New Avatar marks a full-circle moment for Kelela, who started out playing in rock bands as part of Washington, D.C.’s indie scene before she began working with electronic producers and making more club-based music. The album’s stunning opener, “Idea 1,” layers ethereal, shoegaze-like guitars with existentialist lyrics inspired by Octavia Butler’s dystopian classic Parable of the Sower. Both a return to the singer’s roots and an exciting new direction, it begins a lush, emotionally gripping record which fuses multiple styles she’s explored throughout her career.
“Point Blank” is one of the album’s more club-influenced moments, with slowed-down jungle breakbeats underpinning frank lyrics about a dysfunctional, dangerous relationship.
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Ellen Allien‘s first album in six years, New Life is meant as a statement of protest. With song titles like “Be Your Own Leader” and “Riot,” the release encourages taking control, overthrowing oppressive forces, and building a positive future. It’s also about dancing, and staying true to club culture, preserving clubs as spaces for liberation and community. Most of the album’s ten tracks are hardly anthemic, however. “Cruising” sets the tone for the record’s first half, creating the atmosphere for a midnight city drive, with stark, pumping kick drums flecked with shreds of melody. “Lights Off” and “Wonderful Moment” are designed for deep club immersion, with eerie voices occasionally surfacing while the bass pounds relentlessly. The album escapes the feeling of…
Before delivering their first album, South London-based Ebbb made waves with their live sets and a debut EP that merged seemingly divergent sounds such as rich, ’60s-inspired vocal harmonies, arty synth pop, and diverse, kinetic rhythms, many inspired by the underground club scene. Still evolving with their debut LP, Shallow Hits finds the trio — German producer/instrumentalist Lev Ceylan, Scottish drummer Scott McDonald, and English trained tenor Will Rowland — evoking the wistful, crystalline harmonies of the Beach Boys and the unpredictable electronic-organic textures and song structures of experimental pop groups like Animal Collective and Young Dreams alongside a wide range of mathy, pop, and U.K. jungle-informed rhythms.
Holy Wave‘s evolution from laid back neo-psychedelic reverb freaks to a more experimental group who folding shoegaze and dream pop into their sound began on 2020’s Interloper, took flight on 2023’s Five of Cups, and comes as close to perfect as possible on 2026’s enthralling i’m DADA. Working with longtime engineer Joo Joo Ashworth and the duo behind Lorelle Meets the obsolete (Lorena Quintanilla and Alberto González) in the latter’s Mexican studio, the band have left behind almost all their garage rock influences, instead trafficking in heavily overloaded shoegaze, billowing dream pop, echoing dub reggae, and deconstructed indie rock, while also taking a swing at their own take on the charmingly retro futuristic pop Stereolab invented back in…
The Temper Trap conjure an elemental love on their fourth studio album, the shimmeringly moody Sungazer. The follow-up to 2016’s Thick as Thieves, the album is the Australian band’s first LP of new material since going on hiatus in 2018. It also arrives on the heels of singer Dougy Mandagi’s own solo project, the Blood Moon EP, which found him recording in Berlin and exploring a more electronic sound. Also during his time away from the band, he deepened his Indonesian roots, settling in Bali with his family. All of this experience informs Sungazer which finds Mandagi and his bandmates reinvigorated, leaping with abandon into the soaring falsetto and guitar-based balladry that made 2009’s Conditions and their 2012 eponymous album so compelling.
Romance is a funny old game. One minute, you’ll be in the trenches of heartbreak, swearing off love forever. The next, you’re down bad for someone new and do a full 180 into living in a swoony movie in your head.
Suki Waterhouse’s third album, Loveland, captures some of the feelings of that latter experience, mining her relationships and infatuations past and present to build a world you’ll want to immerse yourself in whether you’re coupled up, on the hunt or convinced you’re destined to be alone.
“Picture this, it’s innocent / ‘Cause I haven’t even held your hand yet / Do you know that you’ve been coming up in my dreams?” she asks over the Strokes-y guitars of ‘Almost’, diving into a fantasy that plays out in her head alone.
Baby Rose‘s easy evasion of being classified as simply an R&B throwback continued after the release of her second album, Through and Through. Slow Burn, the distinctive contralto’s subsequent EP with BadBadNotGood, contained a stellar folk-soul collaboration with Mereba. Covers of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” and the Velvet Underground and Nico’s “I’ll Be Your Mirror” — the latter of which was recorded for Materialists, in which Rose made her film debut as a wedding singer — further demonstrated a natural flexibility. While Yearnalism is another tradition-rooted R&B record more than anything else, it sees Rose subtly expanding her sound in a way that makes her even more suited for adult album alternative radio than urban contemporary stations.
