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Bonobo: Fragments
New album: The moniker of Simon Green returns with an eclectic mix of electronica, dance, ambient and clever sampling, with guest appearances from Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Kadhja Bonet, Joji, O’Flynn, Jamila Woods and Jordan Rakei
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Favourite selection part 2.
Favourite albums of 2021 – Part 2: Welcome the second instalment, following Part 1, which can be found here. A huge number of excellent releases, of which again this is just a selection many of which were written during, and about lockdown, but also saw many outstanding voices emerge as well as innovative sounds developed
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Take your pick. Are your favourites here? Also check out Part 2 coming soon.
Favourite albums of 2021, part 1: Another difficult year for everyone, but from soul and jazz, electro-pop the experimental and avant-garde, an outstanding one for music releases, perhaps in part because out of diversity comes great art. Also feel free to explore Part 2, which is now available to view here.
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Eris Drew’s Quivering In Time
New album: Engaging, inventive, wonderfully odd and at times insanely catchy, this album by the Chicago-based DJ and producer channels her self-described Motherbeat with this clever selection of nine dance tracks
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Sympathy For Life by Parquet Courts
New album: After 2018’s acclaimed LP Wide Awake!, the Brooklyn band return with a sharp collection of post-punk intermingled with dance music that mixes funk, electronica, psychedelia and krautrock with improvisational energy
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Remi Wolf’s full LP debut Juno
New album: This full debut by the charismatic 25-year-old Californian matches her persona – fluorescent, fizzy funk-psych-pop full of bright singing, bursting with sugary, almost wieldy but playfully imaginative energy
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Life of Mammals, the second album by Museum of Love
New album: Second album by the New York duo of drummer and founding LCD Soundsystem member Pat Mahoney and singer Dennis McNany, aka Jee Day in a work that builds beautifully in that distinctive DFA style of art rock and dance music
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The ninth album by Pond
New album: No surprise that this is the ninth album by the Australians psychedelic rock and pop band, a dynamic release with a wide variety of styles, intelligent, atypical lyrics, passionate delivery and wonderful unpredictability
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Astro Tough
New album: Wonderfully eccentric, humorously droll and inventive second album by the highly original duo of producer and instrumentalist David Wrench and artist and vocalist Evangeline Ling filled with pathos as well as energy
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Jungle: Loving In Stereo
New album: West London’s Josh Lloyd-Watson and Tom McFarland return with undeniably, strong, catchy selection of falsetto soul and disco pop that has strings, horns, hip hop and gospel elements that hit perfect, broad appeal notes
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Wink is Chai’s third studio LP
Album review: Cheeky, squeaky and quirky pop from the Japanese quartet of Mana, Kana, Yuuki, and Yuna from following their previous LPs Punk and Pink which were much more, punk, Wink has a theme of feeling uninhibited and free
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Art D’Ecco’s In Standard Definition
Album review: A stylish and charismatic glam-rock electro-funk-disco pop second album, echoing everything from early 70s Bowie or Bolan’s T-Rex to 80s synth New Romantics, by the wonderful Canadian androgynous singer
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La Femme’s third LP
Album review: The French band’s third album is an attractive, energetic mix of classic vintage sounds from 60s candy floss pop to 80s synth new wave, instrumentals that could TV themes, whispery and sensual hip hop, disco and dash of rave
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David Balfe
Album review: Moving, passionate, angry, grief-stricken and tender, this mix of beats, samples and striking spoken word lyrics by the Dublin performer and producer David Balfe is a powerful tribute to a lost friend
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Smerz’s album Believer
Album review: From stark and abstract, to serene, ambient and dancefloor, the debut LP from the Norwegian duo Henriette Motzfeldt and Catharina Stoltenberg is an experimental adventure taking in everything from classical to techno
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High time for some the days of disco … SG Lewis
Album review: Aiming to capture a full-on mainstream club and disco feel, the British producer’s new LP mixes light funk and soul flavours that very much borrow from the Daft Punk and Chic cookbook
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Shopping dilemma: from the video for Free From Gravity
Album review: This fourth LP by the Edinburgh-formed, London-based art-rock quartet contains many of their signature sounds but also contains space-travelling new textures, such as breathy guest vocals by Charlotte Gainsbourg
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Chips off the old block. Made Kuti (left) and father Femi
Album review: The son and grandson of the great Fela Kuti join to present a double album of the good stuff, bringing high energy Afrobeat and singing in English with wonderfully strong bursts of universal political and personal affirmation
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Isles, the second LP, but a long way from the second release by Bicep
Album review: After 2017's eponymous album, the London-based but Belfast born electronic/ dance DJ musical magpie duo of Matthew McBriar and Andrew Ferguson return with 90s rave nostalgia filled with eclectic twists
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Great albums of 2020: clockwise from top: Agnes Obel, Phoebe Bridgers, Bob Dylan and Sault’s Untitled (Rise)
Albums of 2020 roundup: Out of crisis comes great art. A year of lockdowns, no gigs, alternative sounds, experimentation and surprises. This is the second half of our roundup of favourite albums of 2020. Part 1 was here
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