New album: Excellent second LP, following 2018’s debut Endless Scroll, by the punchy Brooklyn post-punk band, packed with sharp lyrics, driving rhythms and riffs, with central theme of how we are defined and shaped by outside influences and perceptions, from city environment to advertising
Read moreCMAT: If My Wife New I'd Be Dead
Debut album: Wonderful debut by the Irish pop-country singer – Dublin’s Ciara Mary Alice Thompson has the melodies of Dolly, the panache of Glen Campbell, the range of Kate Bush, but above all a searing wit powered by self-deprecation and a caustically humorous instinct for tragedy
Read moreThe Weather Station: How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars
New album: Nothing can compare to last year’s superbly crafted LP Ignorance, but Toronto’s Tamara Lindeman returns with a still powerful, if more pared-back LP of delicacy and intimacy of voice, piano and minimal orchestration
Read moreNilüfer Yanya: Painless
New album: With a clever, pared back mix of guitars, beats, synths and distinctive vocals, the Londoner’s follow-up to 2019’s Miss Universe has a more focused musical identity and style, in this excellent set of variously twisted love songs
Read moreCharlotte 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
Read moreHalf Man Half Biscuit: The Voltarol Years
New album: Few things are more likely to bring joy, laughter and indeed titular pain relief, especially now, than a new HMHB release, this 15th album decorated again with singalong tunes and Nigel Blackwell’s incomparably brilliant lyrics, though here with death as a black-humoured running theme
Read moreSuperchunk: Wild Loneliness
New album: The apocalypse may gradually be upon us, but this 12th album by the North Carolina indie-rockers is the perfect antidote, offering black humour and chin-up optimism with fabulous tunes, wry lyrics and a musical complexion of dappled light
Read moreJohnny Marr: Fever Dreams Pts 1 - 4
New album: The favourite of all former Smiths releases a double album made up of four gradually released 4-song EPs written in isolated lockdown, showing his dynamic range of musicianship and a common theme seeking empathy and unity
Read moreTears For Fears: The Tipping Point
New album: The first LP by Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal together since 2004 returns with a bang, including big melodies, drums, and production, some original twists, and an 80s sound very much in vogue again, perfectly timed
Read moreBeach House: Once Twice Melody
New album: A fabulous double LP 18-track return by the Baltimore duo of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally of dreamy, serene electro-pop, with a suddenly broadened scope of psychedelia and folk rock, gradually and now fully released across four chapters
Read moreMetronomy: Small World
New album: Crisp, breezy, sharply written pop accompanies the welcome return of Joe Mount and co with a seventh studio album that has bittersweet post-lockdown flavour, but ultimately is positively uplifting
Read moreShamir: Heterosexuality
New album: The latest from Las Vegas-born artist 27-year-old Shamir Bailey is perhaps his most powerful LP to date – tumultuous emotions, huge production range from synth pop to metal, and explorations of queer gender issues via uncompromising lyrics and his expressive, rangy countertenor voice
Read morealt-J: The Dream
New album: After a five-year break, the British trio return with a more free-flowing, experimental, but musically relaxed album than their previous three, but still brimming with oddness and some dark, stark, deathly references
Read moreBig Thief: Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You
New album: Brooklyn’s Adrianne Lenker, Max Oleartchik, Buck Meek, and James Krivchenia return with a fifth and landmark double album of gorgeous, intelligent, free-flowing songwriting, mixing folk, pop, rock and country
Read moreBlack Country, New Road: Ants From Up There
New album: Second LP by the London young experimental, baroque-pop theatrical troupe, and many ways far stronger than their much applauded, arguably over-hyped 2021 debut, ironically now having greater intensity as frontman and singer Isaac Wood quits on release date
Read moreAnimal Collective: Time Skiffs
New album: Two decades after their first, the 11th album by the American alt-pop experimentalists has a running theme of time passing, with a quieter, slower more lo-fi accessible approach, gentle intricate sounds, even those echoing wind, water and bamboo
Read moreLos Bitchos - Let the Festivities Begin!
Debut album: Break out the pisco and tequila! Produced by Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos, a joyously fun debut album by the international all-female London band who play foot-tapping instrumentals fusing surf guitar, Turkish psych, Argentine cumbia and Peruvian chicha, sporting a chic 60s look
Read moreMitski: Laurel Hell
New album: The Japanese-American indie artist Mitski Miyawaki’s newest LP is her most mainstream pop release to date, with big 80s piano ripples and echoes of Abba and even Hall & Oates, but also brilliantly laced with dark images and emotions laid bare
Read moreCate Le Bon: Pompeii
New album: The brilliant Welsh musician’s follow-up to 2019’s Reward is a low-key, slower paced affair, simmering with lockdown’s solitudinous lyrics, sparse keyboards, spongy bass, sax and little brass blasts, with echoes of Bowie and Talk Talk
Read moreEELS: Extreme Witchcraft
New album: Mark Oliver Everett, who always wrestles with personal demons in his music, returns with an album characterised with a sparky upbeat energy, buzzing guitars and pace with often wry, but very catchy numbers
Read more