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The posthumous Jamie Branch album and the third in the Fly or Die series
New album: A posthumous release for the brilliantly innovative New York Chicago-raised jazz trumpeter with punk ethic or died last year aged just 39, with wonderful experimental sounds following 2017’s Fly Or Die and 2019’s Fly Or Die II – Bird Dogs of Paradise albums
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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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Pain and pleasure: Be Your Own Pet with new LP Mommy
New album: After a 15 year gap, the Nashville punk rockers fronted by the charismatic Jemina Pearl, return with a fresh, frank, punchy set of songs in which, as she puts it: “Mommy is the bitch in charge, the one in control. It’s a reclamation of myself.”
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Rhiannon Giddens: You're The One
New album: The Greensboro-raised singer-songwriter and brilliant banjo player of Carolina Chocolate Drops and Our Native Daughters returns with her first solo album for six years, for the first time mostly originals, continuing her focus on black culture reclamation of catchy, soulful country and Americana
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Shamir: Homo Anxietatem
New album: The prolific singer-songwriter from Las Vegas with the distinctive, high, androgynous voice returns with a ninth LP, different from 2022’s more experimental Hetereosexuality, now returning to more conventional indie rock
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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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The Hives
New album: The wild, sharp-suited Swedish garage rockers fronted by the charismatic Howlin' Pelle Almqvist return after 11 years’ absence with a punchy, catchy fun LP based on the idea of a fictional sixth band member, manager and sole songwriter with songs newly discovered
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Bonnie Prince Billy: Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You
New album: A sublimely beautiful, poetic, delicate and profound new LP by American singer-songwriter Will Oldham, his first since 2019’s I Made a Place and the collaborative albums of 2021 – Superwolves with Matt Sweeney and Blind Date Party with Bill Callahan
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Noname’s second album, Sundial
New album: Super-slick, intelligent, angry but beautiful rap and and soul by the Chicago poet Fatimah Nyeema Warner in this second album after 2018’s debut, Room 25, building on her uncompromising perspectives on Black culture, racism, relationships and celebrity double-standards
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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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Art School Girlfriend: Soft Landing
New album: Absorbing, introspective, sensual, experimental indie-pop and electronica by London’s Polly Mackey, with a sound that evoke acres of wide landscape and sky, melancholy, wistful songs, and her breathy voice not unlike EBTG’s Tracey Thorn
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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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