New releases today: All genres

Review: Imagine you're in for a long car journey and can only take one Suede album, which one do you take? Well, this is the one, really. Reissued as an expanded 3CD set, it features all their best b-sides from the hallowed first three albums (Suede (1993), Dog Man Star (1994) and Coming Up (1996), plus a further 19 B-sides and extra tracks from 1999 to 2023. It's the extra, latter day era numbers that are getting a standalone release on vinyl for Record Store Day as Sci-Fi Lullabies Vol.2, but with this CD set you get everything lumped in together as a bumper package. The tracklist is ridiculous: 'The Sadness in You, the Sadness in Me' from 2022 is a power ballad that could stir the most stoic of hearts. 'Another No One' is a slow, achingly beautiful and melancholy number and 'Europe Is Our Playground' - clearly written pre-Brexit - celebrates a golden Schengen era: "From Spain to Camber Sands/Europe is our playground."

Review: Some 13 years have now passed since Mississippi Records started reissuing private press albums by Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru, an Ethiopian Orthodox nun, pianist and composer whose naturally religious-inspired works frequently took spiritual music to fascinating new places. Here the label turns its attention to 1972's Church of Kidane Mehret, notable not only for being recorded live in various churches across Jerusalem, but also for the use of harmonium and pipe organ as well as Emehoy's beloved piano. The original album, which in line with her other album features intricate and mood-enhancing solo translations of orthodox liturgies, has here been expanded via the inclusion of two further piano pieces from 1963's ultra-rare Der Sang Des Reeres - a set of which only 50 copies were ever produced.

Review: This 2017 remaster revisits Paul McCartney's 1989 return to critical favour i a release that saw the UK artist bridging new studio technology with classic songwriting craft. Working with Elvis Costello on several co-writes, and producers including Trevor Horn, Mitchell Froom and Steve Lipson, the record pulls in tight arrangements, layered instrumentation and a refreshed lyrical sharpness. Tracks like 'My Brave Face' and 'This One' pair bounce and brightness with detailed melodic phrasing, while deeper cuts like 'Don't Be Careless Love' and 'That Day Is Done' show a darker, more reflective register. The band lineup features long-time collaborators including Hamish Stuart, Robbie McIntosh and Chris Whitten, laying down solid, versatile performances across brass-led pop, mid-tempo ballads and soft rock with orchestral touches. It's a reissue that doesn't add much new material, but the pressing is clean and the Japanese-translated lyric booklet adds an archival touch. A sharply focused, musically rich snapshot of McCartney reasserting himself in the late 80s, with arrangements that still hold shape and detail decades on.

Review: During interviews promoting their 11th album, Escape The Chaos, 90s trip-hop heavyweights Morcheeba have naturally been in a nostalgic and introspective mood; after all, it appears almost 30 years to the day from the release of the popular duo's debut single. Musically, it feels like a warming, string-laden, head-nodding blast from the past, with core members Skye Edwards and Ross Gordon being joined on the record by various musically gifted friends and family members. Fans will particularly love songs like 'We Live And Die', a John Barry Bond theme-esque exploration of their own undulating history, the rap-sporting mid-90s trip-hop blast of 'Peace of Me (featuring Oscar #Worldpeace)' and the languid, low-slung 'Call For Love', where Edwards is at her most lyrically alluring.

Review: Last year, the Hartnoll brothers gave their debut album, 1991's 'Green Album' (officially simply titled Orbital) the deluxe reissue treatment, offering an expanded quadruple CD edition backed with a detail-packed hardback book. They've now moved on to its similarly superb sequel (the 'Brown Album') from 1993. It gets a similar treatment, with a freshly remastered version of the original album (CD1) being joined by two discs of single versions, B-sides, remixes and 'Peel Session' cuts (including legendary Underworld and Psychik Warriors Ov Gaia takes on 'Lush 3', and the duo's own originally US-only extension of 'Impact'), and a fourth CD containing a previously unreleased live recording from the Limelight in New York in 1992. Oh, and a fine hardback book telling the story of the album. An early Christmas present for Orbital fans!

Review: There's a strong argument to be made that 1993's Orbital II, popularly known as 'The Brown Album', is the Hartnoll brothers' finest single album - a sublime fusion of bustling breakbeats, heady vocal samples (many provided by then unknown vocalist Alison Goldfrapp), twisted acid lines, memorable melodic motifs, and rush-inducing breakdowns. Here reissued in remastered and expanded form, the set - which includes fan favourites 'Lush 3', 'Halcyon' and the superb 'Impact (The Earth is Burning)' the album sounds as fresh and forthright as ever. This time round, it includes a second CD featuring key cuts from the two-part 'Raddicio' EP (including two takes on the Scott Walker-sampling 'The Naked & The Dead') and superb revisions of Lush 3 by Underworld and Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia.

