SOUND JUDGEMENT

THE LATEST ALBUM RELEASES RATED AND REVIEWED

NOT YOUR MUSE CELESTE ★★★★★

2020 was earmarked as the year Celeste would achieve pop domination – and then came the global coronavirus pandemic.

Claiming BBC Music’s Sound of 2020 and the Brits Rising Star award prior to the March lockdown, the release of her highly anticipated debut album Not Your Muse was placed on the backburner indefinitely.

Now, nearly a year on, the empowered 12-track offering has well and truly stepped up to the plate. A delightful pop-jazz crossover overflowing with sultry vocals and a sprinkling of soulful heartbreak, it’s a release that enthralls from the enchanting opening chords of Ideal Woman to the closing sentiments of Some Goodbyes Come With Hellos.

COLLAPSED IN SUNBEAMS ARLO PARKS ★★★★★

LIKE Celeste (see above) 20-year-old Arlo Parks, from west London was an artist to whom 2020 should have belonged. Instead, she got the pandemic.

But Collapsed In Sunbeams is more than worth the wait. It’s an album that pivots between sweet natured ruminations on love and life, and darkly poetic pieces about depression and domestic strife.

The 12 tracks are steeped with Parks’ identity – she is openly bisexual and has Nigerian, Chadian and French heritage. Collapsed In Sunbeams proves two things – that Parks is an old soul and that she has plenty more left to say.

WORLD GOES ROUND WORLD GOES ROUND

★★★★★ SUPERGROUP World Goes Round are made up of songwriters and musicians behind hits from the likes of Queen, Supertramp, John Denver, Chaka Khan, Kenny Rogers, Donna Summer and more.

In 1989 singers Frank Musker and Elizabeth Lamers, multiinstrumentalist Jeff Hull and guitarist Marty Walsh recorded an album that never saw the light of day, until now. Remastered by producer Tommy Vicari, after an old cassette of the recordings emerged, it is a distillation of everything that made the 80s such a unique decade.