Album Reviews

FIFTY FIFTY – ‘Love Tune’ review: uninspired sweet nothings

Legal battles and a massive lineup change later, the girl group return with a lacklustre attempt at reclaiming their crown as one of K-pop’s most promising new acts

Pale Waves – ‘Smitten’ review: loved-up liberation

There’s a newfound directness and pop joy on the Manchester band’s fourth record

Katy Perry – ‘143’ review: a pop star struggles to relocate her old sense of fun

The ‘Teenage Dream’ singer reconnects with her old collaborators for her seventh album, but fails to recreate the magic

Kaeto – ‘Intro’ review: abstract alt-pop from Scotland’s finest

The London-based songwriter makes a coolly confident debut in her hypnotising mixtape

Jamie xx – ‘In Waves’ review: star-studded meditations on the dancefloor

Nine years on and in a very different world, the producer rises to the challenge of following up his masterful debut, ‘In Colour’

Miranda Lambert – ‘Postcards from Texas’ review: feisty, funny and free

The country star shares poignant life lessons told through vignettes of a roadtrip across the Lone Star state on her charming tenth album

Deadletter – ‘Hysterical Strength’ review: post-punk that revels in life’s contradictions

The Yorkshire-bred band’s debut album strikes a winning balance between foreboding and fun

Mermaid Chunky – ‘Slif Slaf Slof’ review: brilliantly eccentric, funny and inventive avant-pop

Endorsed by LCD Soundsystem, the Gloucestershire duo combine folk, house and psych-pop in a startlingly funny and original debut album

Nilüfer Yanya – ‘My Method Actor’: carefully considered, creative songwriting

The London singer-songwriter aimed not to dilute her music-making process on her third record. The results are her most absorbing listen yet

Fred Again.. – ‘Ten Days’ review: poignant magic from life’s little moments

On his fourth studio album, producer Fred Gibson explores love and human connection through songs representing ten different days in his life