On Record: pop, rock and jazz — March 1

ALBUM OF THE WEEK
SOCCER MOMMY
Color Theory
Loma Vista
On her astonishing fourth album, Soccer Mommy (Sophie Allison) plumbs a troubled adolescence of mental health issues and family trauma, arriving at songs both startling and deeply moving in their candour. The Nashville musician’s deftest touch is to set these to soundscapes that are restrained and minimalist, which gives the knife an extra twist. The extraordinary Yellow Is the Color of Her Eyes epitomises this: a finger-picked guitar, shimmering background dynamics, a vocal like a sigh — and lyrics of unblinking matter-of-factness about her mother’s terminal illness. Up the Walls is similarly affecting, with squally, Elliott Smith-like textures accompanying words about a failed relationship; while the spiky dissonance of Lucy underpins a muse about the strange allure of embracing your dark side. “The days thin me out or just burn me straight through,” Allison despairs on Circle the Drain. Yet Color Theory — divided into three sections, Blue, Yellow and Grey — never succumbs to self-pity. It’s far too emotionally intelligent for that. DC
Buy via the ST website

CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS
La Vita Nuova
Because
Musically, the six tracks on Héloïse Letissier’s new EP construct a bridge between Chaleur Humaine and Chris, rather than to new creative territory. But that’s fine, because Letissier does her thing so immaculately. If Off the Wall-era Michael Jackson remains a touchstone, People, I’ve Been Sad might be a lost Michael McDonald song; the forlorn Mountains pulls from the singer some of her most beautiful vocals to date; and the title track, with Caroline Polachek, is a skittering delight. DC

ANGELICA GARCIA
Cha Cha Palace
Spacebomb
You’ll rarely hear music more full of life than this. A bonkers, kaleidoscopic joy, steeped in the Los Angeleno’s Mexican heritage (her mariachi-singer mum and gran both feature), it sets tortilla tales, Latina life and playful politics to multiple genres, with a ranchero twist. Karma the Knife has the sass of the Slits; It Don’t Hinder Me recalls PJ Harvey; Guadalupe conjures up a Mexican Missy Elliott. Sensational. LV
Buy via the ST website

CARIBOU
Suddenly
City Slang
“Suddenly” is right. We expect Dan Snaith’s tracks to come with a warm, soothing glow, and this happens reliably enough on his new Caribou album — but suddenly it gets weird. Pianos detune, looped samples wander off the beat, voices are processed to the point of unintelligibility. You and I starts out with smooth keyboards, but then mutates into shouting over trap beats; Sunny’s Time is pretty piano, but then aggressive rap and thumping machine kick drums. Fascinating. ME
Buy via the ST website

LAUV
How I’m Feeling
Awal
Teenagers love Lauv, whose perky-sounding pop is anything but. The California-born, part-Latvian DIYer with a whopping three billion streams pours digital-age struggles into seemingly simple, ferociously catchy electro bangers and Ed Sheeran-style ballads. Loneliness, parties, phones and depression dominate 21 singalongs; guests include Anne-Marie, Alessia Cara, Troye Sivan and the K-pop superstars BTS. LV
Buy via the ST website

DISQ
Collector
Saddle Creek
Though they’re barely in their twenties, Disq create a sound that owes much to the indie rock of the 1990s and the classic pop of the 1960s. With a video spoofing the TV show The Monkees (“Series 1, Episode 11, Accidental Arsonists”), Daily Routine exemplifies everything wonderful about this band. The frontman, Isaac deBroux-Slone, sings “This is my daily routine/Spend my hours on computer screen” to sounds that somehow combine Weezer’s power-pop riffs with Pavement’s air of impending collapse. ME
Buy via the ST website

JAMES TAYLOR
American Standard
Fantasy
Everyone wants to sing standards. Taylor’s move into this territory benefits from its air of homespun simplicity; and, unlike Dylan, his voice can handle the challenge. Helped by the guitarist John Pizzarelli, the singer-songwriter cuts a gentle but cultured path with the opener, My Blue Heaven, but he also takes risks: who would have thought he would dip into Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat, from Guys and Dolls? CD
Buy via the ST website

SERGIO MENDES
In the Key of Joy
Concord
This gets off to a grim start, with the rapper Common stomping all over Sabor do Rio (much like the Black Eyed Peas vandalised Mas Que Nada a decade ago). Things pick up later, however, as Mendes and his other guests explore a typically breezy, occasionally cloying set of originals. The Brazilian veteran has never really got the respect he deserves for spreading the spirit of samba. The best tunes on this set won’t go down as classics, but they are a testament to his durability. CD
Buy via the ST website

MUST-HAVE REISSUE

IBRAHIM FERRER
Buenos Hermanos
World Circuit
The follow-up to Buena Vista Social Club Presents Ibrahim Ferrer, this 2003 album saw the Cuban singer working once more with Ry Cooder, and was the last recording he made — in a remarkable late-career blossoming — before his death in 2005. (Ferrer had called time on a 40-year singing career, and was shining shoes when he was asked to appear on the original Buena Vista Social Club album.) Cooder has returned to the master tapes, remixed the songs and added four unheard tracks from the sessions. He’s worked real magic on this labour-of-love project, which is available in multiple formats; it turns back time on a buffed-up reissue of an album that, 17 years on, sounds as vibrant and heartfelt as ever. DC
Buy via the ST website

BREAKING ACT

JESHI
Who is he? A rapper from east London who has toured with Slowthai and collaborated with Mura Masa and Celeste (the latter appears on Jeshi’s forthcoming EP). Jeshi’s latest track, Same Songs, is sit-up-and-listen sensational: woozy and slurred one minute, before coming sharply into focus on a warm soul swell of a chorus about being “in a room full of people all alone”, alienation and therapy sessions. It’s already hugely impressive, but when the song morphs into prog, then yacht rock, all your instincts are confirmed: this guy is something else. DC
When’s the music out? Now, on Because; jeshi.lnk.to/samesongs

HOTTEST TRACKS

Mabel: Boyfriend
As brutally efficient a competition-devouring pop song as has ever been written, this latest track from the Brits winner is a precision-tooled, laser-guided monster with only one outcome in mind: a TikTok takeover and streaming ubiquity.
Listen via the ST website

Gorillaz feat Fatoumata Diawara: Désolé
Limber and lilting, this fab, dubby ditty from Damon Albarn and the Malian star uses space as much as sound to cast its beguiling spell.

Orlando Weeks: Safe in Sound
The former Maccabees frontman previews his debut solo album with a song about the miracle of first-time parenthood that, Blue Nile-style, floats and shimmies its way into your heart.
DC