Album review: Evoking big, wide landscapes with a slow, melancholic, wistful, nostalgic and semi-fictional narratives, the New York singer-songwriter’s eighth album is of uniform style and slow pace, but rich in powerfully strong melodies and memorable lines
Read moreTiggs Da Author: Blame It On The Youts
Album review: Sprightly, catchy and filled with hooks, the Tanzania-born London singer, producer and musicians full debut has something from many genres, from funk to African, jazz, pop, hip hop, reggae, gospel and soul
Read moreThe Anchoress: The Art of Losing
Album review: This emotional release by Welsh singer-songwriter Catherine Anne Davis, her first since 2016’s Confessions Of A Romance Novelist, brings piano-based songs with echoes of Tori Amos mixed with soaring guitar indie pop intensity
Read moreJane Weaver: Flock
Album review: The Liverpool and Widnes-raised artist returns with a mesmeric and uplifting 11th album that takes a variety of elements - electronica, psychedelia and acid folk morphing into fabulous alternative pop record that really takes flight
Read moreArab Strap: As Days Get Dark
Album review: Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton’s first album together since 2005 is as brilliant as ever – a mischievous, brooding, blackly humorous, whisperingly sinister and sweary exploration of love, sex, addiction, exploitation and death wrapped in beautiful, poetic music
Read moreAltin Gün: Yol
Album review: Wonderful third album by the Amsterdam-based Turkish, Dutch, Indonesian and British band who infuse traditional Turkish songbook material with elecro-pop, funk and disco sounds in a way that feels authentic and uplifting
Read moreKaty Kirby: Cool Dry Place
Album review: Beautiful debut of low-key acoustic simplicity by the singer-songwriter from Texas who is now based in Nashville, with a soft, quiet voice that resonates with understated profundity
Read moreLael Neale: Acquainted With Night
Album review: The folk-pop singer’s charming, melancholy LP has a rather beautiful ghostly, disembodied quality, lacking only old ‘78 vinyl crackles, but delicately gorgeous with her clear, distinctive voice, guitar and Omnichord accompaniment
Read moreSG Lewis: Times
Album review: Aiming to capture a full-on mainstream club and disco feel, the British producer’s new LP mixes light funk and soul flavours that very much borrow from the Daft Punk and Chic cookbook
Read moreVirginia Wing: Private Life
Album review: Offbeat, eclectic, meandering electronica with oodles of oddball sax and percussion mark this absorbing and original fourth album by the Manchester trio with commentary addressing issues from consumer capitalism to social media and misogyny
Read moreDjango Django: Glowing in the Dark
Album review: This fourth LP by the Edinburgh-formed, London-based art-rock quartet contains many of their signature sounds but also contains space-travelling new textures, such as breathy guest vocals by Charlotte Gainsbourg
Read moreMush: Lines Redacted
Album review: The second album by the Leeds-based band extends their distinctive, sonically idiosyncratic style of excellent angular art-rock with mind-bendingly alternative guitar riffs and scales, sharp lyrics and the oddly likeable nasal delivery of songwriter Dan Hyndman
Read moreThe Weather Station: Ignorance – album review
Album review: This majestic LP of superb musical maturity.by the Canadian singer-songwriter Tamara Lindeman has an undercurrent climate change theme, with deft piano, drums, strings, sax, guitar and a sound sometimes reminiscent of mid-80s Talk Talk
Read moreAlbertine Sarges: The Sticky Fingers – album review
Album review: Liberating, refreshing, eccentric, with a playfully light touch and flourishes of flute and feminist theory garnish this solo debut by the singer who works with Holly Herndon singer and is half of Italian synth new wave duo Itaca
Read moreGoat Girl: On All Fours – album review
Album review: The south London quartet’s second album has is double-edged woozily beguiling in music and caustic in lyrics, a mixture of shoegaze, postpunk, and electronica with a distinctive sound produced by the groundbreaking Dan Carey
Read moreSteven Wilson: The Future Bites – album review
Album review: The British singer-songwriter originally known for the 80s psych-prog band Porcupine Tree returns with his sixth solo album, an electronica odyssey caustically exploring aspects of how the human brain has evolved in the internet era
Read moreAshnikko: Demidevil – album review
Album review: Like an x-rated character from Avatar, the 24-year-old American singer and rapper Ashton Nicole Casey’s burst-on-the-scene full debut is full of blueness, giggles, sass and sex, admired by guests Grimes, Princess Nokia and Kelis
Read moreKiwi Jr.: Cooler Returns – new album
New album: Clever, wry, satirical, topical, inventive upbeat indie by the Toronto quartet with their second album following Soccer Money, who have echoes of Pavement and The Modern Lovers, but with added vim and vigour, keyboards and harmonica
Read morePearl Charles: Magic Mirror – album review
Album review: An uncannily perfect reflection but very enjoyable throwback to mainstream singer-songwriter pop from the mid 1970s in the style of ABBA, Carly Simon, Carol King and more by the 29-year-old from LA
Read morePom Poko: Cheater – album review
Album review: The postpunk Indie quartet from Norway return with their second LP after 2019’s Birthday with more wonderfully energetic work in this short, sharp selection of 10 three-minute songs
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