Artiste: Manic Street Preachers

Album: Critical Thinking

Rating: *****

Nostalgia is not a bad thing. The Welsh rock band that became rock’s self-style Generation Terrorists in the 1990s and then rebels for the working class, returns older, wiser and still angry with the world’s condition. A heartfelt effort, the album also offers a glimmer of hope.

The album coincides with the 30th year of the disappearance of the group’s lyricist and founding member Richey Edwards in 1995; his abandoned car was discovered at the Severn Bridge, which connects England and Wales.

Bassist Nicky Wire, singer James Dean Bradfield and drummer Sean Moore progress through middle age and, at the same time, are scathing on the title track: I don’t want to be admired, I demand no respect/ I don’t want to be feared/ I’d like to enter the gates of oblivion/ With a lanyard round my neck.

The nostalgia aspect is wakened while listening to Hiding in Plain Sight with its analogue feel and seeing the man in the mirror: The mirror is a trap that saves/ Or a debt that makes you pay/ See you hiding in plain sight/ And I wanna be in love/ With the man I used to be/ In a decade I felt free.

The riff-heavy People Ruin Paintings reminds us that the band represents consistency in a world that’s going mad: People ruin paintings/ Faces spoil the view/ People destroy the truth. These guys were there before Britpop and will probably be there after the Oasis reunion is over. If you made a bet in the 1990s about bands growing old gracefully, it’s time to hit the pub to rejoice.

Artiste: Alessia Cara

Album: Love & Hyperbole

Rating: ****

It’s difficult not to like Alessia Cara. On her fourth album, Love & Hyperbole, she explores the insecurities of allowing someone new into her life and, at the same time, worrying about someone moving away. All this and more are sung about in a mix of jazz-driven arrangements with light pop and a breathy voice.

The Canadian singer digs deep into the complexities of love and reflects on past mistakes on Dead Man: Faith is not enough to float above a bad wave/ We’re gonna drown, we’re goin’ down, and you lettin’ this fade.

The sound is mature and polished on (Isn’t It) Obvious that celebrates the joy of all-surrendering love and it comes with a brilliant guitar solo by John Mayer: My picture in your wallet on display/ But it’s never the same/ As layin’ close to you.

Go Outside, the album opener, talks about being closed off from the world and the need to overcome the feeling while Fire brings together the piano and guitar to create a soothing sound, reminding the listener about the bliss of falling in love.

Across 14 tracks, we hear Cara falling in love, becoming infatuated with someone and also asking for forgiveness without forgetting to turn in infectious basslines and inviting hooks.

Yet, this is the kind of music we have already heard from Cara in her past albums. However confident her voice, there is scope to push the boundaries of her sound. Nonetheless, it’s a tender and honest album.

Artiste: PartyNextDoor and Drake

Album: Some Sexy Songs 4 U

Rating: *

Slop, slop, Valentine’s Day/weekend slop. Everything that’s going wrong in Drake’s musical world is mirrored here. Instead of making a comeback with a banger of an album after the beef with rapper Kendrick Lamar, Drake peddles boredom. His Valentine’s Day record showcases the rapper as a lover and that too a boring one.

He declares that his feud with Lamar is over (They be droppin’ s**t, but we be droppin’ harder s**t/ F**k a rap beef, I’m tryna get the party lit) but it just can’t be that simple. Unfolding in a typical Drake style across 21 tracks over 74 minutes, it’s monotonous.

Some Sexy Songs 4 U is Drake’s first official full-length release since For All the Dogs in 2023 but it’s not the first stash of new music that hints at dissatisfaction with his traditional record deal.

Last year, he started releasing new songs for free download on a website called 100gigs.org and eventually, some of those tracks were released on streaming services as the 100 GIGS EP through OVO and Republic. In the lawsuit against UMG, lawyers for Drake spoke about contract negotiations between the company and the rapper, whose deal is up for renegotiation this year, as a potential motive for the label’s aggressive promotion of Not Like Us.

As for PartyNextDoor, he is a fellow Canadian best known for his series of eponymous albums, as well as his contributions as a writer to hits like Work by Rihanna and Wild Thoughts, another Rihanna single released with DJ Khaled and Bryson Tiller.

The album shows how Drake values quantity over quality. It’s mostly R&B warbling set to very low BPMs. Perhaps the biggest collaborator on the album is AutoTune. And don’t even talk about the lyrics. On Celibacy, Drake sings: Dropped to my knees/ Let me break your streak, I’m begging you, please/ ’Cause it’s been four months and two weeks and thirty-six hours/ And eight minutes since you’ve been pleased.

Technically, this is music. Also, technically, this is an assassination of the listener’s time.