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Keeley Forsyth: The Hollow
New album: Following 2022’s Limbs, another extraordinary, experimental release by the rich-voiced British singer and actress from Oldham of atmospheric, beautiful, evocative, at times vocalisations
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Arab Strap: I'm Totally Fine With It I Don't Give A Fuck Anymore
New album: Menacingly poetic, darkly humorous, searingly sordid and the sweetly sarcastic? It can only be the return of Scotland’s Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton with another fabulously articulate assault on the self and society’s sadness and strangeness
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Charlotte Day Wilson: Cyan Blue
New album: Superbly smoky, soulful, sensual, richly woozy and also insightful new work about relationships by the Toronto singer-songwriter in this follow-up to 2021’s excellent Alpha album
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Ibibio Sound Machine: Pull The Rope
New album: Another cracking release by the London collective fronted by London-born Nigerian singer Eno Williams, a catchy, infectious concoction of Afrobeat, funk, disco, pysch and electronica, with punchy, enticing beats and grooves
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Rachel Chinouriri: What a Devastating Turn of Events
New album: A very mature and promising debut by the London indie-pop singer-songwriter with a broad range of timbres, moods and dynamics, from breezy pop and rock to soulful, tender acoustic and a title track about a tragedy
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Villagers: That Golden Time
New album: Delicate, minimalist, intimate, poetic and candidly beautiful folk indie by Dublin’s Conor J. O'Brien in a fifth LP gentler than the last, Fever Dreams, but bringing out the finest details in this stripped back release
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Jessica Pratt: Here In The Pitch
New album: Gracefully ghostly, dream-like, sensual, gentle and deliciously paced, this fourth LP by the American singer-songwriter floats like a perfect timeless acoustic folky boat stirring ripples of wistful emotions, profoundly complex lines and vivid images
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Mdou Moctar: Funeral For Justice
New album: After 2021’s acclaimed Afrique Victime album, the brilliant Tuareg guitarist and band band from Agadez, Niger, return with explosive, powerful, emotive numbers, impassioned songs about his culture and social wrongs, wrapped in a frenzy of drums, guitars, bass and vocals
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Dea Matrona’s Mollie McGinn and Orlaith Forsythe
New album: Luxuriant genre-spanning rock, pop, country and more in this debut by the Belfast old schoolfriend duo of Mollie McGinn and Orlaith Forsythe, with echoes of artists from Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks, Shania Twain, HAIM, as well as contemporaries CMAT, and The Last Dinner Party
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Stevie Toddler’s sophomore album, Last Time Forever
New album: So good it garnered two Songs of the Day this year before release, a sophomore LP packed with sublime bass lines, infusions of brass, a unique experimental blend of voice and instruments mixing pop, jazz and classical by the Bristol artist
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Cindy Lee: Diamond Jubilee
New album: One of the most unusual releases of the year – 32 tracks, more than 2 hours, with the style from an indeterminate era, perhaps ghostly love song echoes of 60s girl groups – come delicate and crash-bang electric guitar, percussion and vocals from the glammed-up alter ego of Canadian songwriter, guitarist, and drag performer Patrick Flegel
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Kamasi Washington: Fearless Movement
New album: The acclaimed jazz saxophonist returns with a genre-hopping emphasis across funk, hip hop as well his excellent big band, an overarching spiritual theme, and collaborators including George Clinton, Thundercat and André 3000
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Dua Lipa: Radical Optimism
New album: Undeniably mainstream, but ahead of her Glastonbury headline slot, the north London British-Albanian megastar’s third LP is cleverly crafted, classy, catchy synth-pop, channelling funk, disco and Latin grooves about an up-and-down love life
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The Lemon Twigs: A Dream Is All We Know
New album: Almost exactly a year since their acclaimed Everything Harmony album, the New York all-singing multi-instrumentalist brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario return with sparkling selection of originals particularly influenced by the 60s and early 70s, echoing The Hollies to The Beach Boys to Todd Rundgren
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Fat White Family: Forgiveness Is Yours
New album: Lias Saoudi and co return with their first since 2019’s Serfs Up, one with that despite the troubled departure of founding member Saul Adamczewski during its creation, is an entertainingly sharp, ironic, aesthetic, literary release packed with stylish reference points, soundscapes and tunes
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Pet Shop Boys: Nonetheless
New album: Mixing simplicity and lavish orchestration and a classic 80s synth-pop that made them so successful, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe return with their first LP for fours and one of their best for some time, with yet another traditional single-word title
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Iron & Wine: Light Verse
New album: A poetic latest release indeed North Carolina’s Sam Beam, packed with beautiful lyrics and melodies, articulate alternative folk, rock and country with flavours of Paul Simon and Cat Stevens, filled with vivid fictional and personal insights, desperate characters and wide-eyed optimists, heartache, tears and laughter including an appearance by Fiona Apple
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All aflame: St. Vincent - All Born Screaming
New album: Annie Clark’s follow-up to 2021’s 70s-inspired Daddy’s Home is a striking, stylish self-produced LP, with a rawer, starker edge, fierce guitars, a theme of characters pushed between their true selves and how they’re perceived, an includes guests Dave Grohl and Cate Le Bon
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Leyla McCalla: Sun Without The Heat
New album: A deliciously uplifting fifth solo LP by the American singer-songwriter and mult-instrumentalist, fusing folk, country, Americana, Afrobeat to Brazilian tropicalismo
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Lynks’ debut LP: Abomination
New album: After a series of entertaining singles, the flamboyant, often masked south London artist Elliot Brett’s debut LP is full of bounce and thrust – a humorous, witty, catchy collection of stylish synth-electro-pop mainly about gay sexual adventures in the city
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