Category: pop albums
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Charli xcx: BRAT review – queen of the club reveals her softer side
BRAT may offer some of the nastiest club floor-fillers of Charli xcx’s lauded career, but there’s also vulnerable reflections on loss and the daunting prospect of becoming a mother. The result is a rollercoaster of an album that makes a point of its dramatic shifts in tone.
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Home Counties: Exactly As It Seems review – a masterpiece in diverse post-punk
After the addition of a new member, upgrading Home Counties from a 5-piece to a 6-piece, the band has truly found their sound and developed it perfectly to cover and tackle many problems in a war against the mundane. Matthew Rowe explains all.
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Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft review – more soft than hard
A compelling tale of love and loss, Hit Me Hard and Soft sees Eilish embrace her sexuality on her own terms via knotty and unpredictable pop. The love songs are delectable and the showpiece moments titanic, although not every sonic experiment comes off.
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Maggie Rogers: Don’t Forget Me review – assured third album brims with singalong choruses
The ballads are few and far between on Maggie Rogers’ brilliantly written third record, which delivers one singalong belter after another. Don’t Forget Me doesn’t reinvent the singer-songwriter wheel, but what a fabulous wheel this particular album is.
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Taylor Swift: The Tortured Poets Department review – megastar has nothing left to prove
Dramatic, high-profile recent breakups offer plenty of lyrical meat for Swift to sink her teeth into on her 11th album and the highlights are devastating, but ultimately TTPD shows a lack of daring perhaps to be expected of an artist who already has the formula for commercial success honed to a tee.
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Jade Bird: Burn the Hard Drive EP review – restrained breakup songs lack punch
Jade Bird’s knack for an anthemic chorus and soaring vocals go largely unused on this mixed EP, which opts for introspective healing over the roof-raising Americana of Bird’s first two albums.
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Jacob Collier: Djesse Vol. 4 review – his most gloriously incohesive yet
Ticking off everything from electropop to metal, Indian folk music to club-ready dance numbers, the finale of Collier’s four-album extravaganza is eclectic even by his standards. It makes for a mightily impressive listen, even if the 26 featured artists might overwhelm even his keenest fans.
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PinkPantheress: Heaven knows review – a polished, hard-hitting graduation
Two years after enigmatic Bath uni student PinkPantheress found instant fame with her nostalgic brand of dancepop, Victoria Walker is back with a rewarding debut album that fulfils the promise of that viral debut mixtape, writes Alex Walden.
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Olivia Rodrigo: GUTS review – the rallying cry of a generation
Equally packed with punk rock instant classics and beautifully understated piano ballads, Olivia Rodrigo’s bravura second album is somehow fiercer, wittier and altogether even stronger than her Grammy-sweeping debut.
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Vulfmon: Vulfnik review – puts the future of Vulf into question
With rambling tangents and a confused mix of genres, Jack Stratton fails to deliver on an otherwise promising new identity yet again. Matthew Rowe gives a track-by-track rundown on why the latest album doesn’t live up to the potential harboured by Vulfpeck frontman.
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Jessie Ware: That! Feels Good! review – riotous party album makes for a worthy sequel
Continuing on from the success of her masterful 2020 release, That! Feels Good! is every bit as delightfully danceable as its predecessor, with more cheeky funk bass lines than you can wave a disco finger at.
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Vulfpeck: Schvitz review – scattergun sixth lacks inspiration
A return after a prolonged hiatus could have spelt creative reinvention for Ann Arbor funk group Vulfpeck. Instead they continue to underwhelm on a sixth album let down by vapid hooks and lazy rehashes.
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Lizzy McAlpine: five seconds flat review – indie-folk star raises the stakes
She may be yet to firmly establish her own distinctive sound, but Lizzy McAlpine strikes gold on several occasions on this sophomore LP destined to be one of the more compelling and consistent breakup albums of the year.
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Black Country, New Road: Ants From Up There Review – breathtaking
After their debut album catapulted the London septet to fame in 2021, Black Country, New Road return with a masterpiece that is somehow both sure-footed and wildly experimental. Released just after the sudden departure of the band’s frontman, Ants From Up There serves as a tragic, compelling self-portrait of a man on the brink.
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Cory Wong: Wong’s Cafe review – nothing new from a band in disguise
Cory Wong’s latest project is ostensibly Vulfpeck’s sixth album, and it’s perhaps telling that the band have avoided official recognition for their efforts – Wong’s Cafe feels rushed and uninspired from start to finish, and is home to some of the most unremarkable songs in the band’s history.
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