New album: A very mature and promising debut by the London indie-pop singer-songwriter with a broad range of timbres, moods and dynamics, from breezy pop and rock to soulful, tender acoustic and a title track about a tragedy
Read moreVillagers: That Golden Time
New album: Delicate, minimalist, intimate, poetic and candidly beautiful folk indie by Dublin’s Conor J. O'Brien in a fifth LP gentler than the last, Fever Dreams, but bringing out the finest details in this stripped back release
Read moreDea Matrona: For Your Sins
New album: Luxuriant genre-spanning rock, pop, country and more in this debut by the Belfast old schoolfriend duo of Mollie McGinn and Orlaith Forsythe, with echoes of artists from Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks, Shania Twain, HAIM, as well as contemporaries CMAT, and The Last Dinner Party
Read moreThe Lemon Twigs: A Dream Is All We Know
New album: Almost exactly a year since their acclaimed Everything Harmony album, the New York all-singing multi-instrumentalist brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario return with sparkling selection of originals particularly influenced by the 60s and early 70s, echoing The Hollies to The Beach Boys to Todd Rundgren
Read moreBODEGA: Our Brand Could Be Yr Life
New album: Smart, literary, packed with cultural references from film, books and art, the New York post-punk band’s fourth album is a more melodic release than the punchier of previous, being in part a self-reflexive reworking of much older songs from their previous incarnation as Bodega Bay
Read moreEnglish Teacher: This Could Be Texas
New album: An outstanding debut LP – subtle, original and experimental – by the Leeds quartet of Lily Fontaine, Douglas Frost, Nicholas Eden and Lewis Whiting, packed with intelligent, tender, rich, thoughtful, observational metaphor, and broad, inventive instrumentation
Read moreGustaf: Package Pt. 2
New album: Whipsmart, clever, caustic, wonderfully crafted post-punk? It must be the return of the Brooklyn five-piece fronted by the charismatic, funny and fierce Lydia Gammill with another selection of excellent, angular numbers
Read moreDana Gavanski: LATE SLAP
New album: Deftly original, wry, humorous, gently dreamy, brilliantly oddball folk-pop by the London-based Canadian-Serbian artist in this third LP with a theme of tenderness in a desensitising world, playing out tensions between negative cynicism and despair against positive openness and trust
Read moreThe Black Keys: Ohio Players
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 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 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 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 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 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
Read moreYOVA: Dreamcatchers
New album: An alluring, breathy, sensual, supernaturalistic LP by the duo of Jova Radevska and Mark Vernon, with a theme delving into the unconscious, for lost and unrealised dreams and ideals, and how they are nurtured, then realised, abandoned or destroyed
Read moreMannequin Pussy: I Got Heaven
New album: Dynamically vaulting between fierce, explosive anger and beautiful tenderness, unabashed lust, sometimes soothing and seductive, at others biting, this is a powerful, passionate, new indie-rock LP by the band fronted by singer and guitarist Marisa Dabice
Read moreFaye Webster: Underdressed At The Symphony
New album: Gentle, reflective indie with flecks of country in this fifth LP by the Atlanta singer-songwriter, capturing tiny, intimate details of life’s in-between, under-the-radar moments, and inspired by the idea of slipping late in the audience at an Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concert
Read moreLiam Gallagher & John Squire: Liam Gallagher John Squire
New album: Sounding just as you might imagine, this pairing of the Oasis singer and Stone Roses guitarist is a well-crafted, cocky Mancunian psychedelic cocktail of classic, stylish, sneer-swagger psychedelia
Read moreYard Act: Where's My Utopia?
New album: With continuing appeal, the experimental post-punk Leeds quartet return with their second LP, with highly entertaining, broadened musical scope, frontman James Smith’s agile, candid, conversational wit musing on the ironies of success, the music business, resultant guilt, climate change, and titular worries about the future
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