The London singer-songwriter’s low-lit, funky songs wring drama out of minimal arrangements, evoking Janet Jackson and 00s R&B In the opening moments of her self-titled debut album, London-based musician Fabiana Palladino sets a distinct vibe: funky, low-lit, sensuous, evoking peak-era Janet Jackson and the glamorous R&B-pop of the early 00s in equal measure. Even more impressive: she manages to hold on to that mood for the entirety of the record. This may be Palladino’s first album, but she’s already an incredibly gifted producer and songwriter, able to wring fabulous drama out of slo ..read more

(Paul Institute/XL) The musician’s long-gestating debut album melds killer tunes to grimy distortion and the scuffed gloss of Jam and Lewis-era Janet Jackson, and marks the flowering of an original pop voice Describing debut albums as long-awaited is par for the course, but in Fabiana Palladino’s case it’s also perfectly true. It’s been 13 years since she started self-releasing her songs online, and seven since she was announced as the first signing to Paul Institute, a label that seems to share the admirably unhurried approach of its co-founder, Jai Paul. Few figures in 21st-century pop seem ..read more

Ariana Grande, SZA and Kacey Musgraves are just a few of the musicians to invoke astral powers in their songs. It’s a reach for relatability – but what does it mean for songwriting? Seven years ago, I was flicking through a magazine at the hairdresser’s when I came to my horoscope. My eye was caught by a line informing me and my fellow Pisceans that we were in the final stretch of a punishing three-year visit from Saturn, the “taskmaster planet”, but pretty soon everything was going to be fine. It sounds anodyne – but I needed to hear it. I was 25 and mired in my first real heartbreak, two yea ..read more

(Republic) Post-divorce, the American pop star returns with a sumptuous collection that has just the right amount of bite It’s getting on for four years since Ariana Grande released the loved-up Positions, a soft-focus celebration of her future husband, Dalton Gomez. On this loosely conceptual follow-up she unpicks that relationship’s speedy demise, while also contending with new love and the tabloid fallout from it. Lead single Yes, And? neatly sums up Grande’s attitude towards rumours and parasocial probing: “Your business is yours and mine is mine/ Why do you care so much whose dick I ride ..read more

(Interscope) The Philadelphia rapper takes her Missy Elliott-gone-Sesame Street vibe to a darker place on her debut album proper Hailed as her generation’s answer to Missy Elliott, Philadelphia rapper Tierra Whack has been celebrated not just for her lyrical dexterity but for her commitment to goofiness. Her exuberant debut mini-album, Whack World (2018), clocked in at 15 one-minute tracks; a clutch of EPs and some standalone singles consolidated her effervescence across different genres. Last year’s award-winning thriller/spoof documentary about Whack, Cypher, also attested to the weirdness t ..read more

She’s a muse to megastars, a champion of Lego and raps about her imaginary friend – but behind the whimsy is a street-hardened MC confronting grief and depression • This article contains discussion of suicide There’s a video of Tierra Whack filmed when she was 15, dressed in dull pink knitwear on the corner of a Philadelphia street, surrounded by older guys smoking weed. “Rapping is my destiny / Especially for these hysterectomies who be testing me / You deaf to me / You’re not hearing what I’m sharing like an uncaring parent …” Words pour out of her in an a cappella freestyle to camera, more ..read more

Artists have previously only managed four wins in one ceremony, capping an astonishing year for the British singer who was once left in major label limbo Brits 2024 liveblog – as it happened Brits 2024: full list of winners Comment: Raye’s record-breaking Brits defied the limited imaginations of the British music industry Three years ago she was lost in limbo at a major label, publicly lashing out with frustration at not being allowed to release an album. Now, the ultra-versatile British pop singer Raye has won six Brit awards in one year, smashing the previous record of four held by Harry S ..read more

The winners of every category at the 2024 Brits, updated as the ceremony progresses • Brit awards 2024: women dominate as Raye scores record-smashing six wins • Brit awards 2024: as it happened Blur – The Ballad of Darren J Hus – Beautiful and Brutal Yard Little Simz – No Thank You Raye – My 21st Century Blues – WINNER! Young Fathers – Heavy Heavy ..read more

The singer is back in business – and so, in some detail, is her storied relationship with Ben Affleck, on her first album in a decade Your tolerance for Jennifer Lopez’s first album in a decade will depend on how invested you are in the return of Bennifer, AKA her relationship with professional meme generator and actor Ben Affleck. The sequel to 2002’s This Is Me... Then, released when the pair were first engaged (they split in 2004), This Is Me... Now depicts their reunion, their marriage and their passionate lovemaking in eye-opening detail (there’s also an accompanying film). The syrupy Mad ..read more

(Secretly Canadian) The soundtrack to Josiah White’s 2023 theatre production is exultant and uninhibited, but overly reliant on Auto-Tune and the odd dodgy guest spot This isn’t Josiah Wise’s coming out album. Almost everything the American with stunning Christian-choir vocals has recorded as Serpentwithfeet is stamped with the desire lines of queer love. Yet Grip is far more lascivious and uninhibited than 2021’s love-fuddled Deacon, with a glossy, clubby feel that’s bounds away from the unearthly, recherché goth-gospel pioneered on his debut, Soil. The extroversion is because Grip soundtrack ..read more