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Angel Olsen and various: Cosmic Waves Volume 1
New album: A novel form of “compilation reimagined as a dialogue” LP by the acclaimed, serene-voiced American singer-songwriter, showcasing five different lesser-known artists on Side A, and then covering other songs by them on Side B
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Tristan Perich and Ensemble 0: Open Symmetry
Album review: Released on the wonderfully innovative, independent London label Erased Tapes, the New York-based composer joins with the French group on a mesmeric, 50-minute work of seven instrumental tracks for three vibraphones and 1-bit electronics
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Native Harrow: Divided Kind
Album review: Released in September, classy, meticulously crafted, intelligent, warm Americana mix of folk, rock, pop and country by the Philadelphia duo of vocalist Devin Tuel and multi-instrumentalist Stephen Harms in this sixth LP
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Clarissa Connelly: World of Work
Album review: Originally released in April, this beautiful, sensual, mysterious, mystical alt-folk release by the Scotland-born, Denmark-raised and Copenhagen-based composer and singer is filled with long, rapturous notes, piano, strings, church bells, and themes of solitude and death, and evocative of sparse Scandinavian landscapes
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Doechii: Alligator Bites Never Heal
Mixtape review: Originally released in August, and more recently as a sample-rich, funk-jazz-sourced Flipout label edit version, this third Mixtape by the American rapper Jaylah Ji'mya Hickmon is fabulously feisty, filthy and packed with clever, witty wordplay
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White Denim: 12
New album: Austin, Texas’s brilliantly inventive proggy experimentalists James Petralli and co return with an appropriately named 12th LP, one which, created in the lockdown restrictions of 2020-21, needed a different, more DIY approach, but weaves a fabulous mix of rootsy swing, jazz and influences from Scritti Politti to Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Nick Lowe to Jonathan Richman.
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Lauren Mayberry: Vicious Creature
New album: The debut solo LP by the Glasgwegian LA-based Chvrches lead vocalist is strong, shimmering mainstream pop, and feels very much like nod to mainstream pop heroines of her teenage years, particularly All Saints and Avril Lavigne
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Aisha Badru: The Sun Still Rises
New album: Simple, soothing, gently philosophical but also emotional songs come with the breathy, tender voice of the New York singer-songwriter in this second album of lovely acoustic folk-pop, following 2018’s Pendulum, as well as several EPs
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Juanita Stein: The Weightless Hour
New album: This fourth solo album the the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of Australian indie band Howling Bells deals with heavy subjects with a light touch, a sparseness of style, and emotional potency
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Papa M: Ballads of Harry Houdini
New album: The alt-rock LA-based musician from Louisville, Kentucky, aka David Pajo, returns with six long-ish numbers, not necessarily themed around the famous escape artist, but packed with ear-catching, meaty, thrumming, sometimes looped, and always dynamic guitar work and rhythmic experimentation
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Kendrick Lamar: GNX
New album: Braggadocio, flamboyant personas and diss rap is nothing new in hip hop, but the genre’s current chief innovator and Pulitzer Prize winner presents an artfully inventive form filled with eye-poppingly agile, madcap, mischievous wordsmithery, in this surprise new release filled with playful stylistic switches and some surprise targets
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Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens: American Railroad
New album: The latest in the Nashville singer’s projects with an international collective of musicians interprets traditional creates new folk songs, themed the tough history of the US rail frontier that was mostly built by Irish, African American, Chinese and Japanese immigrants
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Poppy Ajudha: Poppy
New album: The south London singer-songwriter’s sophomore LP takes different direction to her 2022’s more social and political issue-based debut The Power In Us, with a more mainstream route of stylish, smart, soaring pop, soul and R&B centred on fraught, divided, candid emotions
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Jack Cheshire: Interloper
New album: Following 2020’s acclaimed Fractal Future Plays, the British experimental musician returns with his sixth LP, an excellent exploration across pastoral psychedelia, lysergic polyrhythms and beautiful field recordings on tricky themes of belonging in age of post-Brexit and gentrification
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Kim Deal: Nobody Loves You More
New album: After various singles over the years, the former Pixies member, and Breeders musician finally releases her first full solo album, a truly fabulous execution of superb songwriting, sharp, heartbreak lyrics, diverse musical styles and instruments across indie, rock and pop, all performed with beautiful tenderness, grit and gusto
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Michael Kiwanuka: Small Changes
New album: A fourth album by the Mercury prize-winner, another gorgeously crafted and performed set of songs drawing on 70s soul and slowly simmering psychedelic rock, and the third produced by Danger Mouse and Inflo
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Father John Misty: Mahashmashana
New album: The king of killer opening lines Josh Tillman returns with another majestic, beautifully melodic, grandiose, playfully clever, darkly humorous and philosophical set of eight epic songs fuelled by a sense of mortality and enduring irony
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Fazerdaze: Soft Power
New album: This sophomore album by New Zealand singer-songwriter Amelia Rahayu Murray is dreamy, soft-sheen, shoegazey “bedroom stadium” electro-pop and indie on themes of womanhood, devotion and compassion
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She Drew The Gun: Howl
New album: Powerful, passionate highly accomplished fourth indie-rock album by singer/songwriter Louisa Roach and band from Wirral in Merseyside, one broadening her musical scope and perspective, not just socio-political and soul-searching personal, but also spanning eons, fuelled by some personal heartbreak
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Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp: Ventre Unique
New album: Wonderfully energetic, rhythmic stylish, inventive and witty sixth album by the 12-piece experimental Geneva collective who sing politically in French and English, their music decorated with oodles of of clever brass, violins, double-bass, marimbas, percussion and more
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