Sound nt judgeme
THE LATEST ALBUM RELEASES RATED AND REVIEWED
ALICIA ALICIA KEYS HHHH
H IN a year of social unrest in America, Alicia Keys’ seventh album is both a soothing balm and a rousing call to arms.
It sees the 15-time Grammy winner continue to excavate her own life and experiences for material.
Across a dizzying array of genres, we see an artist in full flight, shackled by nothing apart from her imagination. The mood is overwhelmingly contemplative, sometimes even sombre, but always buoyed by an uplifting message.
Those looking for revelations about Keys’ personal life here will be disappointed, but those in search of undeniable songwriting and an unparalleled voice will leave satisfied.
ULTRA MONO IDLES HHHH
H WHAT do you want from a new Idles album? Pounding drums? Head-banging riffs? Angry and politically charged lyrics?
Great news, Ultra Mono, the latest showing from the Bristol five-piece has it all!
Big beats and powerful riffs drive almost every song, contrasted with the classic tongue in cheek, darkly comedic lyrics that fans are well accustomed to.
In a crowded field of bangers, stand-outs include Grounds, Model Village and Kill Them With Kindness.
That being said, choosing favourites is like deciding on a favourite child – you love them all equally and unconditionally.
ROISIN MACHINE ROISIN MURPHY
HHH HH BEHOLD the year’s most appropriate album title.
An irresistible force transmitting via a disembodied electronic voice, Ireland’s disco queen inhabits every definition of the phrase. This fifth studio album, recorded in collaboration with DJ Parrot, is actually bookended with tracks previously released as stand-alone singles, opening with the pair’s 2012 team-up Simulation and concluding with 2015’s Jealousy, but in between are eight fresh slices of disco goodness.
Something More, the single Murphy’s Law and Narcissus give a taste of this unabashedly over-thetop collection – “I live my life with no regret”, she proudly sings on the former – while on Shellfish Mademoiselle she demands: “How dare you sentence me to a lifetime without dancing?” There is no danger of that, and We Got Together provides perhaps the album’s most nightclub-ready moment.