Artist: Nubiyan Twist
Title: Freedom Fables
Label: Strut
What is it? The Leeds / London collective’s most cohesive album to date, flowing through UK and Brazilian jazz, R&B, highlife and UK garage with storytelling at its heart.
L&Q says: “The project’s third album traverses musical and social histories with lightness and dexterity, weaving nine tales of personal memoir into one long call for unity.”
Read Max Pilley’s full review here.
Artist: Lael Neale
Title: Acquainted With Night
Label: Sub Pop
What is it? The sophomore studio album from California-based folk/pop songwriter Neale, in ode to minimalism and changed process.
L&Q says: “The best thing about this album is that Lael Neale makes something as routine as grocery shopping or noticing the details in your beloved’s face into pure poetry.”
Read Isabel Crabtree’s full review here.
Artist: Mogwai
Title: As The Love Continues
Label: Rock Action
What is it? A heavy but intricate tenth studio album from Glasgow’s post-rock royalty.
L&Q says: “It’s Mogwai as you’ve always heard them, but also as you’ve never heard them before. Three decades in, and their evolutionary guitarmageddon still continues to surprise.”
Read Reef Younis’s full review here.
Artist: Pauline Anna Strom
Title: Angel Tears In Sunlight
Label: RVNG Intl
What is it? The first studio album in 30 years – and now a fitting farewell – from the blind-from-birth pioneering synthesist better known as Trans-Millenia Consort.
L&Q says: “Across the album’s nine tracks, she blends her fascination with ritualistic organ, German classical, Krautrock and nature to produce an album that feels as cosmic as it does tropical, flowing readily like a leaking ethereal tap.”
Read Robert Davidson’s full review here.
Artist: Claud
Title: Super Monster
Label: Saddest Factory
What is it? The first release on Phoebe Bridgers’ new imprint that mines sad pop gems about gender, identity and (a lot of) relationships.
L&Q says: “At just 21, Claud’s ability to distill the emotional tumult of young adulthood into song is reminiscent of Lorde, Frankie Cosmos, or Bridgers herself – albeit in a much more upbeat format.
Read Jessica Wrigglesworth’s full review here.
Artist: Virginia Wing
Title: private LIFE
Label: Fire
What is it? A therapeutic exploration of personal, mental and emotional trauma in the form of another near faultless pop record from Manchester’s finest sonic journeyers.
L&Q says: “Aside from its tighter presentation of Virginia Wing’s existing sound, private LIFE benefits from a doubled-down dedication to the specific wild abandon only pop can offer.”
Read Dafydd Jenkins’s full review here.
Artist: Black Country, New Road
Title: For The First Time
Label: Ninja Tune
What is it? The much-anticipated debut album from the Cambridge / London experimental rock seven-piece; expectations were high for this one, and it doesn’t disappoint.
L&Q says: “Forget the best band in the world. This feels like everything a rock band can do.”
Read Dafydd Jenkins’s full review here.
Artist: Django Django
Title: Glowing In The Dark
Label: Because
What is it? The fourth album from dancefloor-focused art rockers Django Django, drawing heavily on their addictive live sets.
L&Q says: “Multifaceted and polyhedral, the sound of the thirteen tracks is cohesive and coherent, blending together some of the most interesting genres of the last six decades.”
Read Guia Cortassa’s full review here.