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Olivia Rodrigo’s got GUTS
New album: Following the extraordinary success of her 2021 debut album, Sour, this follow-up contains all the formulas for more, from passionate pop to heartbreak piano ballad, and Billie Eilish-style vocal intimacy, but now with a harder, dealing-with-fame edge
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CLT DRP: Nothing Clever, Just Feelings
New album: Brilliantly original and fresh post- and dance-punk and electro-pop by the Brighton band with songs about heartbreak and queerness, feminism, vulnerability and gender fluidity, packed with unique sounds, passion and humour
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The Chemical Brothers: For That Beautiful Feeling
New album: Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons return with their 10th LP in nearly three decades, one with that brings together sci-fi-themed, almost psychedelic apocalypse and upbeat, laser-light dance floor bangers
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Róisín Murphy’s sixth album, Hit Parade
New album: Recent controversies aside, the Irish singer-songwriter’s collaboration with German producer DJ Koze is a mesmerically inventive, intimate, candid exploration of funk, pop, disco and house, skilfully pushed through an wonderfully warped aural lens of vocal effects and sounds
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Pale Blue Eyes: This House is a wistful look back at happy childhood with parents now passed on
New album: After last year’s promising debut, Souvenirs, the Devon trio return with an uplifting fusion of electro-pop and krautrock, one that deals with parental loss, but with a fondness, stylistically with some echoes of Django Django and some 80s sounds reminiscent of New Order and The Cure
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eee gee: SHE-REX
New album: Packed with smart, witty lyrics and an eclectic mix of dreamy pop, disco, folk and electronica, a wonderful new melodious LP by the smooth-voiced Danish artist Emma Grankvist from Copenhagen
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Birdy: Portraits
New album: Luxuriant, grandiose yet also melancholy high-quality synth-pop by the English artist Jasmine van den Bogaerde (and great-niece of Dirk Bogarde) from Lymington, Hampshire, in a fifth LP that particularly evokes mid-80s Kate Bush and some current Caroline Polachek
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Willie J Healey: Bunny
New album: With echoes of Shuggie Otis, 1970s George Harrison, and heaps of Sly Stone-style chilled, squelchy funk, the British singer-songwriter third album is smooth helping of soulful pop with a delicious, laid-back summer vibe
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Genesis Owusu
New album: A stylish, punchy, truly eclectic release by the Ghanaian-Australian singer from Canberra, (real name Kofi Owusu-Ansah) with a potent mash of hip-hop, punk, funk, metal, soul and electro-pop, and a running lyrical metaphor of cockroaches
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Iraina Mancini: Undo The Blue
New album: After a series of strong singles, a sumptuous, brilliantly luxuriant debut by the London singer, DJ and model, inspired by 60s and 70s styles, particularly Françoise Hardy, French pop, psychedelia, soul, yé-yé girls and vintage cinema
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Margaret Glaspy: Echo The Diamond
New album: Classy, emotive, mature songwriting with a stripped back, indie-rock guitar sound by the New York-based artist, and her third LP, self-produced with her partner, the guitarist/composer Julian Lage
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Laura Groves: Radio Red
New album: Soaring, delicately innovative, beautiful piano-based soft-sheen pop and electronica by the London artist in her debut under her own name, with some flavours of 70s Karen Carpenter and a dash of early Kate Bush, and themed around types of communication
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Jungle’s fourth LP, Volcano
New album: Entertaining, sample-heavy fun by the London-based duo of Tom McFarland and Joshua Lloyd-Watson in their fourth album, with a polished product mixing soul, gospel, 70s funk breakbeats, electronica, dance, and disco with a shiny, radio-friendly formula
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Skindred: Smile
New album: Prize for the most eclectic, eccentric and enthusiast record of the week goes to the Welsh band with their eighth LP, a heady mix of thunderous metal with summery, upbeat, simmering BBQs of reggae, ska, dancehall and pop
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Girl Ray: Prestige
New album: The London trio of Poppy Hankin, Iris McConnell and Sophie Moss return with a change of style, from their more melancholy indie to beautifully bright, effervescent but thoughtful disco-pop inspired by the New York queer disco scene of the late 70s and early 80s
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Outstanding debut: Bianca James
Debut album: With strong echoes of Amy Winehouse, Duffy, 60s London pop, Motown, and even dash of Girls Aloud, the Toronto singer’s classy retro soul-pop debut feels like an outstanding, striking, timeless release
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Bethany Cosentino - Natural Disaster
New album: Candid, catchy, straight-up 90s-style pop-rock with a dash of Nashville and Americana and piano ballads in this debut LP by one half of LA’s Best Coast duo in an album that combines climate change metaphor with personal experience
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Georgia: Euphoric
New album: Quality mainstream pop in this third album the London singer, electronica producer and drummer Georgia Barnes this her third dancefloor-focused album, this time co-produced in LA by ex-Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij
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Dexys: The Feminine Divine
New album: Baffling, brilliant, beguiling and a bit embarrassing all at once, Kevin Rowland and make a surprise return and first LP in seven years, filled with an odd mix of catchy pop, great vocals, but also oddball, proto-feminist, self-analytical lyrics musing on Kevin’s adoration of women
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The Clientele: I Am Not There Anymore
New album: More than three decades in, and after a six-year gap, the London now trio return with a fabulously eclectic, esoteric ninth 19-track LP mixing psychedelia, Eastern classical music, poetic, jangly, jaunty indie pop, and more
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