Few archival releases manage to function simultaneously as historical document, artistic statement, and visceral listening experience, yet Xmal Deutschland’s The Complete BBC Peel Sessions achieves precisely that. Recorded between 1982 and 1985 at the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios under the auspices of John Peel’s famously adventurous programming, these sixteen tracks form a portrait not simply of change, but of concentration and refinement. What emerges is a band in motion, shaping and reshaping its internal logic with each successive session, guided by the commanding presence of Anja Huwe and the evolving interplay between Manuela Rickers, Rita Simon, Fiona Sangster, Manuela Zwingmann, Wolfgang Ellerbrock, and Carlo Karges.
Sartre said that hell is other people, but hell is actually being stuck in the company of someone of a certain age banging on about the TV they used to watch as a kid. Thankfully, Luke Haines has previous where it comes to reanimating what could potentially be seen as nostalgia fodder, always bringing an intelligent twist, as 2011’s 9 1/2 Psychedelic Meditations on British Wrestling of the 1970s & Early ‘80s attests. Fifteen years after that cult classic, we’re back predominantly in the 1970s, a fertile period for the Haines’ imagination where the Baader Meinhof gang are still bringing some much needed glamour to domestic terrorism (Haines also recorded the 2014 concept album New York in the ‘70s featuring songs about Alan Vega and Lou Reed, among others).
Girl Trouble are a garage-punk band from Tacoma, Washington, who have been powering out guitar-based coolness since 1983, and if history teaches us anything, it’s that bands who have been around that long either get tired and run out of ideas or they find a good groove that they can ride almost infinitely. Girl Trouble fall into the latter category, and they continue to find joy in three chords, a cheap guitar run through a cranked-up amp, and a stomped-out 4/4 rhythm.
2026’s As Is is the first studio album from Girl Trouble since 2005’s The Illusion of Excitement, and if a two-decade-plus recording layoff might suggest they’ve gotten a bit rusty, a couple spins of the album confirm that’s hardly the case. Kurt P. Kendall’s big, beefy vocals, Kahuna’s…
For over three decades, Norwegian trumpeter and composer Nils Petter Molvaer has stood as one of the most influential figures in European jazz. On Be Quiet, he continues to push the boundaries of his already remarkable body of work, collaborating with a different artist in a different location on each of the nine tracks.
Molvær is no stranger to bold concepts. Since first attracting attention through his work with Arild Andersen in Masqualero, his brand of Nordic restraint has carried him across musical boundaries, gaining acclaim in electronica, club music and jazz improvisation. His landmark album Khmer (1997) set his distinctive trumpet alongside beats and electronic walls of sound to open up the way for genre-fluid instrumental…
It’s hard to believe that In the Hour of Chaos is only singer-songwriter Allison Russell’s third solo album, given her extensive list of awards and prominent appearances at major festivals like Newport Folk, AmericanaFest, and Glastonbury. However, this album is far from a solo endeavor; Russell has brought together a remarkable group of 28 contributors, making it feel as much like a Broadway musical as it does an album. This collaboration aligns perfectly with her recent role as Persephone in the Broadway production of Hadestown. From her breakthrough album *The Returner* in 2024, we know that Russell is dedicated to collective healing, and she expands on that theme in this new work.
Produced by Russell and Drew Lindsay…
…features new cuts ‘Emotionally Unavailable’ and ‘Medication’, as well as rarities ‘Dirty Looks’, ‘Sharpening Knives’ and ‘Overload’. The deluxe release is rounded out by a collection of demos and early mixes of tracks from the original album.
The story of Suede has never been one of steady linear progression, but even so, 2022’s Autofiction sent their needles zigzagging all over the charts, a tectonic reboot that shifted the direction of their already impressive comeback era.
Antidepressants plugs into similar post-punk energies – Killing Joke, The Chameleons, The Cure – but as the PiL-like title track’s untethered jolt and jeer shows, Suede’s emotional safety catches and musical circuit breakers are very much off.
Through a background chatter of mechanised…
Released in 1986, Seventh Star was the twelfth studio album recorded by Black Sabbath for Warner. The first of three collaborations between guitarist and Black Sabbath founder member, Tony Iommi and former Deep Purple and Trapeze vocalist Glenn Hughes, the album featured the MTV and radio hit “No Stranger To Love.” Pressed on black vinyl, and also available on CD, this newly remastered edition now includes the single remix version of “No Stranger To Love.”
