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Hayley Williams
Not an album but … Not actually released as an LP conventionally, but as a crop of individual solo tracks accessible via her website, the Paramore American singer’s mass drop singles, if coming in no particular order, still constitutes a coherent, collection of classy, clever indie-pop numbers
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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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Lord Huron: The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1
New album: Wistful, vivid country-folk and Americana by the Los Angeles band fronted by Ben Schneider in this strong fifth LP, coloured by images of huge skies and stars, California deserts, love, loss, with catchy tunes, tender anguish, haunting melodies and memories
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Yoshika Colwell: On The Wing
New album: Musically gentle and reflective, this is beautiful acoustic folk-pop by the singer-songwriter from Kent in a debut that’s both candid and dream-like, fuelled by a sense of complete dislocation from a move to a new town, lockdown, solitude and a traumatic break-up
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Folk Bitch Trio: Now Would Be A Good Thing
New album: Sweetly beautiful three-part harmonies underpin darkly ironic humour and deliciously unfolding, oddly disturbing lyrics in this entertaining debut by the Melbourne former high school friends Heide Peverelle ((they/them), Jeanie Pilkington and Gracie Sinclair
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Fever Ray: The Year of The Radical Romantics
New album: Disturbing, striking and brilliant, this is a mix of old kindled magically into new from the innovative Swedish artist Karin Dreijer, with live-to-tape studio highlights from her acclaimed third album, 2023’s Radical Romantics, plus new iterations from 2017’s Plunge and early classics, performed with her tour musicians
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Madeline Kenney: Kiss From The Balcony
New album: In this follow-up to 2023’s excellent A New Reality Mind, the Oakland indie artist brings expansive, experimental electronic dynamism and particularly rich texture to her music, working with friends Ben Sloan and Stephen Patota, and exploring themes of broken relationships, solitude, idealised romance, resentment, and womanhood
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Billie Marten: Dog Eared
New album: Beautiful, warm, intimate, gentle, experimental indie-folk by the singer-songwriter Isabella Tweddle from Ripon in North Yorkshire, in this delicious fifth LP, filled with love songs and nostalgic childhood memories, and following 2023’s Drop Cherries, an expansion of excellent musicians in the recording
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Gina Birch’s second solo album, Trouble
New album: The veteran Raincoats co-founder, bass player, songwriter, film-maker and feminist artist’s second solo album is a passionate, political and personal release, outspoken, but also eccentric and eclectically introspective, mixing post-punk, dub, pop and experimental rock
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Panic Shack
New album: A refreshing, fast, witty, perky, cheeky, and raw post-punk debut by the band from Cardiff, packed with energy, humour, filth and feisty fun, covering subjects from body shaming to partying, dodgy men, and a joyous celebration of good nights out and friendship
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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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Emily Breeze: Rats In Paradise
New album: Following 2023’s excellent Rapture LP, Bristol’s wild and witty indie-noir-pop-rock star returns with her special brand of acid-tongued, savagely funny, powerful and poignantly catchy numbers, with a title inspired by a song by The Birthday Party, mixing glitz and the gutter
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Jessica Winter: My First Album
New album: After a series of acclaimed singles, EPs and collaborations, the south London sweetly high-voiced singer-songwriter’s debut LP is fabulously sparkling, humorous, witty indie-dance-pop, packed with classy, clever tunes, touching moments of reflection, self-love and personal acceptance
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Gwenno: Utopia
New album: After three LPs looking back at her childhood upbringing, now 44, the Welsh singer-songwriter Gwenno Saunders’ polished, candid experimental fourth pop album recalls a period of young adulthood, from dancer in Las Vegas to a pub cleaner and also singer in The Pipettes in London, having adventures, experimenting and struggling with self-determination
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Africa Express Presents ... Bahidorà
New album: The collective that brought Blur’s Damon Albarn together with Malian musicians 20 years ago now assembles artists from four continents, though particularly plants the roots of this superb 21-track double album in Mexico, with a feast of numbers spanning cumbia, hip-hop, kuduro, soul, salsa, pop, reggaeton and more
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Wet Leg’s Moisturizer, with guitarist Hester Chambers (left) and singer Rhian Teasdale
New album: The award-winning Isle of Wight indie-pop band’s second album retains all of their mischievous, quirky charm, but also an evolved muscular, punchier, dirtier guitar sound in a collection of clever love songs and kick-ass kiss-offs
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The Reds, Pinks and Purples: The Past Is a Garden I Never Fed
New album: The San Francisco indie-dream-pop-shoegaze band fronted by Glenn Donaldson release a new LP of jangling guitar and beautifully wistful songs, centred around small talk and everyday water cooler moments with an mischievous but heartfelt delivery and a finely tuned sense of pathos and irony
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Half Man Half Biscuit: All Asimov And No Fresh Air
Song of the Day: The prolific indie legends of Birkenhead fronted by the rapier wit of singer-songwriter Nigel Blackwell return with their 16th LP in four gloriously ironic decades, following 2022’s The Voltarol Years
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Lorde: Virgin
New album: The mega-selling New Zealand pop singer-songwriter returns with her fourth LP, one that, unlike 2021’s Solar Power, harks back more to the teen partying themes 2017’s Melodrama, but dealt with from a late-20s angle of different angst, added promiscuity, pills and uncertainty
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BC Camplight: A Sober Conversation
New album: Witty, inventive, droll, painfully dark, self-deprecatory humour, killer lines, and timeless piano-based pop, almost showtune melodies? It can only be the latest set of classic songs by the Manchester-based American singer-songwriter Brian Christinzio, who confronts his repressed past, depression and more with his eccentric, eclectic panache
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