ALBUMS + SINGLES ROUND-UP - 2026 - JANUARY TO MARCH PART 2

JILL SCOTT - TO WHOM THIS MAY CONCERN

The inimitable Ms. Scott returns with her 6th studio album and, to these ears at least, it's possibly her strongest and most consistent to date. Right from the off, Scott sets out her stall with sweetly sung funk-pop, barbed righteous raps and tight grooves a-plenty that signal something of a renaissance. Scott's last album was a little over a decade ago, yet she's still got as much fire in her belly and soul in her heart as ever she had.

Punchy singles Beautiful People and Pressha sit comfortably alongside the brassy Be Great (w/ Trombone Shorty), the gutsy Norf Side, the woozy The Math and sassy Liftin' Me Up, in fact most tracks could rep most of this album on radio. Compared to her previous five studio sets, TWTMC has misfired chart-wise (no sign of it in the UK, short of the Top 30 in the US) yet it all hangs together like the social tapestry she's trying to reach. Hell, she even goes full club mode on Right Here Right Now, a gospelised house anthem that's begging for some complimentary old-school Morales or Masters at Work magic to bring Scott's powerful tonsils to the floor. A great return. ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

RUFIGE KRU, GOLDIE, SUBMOTIVE - METAL GIANTS

Following on from last year's first Rufige Kru material in many a year, Metal Giants represents something of a companion EP to the sprawling Alpha Omega opus. RK is essentially Goldie's less frenetic and more minimal nom-de-plume, a name from the peak days of '90s jungle, a period when Metalheadz issued banger after banger and its main protagonist was something of a shapeshifter in drum and bass circles. Alongside the equally technical Submotive, Rufige Kru have constructed/ de-constructed the very essence of breakbeats in recent times - Metal Giants being a case in point. 

Opener Metal Detekt begins with a wash of portentous drones before kickstarting a neck-snapping rhythm into gear and driving six very seamless minutes to the home straight. People and Places (from the aforementioned highly-recommended Alpha Omega) is given a steely edge by Submotive, while the closing title track reintroduces the underlying darkness theme and motifs. Rather perplexingly, this is a digital-only release - it's gagging for a physical issue, people (especially since the influence is "NYC trainyards").  ✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩  

PVA - NO MORE LIKE THIS

South London artful electronica trio PVA appear to have invested a lot of time creating this second album and it shows. Musically, No More Like This sits somewhere next to Wet Leg, James Blake and Laurie Anderson but not exclusively throughout with little to compare it to PVA's debut album Blush. The opening Rain is an expansive poetic builder, singer Ella Harris soothes us into thinking this whole album is as calm as this track is. It isn't. Things start to become unsettled on the fidgety and foreboding Enough and continue across the likes of the sinister Mate and the neo-industrial clank of Send (which recalls Factory Floor). 

Things start to get a little poppier on singles Peel and Boyface, before the symbolism returns on the bleepily-warped Flood and the album positively becomes arcane on the album's lengthy Okay and the strident synthy Moon, a track that hints at the band's recent dabblings into the occult and Tarot. It's a surprisingly minimal set in places, yet what little melody there is manages to coax some engaging art-pop out of this curious triumvirate. ✩✩✩✩✩✩✩

STEREOLAB - CLOUD LAND

Tim Gane and Laetitia Sadier's last album together for 15 years was last year's rather moreish Instant Holograms on Metal Film. Here is a non-album single that was previously on sale on tour-dates only and follows previous 7" Fed Up With Your Job - and it's a beauty. 

Both sides of this physical release exceed six minutes with Cloud Land not surprisingly the most obvious pick of the pair, a shimmering motorik slice of effortless 'groop-pop' that builds gradually until a subtle melodic chorus appears ushers in a tight rhythmic little outro that reminds us of the power of Stereolab's attention to detail. 

Its flip is no slouch either. Flashes in the Afternoon is altogether a slower, loungier and instrumental affair, resplendent with cyclical keys and brass/flute passages here and there before the drums drop out of the mix and it all gets quite folksy towards the climax. ✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩

BILL PRITCHARD - HAUNTED

For what seems aeons, Stoke's most earnest songsmith has continued to carve out an exclusive musical notch on the bedpost of art without really breaking out of his tight-knit fanbase, many of whom curiously reside across the channel in France. Back here, the UK seems oblivious to Pritchard's brand of catchy, and occasionally barbed, pop stylings. One critic described Bill as Morrissey for the Potteries. Pah - what do critics know, eh? 

I'd rather cosy up to this man's elegiac back catalogue - 1990's Jolie remains the great undiscovered indie-pop classic - including this latest opus straight outta Germany (he's signed to Tapete based in Hamburg, alongside electronica heavyweight imprint Bureau B). 

Haunted is choc-full of his usual reflective, thoughtful songs that sound like you know them, without sounding like too many other songwriters. Let me suggest that if a Bill Pritchard covers album ever gets the green light, I'd suggest Pet Shop Boys, Wild Swans and Roddy Frame might make the grade as worthy collaborators. And that is intended as praise.

Curious Feeling, Smile, Suburb of the World and Lillie are highlights for sure, but really the whole album is a rewarding three-quarters of an hour that takes a few shorter breaths with acoustic vignettes, little kitchen-sink dramas straight out of a Pinter or Loach script. Investigate! ✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩

GONG - BRIGHT SPIRIT

Let's be quite clear - the days of Angel's Eggs, Flying Teapots and glissandos from Steve Hillage are over. Gong are looking to the future, while still remembering to stoke the fires of (cough) prog. For Bright Spirit, they've elected to explore jazz, global musics and psychedelia in equal measure, pausing only occasionally to cast a net over the ever-productive ocean that is, rock. 

And boy, they can still rock. 

The current core of musicians has been together for over a decade and it shows, right from the opening 10-minute whirling dervish Dream of Mine, through the space-rock of Mantivule, recent single The Wonderment, the trippy XTC-like Relish the Possibility and the druggy finale, Eternal Hand. Thankfully, despite retaining many trademarks of old, this recent incarnation of Gong has consistently delivered solid albums with Bright Spirit being as complex and complete as their best work across the ages. ✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