SOPHIE’s playful, defiant music broke pop boundaires
The work of the pioneering electronic artist, who died last week aged 34, asked: why be one thing, when you…
ByAlbum reviews
Read all the latest album reviews from the New Statesman here.
Black Country, New Road are one of the most exciting and original British bands in years
With their debut For the First Time, the septet from Cambridgeshire have created a thrillingly chaotic sound.
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Why Carole King’s Tapestry still speaks to us
In 2021, this extraordinary album still warms a room much the same way it did 50 years earlier.
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On Drunk Tank Pink, south London post-punk group Shame come back down to earth
Drunk Tank Pink is, in many ways, a typical second rock album in that it reflects on the madness caused by the…
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The Avalanches’ We Will Always Love You: uplifting disco meets celestial trip hop
Listening to the Australian electro duo's third album is like floating around a zero-gravity party.
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Yungblud’s Weird!: bland, indistinct pop-rock
The Doncaster musician has cultivated a fanbase around his celebration of nonconformity, but his music is unadventurous.
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Miley Cyrus’s Plastic Hearts: rebellious, retro pop-rock anthems
Drawing from 1980s rock, metal and her country roots, Cyrus abandons her belting soprano to sound like a 50-year-old smoker in cowboy…
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McFly’s Young Dumb Thrills: an artificially wholesome school run soundtrack
Noughties pop-punk boyband McFly, now in their thirties, return to music after a decade with the audio equivalent of a gratitude…
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Sufjan Stevens’ The Ascension: high-concept catastrophe music
On his disappointing eighth album, the American musician’s queries about faith, God and the state of the world are far…
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Katy Perry’s new album Smile: fun-loving but unoriginal pop
Pop has moved on from the bright-eyed days of 2008, while the Californian singer has not.
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The Killers’ “Imploding the Mirage” has a sense of a band scrabbling to find their identity
The group's sixth studio album has moments that remind you why they have made it this far, but it lacks personality.
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Folklore reveals a more introspective side to Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift’s eighth studio album is her least radio-friendly work and her least autobiographical. But it is arguably her most…
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How I’m Feeling Now is Charli XCX’s best album yet
Written and released in just five weeks under lockdown, the record manages to be genuinely inventive.
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Waxahatchee’s Saint Cloud is her best album to date
Katie Crutchfield's mantra-filled fifth album, written following her decision to get sober, has a classic Americana feel which puts her brilliant…
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Miss Anthropocene might just be the album that saves Grimes
After dealing with a heavy dose of criticism for her relationship with Elon Musk, the art-pop musician's fifth album should remind…
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Nick Cave’s new album Ghosteen has completely floored me. In a good way
This record is the sound of a man whose whole being has been altered, possessed even, by what has happened.
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James Blake finds new joy on his third record, Assume Form
Plus: a new solo record from Ian Brown.
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Sharon Van Etten’s Remind Me Tomorrow is her best work to date
In Van Etten’s new album, life’s mess is powerful and holding it all in your arms is a creative act.
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John Grant’s fourth album, Love is Magic, is a work of musical mood swings
Grant represents a very human set of contradictions. In his songs, horrific experiences are set alongside transcendent ones; cynicism alongside…
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The body takes the stage in Christine and the Queens new record, Chris
Having chopped off that feminine last syllable and most of her hair, “Chris” places the body at the centre of…
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