Gary Walker

The National’s famously morose frontman finds freedom and space away from the day job on his debut solo album with Memphis studio veteran Booker T Jones.

Bea Kristi’s star has been rising since her fragile bedroom acoustic confessionals set the internet aflame, but her debut album pulls together myriad 90s college rock touchstones to propel her into the stratosphere.

Troy Van Leeuwen is the shadowy sonic architect who introduced Fender offsets and single-coil pickups to one of the world’s biggest rock bands. The Queens Of The Stone Age guitarist tells us about his new signature Jazzmaster, living the dream with Iggy Pop and the possibility of a new Queens album.

With a 50th anniversary deluxe boxset about to hit the shelves, we look back at the dystopian visions, bludgeoning riffs and satanic myths behind one of the most influential rock albums ever made.

Inspired by moving back to Georgia, the country troubadour’s fourth album feels like having a conversation with an old friend. There’s no place like home.

With indie label Matador reissuing their first eight albums a year after a greatest hits collection that spanned their 27-year career, Spoon are taking stock. We caught up with the Texas band’s frontman Britt Daniel to talk about Thinline Teles, Klon Centaurs and the band’s new album.

A third album in four years sees IDLES sharpen both their sound and their knives for an uncompromising attack on austerity, political incompetence and the patriarchy. There’s a lot more resistance than joy here.

REM’s eighth album may not have been the strident mainstream rock record many expected as a follow-up to 1991’s breakthrough Out Of Time, but it’s a refined, multifaceted masterwork that pointed the way for a generation of alternative guitar bands.

A first album in over a decade from these much-loved Mancunian lost souls. Does it match up to their past glories?

It’s been a dizzying three years for Fontaines DC, who released their second album A Hero’s Death at the end of July. The Irish band tell us about their love of 60s Fenders, selling out Brixton Academy and how they want to write a “weird as fuck” new album full of bangers.