AtoZ

The wilful acoustic album is always a statement of confidence in two things: the songs, and the voice. In Andersen’s case, neither is misplaced. The throaty roar hitherto generally heard bellowing the blues breathes an inherent vulnerability when taken down a notch or dozen, all husky regret and rueful empathy: “Other Side Of Goodbye” and “Raise Up Your Glass” are exquisite tears-in-the-beer country, like Waylon Jennings at his most gruffly maudlin. Andersen also shapes up well as a gospel pulpit-thumper, on “Time For The Wicked To Rest” and a rousing version of “People Get Ready”.

ANDREW MUELLER

Two albums in as many years suggested a new lease of life for these UK proggers, only for the awful news to break in November of co-frontman David Longdon’s untimely death. Whatever their future holds now, positive signs from this album are that BBT already seem a more fruitfully collaborative affair, as proven by the dynamic, violin-decorated “The Connection Plan” penned by drummer Nick D’Virgilio, plus keyboardist Carly Bryant’s freewheeling title track and vocal contribution to the sweetly nostalgic “Proper Jack Froster”. Longdon’s opener, “Made From Sunshine”, meanwhile, is a blissfully upbeat anthem to remember him by, whether or not the band outlives him.

JOHNNY SHARP

Although there’s nothing particularly novel about Black Doldrums’ fierce combination of psych, reverb, drone and melody, the duo – Sophie Landers on drums and Kevin Gibbard with guitar and vocals – do a particularly fine of job of bringing together Spacemen 3, JAMC and Black Angels in a way that remains interesting. The Cure-like flurry of drums that introduces “Sad Paradise” is one example of the way they work to engage the listener, as is Landers’ fine backing vocals on “All For You” and the sounds of brass on the relentless drone “Sleepless Nights”.

PETER WATTS

The title of this quintet’s 2018 debut, Endless Scroll, pointed to just one cause of their existential anguish; now, their focus is equally wide but more ideologically slanted. Broken Equipment prods at capitalist productivity, their city’s rampant gentrification and the patriarchal trap of female competitiveness, among other things, in blasts of groovy agitation with often satirical lyrics. Echoes of Sleater-Kinney and LCD Soundsystem remain, but there are top notes of hip-hop (on “No Blade Of Grass”) and, in “All Past Lovers”, with its pivotal guitar solo, ’80s alt.rock. It’s a tart set but not a sour one – concerns are laid bare and life lessons shared, with whip-smart confidence.

SHARON O’CONNELL

The prospect of a Boo Radleys album without Martin Carr’s input is a weird notion to many, Carr included. But the band’s first since 1998’s Kingsize – and since returning as a three-piece in 2020 – is a better-than-respectable restatement of many of their original virtues, the primary being the flair for sunny, Hollies-like melodicism that energises new standouts like “I Say A Lot Of Things” and the title track. Elsewhere, it’s hard not to lament the lack of a Giant Steps-sized recording budget and the dearth of the surprises and misdirections that Carr added to the Boos’ bustling brand of avant-Britpop, as counterproductive as they could sometimes be.

Following two critically acclaimed albums, 2006’s and the following year’s , the shadowy South London producer Will Bevan changed tack, collaborating with the likes of Thom Yorke and Four Tet and firing out sporadic EPs. “Antidawn” is the latest of these, although clocking in at 43 minutes it feels like a full-length statement. “Strange Neighbourhood” and “Shadow Paradise”