Please “Gotta live for something besides yesterdays,” Gallagher snarls on “Be Still”. (Roisin O'Connor)The record frequently switches in tone: Banks can be both formidable and vulnerable, accusatory or filled with regret. The most insightful comments on all subjects Noel Miller is a member of the American comedy hip-hop duo, Tiny Meat Gang.. 2. It’s hard not to consider his timing for this release, just three months since the 25th anniversary of Illmatic. “Gotta live for something besides yesterdays,” Gallagher snarls on “Be Still”. Amo won’t satisfy all of BMTH’s fans, but it’s certainly accomplished, catchy and eclectic enough to bring in some new ones. Over all of it, he raps with an easy flow in gruff yet honeyed tones. “When I’m headlining next time,” she announced, “I’m gonna need my motherf**king ears to work.” Judging by the strength of her third album, that might not be such an implausible assumption. Echoing similar movements seen in recent years, such as Fannie Sosa and niv Acosta’s “Black Power Naps” exhibition – which speaks to and hopes to remedy the socio-economic problem of higher rates of sleep deprivation among black people – the album has a calming, blissed-out quality, with its layers of sound and enveloping harmonies. Lux Prima is an accomplished record – proof that two wildly different minds can work seamlessly together. (Roisin O’Connor)If you want to know how hard it is to categorise Titanic Rising – the enthralling fourth album from Weyes Blood – look no further than the American musician’s own attempt to do so. You were always good at intimidating women though, eh?”Liam offered his version of events in an interview with He then added about Noel’s 19-year-old daughter: “I probably shouldn’t have brought Anaïs into it, and I apologise.“[Noel’s wife] called me fat, which hurt my feelings.
(Elisa Bray) (Kuba Shand-Baptiste)FoalsMerging their asymmetrical early math pop with the deep space atmospherics of Total Life Forever and Holy Fire, plus added innovations – ambient rainforest throbs on “Moonlight”, deadpan EDM on “In Degrees”, Afro-glitch Radiohead on “Café D’Athens” – they’ve created an inspired album of scorched earth new music that, in all likelihood, will only really be challenged for album of the year by Part 2. It’s no wonder she’s lent it to the likes of Perfume Genius, Drugdealer and Ariel Pink: it adds a touch of profundity to everything it meets. That snare drum keeps a relentless, nerve-snapping pulse throughout, with Jacklin sounding more confident in her contradictions: at once yearning to comfort a lover she’s dumped and then, on “Head Alone”, declaring: “I don’t wanna be touched all the time/ I raised my body up to be mine.” Aside from “Happiness Is a Butterfly”, that is. (Helen Brown)With praise from Kendrick Lamar, five EPs released by the time she was 21, tours with Lauryn Hill, collaborations with Gorillaz and two critically praised albums – including 2017’s excellent concept album Stillness in Wonderland – fans and critics alike wondered what else Little Simz could do to find the kind of mainstream success enjoyed by so many of her male peers. Just as the preceding art installation invited viewers to enter its vast head of LED lights and wonder, this album does the same.
I have a belly, it’s well paid for, but I’m not fat.“Then [Noel] hung himself by slagging off Scotland. (Roisin O’Connor)Big Thief’s frontwoman Adrianne Lenker has an uncanny ability to make you feel like you’re in on a secret. “Zombie” was a protest song written by the band’s late frontwoman Dolores O’Riordan after two children were killed by IRA bombs – was released. A cornucopia of instrumentation is woven into its brisk 42-minute yarn. But it was worth the wait. It’s layered with whimsical flutes, intricate guitar picking and sombre bass lines that meander with casual abandon. (Patrick Smith)Here, Lewis does what she does best: adds the glossy sparkle of Hollywood and a sunny Californian sheen to melancholy and nostalgia, with her most luxuriantly orchestrated album yet.