Your Custom Text Here
Gotts Street Park: On The Inside
New album: A classic style, very gentle retro-soul debut by the Leeds-based trio of Josh Crocker, Tom Henry, and Joe Harris with outstanding guest vocalists following the all-in-one room recording method of Sun and Stax in Memphis or Muscle Shoals in Alabama
Read more
Jorja Smith: Falling Or Flying
New album: Classy, polished, melancholy soulful R&B with the return of the highly successful singer-songwriter from Walsall, who after the bright lights of London scene, has returned to live near her homeland roots with a running lyrical theme of uneasiness with fame
Read more
Stunning debut: Jalen Ngonda: Come Around And Love Me
Debut album: With a classic sound and rolling back the years, sublime high-voiced retro-soul Motown in the mould of Marvin Gaye, all new by the New York singer who settled in Liverpool a decade ago to study at the Institute for Performing Arts. Out on Daptone.
Read more
Allison Russell: The Returner
New album: Following 2021’s Outside Child, a second excellent solo album by the Nashville-based Montreal-raised singer-songwriter and activist from the band Po’ Girl, Birds of Chicago and Our Native Daughters, with charming but emotively poignant Americana, folk, soul, gospel and pop
Read more
Cleo Sol: Heaven
New album: A gorgeously soulful, gentle, intimate and indeed heavenly third solo album by the London singer-songwriter familiar to fans of Sault and her longtime collaborator and once again here producer – Inflo
Read more
Corinne Bailey Rae: Black Rainbows
New album: A landmark of powerful storytelling and songwriting in this fourth album by the Leeds-born singer with songs inspired by immersion into a rich collection of art, books and artefacts about Black history organised by Theaster Gates at the Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago
Read more
Yussef Dayes: Black Classical Music
New album: Taking a title cue from Miles Davis, a brilliant, landmark 19-track debut LP by the supremely gifted British jazz drummer variously exploring and re-interpreting many sides of 70s funk, reggae and afrobeat, joined by a stellar group of musicians and vocalists
Read more
Danger Mouse and Jemini The Gifted One - Born Again
New album: Delayed by almost two decades, but worth the wait, this stylish hip-hop follow-up to 2003’s acclaimed Ghetto Pop Life LP is a second collaboration between producer Brian Burton and New York MC
Read more
Willie J Healey: Bunny
New album: With echoes of Shuggie Otis, 1970s George Harrison, and heaps of Sly Stone-style chilled, squelchy funk, the British singer-songwriter third album is smooth helping of soulful pop with a delicious, laid-back summer vibe
Read more
Jungle’s fourth LP, Volcano
New album: Entertaining, sample-heavy fun by the London-based duo of Tom McFarland and Joshua Lloyd-Watson in their fourth album, with a polished product mixing soul, gospel, 70s funk breakbeats, electronica, dance, and disco with a shiny, radio-friendly formula
Read more
Outstanding debut: Bianca James
Debut album: With strong echoes of Amy Winehouse, Duffy, 60s London pop, Motown, and even dash of Girls Aloud, the Toronto singer’s classy retro soul-pop debut feels like an outstanding, striking, timeless release
Read more
Little Dragon: Slugs of Love
New album: An inventive, very eclectic, enjoyably experimental seventh studio album by the Gothenburg quartet, mixing electronica, soul, pop, hip-hop and R&B with guests including Blur’s Damon Albarn and East Atlanta rapper JID
Read more
ANOHNI: My Bridge Was A Bridge For You To Cross
New album: Taking a new direction the last LP, 2016’s Hopelessness, the artist formerly known as Antony Hegarty releases a gorgeously tender soul album inspired by the sound of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On
Read more
Bettye LaVette
New album: With last month’s passing of Tina Turner, it’s heartening to find another great voice still going strong, the gravelly soul delivery of the 77-year-old veteran with bluesy funk and candid killer lyrics
Read more
Killer Mike reveals the young Michael
New album: One half of Run The Jewels, the Atlanta rapper and social activist Michael Santiago Render releases a powerful, articulate, and frank autobiographical solo LP, candidly exploring his childhood and more of the other side to his Killer Mike persona
Read more
Arlo Parks’ second album My Soft Machine
New album: After the acclaimed Mercury Prize-winning 2021 debut Collapsed in Sunbeams, the much anticipated follow-up by the now LA-based British artist is filled with poetic self-reflection, intimate, intelligent, gentle pop-soul, but at times falls short of that debut’s initial impact, edge and melodic power
Read more
Hannah Jadagu: Aperture
Debut album: A hugely promising and mature debut LP by the 20-year-old Texas-born, New York-based singer-songwriter, mixing intimate soul and R&B with dream-pop, low-key indie and gentle touches of psychedelia
Read more
Madison McFerrin: I Hope You Can Forgive Me
New album: Smooth, dreamy, ethereally beautiful soul, trip-hop, R&B low-key gospel and electro-pop in this entrancing debut LP by Brooklyn singer and the daughter of Bobby (Don’t Worry, Be Happy) McFerrin, whose style is very different to her jazz vocalist father
Read more
Durand Jones: Wait Til I Get Over
New album: After three acclaimed albums with band The Indications, the Louisiana singer returns with a fantastic solo LP, themed around his hometown of Hillaryville, and packed with beautiful, powerful soul numbers of grit, melancholy, joy and defiance
Read more
Skinny Pelembe: Hardly The Same Snake
New album: The eclectic experimentalist from Doncaster, aka Doya Beardmore, with roots also in Birmingham and Mozambique, comes up with a powerful, visceral new LP, spanning indie, avant-pop, hip-hop, rock, electronica, gospel and soaring soul
Read more