Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Brat by Charli XCXThe death of the water cooler moment has been exaggerated. Social media is actually causing the opposite, namely a relentless uptick in events that everyone is supposedly talking about — “the discourse”, in the cod-academic language of cultural commentary. The risk is overexposure, like the blanket coverage of Charli XCX’s Brat. But the album cuts through the surrounding noise. It hones the singer’s vanguardist dance-pop to its sharpest point while conveying a more rounded sense of personality than previous records. It will outlast the discourse.Still by Erika de CasierCopenhagen singer Erika de Casier specialises in a delicately balanced form of R&B, knowing but not arch, slinky without being too smooth. Still makes fine use of this carefully formulated approach. De Casier murmurs about romantic ups and downs, a quiet register for strong feelings. The beats are arranged with the style and spaciousness of a chic modern apartment. Old flames smoulder (“Ex-Girlfriend”), capricious boyfriends are confronted (“Ice”), possessive partners are rejected (“My Day Off”). A seductive thread of humour runs through the storytelling. This Could Be Texas by English TeacherWe should not cosset rock bands: that is not the rock-and-roll thing to do. But the urge to coddle grows as life for bands gets tougher (high touring costs, shuttered venues, lack of revenue from recordings). English Teacher’s victory in the Mercury Prize for their debut This Could Be Texas therefore deserves a cheer. But the album neither demands nor requires a charitable ear. The Leeds quartet make twisty but not over-elaborate songs with smart lyrics and a questing spirit. Musical quality carries its own reward — although it merits others too.The Collective by Kim Gordon“Cement the brand”, Kim Gordon intones on The Collective. Her album’s anti-consumerist, square-life-sucks messaging is on-brand too, for it is exactly what we would expect from the US experimental rock grandee, formerly of Sonic Youth. But there is nothing routine about her second solo album. Gordon’s vocals are hard to read tonally, mixing blank utterances with agitated cries. Industrial beats hammer away in a strangely catchy fashion, like hip-hop piledrivers. Distorted sounds assault our ears with bursts of white noise. The songs are meant to disorient, and they do so strikingly.The Thief Next to Jesus by KaKa’s The Thief Next to Jesus is rap music as the deepest blues. The New Yorker, aka Kaseem Ryan, digs into a hypnotic, mostly drum-free groove. Poverty and violence, tragic legacies of African-American enslavement, haunt the songs. Ghostly voices from old gospel and soul records accompany the veteran rapper’s drawled but intense flow of words. A difficult reckoning is made between religious faith in the advent of a better world and the stubborn failings of this one. A cruel coda: in October, Ka died aged 52. It’s no consolation, but he leaves behind one of the year’s best album’s.Fine Art by KneecapBelfast trio Kneecap’s breakout year began with the premier of their self-titled feature film, a fictionalised band biopic. It has ended with another triumph for the Irish nationalist rappers, a court victory over the UK government for cancelling an arts grant awarded to them. In between came the release of their album Fine Art. Rapping is done in Irish and English, a bilingual combination that bears a heavy weight of history, but which is deployed with full-throttle energy and ribald wit. The music is punkishly boisterous hip-hop. Politics is fused with hedonism. Go-big-or-go-home bravado rings out louder than the “Brits out” sloganeering.Letter to Yu by Bolis PupulWe last encountered Bolis Pupul on 2022’s Topical Dancer, a playful outing with fellow Belgian Charlotte Adigéry. The Ghent electronic musician’s first solo album is more serious. Letter to Yu is addressed to his Chinese mother, who lived in Hong Kong before moving to Belgium where she died in 2008. The songs are about Pupul’s feelings of familiarity and estrangement when he visits Hong Kong after her death, a city he hadn’t been to before. The result, co-produced with Soulwax’s Stephen and David Dewaele, is electropop made with rare intelligence and emotion, at once clever, catchy and meaningful.Iechyd Da by Bill Ryder-JonesThe latest solo album from Bill Ryder-Jones resembles a Merseyside version of fado. From his remote base in the Wirral, the peninsula jutting out between Liverpool and Wales, the former member of The Coral sings sleepy-voiced songs full of longing and resignation. The style is jangling, melodic, orchestral. The lyrics yearn for relief from mental and emotional strife (Iechyd Da is named for the Welsh drinking phrase for good health). Meanwhile, the music loses itself, and us, in the wide skies and uplifting melodies of Liverpool’s distinctive tradition of psychedelia. Songs of a Lost World by The CureThose celebrated laureates of dread, The Cure, were the cause of jangling nerves and chewed nails in the run-up to their first album in 16 years. Would it be any good? The scope for disappointment was large: better no new album from such a great band than a mediocre one. But as soon as Robert Smith’s unchanged voice was heard lamenting that “hopes and dreams are gone” on lead single “Alone”, it was clear that hopes and dreams were not actually going to be dashed. He and his band have duly returned with an album that broods about the passing of the years with majestic gravity. Songs of a Lost World is a worthy addition to their imposing discography. Wall of Eyes by The SmileWall of Eyes was the first of two albums this year from Radiohead spin-off group The Smile. In one of its tracks, Thom Yorke sings about shrinking from “massive egos, so big they bend the light”, as if recoiling from a mirror image of rock stars and their whimsical side-projects. But this one, with Radiohead bandmate Jonny Greenwood and Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner, has proved a tour de force. Wall of Eyes finds them at top form. It is supple and open, the result of ego-free musicianship.
