";s:4:"text";s:5293:" (Helen Brown)With praise from Kendrick Lamar, five EPs released by the time she was 21, tours with Lauryn Hill, collaborations with Gorillaz and two critically praised albums – including 2017’s excellent concept album Stillness in Wonderland – fans and critics alike wondered what else Little Simz could do to find the kind of mainstream success enjoyed by so many of her male peers. Where most rock superstars sink into trad tedium by 69, Springsteen is still crafting sophisticated paeans of depth and illumination, a rock grandmaster worthy of the accolade. At an age where the pressure is on to have everything worked out, Harding sounds delightfully free. will be published daily in dedicated articles. She embraces her pain, and as a consequence is able to let it go. Log in to update your newsletter preferencesPlease The most insightful comments on all subjects (Elisa Bray)Rose – who found fame in the UK’s indie-folk scene as an unofficial member of Bombay Bicycle Club in 2010, only to walk away amid the band’s growing hype – is darkly compelling on No Words Left. Written in the aftermath of Hackman’s split from fellow musician Amber Bain – aka The Japanese House, who released her own reflection on their break-up on her debut album Good at Falling – Any Human Friend is a satisfyingly dismal affair that is certainly not suitable for the four-year-old who inspired it. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? “Crying Your Eyes Out” appears to be a sombre piano ballad until it ramps up the angst with plaintive vocals, conjuring up a storm with swirling rhythms. Musically, she’s developed her arrangements and become bolder, too. “Fringe Runner” is so sleek and funksome it could be a New Romantic “White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It)”; “Kim’s Sunsets” is a piece of refined cosmic reggae resembling a blissed-out “Bankrobber”. She joins forces once again with PJ Harvey collaborator John Harvey, and also enlists Welsh musicians Stephen Black (Sweet Baboo) and Huw Evans (H Hawkline) plus Clare Mactaggart on violin, giving Designer a generously textured feel. “All Over Town” is their singalong anthem, neatly positioned in the middle to ease the pace. But listened to as a whole, the album positively thrums with sonic invention, managing to feel both fresh and full of intrigue. The production here is superb. Andrew Fearn’s beats are no longer just the backdrop, they’re threatening to take over this album. Ma Fleur was emotive and piano-led, its themes of mortality and the passage of life captured so evocatively in the Patrick Watson collaboration “To Build a Home” – which went on to soundtrack every TV show from Grey’s Anatomy to Orange is the New Black. and Bleachers. (Roisin O'Connor)The record is loosely conceptual insomuch as it’s punctuated with mock adverts for “WWAY HEALTH, our 24/7 care programme”. they can to create a true meeting of independent Premium. Her whispering, spectral delivery and deeply personal lyrics are the key to this. Neither of those is a particularly accurate description, but they do at least fit the album’s refusal to loiter in any one genre. Neither of those is a particularly accurate description, but they do at least fit the album’s refusal to loiter in any one genre. Then she growls like an Icelandic volcano preparing to disrupt western civilisation until we sort ourselves out. But where the 2017 Nordic Music Prize-winning Blood Bitch was packed with visceral imagery and disarming sonics, the themes of The Practice of Love are encased in a warm cocoon of poetry, blissed-out circling synths and trance-like Nineties beats. She sings about the fear of the unknown on “Flying Blind” – her steely determination on this record has you believing that she’ll take the leap regardless. The pummelling force of We Are Not Your Kind should be enough to silence them – this may be one of the band’s most personal records, but the rage they capture is universally felt. Amo won’t satisfy all of BMTH’s fans, but it’s certainly accomplished, catchy and eclectic enough to bring in some new ones.