New album: Beautiful alternative folk-pop by Marianne Parrish, formerly of alt-folk band Low Chimes, with an arresting range of textures and sounds and her dynamic voice inspired by the natural world
Read moreGaye Su Akyol: Anadolu Ejderi
New album: The Istanbul singer’s fourth album is an alluring fusion of Turkish folk and pop rhythms and instruments with psych-rock riffing with a spicier flavour, her seductive voice delivering heartbreak love stories and dark anthems of dissidence
Read moreLous and the Yakuza: Iota
New album: After her hard-hitting 2020 trap, pop and Congolese beats debut, Gore, the Belgian-Congolese rapper, singer, model and artist Marie-Pierra Kakoma returns with a dreamy, smooth eclectic mix of rap, pop, and electronica
Read moreCaitlin Rose: CAZIMI
New album: Beautiful melancholy, emotive Americana-folk-country-indie-pop crossover by the Nashville-based singer a new set of songs about self-destruction, documenting proclivity and impulse control, bad habits in life and in romantic pursuits
Read moreDJ Yoda: Prom Nite
New album: A clever, inventive fusion of modern and retro , London DJ and producer Duncan Beiny’s new project captures heartbreak 50s American doo-wop song samples with live performers through soul, hip hop, harp, strings, and guest vocals from House Gospel Choir, Lily James, Homeboy Sandman, Jamie Cullum and Beardyman
Read moreWeyes Blood: And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow
New album: A sublime, 70s California-style, Karen Carpenter-evoking, melancholy new work by Natalie Mering, her fifth LP overall, and first since the acclaimed Titanic Rising of 2019, one that’s “feeling around in the dark for meaning in a time of instability and irrevocable change”
Read moreSault: Aiir, Earth, Today & Tomorrow, Untitled (God), 11
New albums: An unprecedented five albums landing simultaneously without warning, and with a temporary free download period on the mysterious London collective’s website, producer Inflo (Dean Josiah Cover) and co have again brought untold riches in soul, funk, gospel, jazz, RnB, hip-hop, experimental and contemporary classical
Read moreChristine and the Queens: Redcar Les Adorables Étoiles (prologue)
New album: Grand and theatrical, with oodles of 80s synth sounds and a big dash of Grace Jones and David Bowie-sytyle glamour, Héloïse Letissier returns with his (recently confirmed as a trans man) flamboyant, poetic third LP
Read morePhoenix: Alpha Zulu
New album: A return to form in their 20-year career for the quirky, groovy French pop quartet of singer Thomas Mars guitarist brothers Christian Mazzalai and Laurent Brancowitz and bassist Deck D’Arcy, in this seventh album, this time recorded in the Louvre no less
Read moreBig Joanie: Back Home
New album: The London trio of vocalist and guitarist Stephanie Phillips, bassist Estella Adeyeri, and drummer Chardine Taylor-Stone return with an electronic extension to their catchy DIY post-punk with an LP based around the theme of different forms of home
Read moreFirst Aid Kit: Palomino
New album: After the heartbreak of the dark 2018 Ruins album, Swedish sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg return to uplifting, sweet harmony country-folk-pop, sometimes reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac, and expressed in the title by the idea of a free-spirited elegant horse
Read moreNancy: English Leather
New album: Clever, catchy and beautifully crafted, drawing on 60s and 70s pop influences from Beach Boys and Zombies to glam rock, the British artist’s mischievous new LP is described as a “psychedelic portrait of repression, self-denial and introspection, with a perverted underbelly of indulgence and depravity at its core. After all, it’s the English way”
Read moreMelby: Looks Like A Map
New album: Serene, textured, mellow and beautifully moody LP by the four-piece from Stockholm, whose eclectic indie, at the surface, runs deep with elements of prog, jazz, electronica and dreamy pop, lightly dusted with shivery soul, folk, sadness and sugar
Read moreRubblebucket: Earth Worship
New album: A playful, inventive, witty, often humorous and highly original new LP by the Vermont-formed, New York City-based group fronted by Kalmia Traver and Alex Toth “dissolve the imaginary lines between the natural world and its human inhabitants”
Read moreTaylor Swift: Midnights
New album: Much hyped of course, and hardly needing a mention here, but after her lauded foray into folkier territory on albums Folklore and Evermore, the American superstar returns to mainstream synth-pop that’s dark, intelligent, self-deprecatory, small-hours state of mind, dead-of-night numbers
Read moreWild Pink: ILYSM
New album: A fourth particularly fine, tender, emotional LP in only five years by the New York indie rock band fronted by singer-songwriter John Ross, with a theme, as the title suggests of loving very much, with some powerful and poignant moments, and broader experimental sounds
Read moreArctic Monkeys: The Car
New album: With lavish orchestration, grandiose dynamics and a crooning falsetto, echoes of Scott Walker and early 80s David Bowie, Alex Turner’s writing and delivery enters a new and fascinating phase of enigmatic, melancholy maturity
Read moreLouis Cole: Quality Over Opinion
New album: Brilliantly clever, agile and innovative sixth new solo funk album by the American multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter and Knower co-founder, mixing fast, perky beats and falsetto with the slower, more tender love songs, often with a twist
Read moreAlvvays: Blue Rev
New album: Delayed by floods, theft, and the pandemic, the Toronto band fronted by singer-songwriter Molly Rankin and guitarist Alec O’Hanley make a triumphant third album return with uplifting and melancholy dream-pop indie filled with jangly inflections of The Smiths, shoegazey MBV, loud-quiet Sonic Youth and romantic Belinda Carlisle synth pop
Read moreThe Big Moon: Here Is Everything
New album: An emotive, hooky, candid third album by the London indie-rockers fronted by Juliette Jackson, with a running theme around her experience of pregnancy and its life-changing consequences
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