One to watch: Holly Walker
The diamond-sharp vocalist best known for her work with Maribou State goes solo with a debut album of lean, melancholy funk-pop
Pop, drill and inhuman metalcore: new music to get excited about in 2024
Eight fresh acts to check out, from the astonishing flows of Brixton rapper Cristale to the southern rock of MJ Lenderman
‘Clubbing just isn’t cool’: UK’s New Year’s Eve revellers switch to warehouse or home parties
Smaller clubs are losing out to mega raves, private events and even livestreams, say music industry insiders
‘The Party of London’: Rio’s favela funk raves look to the world
Naming trend began about five years ago, but these bailes are far more than the ear-shattering raves vilified by the authorities
‘A tonic that no medication can give’: readers’ favourite albums of 2023
From Raye’s multi-genre majesty to Zach Bryan’s blue-collar country, these are the LPs that most affected readers this year
The 10 best contemporary albums of 2023
There was soothing minimalism and bowel-quaking low end as Neil Gaiman got some wonderfully quizzical accompaniments and Manchester’s answer to Sun Ra freaked out
Kylie, Jen Cloher, Troye Sivan and others: the 17 best Australian albums of 2023
From queer ecstasy to award-winning post-punk, here are our critics’ favourite releases of the year
The 10 best global albums of 2023
Dragonchild delivered a genre-hopping debut, Thandi Ntuli collaborated with Carlos Niño on a stripped back, joyous record and Titanic conjured visionary free-improv chamber pop
The 50 best albums of 2023
Lankum’s roaring reworking of Irish folk stunned, there was unprecedented invention from Young Fathers and Caroline Polachek offered an oblique angle on pop in our critics picks of the year
The 50 best albums of 2023, No 7 – Yaeji: With a Hammer
The Korean-American producer renovated the club sounds that made her name into a powerful, fierce record of pandemic identity reckoning
‘We’re on TikTok? What’s TikTok?’ The forgotten bands going supersonic thanks to gen Z
Ageing acts that can’t even get radio time are going viral – and finding themselves playing arenas or even soundtracking Ukrainian resistance. But how do you follow up a hit no one can explain?
‘Like brushing my teeth’: how Michiru Aoyama writes, records and releases an album every day
For two years, the Kyoto musician has risen at five, watched football, then made an eight-track album of super-deep ambient music – while fitting in a two-hour walk. And 200,000 fans are listening
The 20 best songs of 2023
Voted on by over 30 Guardian music writers, we celebrate the year’s best tracks from Boygenius to Blur and beyond
‘Euphoric’, ‘opalescent’, ‘perfect pop confection’: Australia’s best new music for December
Each month our critics pick 20 new songs for our Spotify playlist. Read about 10 of our favourites here, including Thelma Plum, The Native Cats and Holiday Sidewinder
Love Minus Zero: L’Ecstasy review – Tiga and Hudson Mohawke unite on a high
The Canadian and Scottish producers’ on-off partnership comes to fruition on this aptly titled, category-defying clubland set