“Drink me gently /Drink me cheerfully /Drink a hole in my head”, Saul Adamczewski’s slack-jawed croons Weak. A few months ago, on his since-deleted Instagram account, the polydrug-addicted former member of the Fat White Family posted a photo of himself in a hospital bed looking terrible (did he ever look good)? Beneath this alarming photo is an equally alarming logorrhea, a mix of insults and cries for help in which Adamczewski accuses his label, Fat Possum, of holding his group’s new album Insecure Men hostage. Today, the album recorded in early 2025 after a psychotic episode then withdrawal has been released and the musician admits with his charming crossword smile that it was all “just an attempt at extortion”. “I thought I would be able to pressure (Fat Possum) by saying I would die if they didn’t release my album,” he explained very naturally on the podcast 101 Part Time Jobs before concluding: “Meth is a drug.”
However, how clever is behind this broken face and soul; seven years after the first album full of false naivety, exotica and bland drum machines, the Adamczewski-led Insecure Men brings to the world a broken yet brilliantly composed gem in which brass, flute, violin or saxophone wander around, often in incongruous roles on songs with blues roots, sometimes haunted by Johnny Cash or Al Green. Square and sensual, delicate structures that disintegrate into the sound of pans, this sensitive soul sings of love found then lost then found again, South London despair and love again, which moves like a crab, blinded by the day, with the painful poignancy of those who frequent the other side. And who has the generosity to return, for now, with songs so magically inhabited. Marie Klock
Versatile asymptotes (1963-64) does not appear in the pantheon of classic works by Eliane Radigue, our seminal avant-garde figure. In fact down to the harpist Rhodri Davies, a player who has been close to the Frenchwoman since she entrusted him with his first creations Correctlook for this “music proposal” in the archives, no one has ever featured it. But as the electrifying experience of listening to a recording of this concert in 2023 confirms, this is more than mere curiosity. Radigue was living in New York when he composed it, inspired by the famous Fibonacci sequence: four curves on tracing paper that invite four players or groups of players to explore through a series of held notes “the entire range of the sound spectrum”. Radigue had passed through Pierre Schaeffer’s testing studio, and had not been able to return to working on synthesizers; but in his imagination, his music was already developing at the speed of light. Olivier Lamm
"There’s a lot of stupid bastards that I made rich," recalls Hayley Williams on the record’s first song. Just remember, because contrary to appearances, the singer of emo group Paramore – who famously performed the opening act for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour – is not returning. Somewhat relieved. Finally free since 2024 from the contract signed at the age of 15 with the main Atlantic that exploited him to the last point. And from there he officially liberates himself with a third solo album that was launched this summer in a very irregular manner on the platform, celebrating his newfound independence (the disc was released on his own label) in a rather long but consistently astonishing zumba, capable of evoking Phoenix as well as Smashing Pumpkins or TLC. Lelo Jimmy Batista
There’s a downside to Lily Allen’s genius: her sweet, supermarket-ready songs can escape your attention. Luckily, we have our heartbroken friends around to remind us of what is, in their eyes, the album of winter. An album? More like a bazooka in a velvet glove, an autopsy in 14 parts of the British singer’s marriage to American actor David Harbour, in which we wonder which Larzac hamlet she wanted to go to be converted into market gardening afterwards (+ accusations of abuse from Millie Bobbie Brown). Here, without metaphor, it’s not a song about heartbreak but a big courthouse pop song, brutal, trivial, outrageous in the sordid details it reveals – but also moving when it humorously recounts dating at 40 and two kids (Dallas Mayor). There brat original, that’s it. MK
The cover is taken from a Deftones album, the intro refers to Moby’s ambient period, the first title definitely brings to mind Nine Inch Nails, Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine and Massive Attack, and in the most perfect chaos, and among the many guests we find Alison Mosshart of The Kills and Walter Schreifels, the American hardcore legend who played for Gorilla Biscuits, Youth of Today and Quicksand. That Daniel Avery, the techno star, is so openly diving back into the influences of his youth isn’t surprising – the Brit has always been closer to Erol Alkan or Andrew Weatherall than Calvin Harris. What is impressive, however, is the general content of this Vibrationthat succeeds where too many others have failed (Health, Unkle): delivering a scripted, lived-in, coherent total crossover record. Lelo Jimmy Batista
Don’t be fooled by the name. This trio does not cause harmful effects on health, quite the opposite. Or the fusion of two violins and a drum, an unusual orchestration for a soundtrack that searches within the magma of sound material to trace a path beyond all categorization. Echoes of baroque and post-rock effects, out-of-bounds improvisations and unconventional writing, built-in delay phases and ad lib repeated phrases, suspended moments and bouncing tension, there is a lot of plot behind the layers of these four songs with their electroacoustic influences. Less than two years after its creation, this first disc gives a good indication of the sweet delirium of listening to them drift without pretense, not too straight forward, live and direct, right in their heads. Jacques Denis
Financial market strategist by day, pianist and composer by night, Olivier Korber has been the subject of many television reports. Recorded with Rémi Durupt, Emmanuel Coppey, the Magenta Quartet and soloists from Orchester Colonne, this album confirms the solidity of his musical work. But what is most important is the expressiveness of the language, which is nourished by the influence of Stravinsky, Bartok, Ravel, Prokofiev and Dutilleux, as well as Central European folklore; as evidenced by variations in theme Hava Nagilain his Quartet No. 1. Melancholy, rattling or fanciful, the other five works for violin, piano and ensemble, brought together here, also contrast with the dullness and grayness of institutional art and therefore delight us. Eric Dahan
