As befits an album preceded by lofty claims and vaulting ambition, A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships is long. Very, very long. Last year, Matt Healy stated that the next album The 1975 produced had to be an OK Computer or The Queen Is Dead for our times, and gave journalists up and down the country a convenient strapline in waiting. The truth is that it’s more like their Sandinista!

There was barely a black-clothed, white-faced Numanoid in sight in the packed auditorium of the Royal Albert Hall as Gary Numan made his first ever appearance at the Victorian concert hall. His fans appear to have left that kohl-eyed look behind them as they’ve aged over the four decades since he first broke into the charts with Tubeway Army, but their love for him seems undimmed.

Many established artists, when out on tour, can get all a bit bashful about their new material. In fact, it’s not unusual for bands to hide a couple of new tunes in the middle of their live set with embarrassed mumbling about “you don’t really want to hear the new stuff anyway” before launching into a note-perfect rendition of a tune that was a hit several years previously.

Pram are an experimental pop band from Moseley in Birmingham, who specialise in creating quirky soundscapes, eerie songs and whoozy instrumentals using all manner of strange instruments. They are also unlikely to ever achieve a mass following.

Disc of the Day reviews new albums, week in, week out, all year. Below are the albums to which our writers awarded five stars. Click on any one of them to find out why.

Baxter Dury, Etienne de Crécy and Delilah Holliday - B.E.D. ★★★★★ A small but perfectly sleazy work of sweary, cynical brilliance

It’s been a tough few years for Sŵn Festival. Once a genuine rival to fellow urban festivals Great Escape and Sound City, recent events have fluctuated between one-dayers and a string of ticketed gigs. 2018 marked the biggest change yet, but also a return to the multi-day, multi-venue format. Founders Huw Stephens and John Rostron announced they were handing over the reigns to Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff’s leading music venue.

Think of Karen "MØ" Andersen and you may well picture one of her smash hit videos. "Lean On", for instance, where the singer gyrates to a Bollywood/ house mashup. Or "Kamikaze" set in post-apocalyptic Ukraine. Yet, for all the Zeitgeist-y imagery what really made those songs so popular was really just simple youthful exuberance. "Forever Neverland" sounds like it should offer much of the same. Instead, it feels curiously grown-up.

MØ, it would seem, has moved in from her recent incarnation as the singer of Diplo pop songs. Diplo - the producer responsible for both "Lean On" and "Kamikaze" - only appears, here, on one song, "Sun in Our Eyes", a sweet slice of Balearic electro-pop. Still, his influence isn't entirely absent. Rather MØ has absorbed some of the superstar DJ's mojo, and mixed it with some Danish quirkiness.

The results feature some real nuggets. Top of the pile are "Mercy" and "Blur" both of which hark back to MØ's indie roots. The former is a particular gem -  a slow-burning torch song that finds the singer at the peak of her vocal prowess. The elasticity of her voice, and her dynamic range is on a par with technical mistresses like Sia and Adele. "Blur" is much grungier with Graham Coxon-style acoustic guitars, and a languid melody.

MØ's voice also shines through on many of the electronic numbers. The best are the least self-conscious. "Beautiful Wreck" has a catchy electro-pop vibe, featuring a cool bass vocoder effect. "Red Wine" couldn't come as more of a contrast. Its Ace-of-Base-reggae-style is so wilfully uncool it's hard not to love it.

It's only where the album starts to take itself too seriously that things begin to drag. "It's All Over" featuring the usually irrepressible Charli XCX, sounds strangely po-faced. There are also a handful of tracks, such as "I Want You", where slick production seems to have been favoured over quality tunes. Of course, you have to admire MØ's decision not to include earlier hit singles initially intended for the LP in the finished version. But it makes the quality a little uneven. Then again, who still listens to albums all the way through, anyway? There's more than enough material here to confirm the Danish singer as not only one of the most interesting artists of her generation but also one of the best singers.

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@russcoffey

Overleaf: MØ's lyric video for "Blur"

Collaboration clearly suits Neneh Cherry. From co-writing with husband Cameron McVey, to projects with Youssou N’Dour, her band cirKus, The Thing and RocketNumberNine, the give-and-take of partnership has produced some stunning work that has always seen the singer give as much as she has taken. 

Cherry is an honest, open performer and that translates to her vocal style. Much attention has been focused on the involvement of Keiron “Four Tet” Hebden as producer on this project, and his trademark sparkle is much in evidence with carefully controlled clatter and subtle rewinds sitting behind sparkles and fizz, but perhaps the deftest touch is giving Cherry’s voice the space to shine. 

Her tonal signature is so identifiable, so incredibly attractive, that it needs to dominate, and that’s exactly what it does, Cherry’s trademark vibrato riding the wave. It remains impressively raw and honest throughout, never imperious, never showy. It’s a voice that needs to be heard rather than demanding it. 

Eschewing shrieking acrobatics in favour of subtler signifiers of emotion, Cherry’s voice is perfectly suited to Hebden’s production, which is every bit as nuanced and makes for an impressive continuity through a range of diverse tempos and hues. At one end of the spectrum sits “Synchronised Devotion”, the delicate sound of history quietly colliding. The gentle piano lines come clouded in the sitting-room echo of nostalgia, while a vibraphone and Cherry’s voice are right up in the mix, front and centre. Its neighbour, “Deep Vein Thrombosis”, follows a similar pace but with a darker, more sombre intent, something of a recurring theme in a thoughtful, reflective collection. 

At the other end, “Natural Skin Deep” is a ferociously funk-driven stormer, the rolling skate of the steel band sample helping to keep a sense of momentum and purpose before everything collapses through the doors of a jazz club at the signal of an air horn. It’s only a brief respite, the song sprinting off as soon as it hears its cue again. 

In between these points lie some of Cherry’s most satisfying songs to date, including the static-soaked skank of recent single “Kong”, all buoyed by sympathetic and symbiotic production. It all adds up to a completely satisfying synthesis.

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@jahshabby 

Overleaf: watch the video for "Kong"