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Man in the corner: Bakar – Nobody’s Home
New album: This eclectic LP of hybrid hip hop, soul, pop, indie, R&B, and even a dash of folk by the North London rapper singer-songwriter Abubakar Baker Shariff-Farr is full of influences from Blur to King Krule, Tame Impala to Amy Winehouse, and his Tanzanian immigrant mother
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That floating feeling: Kojey Radical has Reason To Smile
Debut album: After many singles and four EPs, the British rapper’s and brand designer’s full debut LP is a stylish mix of hip hop, jazz and R&B filled with impressive braggadocio, reflections on his Ghanaian heritage, with songs love, crime, race, and the black experience, and talking excerpts by his beloved mother
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Robert Glasper’s third album in the series has another stellar lineup of guests
New album: The Houston jazz pianist, four-times Grammy winner and highly influential collaborator releases the third in his BLM-related series of jazz, hip hop, soul and R&B, featuring another stellar line of guests including Killer Mike, Q-Tip, Common, Gregory Porter, Jennifer Hudson, India Arie and Meshell Ndegeocello
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Raveena; smooth, cross-cultural blending
New album: Eclectic, striking mainstream label debut LP for the 27-year-old American pop artist Raveena Aurora who mixes rhythms and more from her Sikh Indian heritage with traits of R&B, soul, funk, 00s trip-hop and ambient electronica
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Lady Wray’s Piece of Me
New album: A wonderful third album by American singer Nicole Monique Wray of rich, high-quality retro soul decorated by her soaring voice, 70s Detroit-style grooves and emotional songs that carry you with their energy and sheer class
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FKA twigs’ CAPRISONGS
New album: Cheltenham’s innovative Tahliah Debrett Barnett returns with a fourth LP that’s more a mixtape of sensual, sexual musical sketches, her distinctive voice and style also very much reaching out to a more R&B mainstream
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Dawn FM
New album: Canada’s hugely successful R&B and darkwave artist Abel Makkonen Tesfaye’s new LP is a form of concept - light-themed afterlife through the prism of a fictional radio station that generates inventive smooth and clever 80s-style synth pop and disco
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Favourite selection part 2.
Favourite albums of 2021 – Part 2: Welcome the second instalment, following Part 1, which can be found here. A huge number of excellent releases, of which again this is just a selection many of which were written during, and about lockdown, but also saw many outstanding voices emerge as well as innovative sounds developed
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Take your pick. Are your favourites here? Also check out Part 2 coming soon.
Favourite albums of 2021, part 1: Another difficult year for everyone, but from soul and jazz, electro-pop the experimental and avant-garde, an outstanding one for music releases, perhaps in part because out of diversity comes great art. Also feel free to explore Part 2, which is now available to view here.
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The full Sweats with Nathaniel (centre)
New album: Emotionally powerful, muscular rock-country-soul by the Denver singer-songwriter and band has strong echoes of Hurricane-era, Dylan, northern soul, early Van Morrison, as well as with oodles of swagger, sweat, grit, slide guitar, meaty brass, screams and sorrow
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Joy Crookes’ debut album - Skin
New album: After three EPs, the 23-year-old south Londoner of Irish-Bangladeshi descent launches her debut LP with songs of high quality and consummate performance, joining the likes of Celeste and Arlo Parks as as likely huge soul stars
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NAO’s third album blossoms
New album: Sunnily uplifting and defiant in style and lyrics, this third album by the 33-year-old east London soul and R&B singer features guest co-vocalists, but with the exception of a real beauty with Lianne La Havas, shines out best on her own
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Durand Jones & The Indications’ third album
New album: Good vibes and upbeat sounds mark this third LP by the American funk and soul group fronted by Jones as well as the higher range of co-singer and drummer Aaron Frazer who collectively mix in 70s disco and pop
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Dave’s second LP We're All Alone In This Together
New album: Second LP by the much lauded Mercury-winning David Omoregie for his first, Psychodrama, shows his talent for diversity of rap styles through social commentary and relationship themes, comprising R&B, Afrobeat, gospel, electronica and piano-led melancholy
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Leon Bridges: Gold-Diggers Sound
New album: Delicate soul mixed with R&B, Afrobeat, late-night jazz and even a dash of country come in this third LP by the 32-year-old singer, songwriter and record producer, filled with heartbreak and hope stemming from events of the past year
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Kojaque: Town's Dead
New album: An original, distinctive voice in hip hop in this ear-catching second LP by Kevin Smith from Dublin, filled with dark corners of drugs, gentrification, difficult relationships and city soundscapes, an edgy New Year’s Eve and articulate, heavy accented anger
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Jorja Smith’s new release Be Right Back
Album review: It’s about the voice. A classy, silky smooth minimalist new mini-album of eight songs heralds the return of the 23-year-old soul and R&B singer-songwriter from Walsall, following up from her acclaimed 2018 album Lost & Found
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Sophia Kennedy’s Monsters - impossible to control or define
Album review: An unholy, beguiling and at times mischievously brilliant mixture of pop, Tin Pan Alley, vintage showtunes, hip hop, abstract electronica and horror film culture, the Baltimore-born, Hamburg-bred artist is just as impossible to define as to not enjoy
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Album review: The high-class purveyor of late 50s and 60s vintage soul, jazz, blues and R&B returns with one his best yet, with the shuffle of rhythm, the twang of guitar and the dangle of quiff with those Buddy Holly/Clark Kent looks
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Two peas in a pod: cover art art from Deacon by serpentwithfeet
Album review: An unusually delicate, tender and eccentric affectionately album of gospel-infused R&B about a black gay relationship and friendships, the second by Baltimore-born Brooklyn-based singer Josiah Wise
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