Your Custom Text Here
Declan McKenna: What Happened To The Beach?
New album: Less overtly political than his previous work, but still satirical and now more personal, this is jaunty, quirky, eccentric, eclectic pop by the 25-year-old LA-based, Enfield-raised singer-songwriter, experimenting like a 1960s psychedelic troubadour.
Read more
Helado Negro: PHASOR
New album: Finding that sweet spot with smooth, mellow Latin rhythms in an experimental mix of folk, jazz and electronica, the American artist of Ecuadorian Roberto Carlos Lange’s eighth studio album one of gentle, melting joy
Read more
Chelsea Wolfe: She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To
New album: Dark, simmering, sensual, ghostly, goth-noir rock with restrained thundery rumblings by the California artist, in a powerfully effective, slow, atmospheric release that sounds like tears in a downpour, an echoey, innovative potion of metal melancholy
Read more
Brittany Howard: What Now
New album: The Alabama Shakes singer and guitarist returns with her second solo album after 2019’s superb debut, Jaimie, with an equally brilliant but wider scope of styles, from soul to funk, jazz, but also dancefloor energy, and more than a dash of Prince
Read more
Vera Sola: Peacemaker
New album: Oozing style and sophistication, the smoky, velvety-voiced American singer-songwriter returns with a follow-up her 2018 debut, Shades, with a sublime set of vivid, poetic, atmospheric songs, laced with a Nashville-recorded country, folk and ghostly, theatrical twang, and influences from Tom Waits to Dvořák
Read more
TORRES: What An Enormous Room. It is indeed …
New album: Explore and enjoy the space? The sixth LP in a decade from Brooklyn singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mackenzie Scott brings potent, uneasy, bold, stripped-back indie rock with her characterristically strong vocal presence
Read more
NewDad: Madra
New album: Powerful, dark, brooding indie-pop shoegaze by the Irish quartet from Galway, with candid, emotionally charged, musically rich textured numbers on themes that include bullying, mental-health issues, self-harm and heartbreak
Read more
The Last Dinner Party: Prelude To Ecstasy
New album: A much hyped, but also arguably merited debut by the London five-piece of luxuriant, theatrical rock-pop with some echoes of Abba, and lavishly super-produced by James Ford
Read more
J Mascis: What Do We Do Now
New album: Like Neil Young, a fine wine or a classic car, the Dinosaur Jr frontman returns with another (his fifth) solo LP, with melodies of ever maturing, timeless quality, rich in guitar, piano and that distinctive, emotive, croaky voice
Read more
Erotic Secrets of Pompeii: Mondo Maleficum
New album: Gloriously theatrical, witty, panache-filled, this is a lavishly swaggering, swirling cauldron of excess, rock-pop, post-punk, prog, baroque indie, and classical, a debut whirlwind LP of history-spanning reference and energy, from Greek myth to Shakespeare and the apocalypse
Read more
If it’s not here, you don’t need it: His Lordship
New album: Explosive, punchy, sharp, witty, thrilling debut LP of 60s-style garage punk, anarchic rockabilly and 50s rock’n’roll by the duo of James Walbourne (The Pretenders) and Kristoffer Sonne (Chrissie Hynde) taking inspiration from Jerry Lee Lewis to The Stooges, The Cramps to The Black Keys
Read more
Katy Kirby: Blue Raspberry
New album: Following 2021’s strong debut Cool Dry Place, the Texas singer-songwriter returns with another collection of intelligent, sharply observed numbers with beautiful clarity of voice, fine balance of instrumentation, unflinching honesty, great turn of phrase, and powerful melodies
Read more
Future Islands’s seventh LP: People Who Aren't There Anymore
New album: A decade after that sensational breakthrough performance on David Letterman, the Baltimore synthpop quartet release their best since – songs of thrumming melodies and heart-on-sleeve, passionate delivery by frontman Samuel T Herring
Read more
The Smile: Wall of Eyes
New album: Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood join again with jazz drummer Tom Skinner for a second LP of cerebrally inventive, dark tracks, tinged with ghostly melancholy, at times almost more Radiohead than Radiohead
Read more
Gruff Rhys: Sadness Sets Me Free, his 25th album overall
New album: The effortlessly talented Welshman, former Super Furry Animals frontman and all round nice guy returns with a gorgeously bittersweet album of wry humour and fabulous tunes inspired by the joys of writing about sad subjects
Read more
Nailah Hunter: Lovegaze
New album: Slow, sensual, simmering, lingeringly beautiful numbers in this debut LP of experimental, ambient, will-o'-the-wisp, dream-like quality by the Los Angeles multi-instrumentalist, composer, singer and harpist with Belize ancestry
Read more
Kali Uchis: Orquídeas
New album: With agile, crisp clarity of voice, and a diversity of beats and styles, this is another clever hybrid LP of passionate, romantic cheeky, sassy Spanish-language, clubby pop by the Colombian-American singer, joined by high-profile Latin American guests
Read more
Black Grape: Orange Head
New album: Salford’s Shaun Ryder and Manchester’s Paul ‘Kermit’ Leveridge return with their first LP since 2017’s Pop Voodoo, and their fourth overall together, with an especially funk-filled laced with their classic banter, wit and talent for cleverly daft, surreal and addictive lyrics
Read more
Conchúr White: Swirling Violets
New album: Gorgeously sensitive, intimate, uplifting, grounded but dream-like folk-pop debut by the singer-songwriter from County Armagh, with blissful but pointed songs of a mystical, spiritual, existential and relatable nature
Read more
Sleater-Kinney: Little Rope
New album: With perhaps best yet, certainly since reforming in 2014, and 11th overall, a passionate, catchy, powerful, defiant LP by Portland-based singer-guitarists Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker with searingly brilliant postpunk, rock and pop
Read more