Dave Simpson
Imaginative interpretations of Funkadelic and Frank Ocean sit alongside starry collaborations and gorgeous instrumentals on the bassist’s brassy side project.
2mo
The duo’s 13th album finds Jason Williamson as baffled and infuriated as ever at the state of the world, with help from some unexpected collaborators.
4mo
With shades of Jeff and Tim Buckley, the Galway-born artist writes tunes so strong they seem as familiar as old friends.
6mo
The latest themed album from John Darnielle’s band – with some help from Lin-Manuel Miranda – takes them on a sumptuously crafted and surprisingly upbeat voyage to a desert island.
7mo
Great 10th albums are rare – but that is exactly what the band’s killer riffs, eerie atmosphere and midlife reflections achieve.
9mo
Trailblazers Amy Love and Georgia South push the boundaries of their trademark hybrid rock sound while confronting mental health and naysayers.
9mo
The Chicago threepiece’s bold debut is a blast of circular-saw guitars, baffling lyrics and effervescent melody.
1y
The Tennessee singer-songwriter’s joyful new album pushes back against the bleakness of doomscrolling.
1y
The married duo’s 13th album was made to evoke ‘the half-remembered singalongs of our 1970s childhoods’, and is full of rich sensory songwriting.
1y
On her sixth album, the multi-genre star seems to be having an identity crisis – but amid the industrial guitars and synthpop, she clearly trusts her own instincts.
1y
Rather than being a cosy back-slapping exercise, these veterans have brought the best out of each other.
1y
A dream-like, kaleidoscopic rollercoaster ride through decades of pop and dance: spiritually rather than literally psychedelic.
1y
Cale creates a sense of hope as he sets hard-won musical wisdom alongside dreamlike reflections in songs with synths, noise and hip-hop grooves.
1y
The 13th album from the Manchester pioneers blends familiarity with no shortage of new ideas, spanning introspection to jubilance.
2y
Self Hell doesn’t always successfully navigate the difficult terrain between pleasing a hardcore following and broadening a sound, but the band certainly aren’t standing still.
2y
The band’s 10th album incorporates African and South American rhythms and instrumentation alongside Guy Garvey’s darkest, funniest lyrics for years.
2y
This posthumous, all-star album – featuring the likes of Shaun Ryder and Tricky – is by no means groundbreaking, but it’s hard not to be moved.
2y
From Pixies to Garbage, New Order to Wolf Alice, you can clearly detect the Galway four-piece’s influences – but lyrics about shame and self-doubt make this an affecting album.
2y
The indie rockers’ sixth album offers more of the same boisterous widescreen anthems and big singable choruses – but with some subtler lyrical depths.
2y
Iechyd Da is probably his most hopeful, optimistic album, but there’s an underlying melancholy even in his most elevated moments, as if agony and ecstasy can be never entirely free from each other.
2y
Gentle melodies and minimal instrumentation grace this live album of mostly lesser-known songs from the seven decades of Young’s career.
2y
The ‘unfathomable beauty’ of a remote Norwegian island has inspired Zach Condon to create a triumphant celebration of life.
2y