New releases last four weeks: All genres

Review: While he's released countless albums as one half of Erasure, Andy Bell solo excursions are something of a rarity - at least under his given name. Setting aside his conceptual 'Torsten' albums, Ten Crowns is his first solo album since 2010. Produced by Dave Auden (who also provides a seamless, DJ mix style version of the set on disc two), it largely delivers a more muscular, EDM-influenced take on the sparkling and energy-packed synth-pop sound he's famed for making with Erasure. There are naturally deviations from the script - see the indie-rock-framed singalong alongside Debbie Harry, 'Heart's A Liar' - but for the most part the highlights are rooted in Bell's love of dance-pop/synth-pop fusion (see 'Don't Cha Know' and 'Breaking Through The Interstellar').

Review: In honour of Record Store Day 2025, Canadian-American alt-rockers Big Wreck have decided to reissue one of their most popular albums, 2012's The Albatross. Available in limited numbers (only 1,000 of this CD version was pressed), it not only includes the freshly remastered original album in full, but also three alternate versions, rare bonus cut 'Fade Away', and a raucous live recording of title track 'Albatross'. The original album remains a timeless alt-rock classic where raw guitar riffs, bluesy solos and Ian Thurnley's distinctive lead vocals wrap around thickset bass and punchy drums. For proof, check standouts 'Wolves', 'Glass Room' and the rowdy 'The Rest of the World'.

Review: It has been some five-plus years since the last full Bon Iver album but the wait has been well worth it. This one follows the introspective SABLE, a sparse, vulnerable EP born from isolation and inner turmoil. Where that was shadow, this is light-a lush, radiant celebration of love, connection and emotional rebirth. Written at April Base in Wisconsin with collaborators like Jim-E Stack and Danielle Haim, the album leans into clarity and intimacy and gets rid of the signature dense abstraction for more honest and heartfelt pop. The vocals are delivered with openness and purpose as they explore desire, hope and devotion. While still acknowledging lingering shadows, this full-length is a story of growth that isn't about fairytale endings, but about the lessons love teaches.

Review: While not one of David Bowie's best-known achievements, masterminding the world's biggest-ever 'non-TV' satellite broadcast is undoubtedly an impressive one. It took place at London's Riverside Studios in 2003, with the Thin White Duke - accompanied by his regular backing band - performing then new album Reality in its entirety, live to 86 cinemas in 26 countries. This Record Store Day release presents the concert in its entirety (the encore was not broadcast at the time), delivering a superb document of a unique event. Of course, Bowie was in fine form, with the immersive sound mix by regular collaborator Tony Visconti capturing the legendary artist at the peak of his powers.

Review: Melancholy maestro Brock Van Wey aka Bvdub returns with more immersive and beautifully sad sounds on his latest album In Iron Houses. It is an ambient work that is far too evocative to serve simply as aural wallpaper. Opener 'Madness To Their Methods' for example has a vocal swirling about the synthscapes that is utterly arresting and conveys great emotional pain. 'The Broken Fixing The Broken' is another lament of epic proportions and 'Iron Houses At Night - Star Track' has a little sense of hope in the brighter melodies and another vocal, which this time carries love not loss. 'Perpetual Emotion Machine' shuts down with subtle celestial celebration.

Review: To mark the one-year anniversary of Reveries, Sonic Cathedral drops a new two-tracker that brings a Detroit reimagining to 'Vale' and 'Cadere'. Produced by John Hanson, aka Saltbreaker, the project features live improvisations by saxophonists Yali Rivlin and Thalamus Morris and cellist Jordan Hamilton. Each of them did their thing in a single take with Hanson composing around their performances, and the result is a graceful blend of serene melancholy and rhythmic sophistication. Oodles of warmth and organic textured is added to the originals and these interpretations act as a fine tribute to Detroit's enduring uniqueness.

Review: In the seven years that have passed since the release of his last solo album, DJ Koze has become one of electronic music's most celebrated and sought-after producers. For that reason, the release of Music Can Hear Us is a genuinely big deal - as the impressive roll call of guest vocalists and collaborators (Damon Albarn, Sophia Kennedy, Ada, Notwist and Marley Waters included) attests. Typically, alongside a handful of genuine dancefloor workouts in his skewed deep house style ('Buschcutter', 'Bush Taxi'), Koze serves up far more fine material that is less easy to categorize - think Indian-influenced downtempo exotica ('The Universe In a Nutshell'), off-kilter outsider electronica ('The Talented Mr Tripley'), jangly psych-Balearic excursions ('Arunda') and heady ambient soundscapes ('A Donde Vas?'). Spots in end of year 'best of' lists await.

