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SAULT: Chapter 1
New album: As ever, released suddenly without fanfare or any publicity, the prolific experimental soul, jazz, gospel, funk, psychedelia and disco collective of Cleo Sol, Info (aka Dean Josiah Cover) and co return with a stylish, mysterious LP
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Part Two favourite albums of 2025 collage
Welcome to the second part of Song Bar favourite albums of 2025. There is also a first part and a third part this week. There is no countdown nor describing these necessarily as “best” albums of the year, but they are chosen by their quality, originality and reader popularity
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First selection of 25 favourite albums in no particular order …
Welcome to the first part of Song Bar favourite albums of 2025. There will also be a second and third part this week. There is no countdown nor describing these necessarily as “best” albums of the year, but they are chosen by their quality, originality and reader popularity
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Kojey Radical: Don't Look Down
New album: Stylish, eclectic fusion of hip-hop, funk, jazz, neo-soul and R&B by the British Mercury Prize-shortlisted husky-voiced rapper with a candid release about insecurity, fatherhood, love, sex and money, filled with guest rapper and singers, and a follow-up to 2022's acclaimed Reason to Smile
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Curtis Harding - Departures & Arrivals: Adventures of Captain Curt
New album: The Michigan-born, Atlanta-based golden-voiced artist returns with uplifting, classy retro-soul funk, rock and pop with an extra layer of takeoff - he plays the cinematic thematic role of a space travelling astronaut expressing how much he misses his true love on Earth
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Blood Orange: Essex Honey
New album: Eclectic, dream-like, transitional and reflective with a late-summer smooth ambience and an over-riding theme of looking back on his Ilford childhood days, the 39-year-old British NY-based multi-instrumentalist and producer Dev Hynes returns with a fifth LP as Blood Orange, joined by a variety of other artists including Caroline Polachek and Lorde
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Pino Palladino and Blake Mills: That Wasn't A Dream
New album: Following 2021’s Notes With Attachments, the acclaimed veteran Welsh session bass player and American producer-singer-songwriter again join forces to make with an intriguingly original, eclectic, experimental collection of offbeat jazz instrumentals
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big long sun: whatever (whatever)
New album: A quirkily catchy, lo-fi, psychedelic-funk, dadaist-influenced, wonderfully oddball, original release by the Midlands-born, Brighton-based poet, painter, film-maker and multi-instrumentalist Jamie Broughton
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Natalie Bergman: My Home Is Not In This World
New album: This stylishly retro second solo album by the Chicago-born LA-based singer-songwriter follows her acclaimed 2021 LP Mercy, and channels psychedelic soul and alt-60s pop, packed with beautiful, classic-feel, heartbreak songs, and with a title that yearns for that past era and sense of place
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Durand Jones & The Indicators: Flowers
New album: Pure, sweet, sublime retro soul by the band from Bloomington, Indiana made of the core trio of vocalist Durand Jones, Aaron Frazer on drums/vocals, and guitarist Blake Rhein, here blooming again with their fifth LP in a decade in a release inspired by the idea of expressing personal vulnerability
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Endless musicianship: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard: Phantom Island
New album: An impressive 27th album already by the unstoppably prolific Australian band, and this is one of their most experimental and theatrical releases yet, less prog- and riff-based, more harking back to the days of dramatic, full-on, 1970s rock operas and musicals with dynamic orchestral pop, funk and jazz
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WITCH: SOGOLO
New album: Zambia’s zamrock pioneers with (with the acronym ‘We Intend To Cause Mischief’) and still fronted by original member Emanuel "Jagari" Chanda, return with their special fusion of infectious psychedelic, 60s garage-inspired funk rock and and afrobeat, with a meaty, melodious, selection of catchy new numbers
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Shura: I Got Too Sad For My Friends
New album: With her first music since 2019’s acclaimed album forevher, the British singer-songwriter and producer Alexandra Denton returns with a third LP, one that embraces melancholy and addresses the self, capturing six years of uncertainty with a gentle, intelligent perspective, wrapped in refined, matured indie, pop, folk and Americana
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Little Simz: Lotus
New album: The Mercury prize-winning London rapper and actress Simbiatu Ajikawo brings a powerful, playful as well as personal issues, defiant rage-filled articulate new sixth album, broadening her musical scope with collaborator and producer Miles James with a title inspired by the flower that blooms, despite a harsh environment in mud and swamp
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Stereolab: Instant Holograms On Metal Film
New album: Expansive, eclectic, catchy, clever futurist-retro experimental electro-pop? Yes it’s the first studio LP for 15 years by the now veteran band formed by Laetitia Sadier and Tim, Gane, here with significant instrumental skills by Joe Watson and production by Cooper Crain
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Tune-Yards: Better Dreaming
New album: Clever, quirky, upbeat, funky experimental pop by the Oakland, California married duo of Merrill Garbus and her bassist husband Nate Brenner with an LP borne out of lockdown, one filled with joy, serious insights, musical oddness, but also designed to loosen up the joints and get the whole body wiggling
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Femi Kuti: Journey Through Life
New album: The son of the the legend Fela Kuti continues is own legacy, now aged 62, with another vibrant release, and his first self-produced, of stirring, superbly performed afrobeat, positive life philosophy, social justice campaigns, and critiques of Nigerian politics and corruption.
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Emma-Jean Thackray: Weirdo
New album: A remarkable release of experimental p-funk jazz, soul and pop by the British singer and multi-instrumentalist, exploring the ups and downs of her neuro-divergence (autism and ADHD), and playing, writing and producing everything entirely on her own in her south London back-bedroom home studio
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Tunde Adebimpe: Thee Black Boltz
New album: The likeable TV On The Radio frontman, visual artists and LA-based actor releases his first solo LP, an impressively punchy, tender, angry, sharp, intelligent fusion of synth-pop, postpunk and funk, working with multi-instrumentalist and co-producer Wilder Zoby – energised in sound, but tinged with thematic grief and loss
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Annie & The Caldwells: Can't Lose My (Soul)
New album: A fabulously uplifting soul, gospel and funk release the the family band who release their first LP four decades into their career, fronted by the supreme voice of West Point, Mississippi’s Annie Caldwell, alongside her daughters, husband and god-daughter
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