An often misunderstood and underrated album, 1986’s Seventh Star was never intended to be a Black Sabbath release, as the band had effectively broken up following its disastrous 1984 tour in support of career low point Born Again. Instead, Seventh Star was conceived…
Scritti Politti’s modern masterpiece Cupid & Psyche 85 is to be celebrated with a new edition that brings a much-prized version of the record together & a host of handpicked cuts from the group’s archive.
Released on July, the Deluxe Edition feature a remastered version the original album, plus a series of extra tracks and remixes. For the first time ever, the 13-track version of the album which was created for the then brand new CD format on the record’s release in June 1985, will pressed on vinyl. Overseen by Green Gartside, this running order has been remastered by Chris Athens, who has also worked with the likes of Drake and Beastie Boys. In addition, three extra tracks have been selected from the Scritti Politti archive…
Inventor of the “infinite guitar,” Canadian musician Michael Brook’s 1992 4AD record Cobalt Blue is a timeless and quietly stunning collection of instrumental pieces and shimmering dreamscapes, featuring contributions from ambient music pioneer Brian Eno, composer & multi-instrumentalist Roger Eno, and Grammy-winning producer Daniel Lanois.
Recorded later that year, Live at the Aquarium captures Brook’s rare solo performance in London, highlighting the hypnotic sustain and atmosphere that define his work. Beyond his albums, Brook has scored acclaimed films including Into the Wild, Brooklyn, and An Inconvenient Truth.
Newly remastered by Rashad Becker and presented as a 2XCD and crystal clear 2LP with artwork by Alison Fielding based…
Thin Lizzy’s debut album is their latest to be remixed and expanded – featuring remixes, single-only and EP material, rare and unissued radio sessions and 11 unreleased outtakes.
…Coming for the 55th anniversary of the Irish band’s first album, the Thin Lizzy box follows similarly expansive sets featuring remixed and rarities-packed versions of the albums Nightlife and Fighting (released last year in the 7CD collection 74-75) as well as Jailbreak and Johnny the Fox (chronicled in the 5CD/Blu-ray anthology 1976 back in 2024). As with those sets, engineer Richard Whittaker has remixed the full album as well as subsequent EP New Day from the original tapes; the new album mix will be available in stereo alongside the original mix. Two BBC…
In 2016, with the blessing of David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti, Xiu Xiu released and toured the surprisingly successful album and concert, Plays the Music of Twin Peaks. Out of respect and deference to the beloved series, the band decided to put the concert to rest in 2018. After the recent and untimely passing of David Lynch, Xiu Xiu began to receive several high-profile requests to revive their interpretation of this iconic music. However, in wanting to always try to follow, honor, and continue to be inspired by the incredibly high bar of artistic challenge set by David Lynch, Xiu Xiu is instead going deeper.
Eraserhead Xiu Xiu is a new live concert with accompanying film & full-length album that uses field recordings, concert specific homemade…
When you’ve come back as successfully as the Stones did with Hackney Diamonds, what exactly do you do for an encore? Its renewed urgency, communal goodwill and, more importantly, the strongest Stones music in years made it a hard act to follow. The temptation to deliver a straight- forward sequel must have been strong. Indeed, there are superficial links with Foreign Tongues: returning producer Andrew Watt and a clutch of songs begun during those 2023 sessions. But while Hackney Diamonds was about return and resurgence, its successor offers something more nuanced. Above all, the Stones’ 25th studio album carries an unforced pleasure in playing together – striking in a band that might easily have grown weary of both the music and each other.
…includes remixes from horsegiirL, The Dare and FDC DJs (aka Carlos O’Connell and Tom Coll of Fontaines D.C.); three songs previously unreleased on streaming comprising “hi from me” which was originally only available on the Japanese CD, a demo of “don’t speak” recorded by Hester at her home studio and “u and me at home intro/outro”.
From The Rolling Stones to Robert Palmer, love as a medical emergency is a perennial theme for songwriters. Well, sound the alarm and send out the paramedics once again, because Wet Leg are in love. It’s all over their second album, but explicitly ringing out as a klaxon call on current single “CPR”. “Hello 999, what’s your emergency?” asks Rhian Teasdale with call handler calm before making her orgasmic self-diagnosis:…