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The Cribs: Selling A Vibe
New album: A first LP in five years by the likeable and solid guitar indie-rock Jarman brothers trio from Wakefield, now with their ninth - a catchy, but at times with rueful, bittersweet perspectives on their times in the music business
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Other Lives: Volume V
New album: A fifth LP, but also the first in a decade by the band from Stillwater, Oklahoma, of multi-instrumentalists Jesse Tabish, Jonathon Mooney and Josh Onstott and co, with impressive, stirring, grandiose, cinematic, dynamic, orchestra-layered indie rock
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Courting: Lust For Life …
New album: A lengthy title for a short, snappy, cleverly interwoven eclectic indie-dancefloor-postpunk experimental third LP by the Liverpool band with a theme of duality, a cyclical intro and outro, and each song paired with a balanced counterpart, sharing specific sonic elements.
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Saint Etienne: 'The Night'
New album: The London trio of Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs returrn with an strange, dream-like, ambient ‘headphones’ release, one that hovers across their career as if perceived through rain-soaked glass, designed to capture the essence of the after-hours
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Favourite LPs of 2023, Part 2.
Welcome once again to the annual tradition of Song Bar’s favourite album releases of 2023. This is Part 2, and Part 1 was yesterday. There’s no such thing as a chart rundown or ‘best of’ here, and these come in no particular order …
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Part 1 selection of 2023 favourite albums
Welcome once again to the annual tradition of Song Bar’s favourite album releases of 2023. This is Part 1, and Part 2 is also out here. There’s no such thing as a chart rundown or ‘best of’ here, and these come in no particular order. This is all about quality and innovation …
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Baxter Dury: I Thought I Was Better Than You
New album: Droll, dark, crisply phrased, downbeat, self-deprecating, sleazy and funky? It can only be the West London artist, in a candid, unflinching sixth solo album that draws on his strange childhood as son of famous Ian, echoing his brilliantly funny and painful 2022 memoir Chaise Longue
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Fever Ray’s third LP, Radical Romantics
New album: Sweden’s Karin Dreijer returns with her first Fever Ray LP since 2017’s Plunge, this third packed with rich, eerie, complex, multifarious songs about the bewilderment of love
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dEUS: How To Replace It
New album: The Belgian rock band who formed in 1991 return with their first for 10 years, an LP feels refreshed and re-energised, frontman Tom Barman and co’s songs with a spring in their step
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Unloved’s third album, The Pink Album
New album: This third LP by trio behind the soundtrack to TV series Killing Eve, Belfast producer David Holmes alongside singer Jade Vincent and musician Keefus Ciancia, is a huge, sprawling cinematic 22-tracker filled with alluringly oddball, woozy, dark pop, electronica, 60s French noir and psychedelia
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Public Service Broadcasting’s Berlin album
New album: The historical archive-inspired band’s fourth LP is entirely centred around the city of Berlin, and is a far more impressionist and instrumental than previous, with German language vocals and a nod to Weimar era and David Bowie’s Low album
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This week’s album picks, beginnig with GoGo Penguin (top right)
One of the best from Bob in years leads out this week’s team of releases, alongside some outstanding work from former lead singers from other bands, including from Savages, The Macabees and Let’s Wrestle, among others
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Nine more delights to peruse
As well as a powerful Run The Jewels release raising funds for protester legal rights, this week’s selection is packed with excellent independent bands’ work, especially The Nightingales, plus Brigid Dawson, Sports Team, The Stroppies and more
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Mark Lanegan
This week’s roundup includes a gritty but musical journey to accompany Mark Lanegan’s memoirs, a solo album the the Paramore singer, and Part Two of Moses Sumney’s extraordinary funk/jazz falsetto album
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Lavinia Blackwall, formerly of Trembling Bells, releases her debut LP Muggington Lane End
This week’s roundup includes some new music self-definition from Car Seat Headrest and Happyness, an eclectic mix from Ghostpoet, and two wonderful solo albums by Michael J Sheehy and Lavinia Blackwall
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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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Dana Gavanski, from the video for Yesterday is Gone
This week’s huge roundup includes a wide range of the soft and loud, the traditional and the experimental, from beautiful songwriting by Dana Gavanski and Waxahatchee, Aussie punks The Chats, and ambient music from Sufjan Stevens
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Grimes
A truly eclectic lineup characterises this week’s roundup with a concept album from Grimes, a work of ethereal beauty from Agnes Obel, space electronic-folk from The Pictish Trail, and much more …
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Halsey
A mixture of dark and light, hope and hopelessness decorate this week’s huge roundup of releases across many genres, including oddities and eccentricities, passions and playfulness from Emimen to Ivor Cutler, Halsey to Keeley Forsyth
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FKA twigs
The second part of this year’s LP favourites again includes several superb female artists. Also check out the first part published yesterday
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