Review: Ezekiel Honig is a New York City-based artist who founded two vital labels, Anticipate Recordings and Microcosm, and now he is back with a new album on 12K. Unmapping The Distance Keeps Getting Closer is a tender and honest work of art that wears its heart on its sleeve with piano, horns and broken rhythms all characterising the palette. Field recordings are also worked into the arrangements to add a real narrative and to really evoke a sense of place. Add in plenty of textural and tactile motives and you have a journeying album full of melancholy but also a sense of hope.

Review: Hyldipi's impressive and immersive debut album Heilun distils Iceland's stark natural grandeur into 90 minutes of superb ambient soundscapes. Every piece is a spontaneous expression improvised through meditative states using only guitar and basic hardware. Textured and emotionally rich, the album invites you into an internal voyage of discovery. 'Vor' opens with solemn warmth, while 'Sorg' embraces imperfection in the form of tape hiss, fretboard creaks and subtle dissonance, which all lend it a human touch. Hyldipi's approach treats sound as something to be channelled, not owned. Heilun is one of those albums that is not just heard-it's felt, like mist hanging over a quiet fjord, gently shifting with each breath.

Review: J Nile is the son of reggae legend Gregory Isaacs and his vocal work is almost as powerful as that of his great father. To prove it once more he presents his powerful new album Tired which manages another sound both fresh and new but also a descendant of roots greats who have gone before, not least his dad. The authentic tunes feature collaborations with some of reggae's finest musicians including Sly Dunbar, Vin Gordon, Michael "Megahbass" Fletcher and Alan Weekes, With deep roots and a modern production edge in things like the shiny synth work, Tired blends conscious lyrics and soulful rhythms that capture the spirit of classic reggae. There are plenty of sunny horns and swaggering low ends with substance, soul and timeless grooves never far away.

Review: Richard Norris loves a series. The former Grid man and noted psychedelic music afficionado has umpteen on the go at present, including ones dedicated to meditative ambient sounds ('Music For Healing') and modular experiments ('Abstractions'). Then there's his dub-wise and 'outernational' music series, Oracle Sound, which here reaches its fourth - and possibly strongest - instalment. Highlights are plentiful, from the languid and woozy head-nod of opener 'Connected Dub' and the intoxicating, flute-sporting musical mystery of 'Earthsea Dub', to the up-beat dancefloor dub of 'Maximum Dub', and the sub-heavy, near dub techno pulse of John Carter hook-up 'Ceefax'. That one also comes accompanied by alternative takes by both Norris and Carter.

Review: A treat for Pink Floyd fans, as recordings of two legendary concerts from 1969 - sneakily captured by members of the audience - are bundled together on one must-check CD. The first seven tracks showcase a portion of the legendary band's distinctively psychedelic performance at Plumpton Racecourse, Sussex (then host to the 'National Jazz and Blues Festival'), offering up twisted, elongated takes on early material (including 'Set The Controls for the Heart of the Sun' and a fine medley known as 'The Journey'. The final four tracks were recorded in Port Talbot and include breathtakingly brilliant, jammed-out interpretations of 'Careful With That Axe Eugene' and the pinnacle of psychedelic-era Floyd, 'Interstellar Overdrive'.

Review: French twosome Polo & Pan spent the first part of their career giddily fusing tropical house and synth-pop into attractive new shapes, before exploring the world of chillwave on 2021 sophomore album Cyclorama. Four years later, and now signed to major label Virgin, they've once again upped their game, delivering a set of accessible, attractive and sun-drenched fusions of synth-pop and dance-pop that draw inspiration from a variety of musical cultures around the world. For proof, check highlights including the effortlessly dreamy 'Pareidolies', the immersive nu-disco chug of Beth Ditto collaboration 'Petitle Etoile', steamy, Air-esque Balearic shuffler '22:23' (with Vico and Antonin) and string-drenched, Gainsbourg-influenced closing cut 'La Nuit' (with Arthur Teboul).

