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George Ezra
New album: Mainstream pop pick of the week comes from the Hertfordshire suit-wearing suave star with a big, wobbly voice, his latest LP not quite as upbeat throughout as his previous huge sellers, with a more melancholy second half, but still packed with upbeat, catchy bangers
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Shearwater: The Great Awakening
New album: A welcome return by the band from Austin, Texas, their first studio LP since 2015’s Jet Plane and Oxbo, sees Jonathan Meiburg and others reconvening in a powerful, beautiful work, tackling the apparent global hopelessness of the past few years
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Moonchild Sanelly
New album: Stylish, charismatic, sexy, with a unique mix of South African dance music – gqom, amapiano, hip-hop, jazz and electronica, with a persona somewhere between Eartha Kitt, Nicki Minaj or Doja Cat, the starry, blue-haired Port Elizabeth-born rapper, model and designer’s fabulous second and double LP is all about ‘baddies’ and personal empowerment
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Michael Head’s latest album
New album: The veteran indie singer-songwriter from Liverpool’s latest LP is filled with strong, stirring numbers that mix the jangly sound of the English north-west with US west coast Byrds, with 12 character-based songs from ‘boulevards of fractured dreams’ inspired by F Scott Fitzgerald
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Angel Olsen’s sixth album, Big Time
New album: Majestic, slow-paced and emotionally powerful, an outstanding country-tinged dark folk dream-pop sixth LP by the American singer-songwriter inspired by liberation and grief – coming out to her aged parents in 2021 very shortly before their deaths
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Florence: medieval purging
New album: Dance yourself to death? Beyond the huge machinery of mainstream hype and her voluminously voiced self-reflection, Florence Welch’s fifth album about purging her demons does also contain some strong tunes
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Alex Izenberg’s third album I’m Not Here
New album: Mellow, easy-paced and gently decorated with piano and classical strings, this timeless, mid-70s psych-pop-rock is the third from the Los Angeles singer-songwriter who echoes elements of Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman and King Crimson
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Sigrid’s second album
New album: High-quality mainstream pop by the high-voiced Norwegian singer-songwriter Sigrid Solbakk Raabe with this second album packed with of disco bangers and power ballads with a running theme of self-empowerment and gaining control in relationships
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Peaness’s debut LP
New album: After a series of excellent singles, a very welcome debut LP at last of charming, catchy, indie pop by the mischievous trio from Chester, songs addressing many ongoing concerns from relationships to social media with down-to-earth common sense and a call for general social decency
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Kevin Morby’s vivid new album This Is A Photograph
New album: Tender, uplifting, sensitive and moving, the seventh LP by the Texas-born, Kansas-raised singer-songwriter is full of richly vivid lyrics wrapped in strong Americana folk-pop and a vocal delivery that echoes mid-70s Bob Dylan
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Warpaint’s first album since 2016
New album: An alluring, quietly intricate but also beautiful fourth LP by the Los Angeles quartet, whose last was in September 2016, and while the world has churned upside down since, their return is wonderfully welcome
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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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Looking back to look forward: Belle and Sebastian’s 10th album
New album: The tenth studio album by the Glasgow folk-pop band is their first for seven years, and the first recorded in their home city since Fold Your Hands Child in 1999, sounding very much their usual wistful, gently melancholy but catchy selves
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Ibeyi’s third album Spell 31
New album: The third album from Afro-Cuban French twins Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi Díaz is a sensual, eclectic mix of R&B, hip hop and more, drawing on their rich heritage, and inspired by a passage the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead
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Soft Cell with their first album in 21 years
New album: Fabulous and rather surprising return for the British duo, their first for 20 years, and 41 since their debut, with a wry, witty, catchy electro-pop album about how the sci-fi future dream has not quite turned out how it promised
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Arcade Fire return with their sixth album
New album: The Canadian alt-rockers return with their sixth LP - one filled with almost messianic singalong stadium anthems and also quieter intimacy, perhaps not quite at the peak of their first three, but still a return to past form
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Sharon Van Etten’s sixth album
New album: Powerful, passionate, personal and one of her best yet, this sixth album by the New Jersey singer-songwriter has hugely relevant themes, her songs addressing how we might protect the things most precious to us from destructive forces beyond our control
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Loose Fit: Social Graces
New album: Fresh, raw and full of vitality, the debut album by the Australian quartet of Kaylene Miller, Anna Langdon, Max Edgar and Richard Martin is reminiscent of the British late-70s post-punk bands from the Slits to PIL
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Dana Gavanski’s When It Comes has finally arrived
New album: Gorgeous second folk-pop LP by the London-based Canadian-Serbian singer-songwriter, decorated with perfectly weighted hooks and measured arrangements, pure of voice and with pace that’s both intricate but minimal, like a ticking clock
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