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Review: Lizzo's ascent to superstar status was confirmed with 2019 major label debut, Cuz I Love You, a set that gleefully joined the dots between pop-rap, R&B, trap, funk and neo soul, with Missy Elliott and Gucci Mane swinging by to lend a hand. Special, whose 12 songs are a tiny fraction of the 170-odd she reportedly wrote and recorded, continues in this vein, offering another entertaining, kaleidoscopic romp that pairs killer grooves, recognisable sample lifts (the Beastie Boys on the controversial 'Gurrlz' and Coldplay's 'Yellow' on the set-closing oddball fantasy 'Coldplay') and Lizzo's typically strong sung and rapped vocals. There are far more hits than misses, with recent single 'About Time Now' sounding like a long-lost Chic classic and the sound of summer 2022.

Review: Iggy Pop's new album Every Loser is his own treatise on punk necessarily requiring a "sense of hopelessness about it". Produced with musician and label owner Andrew Watt, Pop insists that this is "music that will beat the shit out of you". Relentlessly energetic and guitar-smashy, yet also somewhat clean, this is Iggy Pop's personal brand of rock n' roll for a new generation of listeners. Low-end centric and tempered by electronic production, it is full - as ever - of righteous anger.