Rob Walbers, Maria Cecilia Tedemalm, Jack Finnigan Image by Anohni with Nomi Ruiz © Rebis Music 2023, Ellius Grace, Eimear Lynch, Tonje Thilesen, Peter Crosby, Alexander Richter, Astor Morgan, Ben Semisch, Edward Bishop, Francesca Pidgeon, Ingrid Pop, Stephen Booth

1 YOUNG FATHERS

Drum

A highlight of the Edinburgh band’s fourth LP. “They sound like they’re having a ball,” wrote MOJO’s Tom Doyle, “whether expressing the sheer delight to be found in rhythm or indulging in daft punning.”

Written by Bankole, Hastings, Massaquoi. Published by Just Isn’t Music. &©2023 Ninja Tune. From Heavy Heavy (Ninja Tune). www.ninjatune.net/www.young-fathers.com

2 THE TUBS

Round

The Bend “I want to write about how bad mental health can make you a prick. There’s nothing virtuous about it,” Tubs frontman Owen Williams told us, explaining frenetic janglers like Round The Bend. For fans of Sugar’s If I Can’t Change Your Mind.

Written by Williams, Nicholls, Warren, Stonholdt. &©2023 The Tubs/Trouble In Mind Records. From Dead Meat (Trouble In Mind Records); www. troubleinmindrecords.com

3 THE CORAL

Oceans

Apart A highlight of The Coral’s 11th album, the band’s ever-maturing songcraft augmented by string arrangements from High Llama Sean O’Hagan. Note, too, the closing soliloquy from Cillian Murphy: blurring the edges between ocean and desert, fact and fiction.

Written by J. Skelly, I. Skelly, N. Power, S. O’Hagan. Published by Domino. &©Run On Records in association with Modern Sky UK. From Sea Of Mirrors. ISRC UKWX82100752

lius Grace, Eimear Lynch, Tonje Thilesen, Peter Crosby, Alexander Richter, Astor Morgan, Ben Semisch, Edward Bishop, France

4 ANOHNI AND THE JOHNSONS

Scapegoat

Curtis Mayfield guitar flecks elide into one climax after another, as Anohni gracefully, but unstintingly, skewers misogyny. Has she ever sounded so soulful?

Written by Anohni Hegarty, Jimmy Hogarth. 2023 Rebis Music under exclusive licence to Rough Trade Records Limited. Published by Downtown Music Publishing. ISRC no. GB-CVZ-22-00470. Licensed courtesy of Rough Trade Records Limited by arrangement with Beggars Group Media Limited. www.roughtraderecords.com

5 LANKUM

Clear Away

In The Morning A 1971 sea shanty by New England folkie Gordon Bok, radically reinvented by the Irish radicals at their most cosmic and expansive.

Written by Cormac Dermody, Daragh Lynch, Gordon Bok, Ian Lynch, John Murphy, Radie Peat. 2023 Lankum under exclusive licence to Rough Trade Records Limited. Published by Beggars Music ISRC no. GB-CVZ-22-00427 Licensed courtesy of Rough Trade Records Limited by arrangement with Beggars Group Media Limited www. roughtraderecords.com

6 GRIAN CHATTEN

All Of The People

The Fontaines D.C. frontman’s original plan for his solo debut was “wildly experimental. Like, Let’s do a techno tune, let’s do a hip-hop tune, a Cohen-esque tune…” Here, perhaps, is the Cohen-esque tune, a piano ballad flowering into rueful chamber pop.

Written by Chatten, Vicci. Published by Domino and Bucks Music Group. From Chaos For The Fly (Partisan Records); https://partisanrecords.com/

7 JULIE BYRNE

Portrait Of A Clear Day

The nature of Byrne’s The Greater Wings focused as much on the consolations of memory as on the pain of grief, exemplified here on this spectrally gorgeous cut. Amidst heartbreaking thoughts of her late partner, Eric Littmann, Byrne asserts, “What we’ve known/I’ll carry that through time.”

