Albums of the week: Aldous Harding, Loraine James, Muna, Chris Potter

Train on the Island 

Aldous Harding

(4AD)

Resisting interpretation is one of Aldous Harding’s strongest suits. But it’s sometimes a barrier to entry for newcomers to the New Zealander’s inscrutable, confessional work. 

Train on the Island, the title of Harding’s fifth album, might reference an old tune collected by the American folk ethnographer Harry Smith, yet the slinky title track drops clues that it is actually set in Sicily. But for all its riddles, this 10-song record feels like one of Harding’s clearest, most open-armed yet, because the music is so enthralling, and because the listener is occasionally thrown a bone. Harding’s arresting lyrics – mumbled, trilled or intoned – speak of childhood, from the earliest years to pre-puberty. On What Am I Gonna Do?, the narrator is “two and a half”; on I Ate the Most, the album’s hard-hitting opening track, she is nine years old and a parent won’t carry her any more. The past and present are in intense – if oblique – dialogue.

Venus in the Zinnia, meanwhile, is a superficially easygoing duet between Harding and Huw Evans (also known as H Hawkline), gilded with a honky-tonk piano. Nowhere on this superbly executed set is there a sense that Harding has compromised her vision, despite her concern for the “dishonest art in me”. Kitty Empire

Detached From The Rest Of You

Loraine James

(Hyperdub)

On Loraine James’s sixth album under her own name, the north London producer presents a seemingly more straightforward record than ever before. Whereas her earlier music flirted with experimental electronica, here it sounds almost like pop – or at least James’s intimate rendering of it.

It helps that she has a wealth of variously talented vocalists to join her. On Habits and Patterns, Tirzah – now a coveted featured artist – offers a stately song of regret as James’s industrial grunge gives way to sparse piano. More surprising a voice is that of Alan Sparhawk (of the US indie group Low), who provides a gnarly yet heartfelt anti-war track, Peak Again. Rapper Le3 bLACK, a longtime collaborator of James’s, is a breathy voice atop an intoxicating whirl of percussion from Fyn Dobson.

Each of these vocalists brings a different sensibility, making this an enjoyably unpredictable record and giving the impression of James as a skilled ringmaster, knowing what to eke out of her acts and when. It’s pleasing, too, that she still has her own moments on the mic: the seven-minute Forever Still (Steel), which begins as a stuttering drum track, unravels into a heartfelt, mumbled musing on childhood trauma and Greggs sausage rolls. Ellen Peirson-Hagger

Dancing on the Wall

Muna

(Saddest Factory Records)

Muna’s last album, released in 2022, was a record of unadulterated joy. “Life’s so fun!” the indie-pop trio sang as they danced around with Phoebe Bridgers. But after enduring the last four years as queer artists in America, the darkness has crept in. Dancing on the Wall is all the better for its mature, pessimistic sound. 

The band are still partying in clubs, but they’re also crying at protests. On Big Stick they use synth and disco inflections as they sing of their country’s role in global warfare: “America gives more than America takes / We give weapons to dictators in apartheid states.” Place is important – Los Angeles and the bars they frequent – as are the people they fall for. Eastside Girls is an ode to LA girls who like “all things astrological” and “gender confirmation care”. 

There are still moments of utter delight: the title song is classic Muna – pure electronic pop that oscillates between scepticism, admiration and despair. “You’re so magnetic,” they sing, “it’s like, what’s the use?” And on the album closer, Buzzkiller, they perform a beautiful, electric apology for all their hopelessness. Lily Isaacs

Alive With Ghosts Today

Chris Potter

(Edition)

From Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave to Percival Everett’s 2024 novel James, many high-profile artists in recent years have reckoned with the history of North America’s slave trade. Now the saxophonist Chris Potter adds to this his album Alive With Ghosts Today. 

As a composer and sideman, Potter has been a busy resident in mainstream jazz for 30-odd years, but has never created anything quite like this tribute to the abolitionist John Brown, whose attempt in 1859 to instigate a slave uprising in Virginia led to his being hanged for treason. Conflicts of morality, commerce and race have never vanished – hence the album title, borrowed from poet Langston Hughes – and in Potter’s suite there is anguish, pain, sombre elegy and reborn hope. 

Its lineup is unusual: bass, drums, violin, clarinet and trombone deliver stately ensemble playing, with Bill Frisell’s intricate guitar and Potter’s post-bop sax (both alto and tenor) supplying individual commentary. The result is an engaging piece of Americana, with echoes of rowdy small town bands, Aaron Copland’s suite Billy the Kid, blues and Brown’s own popular folk hymn. Neil Spencer

One to watch: Chloe Qisha

Chloe Qisha’s 2025 single So Sad So Hot, which pulses with sultry disco and a sparkling chorus, might have been released as a standalone track in the burgeoning pop star’s increasingly unignorable canon. But its title also acts as a neat manifesto for Qisha’s overall outlook.

The Malaysia-born, London-based artist first etched her name into the roster of rising UK pop acts with I Lied, I’m Sorry in 2024. Her tracks mix wistful journal-like writing and lusty beats – think Chappell Roan with a line in chronic overthinking, or Sabrina Carpenter with a bachelor’s degree (of which Qisha actually has two). She is equally influenced by LCD Soundsystem, Abba and Addison Rae, and there is a real sense of irony to her writing that ensures tracks such as YDH (meaning Young, Dumb and Horny) and all its theatrical pomp are delivered with a knowing wink.

Having initially put some “shit covers on Youtube”, Qisha attracted the eye of A&Rs and eventually earned a deal with Sony. But she took time to perfect her craft before launching herself to the world. The result is not just great songwriting but a clear identity that’s already won her support slots with Coldplay, Raye and Carpenter herself. Lisa Wright

Chloe Qisha plays Isle of Wight Festival on 18 June

Photographs by Kate Meakin, Diara Sow, Dean Bradshaw, Dave Stapleton