New music
Cheri Amour
Even Alanis would admit that choosing an album of the year from a band channeling the Seventies and who don’t actually exist is pretty ironic. Don’t you think? Originally drummed up by New York Times bestselling author Taylor Jenkins Read, Daisy Jones & The Six in its original book form documented the whirlwind rise and fall of a band whose sound defined an era. When Reese Witherspoon’s production company, Hello Sunshine, announced they’d be creating a documentary-style series adaptation of the novel for Amazon Prime, she admitted real-life rockers Fleetwood Mac would be an Read more ...
Tom Carr
Where 2022 threw a personal surprise Album of the Year with Maggie Roger’s dancey indie-folk blend on Surrender, 2023 was more of a return to business, with a range of my regular listens all popping up with solid-to-supreme listens.From Queens of the Stone Age’s dark-witted return with In Times New Roman, to Enter Shikari and Spiritbox each both surpassing their solid pandemic releases with A Kiss for The Whole World and The Fear of Fear EP respectively – though I had enjoyed the new delights from Mitski and Hozier, in the end it was the familiar faces that carried me through. Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
In the Light of Time - UK Post-Rock and Leftfield Pop 1992-1998 was unexpected. Collecting 17 tracks, it brought a fresh perspective on a particular aspect of the UK’s independent-minded music. This ground-breaking, agenda-setting release was effectively the soundtrack to what has been written about post-rock.The groundswell dug into by In the Light of Time ran in parallel with shoegazing but what was heard – while as much about texture as shoegazing – came from a different perspective as it embraced elements of Krautrock and techno. This was music which impacted on Radiohead and sigur rós. Read more ...
Harry Thorfinn-George
In 2023 Dave and Central Cee had the longest running number one UK rap song ever with "Sprinter", a song about the logistics of being very rich. The real star of the show, however, was the spritely, luxurious instrumental which was partially produced by South Londoner Jim Legxacy, who also released the best album of 2023: HNPM.This is my album of the year because it feels both like a snapshot of the internet’s genre-blending rap scene as well as of modern day Lewisham. Legxacy is fluent in mixing genres in a way that only an internet native could be, for example on the standout track "old Read more ...
Sebastian Scotney
Is it just me, or has the task of getting hold of basic information so that we as writers can tell colourful and reliable stories about music – rather than being dutiful recyclers of marketing blurb – become increasingly difficult in 2023?The five-star review I wrote of Bokante’s History (Real Word, now Grammy-nominated) back in July was a happy exception to that trend. It was based on a lot of listening to the album, which I loved, but also on a cup of tea with the band’s remarkable lead singer/co-composer Malika Tirolien, also a songwriter and producer, in the Verdun district Read more ...
Kathryn Reilly
Just like our current government, I’m terrible at long termism. Fortunately, my inability to know what the future holds doesn’t cost lives as it largely concerns fashion, paint colours and music. Over the decades, there are songs I’ve loved with a huge passion that now totally give the proverbial ick the minute their opening chords strike up. There are others that I’ve thought disappointing on first listen but are now written on my heart. There are others that I’ve played to the point of near extinction that still thrill me each and every time. There seems no logic to the souring or soaring Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
As Britain headed towards the end of 1972, pop fans had fair cause to scratch their heads about a single which first charted in July. In mid-August, Hawkwind’s “Silver Machine” peaked at number three behind Terry Dactyl and the Dinosaurs skiffle-esque “Seaside Shuffle” and, in the top spot, Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out.” Donny Osmond’s oleaginous “Puppy Love” was number four. At 11, David Bowie’s “Starman.”Glam had kicked in the previous year and, until “Starman,” T.Rex were its torchbearers. Hawkwind did not fit in. They were not easy on the ear or eye. They were not heavy metal or Read more ...
peter.quinn
A flawless song list comprising Richard Rodney Bennett originals plus some of his favourite standards, stunning arrangements by conductor Scott Dunn, plus the mellifluous vocals of Claire Martin magically aligned in my Album of the Year, I Watch You Sleep, an extraordinarily beautiful tribute to Bennett marking the tenth anniversary of his death.It was one of several outstanding vocal jazz releases this year. Returning Weather, a new song cycle from the Dublin-born vocalist and composer, Christine Tobin, presented a fascinating exploration of cultural reconnection. The album’s striking sound- Read more ...
Guy Oddy
Back in those halcyon days of 2017, before the pandemic, Marc Almond did a tour of large concert halls, singing songs that had influenced him over the years. Needless to say, there was something of a focus on glam and proto-punk tunes from the likes of Lou Reed and David Bowie – which all seems to have sown the seeds for his latest musical direction.The Loveless are a Garage Rock band which comprise Marc Almond, Sigue Sigue Sputnik’s bequiffed guitarist, Neal X and Iggy Pop’s touring rhythm section of Max Hector and Ben Ellis – with additional help from James Beaumont’s keyboards and a brass Read more ...
Liz Thomson
My CD player died some time ago, that is to say it sticks or skips whatever I do to clean it. Dismantling the fancy stack in which it sits and installing a replacement is a hassle, but even so it would once have been unthinkable that I could survive without a CD player. I still have a deck, and vinyl, and my computer has pretty good speakers. Even so the fact that I’ve not replaced it must say something about my interest, or lack of, in new releases, though exploring on Spotify sometimes throws up something new and exciting. My heart is most readily won by singer-songwriters with a genuine Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
If Mélusine is encountered without knowing its background or themes it would still be remarkable. There is no need to know anything about what frames this journey through Chanson Française, electronica, jazz and show-tune sensibilities with lyrics in English, French, Haitian Kreyòl and Occitan. For all these aspects, Cécile McLorin Salvant’s seventh album is striking enough.Then, there’s the story told by the album: the tale of marriage, motherhood and an ensuing darkness experienced by a particular mélusine – European folklore’s mythical creature that’s half woman and half fish or serpent. Read more ...
mark.kidel
PJ Harvey never fails to deliver – much as I hate that over-used word, the go-to assurance from politicians who promise the earth and dump nothing but shit. With Polly Harvey, she reaches into the unknown, true to her creative impulses, and oblivious to fashion.And yet, an album like I Inside the OId Year Dying is without question a manifestation of the malaise which seems to have plunged humanity into almost impenetrable fog. No escapism here: this isn't a party record. In a career that has gone from blues-inflected exploration of wounds and desires to something more political, she seems to Read more ...