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The game is up: Bob Vylan’s rockin’ second album
New album: The second album from the British punk rock / hip-hop duo takes many uncompromising and catchily powerful pops at many aspects of broken scratchyard Britain, taking aim at cost of living, inequality, Tory and other corruption, and even the fast food industry
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Kathryn Joseph: For You Who Are Wronged
New album: Stark, minimal, ghostly, and extraordinarily powerful, this third album by the Scottish singer-songwriter concentrates unflinchingly on the ripples that emanate around abusive relationships, particularly giving voice to the voiceless
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Skinty Fia: the third album by Fontaines DC
New album: The Dublin indie band’s third album comes, alongside the powerful, gritty songwriting, with an expanded sonic identity – guitars atmospherically expressing the darker and unnerving, with some shades of the Cure
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Everything Was Beautiful: the ninth Spiritualized album.
New album: Just the ticket – a terrific album of gentle psychedelic beauty by Jason Spaceman aka Pierce, with just seven songs but of inspiring, expansive space krautrock with a swirling orchestra of many instruments combined with an easy, but emotional vocal delivery
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Poppy Ajudha’s The Power In Us
Debut album: Powerful indeed, in voice and message, on the political, social and personal, and after five or more years of singles and EPs, the debut LP by the British singer-songwriter who fuses soul, dubstep, jazz and pop
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Horace Andy: Midnight Rocker
New album: A welcome return from the legendary Jamaican reggae artist, now 71, with one of its most distinctive voices, here joined by dub pioneer and producer Adrian Sherwood with 10 new recordings of new and reworked classics
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Growing Up by The Linda Lindas
Debut album: Beyond the viral video for their performance in a public library of their protest song Racist, Sexist Boy, the LA teenage girl band of Latin- and Asian-Americans of two sisters, cousin and friend, is packed with great tunes and punk-pop spirit reminiscent of the Ramones, The Go-Go’s and Suzi Quatro
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Kurt Vile pictured with daughters on his new album cover
New album: As laid-back in style as anyone out there, but also strongly personal and filled with vivid lyrical detail, the Philadelphia singer-songwriter’s seventh solo album is deliciously melodious and worth several listens
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Lucius: Second Nature
New album: A sparkling mix of retro disco and 80s dance-pop with echoes of Abba by the American quartet, but also a dash of tragic country by front duo vocalists and co-songwriters Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig who capture many emotions from some recent experiences – motherhood and divorce
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Daniel Rossen’s debut solo album
New album: A mesmerically rich, beautifully swirling fusion of acoustic and flamenco guitar, symphonic folk, classic and jazz by by the Grizzly Bear guitarist and vocalist whose voice has the sensitivity, warmth and honest of Elliott Smith, in this wonderful solo debut
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Wet Leg’s debut album, fronted by Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers
Debut album: Their catchy, cute, cheeky debut single Chaise Longue made them the indie darlings of 2021, but the debut LP by Isle of Wight pair Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers proves they have the chops for similar magic
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Jack White: Fear of the Dawn
New album: Full-on and high-octane, there’s a frantic buzz-guitar frenzy, urgency and energy to White’s new LP, with songs about difficulty of relationships, but also a me-against-the-world sense of as if the world might indeed end when the night ends
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Kae Tempest: The Line Is A Curve
New album: An emotionally candid, tender, vulnerable and quietly declamatory fourth album by the writer-all-rounder, mixing hip-hop and spoken word with electronica and pop, with some nicely chosen guest appearances
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Red hot in lights: Unlimited Love
New album: The LA rock band have had their ups and down, bu this, a double LP, is their best for some time, largely perhaps due to the return of guitarist John Frusciante, key to their heyday albums, that one captures much of their original chemistry, funk and energy, if at times slightly mellower
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Father John Misty: Chloë and the Next 20th Century
New album: Lavishly orchestrated, marrying the ironic and the romantic, filled with stories and profound lines, Josh Tillman’s theatrical fifth LP is perhaps his finest yet, a fusion of the cinematic, jazz, swing, country, and folk-pop
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Sondre Lerche: Avatars of Love
New album: Classic, timeless, tender, soulful pop in this 85-minute double LP by the Norwegian artist spans many of love’s perspectives, with influences from Joni Mitchell to Frank Sinatra, Gilberto Gil to Antonio Carlos Jobim, as well as a variety of films
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Alabaster DePlume: Gold
New album: The nom de plume of London-based Mancunian jazz artist Angus Fairbairn returns with a mesmeric selection of 19 numbers, his intimate jittery saxophone embellished with a wider range of acoustic sounds, choral backing, and offbeat and inspiringly strange spoken word
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Miriam Elhajli’s The Uncertainty of Signs, her second album
New album: A remarkable release of rare beauty traversing genes with the outstanding voice, guitar, other strings and more by the New York-based folk singer, composer, and musicologist richly mixing traditions of her Venezuelan, Moroccan and North American heritage
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Stylish, strutting, studied performance: Walt Disco
New album: Dramatic, declamatory, stylised and immensely fun, this witty dandy post-punk pop debut with thrumming bass lines and shimmering synths by the Glasgow six-piece with echoes of the 1980s from Associates, Bowie, Human League, Rocky Horror Picture Show to Sparks
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Hedonism unbound: Warmduscher
New album: New sleazy mischief and hedonistic humour at the hands of the British krautrock-style disco-pop funksters fronted by the engaging American drawl of Clams Baker Jr – the gang with something that certainly is, as billed, crunchy on the outside, smooth on the inside
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