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The Dream: alt-J’s fourth studio album, and the first since 2917’s Relaxer
New album: After a five-year break, the British trio return with a more free-flowing, experimental, but musically relaxed album than their previous three, but still brimming with oddness and some dark, stark, deathly references
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Big Thief’s campfire of inspiration
New album: Brooklyn’s Adrianne Lenker, Max Oleartchik, Buck Meek, and James Krivchenia return with a fifth and landmark double album of gorgeous, intelligent, free-flowing songwriting, mixing folk, pop, rock and country
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Harpist Rachel Newton and violinist Lauren MacColl come together as Heal & Harrow
New album: Hauntingly stark, evocative, and chillingly beautiful folk as harpist Rachel Newton and violinist Lauren MacColl, with added spoken word commentaries in English and Gaelic, release an album of songs telling the tale of women wrongfully persecuted during Scottish witch trials in the 16th-18th centuries
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It’s definitely in the bag, but where next for Black Country, New Road after Ants From Up There?
New album: Second LP by the London young experimental, baroque-pop theatrical troupe, and many ways far stronger than their much applauded, arguably over-hyped 2021 debut, ironically now having greater intensity as frontman and singer Isaac Wood quits on release date
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Animal Collective’s 11th album Time Skiffs
New album: Two decades after their first, the 11th album by the American alt-pop experimentalists has a running theme of time passing, with a quieter, slower more lo-fi accessible approach, gentle intricate sounds, even those echoing wind, water and bamboo
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Los Bitchos are ready to party ….
Debut album: Break out the pisco and tequila! Produced by Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos, a joyously fun debut album by the international all-female London band who play foot-tapping instrumentals fusing surf guitar, Turkish psych, Argentine cumbia and Peruvian chicha, sporting a chic 60s look
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A Place To Bury Strangers - See Through You
New album: Electro noise rock, progressive gothic post-punk? Whatever the genre label, a striking blast of a new LP by the New York band fronted by Oliver Ackermann now with newer members frenetic drummer Sandra Fedowitz and thrumming bass from John Fedowitz
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Mitski’s Laurel Hell
New album: The Japanese-American indie artist Mitski Miyawaki’s newest LP is her most mainstream pop release to date, with big 80s piano ripples and echoes of Abba and even Hall & Oates, but also brilliantly laced with dark images and emotions laid bare
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Cate Le Bon’s sixth album, Pompeii
New album: The brilliant Welsh musician’s follow-up to 2019’s Reward is a low-key, slower paced affair, simmering with lockdown’s solitudinous lyrics, sparse keyboards, spongy bass, sax and little brass blasts, with echoes of Bowie and Talk Talk
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EELS: Extreme Witchcraft
New album: Mark Oliver Everett, who always wrestles with personal demons in his music, returns with an album characterised with a sparky upbeat energy, buzzing guitars and pace with often wry, but very catchy numbers
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Cult Leader Tactics
New album: An entertaining novelty release mixing rock, electro-pop and classical by the Former Mansun frontman, in the form of a satirical self-help manual on how to become a complete cult in the music industry or employ Machiavellian tactics in the entertainment industry and beyond
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Imarhan’s beatiful new album, Aboogi
New album: Mesmerically beautiful third LP by the Algerian tuareg desert quintet, all atwirl with superb vocals, clever layering, intricate guitar work, and a somehow wonderfully entwined guest vocal appearance by Gruff Rhys
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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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Anaïs Mitchell’s self-titled latest album
New album: Beautiful, classic singer-songwriter sixth LP from the Vermont folk artist, best known for Broadway success with the 2010 album and musical Hadestown, these finely crafted low-key piano and guitar-led numbers compare favourably with 1970s Joni Mitchell or Aimee Mann
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Wasuremono’s Let's Talk, Pt. 2
New album: With a big, exuberant, joyously upbeat sound, this follow up to last year’s excellent Part 1 LP by the Bradford on Avon quartet is rich in vocal harmonies with an overlying theme of human connection
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Awash and wet with disco fever: Ollie Alexander
New album: Now the solo project of Harrogate’s Olly Alexander, this third album is an unabashed set of catchy commercial disco pop numbers, ticking all the usual boxes, successfully doing what it sets out to do with gay abandon
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The multiplicity of Aurora
New album: An impressive range of pop stylings and vocals that cascade like a fresh, breathy mountain stream mark this third LP by the dynamic Norwegian pop artist and TikTok star, who follows up previous more political material with songs more more focused on relationships
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New album: Beautifully smooth guitar picking and a warm, mellow voice mark out this glowingly lovely latest LP by the folk artist from Columbus, Georgia, in a collection of traditionals and originals with a theme of loss and renewal
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Silverbacks’ second album Archive Material
New album: Superb second LP by the Dublin-based post-punk art-rock quintet, who with shades of Deerhoof, Gang Of Four, but particularly New Yorkers Strokes and LCD Soundsystem, sharply capturing the crazy, creeping disquiet of the world, especially over the past 18 months
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Pointed lyrics: Yard Act, featuring frontman James Smith
Debut album: Following various singles including Fixer Upper, a set of newer sharp, funny, talky, wordy and witty post-punk-funk debut LP by the Leeds quartet, filled with ironic observation about Britishness, echoing some delivery elements of the Fall and Sleaford Mods
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