(Interscope)
Despite their goth-coded attempts at emotional turbulence, the saccharine songs of Abrams’ third album feel adolescent in their melodrama

(Secretly Canadian)
The US songwriter paints an impressively wide variety of shades on her third album, from vintage R&B to melodic soft-rock and balladry worthy of Nina Simone

(Wren Cathedral)
Inspired by communal Hebridean Gaelic song and ceremonial music, these reels and ballads reveal the fascinating proximity of post-rock and folk rock

Rennert/Konradi/Peter/Keenlyside/Middleton
(Signum)
This collection of songs that the composer wrote as a young man is full of interest and emotion. Pianist Joseph Middleton brings sensitive support and an array of illustrative colours

Park/Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin/Egel
(BIS)
The young violinist pairs contrasting works by Goldmark and Sibelius in engaging and fluid performances

(Third Man)
Following the superb No Name, White continues his fan service with stripped back songs and nasty, anarchic riffs – though it all ends up feeling a little samey

(Polydor)
Continuing the rejuvenated sound of 2023’s Hackney Diamonds, there’s touching vulnerability from Keith Richards while Jagger confronts war and autocracy

(Fixed Abode x Unsound)
The festival-formed quartet conjures an album of glacial sound design and elegiac grandeur, though it can get too moody for its own good

(Capitol)
Amid signs of greatness, the already hugely popular British singer fails to live up to her potential, lacking vocal agility and lyrical subtlety

Shaham/Virginia Symphony Orchestra/Jacobsen
(Canary Classics)
The US violinist’s plush tone and laser-focused intonation enriches the solo line in these two violin concertos, with the Virginia Symphony light on its feet

von Otter/Komische Oper Berlin/Benzwi
(BIS)
This enjoyably eclectic recital from the ever consummate Von Otter highlights the aesthetic friction between romantic ballads, saucy burlesque, cinematic dreamscapes and political firecrackers

(Warner)
After years spent chasing trends like trap and Latin pop, Madonna settles back​ nicely into​ old-school dance music to tell vivid vignettes of life in 80s New York

(Flee)
A treasure trove of field recordings are reshaped into pulsating floor-fillers and sparse baile funk by a range of producers

(Sub Pop)
The Rhode Island five-piece return with a ferocious rallying call to fight for your beliefs, with bouncing basslines, muted house chords and stomping drums

(Rubicon)
The Indonesian musician impresses in his debut solo recording of Godowsky’s Java Suite and Stravinsky’s piano arrangement of Petrushka

(Warner)
From Count Dracula organ to choirs crying in Latin, the Devon band are scenery-chewingly preposterous​ yet nuanced on this epic about extraterrestrial life

(Ibeyi)
Newly independent and proudly self-sufficient, Naomi and Lisa-Kaindé Diaz mix ancient lore with heavy bass, and harmonies with distortion, to incantatory effect

(ECM)
Lovano and his spirited quartet make his instrument glow in all its pliable eloquence, with rattling originals amid the Charlie Haden and Wayne Shorter covers

Gerhardt/WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln/Manze
(Hyperion)
Alban Gerhardt eschews the romantic, heart-on-sleeve interpretations of these famous concertos, and finds nobility and poetry even in the most turbulent music

Ehnes/Armstrong
(Seattle Chamber Music Society)
The Canadian violinist and American pianist – musical partners for over three decades – bring assurance and grace to these three violin sonatas written by Brahms in his creative prime.