New album: With a 12th LP, the title and artwork inspired by the legendary funk band from their home state, the duo of singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney return with a collaborative spring in their step, their bluesy rock stimulated by co-writers Beck, Noel Gallagher and other guests
Read moreJane Weaver: Love In Constant Spectacle
New album: A gorgeous new LP by the Merseyside artist, with her distinctive blend of tender, melancholic synth-pop, but here also some avant-garde jazz and gently surreal, newer pastures of otherworldly, vivid psychedelia, and a first guest producer in the form of the excellent John Parish
Read moreVampire Weekend: Only God Was Above Us
New album: The now New York trio of frontman and songwriter Ezra Koenig, Chris Baio and Chris Tomson return with a fifth LP and the first since 2019, a clever, often self-referential collection of engaging art pop that echoes familiar styles with the new
Read moreShabazz Palaces: Exotic Birds of Prey
New album: Uniquely striking, experimental space-trip hip-hop, jazz, funk, electronica and Afrofuturism by the Seattle combo of Ishmael Butler, aka Palaceer Lazaro (formerly Butterfly in the 90s trio Digable Planets) and multi-instrumentalist Tendai "Baba" Maraire
Read moreKelly Moran: Moves In The Field
New album: A beautiful, graceful and in some ways surreal seventh LP by the New York pianist, experimental composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, here adorned with an unusual self-duet - playing alongside a programmable Yamaha Disklavier programmable piano
Read moreHoliday Ghosts: Coat of Arms
New album: Following last year’s Absolute Reality LP, a further fabulously catchy garage and surf rock selection by the Falmouth band with polished, clean, guitar and bass sounds, wistful, witty, drily humorous lyrics, and marvellous pop melodies across 10 snappy numbers
Read moreBlue Whale: Last Immediate Images
New album: A brilliantly angular, experimental, partly instrumental prog-post-punk and jazz sophomore release by the Belfast quartet of riveting cross-rhythms, innovative guitar and bass work creating an oddball but ornate aural tapestry
Read moreEmpress Of: For Your Consideration
New album: This fourth LP by the Honduran-American producer and singer-songwriter Lorely Rodriguez displays sparkling elasticity of sensual voice, playing with crisp, innovative electronica, R&B and rhythms across songs in English and Spanish
Read moreBeyoncé: Cowboy Carter
New album: A big, bold rhinestone-studded musical statement from the US megastar, delving deep into country & western territory and cross-pollinating with pop, soul, rock and R&B, with added Beatles, and guests including Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Miley Cyrus on this whopping 27-track LP
Read moreWaxahatchee: Tigers Blood
New album: Following 2020’s acclaimed album Saint Cloud, Alabama-raised, Kansas City-based singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield returns with a strong, solid, steady release that sits comfortably in the middle ground of Americana, pop and country
Read moreElbow: Audio Vertigo
New album: The Bury-formed band of Guy Garvey, Craig Potter and co return with their 10th LP, one particularly marked by experimental styles, thunderous rhythms and adventurous sounds, sometimes reminiscent of Peter Gabriel
Read moreJulia Holter: Something In The Room She Moves
New album: One of the most inventive, experimental musicians around, the Los Angeles artist returns with dream-like songs of gentle pitter-patter percussion, woozy bass, flute, whispered vocals, atmospheric, tinkling synths, and twittering woodwind summoning a surreal, twilight feel
Read moreGossip: Real Power
New album: After 12 years away, the American pop trio of the irrepressible singer Beth Ditto, multi-instrumentalist Nathan "Brace Paine" Howdeshell and drummer Hannah Blilie return with set of punchy, candid, personal disco-punk-pop bangers, and produced by Rick Rubin
Read moreAdrianne Lenker: Bright Future
New album: The Big Thief singer-songwriter returns with another solo folk album – minimally exquisite, delicate, at times heartbreakingly, with a title that is ambiguous - a future that could be beautiful and dazzling, but also blinding and burning
Read moreThe Jesus and Mary Chain: Glasgow Eyes
New album: Scotland’s sometimes feuding Reid brothers William and Jim return with a strong, cohesive, candid eighth album, the first since 2017, that has as much electronica as their pioneering noise guitar, and somehow a sense of scores settled
Read moreThe Dandy Warhols - Rockmaker
New album: Flamboyant yet droll, swaggering, fuzzy, sizzling, meaty, dark’n’ dirty rock in this 12th studio LP from the veteran Portland band fronted by Courtney Taylor-Taylor, here joined by guests including Pixies’ Frank Black, Slash and Debbie Harry
Read moreFour Tet: Three
New album: British musician Kieran Hebden returns, with his first album since 2020’s Parallel, with a new syncopated electronica beats, twinkling, rippling textures and rumbling ambience to invigorate the spring season
Read moreHannah Frances: Keeper of the Shepherd
New album: A beautiful, brilliantly experimental folk fifth album by the Chicago singer-songwriter, with seven songs of alternative structures, guitar tunings, grief, loss and dizzying displacement, intimacy and energy, lyrical images of caves, shepherds, sheep, ribs and rivers
Read moreTierra Whack: World Wide Whack
New album: After many singles and 2018’s Whack World EP of 15 one-minute numbers, the Philadelphia rapper’s debut LP is an oddball, collection of eccentric vocals, an inventive, colourful, lucky dip of hip hop, soul and R&B
Read moreBoeckner: Boeckner!
New album: The Canadian indie-rock veteran of Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs, Divine Fits, Operators, Atlas Strategic and more releases his first solo LP, a scintillating synth-sheen, autobiographical sci-fi cityscape of alt-pop with shades of early 80s Bowie
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