New releases last two weeks: All genres

Review: Indiana singer-songwritern Lisa Germano's 1994 moody dark indie rock masterpiece has been remastered at Abbey Road Studios in London. This expanded edition - released as part of 4AD's Record Store Day spread - includes 'The Mirror Is Gone' and the five-track EP 'Inconsiderate Bitch', making it a bumper version of one of the key albums of the 90s. Germano's voice is a thing of wonder with lyrics that cut through the noise. The sonics underpinning her voice are often sparse and atmospheric, allowing us listeners to really feel the intimacy of feeling. It's no wonder the likes of Eels, Bowie and Iggy Pop called her in to guest on their records.

Review: Tune-Yards return with their sixth album, and it's one of their most rhythmically infectious to date. Created by Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner in a post-pandemic haze, Better Dreaming embraces danceable liberation, self-love and anti-fascist joy and it is all inspired by a desire to move, both physically and emotionally. Grooves run deep here as lyrics confront modern chaos and encourage dancing through the dark and dreaming of better futures. The duo let songs flow with raw instinct and reconnect with their early drum-loop roots, meaning that the result is a fresh, funk-laced art-pop record that works on the body as well as the mind.

Review: The influential German band Xmal Deutschland are overhead rafters in the great mead hall of goth. Their propulsive successes throughout the 1980s meant the genre likely couldn't've done without them. A large band come music collective, made up of at least eight members at any given time, Xmal's formation in Hamburg and would presell audiences on a stalwart performance rep, thanks to an early tour and gig residency in support of dream pop preeminents Cocteau Twins. Rallied to fame by their goth classics 'Incubus Succubus' and 'Qual', this 2xCD review conjoins two of the earliest and most pivotal albums on which both of said singles were housed - Fetisch and Tocsin - along with tracks from other key releases, such as Incubus Succubus II. Helping blacken an otherwise dreamy time, these LPs highlight the gloomier soils of a superficially bright 1980s soundfield, which otherwise roseated by shoegaze. Photography by Kevin Cummins, Paul Slattery, Sheila Rock and more all capture the spirit.

Review: Xmal Deutschland commemorate their influential 4AD years (1983-1984) with a brand new release, literally presenting us with Gift. The collection celebrates the band's profound impact on British audiences in the early 80s, marked by a unique and half-devised lyrical language, as well as a magnetic feminine mystique commandeered by the women in the group. Their breakthrough support slot with Cocteau Twins accompanied the first two albums to come out via 4AD, which grabbed audiences by the collective ear with a painter's stroke of hard-graded darkwave and goth. Gift brims with a penumbral presence, while the titular "gift" is intended as pharmakon, both a present and a poison; Xmal's music is appropriately contradictory and complex, skating thin ices of beauty and elusivity. This limited-edition 3xLP boxset includes Abbey Road remasters of their albums Fetisch and Tocsin, along with tracks from related releases like Incubus Succubus II and Qual, packaged with striking artwork and a photo booklet. The magic of Xmal Deutschland lingers like radiation and has an indelible half-life.