Everyday Robots
Damon Albarn
"The album is pointedly autobiographical, as Albarn looks back without anger at his urban/rural childhood, delves into early Blur tour diaries, and brings us for a spin around significant (for him) London landmarks. There's more than bit of ennui thrown in as well. It's a definite Album of the Year contender. We used to laugh when, during the beered-up height of Britpop, Albarn was compared to Ray Davies. We're not laughing now." Read full review here
Post Tropical
James Vincent McMorrow
"If there's a signature feeling on Post Tropical, it's a sense that McMorrow has eased himself into making music that fits him like a microphone sheath. If there's a signature sound on the album, it's the subtle and emphatic flourishes of classic 1960s soul that imbue the songs with a warm glow of familiarity. And if there's a signature instrument, it's McMorrow's falsetto voice, which is used to such good effect that you're sometimes left almost as breathless as the singer." Read full review here
The Gloaming
The Gloaming
"The Gloaming revel in wide open vistas and endless space. It's as if each member has hankered after the company of players, all coming from distinctly different places, their knapsacks brimful of salty ideas, colourful whims and a fearless appetite for mining seams previously unexplored. This is contemporary music making at its very best: unself- conscious, freewheeling and yet deeply thoughtful, revealing layer upon layer with each listening." Read full review here
Jungle
Jungle
"Full of shuffling funk, disco and soul, it's a record of feel-good pop grooves, sunny blasts and serotonin galore, one that demands open windows and hazy summer afternoons. There's also an intriguing darker side to the material, as the band massage the stress of inner-city living and urban ennui into the grooves. You can hear a lot of influences – from Talking Heads to Prince to Happy Mondays – but the proof of the pudding comes in how well this record of future- funk party favourites works so well on repeat." Read full review here
St Vincent
St Vincent
"St Vincent is a beguiling collection by someone with the courage and vision to reach that bit further. And as some indication of the quality on offer here, it's entirely possible that Clarke could also release a stripped-back acoustic version, which would bring a whole new dimension to the songs." Read full review here
Our Love
Caribou
"Snaith's trademark sensitive, soulful voice threads a poignant sense of vulnerability throughout the album. Yet even with the proliferation of emotion and lyrical sensitivity, Snaith never loses sight of what he presumably set out to do: get the masses moving." Read full review here
Hozier
Hozier
"Musically it's taut, and as the thrilling Jackie and Wilson and the mental-good Work Song attest, this is as far from boilerplate soul/blues as Hozier is from almost every other current chart Irish act today. Even the small touches work: that spectral choir emerging from nowhere during Someone New, the eerie hush that envelops the battered folk stylings of Like Real People Do. Debut albums have no right to sound like this." Read full review here
Trouble in Paradise
La Roux
"The new, more confident, practical Elly Jackson is more sure of her vision for La Roux than ever before. Her self-assurance is audible in the zing of songs such as Kiss and Not Tell and Sexotheque, all earworms that nail that magic formula of memorable melodies and lyrical depth. This album is a much truer representation of her personality than the debut was." Read interview here
LP1
FKA Twigs
"There comes a time with any fledging genre when an artist comes along and flips the whole cart over. In the case of the ghostly, eerie, chilly r'n'b in vogue for the past few years, Tahliah Barnett may be the one. LP1 is stylish and substantial. Familiar shapes from r'n'b's past colour Give Up and Pendulum. But then Barnett brings in ideas around melodies and methods from another cosmos on Lights On and Hours, and you really appreciate her singular, thrilling talent." Read full review here
Burn Your Fire For No Witness
Angel Olsen
"This is a stunning record, from the lo-fi crackle of opener Unfucktheworld to the grungy bounce of Forgiven/Forgotten and the insolent, Neko Case-like Americana of Hi-Five. Olsen nails the balance between intensity and playfulness, her malleable voice a particular highlight on the ramshackle jolliness of High & Wild, the crystalline purity of Windows, and quivering standout track Iota . Soft and methodical in parts, abrasively ticklish in others, Burn Your Fire For No Witness is an engrossing record." Read full review here