Review: .Six years after their acclaimed Ten Thousand Lions, roots artist Ras Teo and Spanish producer Roberto Sanchez reunite for Soul Rebel, a bold new project blending Teo's conscious lyrics with vintage rocksteady riddims. Originally sparked in 2018 during sessions at A-Lone Ark Muzik Studio, the album grew from two standout tracks into a full-length record which is unexpected yet seamless. Between them, the pair evoke classic Jamaican duos with buttery smooth harmonies and persuade drums and guitars that mesh perfectly with the bass. It's a case of all killer and no filler here wherever you listen.

Review: Hadley Roe is a UK-based artist whose debut album on peerless ambient label Past Inside The Present adds up to a healing sonic journey crafted with electric guitar, synths and software trickery. Themes are drawn from Roe's personal struggles with mental health, trauma and isolation so make for sounds that blend melancholy, bliss and moments of calm and comfort. Take the serene 'The First Day' or the evolving 'No One Ever Touched Me Before You' - both are hugely emotive and absorbing for the way they patiently unfurl. Roe's ability to express herself through intuitive, wordless music is truly standout.

Review: Those with an intricate knowledge of the sadly cut-short career of the late, great New York experimentalist and leftfield disco specialist Arthur Russell will happily tell you that his most celebrated solo album, World of Echo, was not only developed over several years, but also utilised edited and chopped-up recordings of shows he performed in his home city in 1984 and '85. This release presents both of those performances in full, with Russell - performing songs to his own effects-laden cello motifs and little else - delivering sparse (but effortlessly emotive) early versions and 'sketches'. These are a mix of lesser-known songs and familiar favourites, including a haunting take on 'Let's Go Swimming', a medley of 'Hiding Your Present From You/School Bell', and the inspired 'Sunlit Water'.

Review: Deep Valley is a new collaborative work by Australian artists Seaworthy aka Cameron Webb and Matt Rosner and they came together for it during a week-long residency at Bundanon Art Museum in New South Wales. The property which was gifted to the Australian public by artists Arthur and Yvonne Boyd in the 1990s offers a unique landscape along the Shoalhaven River and is surrounded by sandstone cliffs and diverse wildlife. Drawing inspiration from Boyd's belief that "you can't own a landscape," Deep Valley combines the inspiration of that setting with environmental recordings, guitars, piano, and electronic processing all of which aim to highlight the transient nature of ecosystems and encourage you to reconnect with the sounds of nature.

Review: Rebecca Taylor arrives at third album A Complicated Woman in a very different place to where she was before the release of her previous full-length, the Mercury Prize-nominated Prioritise Pleasure. Now a bona-fide pop star, the South Yorkshire chanteuse now has to deal with heightened expectations and her own experience of fame. By the sound of A Complicated Woman, she's handling both with aplomb. That's not to say that the lyrics avoid difficult subjects - her own worries remain front and centre - but the delightfully grandiose production, extensive use of choirs and orchestras, and Taylor's own penchant for penning stadium-sized sing-alongs deliver a maximal pop gem fitting her genuine star status. Rotherham's finest has never sounded so good (or, it should be added, explicit - there are some genuinely adult themes on display).

Review: Nowadays regarded as the stuff of punk legend, the chaotic and ill-fated jaunt undertaken by the Sex Pistols across the US in January of 1978 was hindered by so many differing factors, it was almost as if they were set to fail. Plagued by poor management while trapped on a label with no real idea how to market such a tumultuous roster outlier, the band found themselves performing for those there out of mere curiosity more than their targeted audience or genuine fans, culminating in severe burn-out in real time, captured on these recordings. Finally, for the first time, several of these shows have been retooled to their correct sequencing with this collection reflecting the debaucherous live sets in all their feral glory that took place on January 5th at the South East Music Hall in Atlanta, Georgia, January 10th at the Longhorns Ballroom in Dallas, Texas, and January 14th at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, California. Boasting all of the essential anthems from 'God Save The Queen' to 'Pretty Vacant' and 'Anarchy In The UK', behind the energy is the sound of a band imploding, while today not all wounds have healed with the surviving members currently enjoying a celebration of their iconic Never Mind The Bollocks LP with former Gallows frontman Frank Carter stepping in for MAGA man Jon Lydon, who continues to lob barbs at his former bandmates whenever given half the chance.

