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The elephant in the room: Liz Lawrence’s Vespers is a powerful album of grief
New album: More acoustic, stripped back and lo-fi than her previous four albums, yet with deeply powerful and moving songwriting and performance, the British artist’s latest is suffused with grief, reflection and devotion for the premature loss of her sister Jessie, capturing life and death, poetically expressing devotion and reflection
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NODEGA: Rot in Helvetica
New album: A thinly disguised iteration of the New York post-punk band Bodega fronted by songwriters Ben Hozie and Nikki Belfiglio, the same quintet go full punk and hardcore on this articulately angry, pacy, attention-grabbing burst of eight, raucous yet catchy and also clever songs in just 18 minutes, satirically pulling no punches about society’s various ills
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Nadia Reid: Enter Now Brightness
New album: Warm, tender, thoughtfully profound, intelligent, finely crafted indie-folk with Laurel Canyon-era and Americana elements by the now Manchester-based New Zealand singer-songwriter on themes of change, motherhood, home, and heartbreak
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Laura Marling: Patterns In Repeat
New album: The popular British indie-folk singer-songwriter returns with her eighth studio LP, one of of gentle intricacy and delicate acoustic beauty, particularly reflecting on newly becoming a mother, as well as ideas and behaviours inherited down generations
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Liz Lawrence: Peanuts
New album: A classy, clever fourth LP for the British indie singer-songwriter, now signed to Chrysalis, with a tight, stripped back, thrumming sound, experimental at times, and packed also with excellent hybrid tracks spanning funk, pop, indie, folk and rock
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BODEGA: 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
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Various: The Endless Coloured Ways - The Songs of Nick Drake
New album: An enthralling collection of 23 cover versions of classic numbers by the legendary British folk singer who tragically died in 1974, featuring diverse artists including Fontaine’s D.C., Emeli Sandé, Aldous Harding, Guy Garvey and John Grant
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Animal is the second LUMP album by Laura Marling and Mike Lindsay
New album: With a suite of exquisite sounds from flutes to the soft thunk of bass and ethereal vocals, the second album by Laura Marling and Tunng’s Mike Lindsay is a little more stripped back than the first, but still brings otherworldly beauty
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William The Conqueror’s Maverick Thinker, their third album
Album review: The third album by the trio fronted by the Edinburgh-born singer-songwriter Ruarri Joseph is clever, catchy, bluesy, rocking and wry, filled with wistful lines, dry wit and great riffs
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The Strokes
Strong new LPs from The Strokes and Laura Marling reflect signs of the times, while eclectic records from Jackie Lynn and Pokey LaFarge, and excellent postpunk from Flat Worms and Irma Vep are also among this week’s 10 picks
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