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Moor Mother’s Jazz Codes
New album: A mesmeric new album that began as poetry book by the American artist Camae Ayewa mixing jazz, blues, soul, hip-hop and spoken word in her own form of Black Quantum Futurism group, her multi-artform fusion of black history ontology
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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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Obongjayar’s debut album
New album: Entrancing third LP by the 29-year-old Catalonian star singer with a voice of huge range, mixing flamenco with reggaeton, hip hop, R&B and lush pop, feminism and food, heartbreak, the staccato with the smooth, and influences from MIA to Niña Pastori and José Mercé
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Man in the corner: Bakar – Nobody’s Home
New album: This eclectic LP of hybrid hip hop, soul, pop, indie, R&B, and even a dash of folk by the North London rapper singer-songwriter Abubakar Baker Shariff-Farr is full of influences from Blur to King Krule, Tame Impala to Amy Winehouse, and his Tanzanian immigrant mother
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Raveena; smooth, cross-cultural blending
New album: Eclectic, striking mainstream label debut LP for the 27-year-old American pop artist Raveena Aurora who mixes rhythms and more from her Sikh Indian heritage with traits of R&B, soul, funk, 00s trip-hop and ambient electronica
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Favourite selection part 2.
Favourite albums of 2021 – Part 2: Welcome the second instalment, following Part 1, which can be found here. A huge number of excellent releases, of which again this is just a selection many of which were written during, and about lockdown, but also saw many outstanding voices emerge as well as innovative sounds developed
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Take your pick. Are your favourites here? Also check out Part 2 coming soon.
Favourite albums of 2021, part 1: Another difficult year for everyone, but from soul and jazz, electro-pop the experimental and avant-garde, an outstanding one for music releases, perhaps in part because out of diversity comes great art. Also feel free to explore Part 2, which is now available to view here.
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The Bug’s Fire
New album: This dystopian, violent portrayal of modern Britain by the British electronic producer Kevin Martin is compelling and powerful, with guest appearances from Daddy Freddy, FFSYTHO, Flowdan, Irah, Logan_olm, Manga Saint Hilare, Moor Mother, Nazamba, and Roger Robinson
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Memory Device is Baba Ali’s debut album
New album: A catchily eclectic debut by the singer-songwriter drawing on his Nigerian heritage, his adolescence absorbing hip hop and new wave in New York, the techno scene in Berlin, and now disco, punk and electronica in his London base
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Kojaque: Town's Dead
New album: An original, distinctive voice in hip hop in this ear-catching second LP by Kevin Smith from Dublin, filled with dark corners of drugs, gentrification, difficult relationships and city soundscapes, an edgy New Year’s Eve and articulate, heavy accented anger
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Dean Blunt
New album: This follow-up to the 2014 album by the East Londoner frontman of the mischievous alt-pop duo Hype Williams (named after the video director) is a bizarre, offbeat collection of 10 short songs mixing droll, deep-voiced delivery with a range of almost cinematic instrumentation
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Loraine James’s third album, Reflection.
Album review: Restlessly imaginative, with arrhythmic oddness, jittery beats, sounds and disembodied voices, spoken word and trap-hop, this experimental electronica album by the London producer by is an candid expression of the mind in 2020 lockdown
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Greentea Peng’s debut LP Man Made
Album review: The debut album by the south Londoner is has woozy, easy, hazy, lazy summer feel, a mix of languid hip hop, reggae, jazz, and soul with a dash of dub, a dribble of drum’n’bass and even psych with a hippie sprinkle
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Sophia Kennedy’s Monsters - impossible to control or define
Album review: An unholy, beguiling and at times mischievously brilliant mixture of pop, Tin Pan Alley, vintage showtunes, hip hop, abstract electronica and horror film culture, the Baltimore-born, Hamburg-bred artist is just as impossible to define as to not enjoy
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More of Tony Allen’s work posthumously in collaboration with guest artists
Album review: Entertainingly diverse posthumous album bringing together recordings by the great drummer and Afrobeat pioneer with Femi Kuti, here matched here with guests from soul to hip hop, including Sampa The Great, Skepta, Damon Albarn, and Lava La Rue
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Laid back: Puma Blue’s In Praise of Shadows
Album review: After a strong of singles and EPs, 25-year-old British artist Jacob Allen’s debut LP is a lushly horizontal release that mixes slow electronic beats, dreamy, woozy, soulful vocals, and soft electric guitar sounds
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Great albums of 2020: clockwise from top: Agnes Obel, Phoebe Bridgers, Bob Dylan and Sault’s Untitled (Rise)
Albums of 2020 roundup: Out of crisis comes great art. A year of lockdowns, no gigs, alternative sounds, experimentation and surprises. This is the second half of our roundup of favourite albums of 2020. Part 1 was here
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Lianne La Havas, Fiona Apple and Yves Tumor are among three artists who have released outstanding LPs
Albums of 2020 roundup: A year of lockdowns, alternative sounds, experimentation and surprises. This is the first half two roundups of a total over 50 favourite albums of the year that musicians stayed at home. And here’s Part 2.
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This week’s selection …
Album reviews roundup: This week’s selection includes a surprise but strong return for the Aussie rockers, three innovative debuts in in hip hop, pop and folk, and an outstanding series of instrumentals by a Welsh guitarist
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