(Merge) Sobriety can smooth any artist’s fuzzy edges. Named after the Alabama creek that runs behind her childhood home, Katie Crutchfield, AKA Waxahatchee, ditched alcohol for good before making her fifth album, Saint Cloud , which sees...
(Independent release) This year’s Brit awards may have been criticised for its wobbly commitment to diversity, failing to promote enough female talent. But one nomination was on point when south London newcomers D-Block Europe became the...
(Domino) Part of the London scene loosely headquartered at Brixton’s Windmill pub (from Fat White Family to Goat Girl and beyond), Sorry have undergone a radical upgrade in the two years since they started turning heads. Once a scratchy,...
(Impulse) Fronting three different groups may seem like hubris, but the energy and vision of London-based saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings is not easily contained. This second album from his alliance with assorted South African musicians is...
( SKCM29 ) Two grime veterans and the drawling D-Block Europe member team up to create a slow-paced record that feels calibrated for the cultural moment This surprise album from three leading UK MCs is a perfectly timed gift. Mercury...
(Merge Records) With tracks that nestle in heartache and bask in hard-won wisdom, this is an artefact of American song that measures up to Dylan at his peak According to the title of her previous album, Alabama songwriter Katie...
(Bargain Bin) The Queensland rockers prove that it takes a lot of musical skill to sound so gleefully stupid in this witty debut After some colourful YouTube videos that went viral and two acclaimed EPs, Dave Grohl/Iggy Pop-favoured...
(Warner Music) Britain’s biggest female star tightens her grip on the crown with a viscerally brilliant second album Dua Lipa could have taken an easy path to sustaining her status as Britain’s most successful female pop star on album...
(Smithsonian Folkways) The two musicians seamlessly merge folk traditions from China and the US, on an album deserving mainstream recognition At extraordinary times like these, we realise that the world is smaller than we think. We’re...
Barbara Hannigan/Ludwig Orchestra (Alpha) Hannigan conducts and sings Gérard Grisey’s final prescient work with style, conceiving it as a triptych with works by Haydn and Luigi Nono Finding contemporary works to programme alongside...
(Republic Records) Fans wanting soaring choruses won’t be disappointed. But the fixation on an uneasy future gives the veteran band currency It is 29 years since the release of Pearl Jam ’s 16m-selling debut album Ten. On one level: of...
The actor, comedian and musician Donald Glover has made the first truly outstanding album of the decade, offsetting cultural examinations with moments of sweet levity In hindsight, music has always been Donald Glover ’s true calling....
(Universal Music Latino) Since Colombian reggaeton sensation J Balvin’s global breakthrough with 2017 banger Mi Gente , his stock has risen thanks in part to a slew of well-chosen collaborations that have ridden the wave of streaming...
(XL) Following the release of her precocious debut album, 2016’s Long Way Home, bedroom auteur Holly Låpsley Fletcher took time away from music to take stock, to do voluntary work with teenagers, to train to be a doula and to...
The Observer’s critics recommend the best new arts shows to enjoy on TV, on the radio and online Vivarium A wicked twist on haunted-house horror from Irish director Lorcan Finnegan sees Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg stranded in an...
(Deutsche Grammophon) The Eno brothers have collaborated before, most recently on 2019’s revamp of the celebrated 1983 Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks documentary score (credited to Brian). Mixing Colours , the Enos’ duo debut, is...
(Dare2) In jazz, there are pianists with bass and drums accompaniment and there are piano trios. They look the same on stage, but there is a world of difference between the two and it boils down to rapport. Pianist Kenny Barron , bassist...
(FMLY/Island Records) The Colombian-Canadian singer-songwriter delivers a deliciously dark debut As the pop landscape becomes progressively bolder and more crowded, it becomes more difficult for any new artist to make an impact. The...
Two new piano recordings, by Duo Pleyel and Shai Wosner, provide complementary consolation on period and modern instruments • “There’s no love song finer/ But how strange the change/ From major to minor”, as Cole Porter observed in his...
(XO Records/Republic Records/Island Records) Abel Tesfaye is starting to show remorse for his failed relationships – but only a little bit – on this wonderfully varied yet cohesive record When Abel Tesfaye first emerged nine years ago as...