Review: Up there with other shoegaze trailblazers like Lush, My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive, Pale Saints set the bar for dreamy, eerie and atmospheric guitar music and have influenced countless bands sketching out similar sounds since. This third album of theirs, which is now getting the full re-release treatment after being long out of print, saw them achieve new pop heights. The three-minute banger 'Angel (Will You Be My)' and 'Under Your Nose' are particularly strong in this regard, with singer Meriel Barham sounding like she laid the foundation for what The Orielles would go on to become. Elsewhere, 'Henry' - a more than ten-minute epic - shows a more harrowing, dark side of theirs with slow and tuned down tones leaning more towards sludge metal. Pale Saints' ability to express themselves so diversely puts them up there as hallowed forefathers of shoegaze who will never lose relevance.

Review: Ron and Russell Mael's 28th album as Sparks finds the eccentric, iconic sibling duo in typically fun and forthright form. Ironically titled MAD! - a label that has been used plenty of times to describe their self-contained sound world - the set sees them offer up frequently lightly satirical songs inspired by such subjects as branded packpacks (the gloriously silly 'JanSport Backpack'), performative devotion, toxic banter and online influencer culture - all soundtracked by the brothers' unique musical blend of fuzzy guitars, new wave synth-pop sounds, over-the-top operatic references and oddball electronic noises. Basically, it's a Sparks album - and an excellent one at that.

Review: Stereolab have somehow transcended into alt music royalty and are often cited by some of the most adventurous music listeners in the world as one of the top bands. This release is their first in 15 years, which in many ways is more exciting as absence makes the heart grow fonder. The album before this - Not Music - came out in 2010. They announced this album with the cut 'Aerial Troubles', which was originally sent to fans and music journalists as a 7" titled Unsolicited Stereolab Material. A nice surprise to have in the post, but with no real context. Now we know that it's the bouncy, oddly danceable second track on the album. In terms of layering and building of sonic worlds, few fare better than Stereolab and they also have an ear for a hook, bringing in indie and experimental music fans to a common cause.

Review: Southend's These New Puritans have a rare ability to create goosebump-inducing music. A big part of is is Jack Barnett's voice, which is truly up there with the likes of Thom Yorke and Hayden Thorpe's in terms of being able to tug at the heartstrings and create grandiose spellbinding atmospheres. Plus, the arrangements that accompany it are of elite level and taste. This new album is their fifth studio album since forming in 2006 and offers plenty in the way of diversity. 'A Season In Hell' is a wild mix of industrial, organ music, trip-hop and choir sounds. Elsewhere, 'Bells' is less intense and let's the atmosphere form gradually and luxuriously. If you want a record to properly blow your socks off, let it be this.

Review: A decade has now passed since long-serving British DJ Pete Tong joined forces with arranger/conductor Jules Buckley to create covers of classic dance anthems with the help of the latter's expansive Heritage Orchestra collective. Since then, there have been countless concerts and albums - the latter frequently featuring vocal performances from high-profile artists. This tenth anniversary 'best of' collection is therefore welcome. There are some new standalone 'edits' of tracks previously featured on medleys - see 'Finally' (featuring Jessie Ware), 'Man With The Red Face', 'Yeke Yeke' and the sweeping, soaring 'Cafe Del Mar' - but otherwise you're getting fan favourites and familiar anthems, including tasty versions of Orbital's 'Belfast', Adamski's 'Killer' (featuring original singer and now superstar Seal), Joe Smooth's 'Promised Land' and Robert Miles' 'Children'.

Review: Given that much time has passed since the original nu-rave and, ahem, 'indie sleaze' days of the noughties, it was perhaps inevitable that we'd get a celebratory compilation sooner, rather than later. Two Piers has done a pretty good job of marking those movements - or the 'nu-rave' end of it at least - on Strobes In Space. There are plenty of bona-fide crossover anthems of the period present - Justice v Simian's 'We Are Your Friends', New Yong Pony Club's punk-funk inspired 'Ice Cream', the Jacques Lu Cont revision of The Killers 'Mr Brightside' and LCD Soundsystem's 'Tribulations' included - alongside genuine underground club classics and tracks that undoubtedly deserve another airing (see Simian Mobile Disco's 'Hustler', Tiga's 'You're Gonna Want It', Playgroup's genuinely brilliant 'Make It Happen' and Soulwax's 'NY Excuse').