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Arcade Fire: Pink Elephant
New album: A musically strong seventh studio LP by the acclaimed Montreal band, perhaps in part because it is more sensitive and subdued than the 2022’s full-on We, with lyrics that appear ambiguous, cautious and cathartic in the shadow and aftermath of frontman Win Butler’s sexual misconduct allegations scandal
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Maria Somerville
New album: This wonderfully absorbing, otherworldly second album from the Irish musician from Connemara in Galway, is a fusion awash with slow, gentle, misty shoegaze and folk, and rewards multiple listens with its many sonic textures and atmospheric layers in what feels like expansive celebration of solitude
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Jenny Hval: Iris Silver Mist
New album: Named after a perfume created in 1995 - not merely expressing that of the flower but a milky fog, it also describes a LP of ghostly, fragile, fragrant beauty by the Norwegian musician and novelist work scattered with field recordings and tricks of memory
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Prima Queen: The Prize
New album: A playful, bright, shimmering, witty indie-pop debut LP by the transatlantic duo of Louise Macphail and Kristin McFadden, who, following a series of strong singles and EPs, present a variety of clever, nuanced, vivid songs about all kinds of difficult and dysfunctional relationships and self-deprecatory insecurity
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The Moonlandingz: No Rocket Required
New album: Seven years since their last LP together, and many different projects in the meantime, Fat White Family’s Lias Saoudi and Eccentronic Research Council’s Dean Honer and Adrian Flanagan return with their clever, witty electro-dance satire on a dystopian world, with guests including Iggy Pop, Nadine Shah, Jessica Winter and actor Ewen Bremner
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Self Esteem: A Complicated Woman
New album: Rotherham’s charismatic Rebecca Lucy Taylor returns for a third LP of empowering therapy-themed full-on gospel harmonies and dance music styles with lyrics that are earthily honest, filthy, sweary, humorously emotional, philosophical and entertaining
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Beirut: A Study of Losses
New album: Gentle, ambient, acoustic, meditative, often very beautiful and filled with inventive surprises, this unusual 18-track album by the American experimental band fronted by Zach Condon was commissioned by and comes in conjunction with a tour by idiosyncratic Stockholm-based contemporary circus group Kompani Giraffe
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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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Destroyer: Dan's Boogie
New album: Eccentric, eclectic, frequently flamboyant experimental rock and pop by the the Vancouver multi-instrumentalist Dan Bejar, following 2022’s Labyrinthitis with nine new songs in his inimitable talk-singing style with stream-of-consciousness lyrics and personnas from hustlers to lounge singers
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Bria Salmena: Big Dog
New album: A striking, stylish debut by the Toronto artist, also co-written and co-produced with Duncan Hay Jennings, the frontwoman of Canadian post-punk outfit FRIGS delivers a mix of dark, deep, smoky-voiced pop, crafted krautrock, shimmery shoegaze, and goth-electronica
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Sacred Paws: Jump Into Life
New album: Breezy, buoyant, musically breathless upbeat but also wistful indie with notes of folk, country and highlife, Bhundu Boys-esque guitars and fast-fill drumming by the Glasgow band formed by Ray Aggs and Eilidh Rodgers
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Hannah Cohen: Earthstar Mountain
New album: A warm, simmering, insightfully beautiful, bittersweet, gently paced, folk-country-pop album by the New Yorker Catskills Mountains-based singer-songwriter, made in collaboration with partner Sam Owens (aka Sam Evian) and including guest appearances from Sufjan Stevens and Clairo
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Yukimi: For You
New album: This debut solo album by the seasoned frontwoman of Sweden’s acclaimed electronica/dance group Little Dragon Yukimi Nagano is a classy collection of measured pace, poise and elegance, mixing soul, jazz and pop with guest vocals by Lianne La Havas
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Lucy Dacus: Forever Is A Feeling
New album: The golden-voiced Richmond, Virginia singer-songwriter and one-third of the Boygenius trio is the first to return to her solo work – a subtle, candid, understated, richly lyrical, sensitive LP about her troubled relationship, decorated with fingerpicked acoustic guitar, piano, orchestral strings and harp
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Perfume Genius: Glory
New album: The shapeshifting, enigmatic US singer-songwriter Mike Hadreas returns with his distinctive brand of polished, beautiful chamber pop, with themes of the body and its decay, of domesticity and love, identity, and also features a guest appearance by Aldous Harding
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Hamilton Leithauser: This Side Of The Island
New album: Having experimented with different styles his solo albums The Walkman frontman rekindles passionate, raw intensity and pent-up energy alongside introspection in latest LP in part produced by The National’s Aaron Dessner.
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Brian D'Addario: Till The Morning
New album: A solo album by one half of the Long Island brothers band The Lemon Twigs, here channelling his many 60s and 70s influences, from The Beatles to The Hollies, Beach Boys to Byrds to Dave Clark Five, bringing balladic beauty and melancholy, and old-school vocal harmony pop
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Greentea Peng: Tell Dem It's Sunny
New album: South-east London’s Aria Wells returns her second album after 2021’s Man Made with a stylish, dark, smoky fusion of trip-hop, hip-hop, reggae, neo-soul, R’n’B, and indie rock, with a variety of timbres and themes, but overall one of self-renewal and change
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Japanese Breakfast: For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women)
New album: Rapturously crafted, literary, smart, dream pop by the Philadelphia band fronted by singer-songwriter Michelle Zauner, this fourth LP also has a darker, more melancholic, introverted hue than her previous Jubilee, here inspired by myths, poetry and fiction on thematic cycles of temptation, transgression and retribution
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Courting: Lust For Life …
New album: A lengthy title for a short, snappy, cleverly interwoven eclectic indie-dancefloor-postpunk experimental third LP by the Liverpool band with a theme of duality, a cyclical intro and outro, and each song paired with a balanced counterpart, sharing specific sonic elements.
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