Back catalogue: All genres

Review: The Hissing of Summer Lawns marked a turning point in Joni Mitchell's career, emerging four decades ago as a radical departure from her earlier work. While albums like Blue and Court and Spark established her as a confessional singer-songwriter, Hissing ventured into new territories, blending jazz and African influences with a more complex pop sound. The album's characters, primarily women, grapple with existential disconnection, often revealing a sense of unworthiness and emotional estrangement. Critics initially found the album jarring, noting the absence of first-person narratives and traditional melodies. Instead, Mitchell crafted a lush soundscape reminiscent of Miles Davis's freeform style, allowing her musicians the freedom to shape the music. While Hissing debuted at #4 on the charts, it quickly fell off, perceived as too esoteric for mainstream audiences. Over time, its innovative spirit has influenced a new generation of artists from Prince to Bjork, who resonate with its harmonically rich and experimental nature.

Review: Hudson Mohawke has always been a bit of a universe-builder, sonically speaking. Few dance music producers to emerge in the post-millennium period have created such a unique aural personality and carved out such an individual place for themselves. Despite giving us a number of incredible pieces of work over the years, Cry Sugar was in many ways the Scottish enigma's coming of age moment. Simultaneously smashing out hardcore, slomo UK breaks, weird-hop, freak&B, alternative-leaning EDM pop, soul, jazz, festival chart house, electronic sleaze and hyper emotional electronica overtures, the 2022 record was rightly tipped as one of the year's finest. And the perfect score to the tumultuous, chaotic and confusing times we woke up in at the time this one was being meticulously pieced together.