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LYR: The Ultraviolet Age
New album: A beautiful, profound, utterly absorbing second LP by the trio of current British poet laureate, Simon Armitage, singer-songwriter Richard Walters and multi-instrumentalist and producer Patrick J Pearson
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Baxter Dury: I Thought I Was Better Than You
New album: Droll, dark, crisply phrased, downbeat, self-deprecating, sleazy and funky? It can only be the West London artist, in a candid, unflinching sixth solo album that draws on his strange childhood as son of famous Ian, echoing his brilliantly funny and painful 2022 memoir Chaise Longue
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Dave Okumu & The 7 Generations: I Came From Love
New album: A rich, complex and brilliant release about black history, identity, and channelling the idea of ancestry by British singer, songwriter, producer and guitarist joined by a stellar cast of fellow artists, including Wesley Joseph, Tom Skinner, ESKA and Grace Jones
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Turning of the seasons: Complete Mountain Almanac
New album: A uniquely beautiful, complex, layered project of 12 monthly releases created by Stockholm-based singer/songwriter Rebekka Karijord and the poet, artist and dancer Jessica Dessner, who also brings her younger brothers Aaron and Bryce of The National
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Christine and the Queens: Redcar Les Adorables Étoiles (prologue)
New album: Grand and theatrical, with oodles of 80s synth sounds and a big dash of Grace Jones and David Bowie-sytyle glamour, Héloïse Letissier returns with his (recently confirmed as a trans man) flamboyant, poetic third LP
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Loyle Carner’s third album, Hugo
New album: The British rapper returns with one of his best LPs yet, a candid exploration of his own identity, from seeking out his estranged biological father, how that reflects back onto his own son, ADHD, being mixed race and fearing inner-city violence
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Wu-Lu’s debut album Loggerhead
Debut album: A strikingly alternative and genre-defying release by the south London producer and multi-instrumentalist Miles Romans-Hopcraft with influences and echoes from grunge to grime, trip hop, electronica to jazz, dark 80s Factory Records era, Tricky to DJ Shadow to Slipknot
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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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Sinead O Brien: Time Bend and Break The Bower
Debut album: After a string of singles such as Limbo and A Thing You Call Joy, the Irish indie poet’s debut album emboldens her style of strikingly esoteric lines and images backed a mix of guitar, drums and electronica, with a distinctively lingering talking/semi-sung delivery
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Kae Tempest: The Line Is A Curve
New album: An emotionally candid, tender, vulnerable and quietly declamatory fourth album by the writer-all-rounder, mixing hip-hop and spoken word with electronica and pop, with some nicely chosen guest appearances
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aya’s album - im hole
Album: Quite unlike any other LP of the last 12 months or longer, this highly experimental work by Huddersfield-raised artist is avant-garde electronica splattered with wittily odd disembodied vocals resulting in psychedelic states of poetic “transient psychosis”
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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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I Will Not … Behave Myself
New album: The Wirral’s Louisa Roach and co return after the acclaimed 2018 LP Revolution of Mind with stirring, feisty, rebellious songs that rally against injustice, celebrate society’s outsiders, filled with seething, articulate anger about everything from food banks to the patriarchy
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Poetic ends: friends Marianne Faithfull with Warren Ellis
Album review: Alongside music by the Australian composer and musician, the iconic singer recites well-known poems from Coleridge, Keats, Wordsmith and more, with addition sounds by friends Nick Cave, Brian Eno and cellist Vincent Ségal
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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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The American Negro by Adrian Younge
Album review: Weighty but vital, the composer’s spoken-word and soulful album of 26 tracks about the history of racism in America is profound, passionate, powerful and current, as well as harking back to the spirit of Gil Scott-Heron and Marvin Gaye
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As Days Get Dark, Arab Strap’s seventh album, and their first for 16 years
Album review: Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton’s first album together since 2005 is as brilliant as ever – a mischievous, brooding, blackly humorous, whisperingly sinister and sweary exploration of love, sex, addiction, exploitation and death wrapped in beautiful, poetic music
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A landscape of words and sounds: We Come From The Sun
Album review: A refreshing and inspirational release of 10 contemporary poets performing their work set to music and field recordings, including MA.Moyo, Lemn Sissay, and Adam Horovitz in collaboration put together by the singer and radio presenter
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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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