Add to playlist: Kashus Culpepper's ‘southern sounds' and the week's best new tracks
From AlabamaRecommended if you like Luke Combs, Tony Joe White, Charles BradleyUp next Supporting Leon Bridges in the US
Kashus Culpepper's story has something of the Hollywood movie about it. A former firefighter who went on to enlist in the US Navy, he only picked up a guitar five years ago to entertain his fellow troops when they were locked down in barracks during the pandemic. On his return to the US, he began working for a cement company while posting clips of covers and his own songs to social media: one attracted the attention of Samuel L Jackson, who reposted it to his 9 million followers. Within a few months, Culpepper had both a record deal and a co-sign from another navy veteran, country star Zach Bryan. By the end of last year, Culpepper was performing at Nashville's legendary Grand Ole Opry.
It's obvious why his career has been fast-tracked. The handful of songs he's released so far take a smart, often witty route through the classic Nashville topics of romantic despair, boozing and the struggles of everyday life, performed in a style he classifies as 'southern sounds', based on 'the music in the cars on the freeway, in the restaurants and in the churches' in his home town of Alexander City, Alabama. More traditional and rootsy than the current wave of country-pop, it flits between country, blues, soul, folk and southern rock, occasionally over the course of a single song, as on 2024's Out of My Mind. Most importantly, Culpepper has an incredible voice: raw, vulnerable, the product of an upbringing in a Baptist church. He's referred to his approach to performance as 'singing like it's my last day on Earth', but his future looks assured. Alexis Petridis
SL – Paranoia
The balaclava'd south London MC has such endearingly musical inflections to his raps – quizzical then crestfallen – even when slowly rolling through a brooding, smoke-filled track like this.
Durand Jones & the Indications – Flower Moon
The classic soul revivalists' drummer Aaron Frazer takes the lead vocal here, with doo-wop levels of harmonised romance over a funk backing as crisp yet soft as a hearthside rug.
Zara Larsson – Pretty Ugly
Reminiscent of glorious high-street-nightclub trash such as Hollaback Girl, Like a G6 and Christina Aguilera's Dirty, the Swede's return has the dizzy buzz of a Wednesday-evening round of shots.
Full of Hell – Knight's Oath
Relatively clean and accessible business here from the returning grindcore band – which is to say that despite the big, bright riffing, it's still got its fair share of hellacious screaming.
Kara-Lis Coverdale – Freedom
Trumpet lines wobble in heat haze and French horns sound hopeful notes through an almost tropically lush wall of strings and synthesised sound: another imaginative work by the Montreal composer.
Quadeca – Monday
Once a YouTuber and video-game commentator, then a rapper and now a singer-songwriter, Quadeca tries to get through a rocky relationship patch over Sufjan-leaning cellos, flutes and more.
Annea Lockwood – On Fractured Ground
The octogenarian NZ composer visited the peace walls that divided zones in Belfast, 'playing' them with hands, leaves and stones: history shivers through this nape-prickling work.
Ben Beaumont-Thomas and Rachel Keenan
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