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Laura Veirs comes out of a darkness
New album: Sensitive, quirky, melancholy, intimate, candid, and wonderfully beautiful folk-pop by the Portland singer-songwriter dappled with acoustic instruments and arresting lines is her 12th, but first LP after splitting from her husband and longtime producer
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Spot the shrimp: Cave World by Viagra Boys
New album: The third and perhaps best yet album by the Swedish post-punk mischief makers fronted by the charismatic Sebastian Murphy, with a fusion of rock, punk, electronica and funk and packed with punchy, ironic, humorous lyrics, clever guitar riffs and keyboard sounds
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Moor Mother’s Jazz Codes
New album: A mesmeric new album that began as poetry book by the American artist Camae Ayewa mixing jazz, blues, soul, hip-hop and spoken word in her own form of Black Quantum Futurism group, her multi-artform fusion of black history ontology
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Art D’Ecco returns with a fourth album and a new look
New album: A witty title for a follow-up album by the Canadian artist after 2021’s breakthrough third LP, Standard Definition, with further fabulous fusion of 70s glam, 80s post-punk, and perfect original pop blend of Sparks, 80s Bowie and Ezra Furman
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Fern Maddie: Ghost Story
Debut album: Terrific first LP by the Vermont singer-songwriter, guitarist and banjo player who draws influence from English, Irish and Scottish folk who has a talent for poignant lyrics, beautiful playing and a quiet, but striking voice
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Seven Psalms by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis
New album: Less an LP of songs, more a 25-minute series of low-key ambient synth pieces by Ellis over which Cave’s spoken word prayers of reflective, intense, meditative poetry on death, sin, guilt, grief and more
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Gwenno’s Third album, Tresor
New album: Third LP by the Welsh artist, another almost entirely in the Cornish language, is an alluring mix of pop, ethereal psych-folk and electronica inspired by recent motherhood and the lockdown experience
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Cola: Deep In View
New album: Thrumming, knotty, catchy, clever, crafty, stop-start indie post-punk with an occasional glimmer of glam-rock by the trio of former Ought members Tim Darcy (vocals, guitar) and Ben Stidworthy (bass) alongside Evan Cartwright (drums) with this debut album
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Stealing Sheep: Wow Machine
New album: The Liverpool trio of Emily Lansley, Rebecca Hawley, Luciana Mercer’s wonderfully experimental 10-song album springs from a specially commissioned project with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, taking inspiration from the female pioneers of electronic music
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Soccer Mommy’s third album: Sometimes, Forever
New album: Richly textured indie, shoegaze and pop by Nashville’s 25-year-old Sophie Allison, here with her third album that contains the dark, world weary, but also tuneful and uplifting material, given extra depth by producer Daniel Lopatin aka Oneohtrix Point Never
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Regina Spekor returns with her first album since 2016
New album: The New York-based Russian-American singer-songwriter’s very welcome first LP for six years is a wonderfully stirring, sensitive, melancholy mix of narratives, combining piano with beautifully lush orchestration and production by John Congleton
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Ugly Season, by Perfume Genius
New album: The alias of American composer and high-voiced performer Mike Hadreas returns with profound, strange, compelling experimental pieces, ranging from ambience to electronica to pop with range of instruments and styles including chimes, Mellotron, celeste, guitarrón, and reggae syncopation
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Jessie Buckley and Bernard Butler: For All Our Days That Tear The Heart
New album: An outstanding collaboration between the Irish actress and singer and the former Suede guitarist with this beautiful album of passionate, dramatic, folk music of various international styles, with all the added depth, subtlety, dynamism of emotional power of both Jeff Buckley and Joni Mitchell
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Nova Twins second album, Supernova
New album: After their pre-lockdown debut, Who Are the Girls?, the London duo of lead vocalist and guitarist Amy Love and bassist Georgia South return with a blisteringly exciting hybrid of punk, heavy rock/metal, hip hop, pop and R&B
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Vieux Farka Touré: Les Racines
New album: Exquisite seventh studio album by Boureima "Vieux" Farka Touré, Malian singer and sublime guitarist, the player known as ‘the Hendrix of the Sahara’, as well as being the son of Mali’s great Ali Farka Touré
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Hercules & Love Affair: In Amber
New album: Andy Butler and friends return with a dark, powerful new LP that in comparison to previously is less dance music, more contemplation of serious issues, featuring again the distinctive countertenor of Anohni, but also percussion by Budgie of Siouxsie & The Banshees
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Foals return with the uplifting reset album Life Is Yours
New album: Now a three-piece, frontman Yannis Philippakis, drummer and Jack Bevan and rhythm guitarist Jimmy Smith return with a very danceable, funky and 80s indie pop-inspired single, produced by Dan Carey
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Whatever The Weather is a new project by Loraine James
New album: With the global climate increasingly unstable, this release by the London electronica artist and producer, originally out in April feels apposite, each piece title a different temperature, freezing, thawing, and heating, colouring moods and states with intricate synths and vocal improvisations
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George Ezra
New album: Mainstream pop pick of the week comes from the Hertfordshire suit-wearing suave star with a big, wobbly voice, his latest LP not quite as upbeat throughout as his previous huge sellers, with a more melancholy second half, but still packed with upbeat, catchy bangers
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Sea Souls (live) by Anna Phoebe and friends
New album: Celebrating and inspired by the beauty and sounds of the ocean, the Kent-based violinist and multi-genre composer, reworks this beautiful, revitalised version of last year’s lockdown-created original album, now given new evolved life by an expanded group of instrumentalists and vocalists
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