Your Custom Text Here
Neal Francis’s In Plain Sight
New album: Stirringly upfront new rock-pop album by the Chicago singer-songwriter and pianist about honesty, resilience and sobriety following a big relationship breakup following his 2019 album, Changes
Read more
New perspective: Aeon Station’s Observatory
New album: Beautiful debut full LP by the solo moniker of The Wrens' Kevin Whelan with contributions from his band mates, these lockdown-inspired, highly emotive songs take the long view, filled with recriminations, guilt, but also hope for the future
Read more
New album: Previously unreleased due to label wrangles, and part of the Brilliant Adventure (1992-2001) huge boxset, this set of revisited 60s songs recorded in 2000, offers fine evidence of Bowie joyfully reworking his past a late-90s swagger
Read more
Richard Dawson and Circle’s collaborative album Henki
New album: An entrancing, uplifting, brilliantly crafted and epic-feel mix of folk, prog and krautrock through tales of seeds, botany, history and myth by the Newcastle artist in collaboration with the Finnish metal band in a fabulous album unlike any other in 2021
Read more
Deap Vally’s Lindsay Troy and Julie Edwards
New album: Full of feisty swagger, and rich, fuzzy guitar grit, the Los Angeles pair of Lindsay Troy and Julie Edwards return for a fourth album of rock-rich irony, fun, sweary sneering, sex-talk, anger and meaty riffs, and one of best yet
Read more
They Might Be Giants’ John Flansburgh and John Linnell
New album: New York’s original alt-rockers John Flansburgh and John Linnell return with their 23rd studio album of clever, whimsical, absurd and amusing songs, part of a project with an 8-track tape, another EP, and a bumper book of lyrics set in concrete poetry
Read more
A gentle hit? Elbow’s Flying Dream 1
New album: Variously written by members isolated during lockdown, the Manchester band’s ninth LP is a study in gentle, minimalism, filled with beautiful lyrical images and tender moments after 2019’s angrier, edgier, proggy Giants of All Sizes
Read more
Vibrant joy: The Bug Club’s Pure Particles
New album: A fantastic, punchy short album of nine songs by the indie trio from South Wales with vibrant, fresh, Jonathan Richman-style panache, witty lyrics, dynamic guitar riffs and driving rhythm that is all infectiously toe-tapping
Read more
Radiohead’s KID A MNESIA
Reissue albums: An anniversary edition of two landmark albums, Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001) combined, but with a difference, with added tracks and alternate versions, harking back when the band expanded from rock into more experimental, krautrock and electronica territory
Read more
The full Sweats with Nathaniel (centre)
New album: Emotionally powerful, muscular rock-country-soul by the Denver singer-songwriter and band has strong echoes of Hurricane-era, Dylan, northern soul, early Van Morrison, as well as with oodles of swagger, sweat, grit, slide guitar, meaty brass, screams and sorrow
Read more
Snail Mail’s Valentine
New album: Second LP by Lindsey Jordan, following 2018’s debut, Lush, broadens her folk-indie-rock brush with a bigger range of sounds and synths, as well as heartbreak, exchanging some of her initial musical intimacy perhaps to reach a broader commercial appeal
Read more
Something to cling to: Penelope Isles’ second album Which Way To Happy
New album: A bright, sparkly blend of wistful, ethereal dream pop, space rock, some French disco and electronica by Brighton’s core of siblings Jack and Lily Wolter and a fine follow-up to the 2019 debut LP Until the Tide Creeps In
Read more
Geese’s debut album Projector
New album: Dynamic and brilliantly experimental debut LP by the very promising young post-punk Brooklyn band brimming with intricate guitars, changes of pace, vaulting from the abstract to the intimate
Read more
Sam Evian’s third album, Time To Melt
New album: Warm, woozy and fluid, an appropriate title for this super smooth third album by Sam Griffin Owens, the Brooklyn based artist, decorated with light funk, 70s psychedelic soul and lush, orchestral instrumentation
Read more
A collage of dreams: the new album by The Surfing Magazines
New album: A welcome regrouping of two of The Wave Pictures, Charles Watson from Slow Club and Dominic Brider on drums in a 16-song mix of catchy surf guitar, folk rock, blues, indie, vintage rock’n’roll, bluegrass and no shortage of humour
Read more
I Will Not … Behave Myself
New album: The Wirral’s Louisa Roach and co return after the acclaimed 2018 LP Revolution of Mind with stirring, feisty, rebellious songs that rally against injustice, celebrate society’s outsiders, filled with seething, articulate anger about everything from food banks to the patriarchy
Read more
Sam Fender’s second LP Seventeen Going Under
New album: Hugely popular, especially after his 2019 debut Hypersonic Missiles, the 27-year-old singer-songwriter from North Shields builds on this with further Springsteen-style huge choruses and sax-decorated melodies and Strokes turns, but now with edgier, more personal lyrics
Read more
Lala Lala’s I Want The Door To Open
New album: Largely languid, mellow sounding and alluring indie from the London-raised Chicago-based songwriter Lillie West in her third studio album exploration of persona and presence with experimental textures of voice and instruments
Read more
Life of Mammals, the second album by Museum of Love
New album: Second album by the New York duo of drummer and founding LCD Soundsystem member Pat Mahoney and singer Dennis McNany, aka Jee Day in a work that builds beautifully in that distinctive DFA style of art rock and dance music
Read more
The ninth album by Pond
New album: No surprise that this is the ninth album by the Australians psychedelic rock and pop band, a dynamic release with a wide variety of styles, intelligent, atypical lyrics, passionate delivery and wonderful unpredictability
Read more