Album: Mark Peters - Red Sunset Dreams

The multi-instrumentalist returns with an album of radiant resolution and sumptuous soundscapes

The word “immersive” has, of late, been hijacked. Now used with conspicuous abandon by everyone from estate agents offering piss-poor 3-D renderings of bang average houses to fancy-dress film screenings, its true meaning has been immolated to the gods of mediocre marketing.

Step forward Engineers multi-instrumentalist Mark Peters, whose new solo album, Red Sunset Dreams, does much to rebalance the scales and restore order for those who like their dives deep and their sound surround. 

Music Reissues Weekly: The Best of Roxy Music

THE BEST OF ROXY MUSIC What was on CD two decades ago reappears on vinyl

What was on CD two decades ago reappears on vinyl

In summer 2001, The Best of Roxy Music reached number 12 on the album charts. The 18-track compilation tied-in with the band’s reunion tour, which kicked off that June. Original band members Bryan Ferry, Andy MacKay, Phil Manzanera and Paul Thompson came together for the dates. They’d last played live in May 1983, after which they split.

Album: Blackpink - Born Pink

The "Pink Venom" of capitalism concentrated to its purest form... yet

This album – and its already multi-100 million stream single “Pink Venom” – starts off with a twang of Korean traditional instruments, a background chant of “blaaaackpink”, a monumentally crunching hip hop beat and  OH DEAR GOD ARE THEY DOING A JAMAICAN ACCENT? Well yes, Korean pop gigastar Jennie of Blackpink does indeed start their second album with a patois-inflected “kick in the door, waving the Coco”. Amazingly that’s not even the weirdest thing about the opening either.

Album: Marcus Mumford - (Self-Titled)

★★★ MARCUS MUMFORD - (SELF-TITLED) The Mumford & Sons frontman finds catharsis in his solo debut

The Mumford & Sons frontman finds catharsis in his solo debut

I can still taste you and I hate it/That wasn’t a choice in the mind of a child and you knew it/You took the first slice of me and you ate it raw/Ripped at it with your teeth and your lips like a cannibal/You fucking animal.” 

Album: Marina Allen - Centrifics

★★★★ MARINA ALLEN - CENTRIFICS US singer-songwriter’s second album eschews templates

US singer-songwriter’s jazz-tinged second album eschews templates

Marina Allen’s singing voice fluctuates between the conversational and the flutingly melodic. In one song, she can be asking “Why do I sing my song for you” in a no-nonsense Randy Newman manner and then shift into a series of spiralling, ascending arpeggios. Centrifics, her second album, is about contrasts.

Album: Suede - Autofiction

★★★ SUEDE - AUTOFICTION Wistful post-punk thuggery from Britpop's comeback kings

Wistful post-punk thuggery from Britpop's comeback kings

Suede were both prototypes and outliers of the Britpop pack, and their 2010 reunion managed a rare, creatively substantial second act; given their resurrection after guitarist Bernard Butler’s fractious 1994 exit, this may even be the band’s epic, open-ended Act 3.

Music Reissues Weekly: The Sons of Adam - Saturday's Sons: The Complete Recordings 1964-1966

THE SONS OF ADAM Saturday's Sons: The Complete Recordings 1964-1966

Definitive, long-overdue collection of the Sixties California garage punks

 “We played the Rolling Stones concert at Long Beach Arena. The Stones came on, and it was the first time that any band had ever done better than us. I was very angry about that.” Randy Holden was The Sons of Adam’s guitarist. He was pretty certain of his own band’s impact in November 1964.

Album: Star Feminine Band - In Paris

★★ STAR FEMININE BAND - IN PARIS Protest songs by teenage band from Benin

Protest songs by teenage band from Benin

The Star Feminine Band are from Benin, all of them under 18, the youngest only 12. They hail from a village in the north of their small country tucked between Togo and Nigeria. Their pop-inflected mix of high life, Congolese rhumba and other trans-African styles is as ebullient as it comes, and probably very infectious on the dance floor.