Review: Sony Records has decided to reissue a slew of early albums from British shoegaze and dream pop sorts Slowdive, a band that has enjoyed a successful comeback since reforming late last decade. Here they take us back to the formative years of the Reading-born band and 1991 full-length debut Just For a Day. Recorded in leafy Oxfordshire (Abington specifically), the set is as lush, densely layered, effects-laden and gently psychedelic as you'd expect from a set that's (rightly) still regarded as one of the strongest shoegaze albums of all time. For proof, check the hypnotic, slow-motion pulse of opener 'Spanish Air', the low slung bass and hallucinatory textures of 'Catch The Breeze', the near-ambient immersion of 'Erik's Song', and the jangly sparkle of 'Brightness'.

Review: While now - rightly - hailed as one of the greatest shoegaze albums of all time, Slowdive's sophomore full-length Souvlaki was initially panned by critics - a fate that also befell the Reading combo's debut Just For a Day. Now remastered and reissued on CD for the first time in years, the 1993 set remains a pleasingly saucer-eyed, heavily layered and decidedly dreamy affair. Musically, it's generally brighter and more jangling than its predecessor, leaning more heavily into the dream-pop end of their sound whilst still retaining the reverb-heavy, suitably psychedelic guitar textures of shoegaze. Highlights include the funky, late 60s nostalgia of '40 Days', the dubby and spaced-out headiness of 'Sing' and the stretched-out heaviness of 'Souvlaki Space Station'.

Review: London-based Australian vocalist, producer and multi-instrumentalist Penelope Trappe has always made immersive, enveloping and deeply atmospheric that sidesteps convention. It was that uniquely haunting and emotive approach to ambient and electronica that earned her deals with Optimo Music and Houndstooth, amongst others. Now signed to One Little Independent, Trappes has pushed the boat out further on Requiem, a mournful and bittersweet musical meditation in which her distinctively sweet-but-drowsy vocals rise above manipulated cello textures, hushed field recordings, ambient textures and intriguing electronic sounds aplenty. It's bold, beautiful and at times breathtakingly brilliant, once again marking Trappes out as an artist with a genuinely unique musical vision.

Review: While compilations of 1980s pop music are ten-a-penny, most tend to focus on the most celebrated hits and biggest singles. Spectrum's latest, Pop Gems: The 80s, takes a different approach, combining familiar numbers (Dexy's 'Celtic Soul Brothers', Roxy Music's 'Same Old Scene' and the Human League's 'Human') with forgotten treats and less-celebrated cuts from big names of the era (Tears For Fears, Ah-Ha, Shakin' Stevens, Adam Ant, ABC, Duran Duran, Boy George, Five Star, Bros etc). There's also a sprinkling of crossover American dancefloor hits too, from the likes of Chaka Khan, Womack & Womack, Sheila E, Cameo and Jakki Graham). It packs in plenty of three discs, as you'd expect, and even finds space for a dash of Fairground Convention!

Review: .This essential album from Doctor Bird highlights the great Phil Pratt's remarkable work during a pivotal era in Jamaican music. Feel Good All Over: The Sunshot Singles 1972-1973 digs into his work during that golden time and turns out both many well-known hits and some rarer gems, a total of 30 of which appear on CD for the first time. This collection captures the energy of a time when Pratt, alongside a new wave of equally bold and ambitious producers, pushed against the established norms of the island's music scene and brought in new influences. The result is a treasure trove of some of the finest and most influential reggae recordings from the pre-roots period including deep-cut gems like Delroy Wilson's aching 'Heart Made Of Stone', the romantic harmonies of The Soul Syndicate and swagger of 'Phil Pratt Thing'.

Review: There's a good reason that the Viagra Boys' latest album is self-titled. Unlike their previous album, 2022's satirical, politically-charged Cave World, the Swedish post-punkers' latest set is lyrically far more introspective, with frontman Sebastian Murphy offering (in the band's own words), a "self-deprecating exploration of his own absurdity" (or, in the case of opener 'Made of Meat', "your mom's Only Fans"). Musically sitting between energetic, horn-heavy early 80s post-punk and grunge-fired US alt-rock - with occasional nods to more tropical and melody-driven flavours - the album is heaps of fun with strong songs aplenty, not least the jaunty 'Pyramid of Health', the low-slung, synth-sporting 'Waterboy' and the surprisingly pastoral 'River King'.