Björk // Fossora

Björk’s 10th studio album is her most arresting and relatable in years, and deploys 13 tracks of avant-garde music based around key themes of familial loss, emotional complexity and fungi. It finds the Icelandic singer in extremely confident and innovative form, dodging obvious genres or even song structures. Whatever this music is, it feels a long way from pop. At this point in her career, Björk is a world-renowned musical auteur with a body of work and influence that goes beyond actual fandom. Each album, and this is a trend throughout her catalogue, is conceived as a direct digression from (or response to) the previous one. It keeps her music fresh and her artistic integrity intact. ‘Fossora’ is full of inquisitive explorations and artistic bravery. She is one of Europe’s greatest living musicians. // Jacob Brookman

Listen: Sorrowful Soil

Beyoncé // Renaissance

Whereas her previous solo full-length ‘Lemonade’ was seen as her complex magnum opus, Beyoncé’s 2022 return is an effervescent, celebratory delight. Taking its aesthetic cues from the whole history of Black dance music, from house and disco to dancehall and gospel, the more one absorbs the sixteen tracks of ‘Renaissance’, the more sophisticated its fusion of sounds becomes. Encapsulated by the brilliant six-minute centrepiece Virgo’s Groove, what’s perhaps most admirable about ‘Renaissance’ is that it never feels retro or stuck in the past, just explosively vibrant in its embrace of all that pop music has been and can be. // Tom Morgan  

Listen: Break My Soul

Fontaines DC // Skinty Fia

The rapid ascent of these Irish post-punk champions reached an impressive zenith on their intrepid third album. Brooding through notions of heritage and lineage, while dissecting how vicious inner devils often undermine heroic intent, ‘Skinty Fia’ is a sonically expansive, missile strike of bleak claustrophobic rock soundscapes, haunted vocals and distressed melodic poetry. Reflecting how the band’s world view and cultural…