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Richard Thompson: Ship To Shore
New album: With strong narratives, melodies and fabulous fret work, the veteran singer-songwriter’s 18th solo album is up there with his best– traversing eras, styles and themes from his folk-rock 60s roots, to jazz, blues and country and flavours from Ireland, Scotland and beyond
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Peter Bibby: Drama King
New album: Witty, self-deprecatory, earthy, emotional and energetic, the Australian singer-songwriter’s superbly fun and sweary new LP of love, loss and addiction has echoes of Suicide and country-era Bob Dylan
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Arooj Aftab: Night Reign
New album: An exquisitely dark, lingering fourth LP from the Grammy-winning Pakistani-American singer and composer with a mix of songs in Urdu and English, her resonant, pure voice accompanied by rippling piano, harp, guitar and more in a dark landscape of folk, jazz and traditional music
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Bat For Lashes: The Dream of Delphi
New album: Natasha Khan returns with her sixth studio LP and first for five years, a quirky, swirling experimental release capturing up the early days of her motherhood to daughter Delphi, born in 2020 during the pandemic, and using folkloric, electronica keyboard improvisational approach sometimes with vocals of semi-formed words
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Richard Hawley: In This City They Call You Love
New album: The veteran Sheffield singer-songwriter returns his ninth solo LP, a touching, gentle love letter to his home city, referencing that South Yorkshire universal term of address, local characters and perspectives, with a set of heartwarming, heartfelt indie, blues, and Americana-style numbers
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Girl and Girl: Call A Doctor
New album: A vibrant, energetic, wittily candid, jangly indie-garage-rock release about life’s many undulations and problems, particularly mental health issues, by the Australian quartet led by Kai James in their debut LP by Sub Pop
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Beak: >>>
New album: A surprise sudden fourth LP by the Bristol trio of drummer Geoff Barrow (Portishead), bassist Billy Fuller, and Will Young (Moon Gangs) with that familiar chevron title and distinctly dark, strange but mesmeric post-rock-krautrock thrum
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Kaïa Kater: Strange Medicine
New album: A beautiful fourth album by the acclaimed Montreal-born banjo player and singer-songwriter of Grenadian heritage, mixing folk, Americana and bluegrass with a palette of sounds – percussion, orchestral strings and brass in songs mixing history, politics and the personal
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La Luz: News of the Universe
New album: A fourth studio LP of dreamy, exotic, alluring psychedelia and surf rock by the California quartet fronted by Shana Cleveland, simmering and potent, but made in the dark shadow of a breast cancer ordeal
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Paul Weller: 66
New album: This 17th solo album by the restless, ever-changing stylish mod-rock veteran is one of his mellower, more reflective releases, marking his age, a classic number, and year, distinctively depicted by Peter Blake on the cover art
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Bess Atwell: Light Sleeper
New album: Serene in sound but with a spectrum of heartbreak and emotional problems laid bare, a gorgeous and candid third album by the Brighton-based singer-songwriter produced by The National’s Aaron Dessner
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rEDOLENT: dinny greet
New album: A striking, engaging alt-pop indie debut by the Edinburgh five-piece with songs dealing with dark subjects from heartbreak to alcoholism, dead-end job to mental health issues, but with a running theme of seeking the brighter side with a title that means “don’t cry” in Scottish slang
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Lip Critic: Hex Dealer
New album: A dazzlingly high-octane, white-knuckle ride of a debut album by the New York-based electronica-punk-hip-hop-hardcore-noise-rock band, who push the musical boundaries with express vocal delivery and double drummers
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of Montreal: Lady On The Cusp
New album: A new LP of extraordinary experiment and scattershot psychedelic pop kaleidoscopes and lyrical tricks from the eclectic and unpredictably inventive mind of the prolific Kevin Barnes and band from Athens, Georgia
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Big Special: Postindustrial Hometown Blues
New album: A witty, punchy, restless post-punk debut LP by the heavily accented Midlands duo of Joe Hicklin and Callum Maloney, with echoes of Sleaford Mods who they’ve supported on tour, packed with sharp jokes, wordplay and sweary anger about toxic masculinity and the absurdities of modern life
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Billie Eilish and the muted cover for her third LP, Hit Me Hard and Soft
New album: The American superstar and her brother co-writer and co-producer Finneas O'Connell’s third LP, of predominantly soft, muted, low key and tenderly whispered, sighing and delicately style with understated release without advance singles
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Barry Adamson: Cut To Black
New album: The Manchester legendary singer and composer, bass player of Magazine, The Bad Seeds and other bands, returns with a stylish, swaggering, 60s-influenced 10th studio solo LP, including timeless Motown, seductive blues, and vividly noir cinematic hues
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The Lovely Eggs: Eggsistentialism
New album: Lancaster’s loveable DIY rockers Holly Ross and David Blackwell return with another punchy collection of comedy, simplicity, profundity and creativity, psych and punk, but also some old-school synth sounds and some complex emotions
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Beth Gibbons: Lives Outgrown
New album: The Portishead singer’s first solo LP, 10 years in the making, is an exquisite release of genre-spanning folk, sometimes with eastern inflections, her haunting voice touching on mutability, motherhood, menopause, bereavement, health and heartbreak
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Jordan Rakei: The Loop
New album: Silky, soulful new work by the falsetto-smooth London-based New Zealand-Australian musician, singer-songwriter and producer with a sophisticated cocktail or perky pop, jazz, and R&B
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