Written by J. Byrne. Published by Mute Song Limited (PRS); &©2023 Ghostly International. From The Greater Wings

8 WILCO

Meant To Be

If Wilco’s 13th pondered how to reconcile art-pop with Jeff Tweedy’s “big softie” tendency, Meant To Be provided resolution: “If my words say what you meant to say/Doesn’t that say we were meant to feel this way?”

Written by Jeff Tweedy. Performed by Wilco. Produced by Cate Le Bon. Publisher: Words Ampersand Music (BMI)-Administered by BMG. Label: dBpm Records. Licensed dBpm Records Inc. c/o Provident Financial Management. www. wilcoworld.net

9 BILLY WOODS & KENNY SEGAL

FaceTime (Feat. Sam Herring)

New York rapper Billy Woods meditates on the disorientations of life on the road – “flying EasyJet/Bratislava to Utrecht” – and finds a kindred spirit in Future Islands frontman Sam Herring, looking for epihanies at the hotel breakfast buffet.

Written by Billy Woods & Samuel T Herring. Produced by Kenny Segal. &©2023 Backwoodz Studioz. From Maps (Backwoodz Studioz/Fat Possum Records)

Rob Walbers, Maria Cecilia Tedemalm, Jack Finnigan Image by Anohni with Nomi Ruiz © Rebis Music 2023, Ell

10 RICKIE LEE JONES

Just In Time RLJ purrs through the 1956 chestnut, once crooned by Frank, Dean, et al. Dire Straits sideman Mike Mainieri provides equally nimble support on vibes.

Written by Jule Styne, Betty Comden, Adolph Green. Stratford Music Corporation (ASCAP) Produced by Russ Titelman 2023 Rickie Lee Jones under exclusive licence to BMG Rights Management (US) LLC. Licensed courtesy of BMG Rights Management (UK) Ltd. From Pieces Of Treasure. ISRC:

QMRSZ2203398

11 JAIMIE BRANCH

Baba Louie

The story of the great, tragically fallen trumpeter is told on page 56. Here she’s at her most joyous, propelling her band – via horn and vocal exhortations – through carnival jazz-calypso and into deeper, dubbed-out, skanking zones.

Written by Jaimie Branch. Published by Pionic Worldwide Publishing BMI. From Fly Or Die Fly Or Die Fly Or Die ((World War)). &©2023 International Anthem www.intlanthem.com

12 EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL

Run A Red Light

Tracey Thorn sings intimately of a DJ yearning for a bigger stage is cushioned by iPhone piano loops that build into a “dreamlike ether” akin to I’m Not In Love. “We did think, That sounds quite like 10cc,” Ben Watt admitted to MOJO. “But it wasn’t intentional.”

Written by Watt. Published by Sony/ATV Music Publishing. From Fuse. &©2023 Buzzin’ Fly. www.ebtg.com

13 BC CAMPLIGHT

The Last Rotation Of Earth

R. Stevie Moore, a Tesco delivery man and a talking bird team up to help Brian Christinzio come out the other side of heartbreak on this piano-stepping showstopper. Ends, fittingly, with a big bang.

Written by Brian Christinzio. Published by Faber &©2023 Bella Union under exclusive licence to [PIAS]. From The Last Rotation Of Earth (Bella Union Records)

14 SLOWDIVE

Shanty

Strong Dark Side Of The Moon vibes at the start of this choice selection from Slowdive’s latest comeback, before the trademark wall of FX phase in. Meaning, traditionally, remains elusive: “Being vague isn’t unusual for us,” Neil Halstead told us. “I don’t really know what the record is about, or most of the songs.”

Written by N. Halstead. Published by Warp Publishing (PRS); &©2023 Dead Oceans. From Everything Is Alive

15 ROBERT FORSTER

Tender Years

“There is a story to tell,” sings Forster, and the one that unravels in Tender Years – and underpins all of his eighth solo album – is a 33-year epic charting his relationship with wife Karin Bäumler. One of his finest, and most moving, songs.

Written by Forster. Published by Tapete Songs, &©2023 Tapete Records. From The Candle And The Flame. (Tapete Records TR525), ISRC DEU162306001, www.tapeterecords.com