Sunn O))) – Kannon (Southern Lord)
Why you should listen: Deliciously heavy drone-metal buzzes all over the band’s seventh album, following up last year’s collaboration with Scott Walker.
It might not be for you if … You find drone music terrifying and confusing.
What we said: “A triptych, inspired in part by the buddhist deity Guanyin Bodhisattva, Kannon is an immersive exercise in metal meditation and repetition,” wrote Lanre Bakare, in the Guardian. Phil Mongredien also gave the album four stars in his Observer review.
Score: 4/5
Babyface – Return of the Tender Lover (Virgin)
Why you should listen: One of the kings of 90s R&B production puts out his first solo album since Playlist (2007), sticking to the velvet-soft sound that made him a household name all those years ago.
It might not be for you if … You prefer to explore the ways R&B has evolved recently, or would rather play an actual 90s classic.
What we said: “This is old-school R&B with a fine glass finish, the musicianship and production audibly expensive and the man’s voice so honeyed it presumably requires the attentions of worker bees,” wrote Dave Simpson in the Guardian.
Score: 3/5
Franck Vigroux and Matthew Bourne – Radioland: Radio-Activity Revisited (The Leaf Label)
Why you should listen: Vigroux and Bourne pay tribute to Kraftwerk’s 1975 masterpiece on a sparse electronic album that updates the original’s melodies and robotic hooks.
It might not be for you if … You are perfectly happy with Kraftwerk’s original album.
What we said: “This is a bold reimagining that stands up well next to the original,” wrote Phil Mongredien in the Observer.
Score: 3/5
Troye Sivan – Blue Neighbourhood (Polydor)
Why you should listen: South Africa-born, Australia-raised Sivan releases this debut of slick electropop, after rising from YouTube covers to public endorsements from Taylor Swift.
It might not be for you if … You don’t particularly feel as though the world needs an artist who sounds a bit like a male Lorde crossed with James Blake.
What we said: “On his debut album, youth isn’t so much a party as a maze of tangled emotions wrapped up in spacious, electro-tinged gloom-pop,” wrote Michael Cragg in the Observer.
Score: 4/5
Barbara Dennerlein – Christmas Soul (MPS)
Why you should listen: Jazz organist Dennerlein gives Christmas a strut and swing on this rare treat: a festive album not completely drenched in schmaltz.
It might not be for you if … You prefer hearing a Hammond organ pound out tunes that have nothing to do with yuletide.
What we said: “[Dennerlein] recasts We Three Kings as a modal piece against a boiling 6/8 rhythm, turns Silent Night into a soul ballad, and comes up with a very laid-back Sleigh Ride,” wrote Dave Gelly in the Observer.
Last week also saw the release of Coldplay’s seventh album, A Head Full of Dreams, and debut albums from drum’n’bass duo Sigma and former X Factor contestant Fleur East. It’s been a fairly quiet week on our pages, so do let us know what you’re looking forward to hearing as the year winds up.
