AtoZ

Federico Albanese’s fourth album picks up where 2018’s By The Deep Sea left off, its instrumentals built, like Max Richter’s, around simple but sweetly evocative themes, though his arrangements are more delicately skeletal. “The Vine” offers languid piano arpeggios and soothing strings, “Was There A Time” adds atmospheric synths, and “Unicorn” ups the tempo, its plucked strings and slowly swelling instrumentation as close as Albanese gets to urgent. “Summerside”, though, is bolstered by Marika Hackman’s dignified English vocals, and Ghostpoet’s subdued yet unsettling presence does wonders for “Feel Again”, suggesting a way out of the current New Classical cul-de-sac. WYNDHAM WALLACE

Veteran Jamaican crooner Horace Andy is best known for lending gorgeously grainy, honeyed vocals to multiple Massive Attack collaborations, though he has also worked with reggae legends Clement “Coxsone” Dodd, Dennis Brown, Sly & Robbie and more. His first studio project with post-punk dub maestro Adrian Sherwood is a fairly respectful blend of new and reworked older material, deconstructing vintage 1970s tracks like “Mr Bassie” into airy melodica ripples and sinewy basslines. Andy underscores his Massive connections with an alluringly smoky, shadowy remake of “Safe From Harm” but the tender lovers rock number “Try Love” comes closer to the Bristolian group’s sound in its string-couched, high-tech, luminous dubtronica arrangement. STEPHEN DALTON

Consuming this 17-track epic by this commendably restless London collective is a little like experiencing the weather in a famously capricious climate: if you don’t like it, wait five minutes. It starts with the languid, Dead Can Dancelike dreamscape of “Surrounded By Ghosts”, continues into “Mr Daisy”, which sounds like The Jesus & Mary Chain playing gospel, and does not get much less disorienting thereafter. Highlights among many include “Shouting Within”, a pretty Sarah Blasko-ish ballad, and the gently anthemic “Every Single Day”, which lurches from anguished minimal electro to choruses suggesting a somewhat downbeat Queen. ANDREW MUELLER

Twenty-five years after Joey Burns and John Convertino split from Giant Sand, Calexico has expanded from an indie duo intrigued by spaghetti western soundtracks into an amorphous collective intent on exploring every strain of Latin American music. Featuring significant contributions from many of their regular collaborators – including Sergio Mendoza and Gaby Moreno – their 11th proper album is richly cinematic and more eclectic than recent efforts. El Mirador rambles from the cumbia rhythms of “Cumbia Peninsula” to the desert ambience of “Turquoise” to the widescreen expanse of closer “Caldera”. Both earthy and cosmic, the music sounds almost psychedelic in its lively swirls of sounds. STEPHEN DEUSNER

Mike Campbell comes out blazing on “Wicked Mind”, the swaggering rocker that opens his second album with The Dirty Knobs. From there, the legendary guitarist-turned-frontman leads his mates through supercharged honky-tonk (“Brigitte Bardot”), headbangers (“Cheap Talk”, “External Combustion”) and a ZZ Top-style tailfin rave-up (“Lightning Boogie”).

But when he applies his reedy drawl to the secular hymn “State Of Mind” alongside Margo Price, explores love’s mysteries on “In This Lifetime” and leafs through the pages of his life on “It Is Written”, Campbell shows he’s coming to terms with his new reality. “Let your gypsy take the wheel and drive/For a while,” he sings on “Electric Gypsy”, before ending the album in a blaze of guitar glory. BUD SCOPPA

Laura Cannell’s improvisatory compositional music has long drawn inspiration from the world around her. This has often meant locations – she has recorded in churches and power stations. But during the pandemic, confined to her garden, she started transcribing the sound of birdsong. finds Cannell translating these natural compositions through a variety of recorders – bass, tenor, alto and double. It’s a challenging premise, but Cannell’s grounding in medieval and baroque music lends “For The Hoarders” and “The Girl Who Became An Owl” a serene and spacious feel; a sort of