, atmospheric songs, laced with a Nashville-recorded country, folk and ghostly, theatrical twang, and influences from Tom Waits to Dvořák
Read moreFavourite albums of 2023 Part 2: Anohni to Blur to Mitski, Ren to Sufjan Stevens
Favourite LPs of 2023, Part 2.
Welcome once again to the annual tradition of Song Bar’s favourite album releases of 2023. This is Part 2, and Part 1 was yesterday. There’s no such thing as a chart rundown or ‘best of’ here, and these come in no particular order …
Read moreFavourite albums of 2023 Part 1: Anna B Savage to Young Fathers
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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