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Gia Ford's debut LP, Transparent Things
New album: Heartbreak, murder ballads, an Americana-Laurel Canyon smooth, beautiful pop sound, there’s superbly powerful maturity to this debut by the Sheffield/Cheshire raised alt-pop singer-songwriter simmering with dark, tragic stories
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MJ Lenderman: Manning Fireworks
New album: Engagingly easygoing alt-Americana-country-rock drawl underpinned by darkly humorous, droll lyrics in this excellent fourth LP by the sharp 25-year-old Asheville, North Carolina singer-songwriter in this follow-up to 2022’s Boat Songs
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Yannis & The Yaw: Lagos Paris London
New album: An EP rather than LP, this project by the Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis is still a high five of top-quality Afrobeat, crossover funk and rock rhythms and riffs, drawing from sessions with the late great drummer Tony Allen
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Spirit of the Beehive: You'll Have To Lose Something
New album: Pennsylvania’s and Portugal’s Zack Schwartz, Corey Wichlin, and Rivka Ravede return with another bewildering collection of abstract, feverish dream weirdest deconstructionist experimental rock, with a collection of 12 songs that at times feel more like a hundred
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Los Bitchos: Talkie Talkie
New album: After 2022’s Let The Festivities Begin!, the London-based international female four-piece return with a vibrant second uniquely stylish set of surf, psychedelic and exotic instrumentals that infectiously traverse many genres
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The Bug Club: On the Intricate Inner Workings of the System
New album: A highbrow title heralds mischievously delightful collection of extremely catchy but deliberately silly songs filled with trivial observations in this third indie garage fuzz pop-rock LP by the Welsh trio fronted by Sam Willmett (vocals/guitar) and Tilly Harris (vocals/bass)
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Illuminati Hotties: Power
New album: Filled with thoughtful, tuneful, breezy, and cleverly crafted numbers, this is the third LP of indie pop project of LA producer Sarah Tudzin (known for boygenius and Weyes Blood) and is also co-produced with John Congleton
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Melt-Banana: 3+5
New album: Totally bananas, but enormous fun and oddly brilliant, this pithy, high-pitched and squeakily energised new release by the experimental, eccentric, eclectic Japanese noise rock band is their first over a decade, since 2013’s Fetch
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Malice K: AVANTI
New album: Angsty but beautiful, reminiscent of the whispery, intimate style of the late, great Elliott Smith, but also the occasional punk scream eruption, this darkly mesmeric, candid, introspective indie-folk-grunge-punk LP by New York-based visual artist and songwriter Alex Konschuh is a vivid, ghostly, and deeply emotional
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Fontaines D.C.: Romance
New album: With a new look, the popular Dublin post-punk band return with their fourth LP, one with a much broadened scope of sounds, poetic but also at times cinematic in musical image and in lyric, with big-time producer James Ford at the controls
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Quivers: Oyster Cuts
New album: After 2021’s Golden Doubt, the shared-singing, indie-guitar jangly-pop quartet from Melbourne’s LP is a sensitive but cynical, beautiful but painful finding-love-after-grief LP displaying musical influences such as Galaxie 500 and The Pretenders
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Brigitte Calls Me Baby: The Future Is Our Way Out
New album: Summoning musical echoes and powerful, soaring vocals reminiscent of The Smiths and Vauxhall-era Morrissey and dash of rockabilly, Richard Hawley, Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison, an impressive debut from the Chicago-based rock band fronted by vocalist – the be-quiffed Wes Leavins
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Dark and revealing: Hamish Hawk's A Firmer Hand
New album: The dapper Edinburgh indie-pop troubadour returns with his ready wit, polished lyrics and soaring, strong melodies of finely detailed, candid, revealing reference-rich narrative, but also oozing with darkness, irony, empathy and double-edged melancholy
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King Gizzard’s latest to take off is Flight b741
New album: We’re already into August, but surprisingly it’s only the first LP of the year, (after at least 26th in 12) by the prolific Australian band this time explore a 70s bluesy-country rock and glam style with a inexhaustible live-feel
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Wand: Vertigo
New album: Magic is waved indeed in this experimental psychedelic rock by the now Los Angeles quartet of Cory Hanson, Evan Burrows, Robert Cody and Evan Backer with great ghostly echoes of a British flavour, particularly Radiohead and Verve
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Orville Peck: Stampede
New album: A hugely enjoyable, mischievous, tuneful and genre-spanning LP by the South African-born openly gay but often masked country singer-songwriter, joined by an impressive array of co-performers doing original numbers and covers, including Beck, Elton John, and Willie Nelson
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Alex Izenberg & The Exiles
New album: Esoteric, sweeping, warm-embracing experimental rock and psychedelia by the Los Angeles artist who takes inspiration from the Beatles, philosopher Alan Watts, the storytelling of King Crimson, and the imagery of Fleet Foxes
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Crack Cloud: Red Mile
New album: Sharp, witty satire and parody abound in this third LP by the Canadian indie-garage-rock collective, playing with cliches across pop to rock with a striking set of clever, aggressively tuneful, curveball songs led by frontman and Zach Choy
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Sam Evian: Plunge
New album: A catch-up on a superb fourth rock, pop and psychedelic album released earlier this year by the US artist, the title after regular winter cold-plunges into a nearby creek at his Catskill Mountains home to create fuzzy, warm, live-feel 60s/70s sound of the era George Harrison or Harry Nilsson
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Jack White’s vinyl-only LP - No Name
New album: This surprise, vinyl-only and presumably limited release by the US star, handed out on 19th July as a freebie to customers at his Third Man Records label in Detroit, Nashville and London, is a superbly satisfyingly Led Zeppelin-esque rock release also reminiscent of his original White Stripes band sound
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