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It has been suggested that bands are a dying breed in the modern age. As technology enables individuals to create fuller tapestries of music than ever before without the need to recruit a drummer on the basis of whether or not they own a van, or stick with an annoying keyboard player because his dad lets you use his warehouse for rehearsals, the incentive to go it alone is strong. The costs of touring with five or six people in tow is also pretty prohibitive, and it's a more complicated proposition in the studio. Meanwhile, the relative marginalisation of hard rock and indie pop - genres that traditionally rely on the guitar-bass-drums-vocals formula - hasn't helped.

Rise And Shine

The trend away from collective endeavours isn't just restricted to guitar music. The rise of hip-hop and R'n'B groups such as Public Enemy, The Wu-Tang Clan and Destiny's Child have been superseded by individuals like Drake, Kanye West, Jay-Z et al. Similarly, successful girl groups and boy bands are now thin on the ground outside K-Pop since the rise of talent contest-spawned acts such as One Direction and Little Mix.

But there are always plenty of examples who buck the trend - even if those of us who don't keep a close eye on new music may not have noticed them. So even if you're a reader that knows what they like and likes what they know, if you aren't averse to giving a few more recent releases a listen, then here are 20 albums from the 2020s by acts who have risen to prominence in the last few years.

Amyl & The Sniffers
Comfort To Me
(Rough Trade, 2021)

An Australian-formed quartet drawing unashamedly on old-school rebel rock touchstones from The Damned to The Stooges, Amy Taylor and friends burst out of the bars of Melbourne cooking up a punky racket like your mum used to make. They look somewhat feral and deeply undernourished but sound fuelled by considerable delinquent fire in their bellies. Their third album is due out later this year, with early singles creating great excitement. But until then this second studio set from 2021 will act as a stirring sampler thanks to stomping cuts such as 'Guided By Angels', 'Hertz' and 'Security'.

Black Country, New Road
For The First Time
(Ninja Tune, 2021)

This London via Cambridge collective gave British indie-rock a kick up the backside. Offering post-rock with a sense of humour, framed in long-form, freewheeling duels between knotty tangles of guitar and fluttering saxophone, it seemed to have one foot in scruffy, lo-fi traditional indie-pop and another in the improv-happy world of jazz orchestras. Meanwhile, singer Isaac Wood's pithy lyrics lend a sardonic character to the whole chaotic picture, namechecking fellow bands and sketching scenes of bohemian romance and slacker disillusionment.

Ezra Collective
Where I'M Meant To Be
(Partisan, 2022)

This quintet of British jazz musicians were schooled in the vibrant surroundings of the Tomorrow's Warriors mentoring scheme, which has nurtured many great home-grown jazz and R'n'B talents. Yet they comfortably exceeded the sum of their impressive parts on Ezra Collective's second album - and trousered last year's Mercury Music Prize for their trouble. Jazzy free thinking was applied to a captivating stew of sounds touching on dub, salsa, afrobeat and grime-stained soul, while guests such as Kojey Radical, Sampa The Great and Emeli Sandé lent inviting entry points for those needing vocal sugar to acquire this exotic taste.

Fontaines DC
Skinty Fia
(Partisan, 2022)

The pandemic gave these poetically inclined, punk-fired Dubliners a chance to reflect and come up with a third album that offered more nuance than we'd seen in their more energised previous material. They also invite new textures to the party, as the title track draws on dramatic trip-hop moods and 'The Couple Across The Way' tells of a failing relationship with folky accordion thrown into the mix. It's captivating stuff either way.

Confidence Man
Tilt
(I Oh You, 2022)

A hyperactive highlight of every festival stage they grace, this hard-partying Aussie electro pop outfit most successfully transferred their rave sensibilities onto record on this second long-player, led by arms-aloft lead single, 'Holiday'. Their clubtastic bangers were still laced with attitude-infused wit, but while in the past the music seemed to serve the camp humour, this time it felt the other way around on the reggae-infused 'Push It Up' and piano house of 'Luvin U Is Easy'.

Idles
Tangk
(Partisan, 2023)

This is another group where the frontman has always drawn most attention and media coverage - thanks to firebrand singer Joe Talbot's lyrics touching on mental illness, immigration, Brexit and bereavement. However, this recent set sees their horizons broadened from their hardcore punk roots to punk-funk and electronica and subtler, even ballad-like songcraft. The name aims to reflect a gutsy, visceral impact within their sound, and it regularly does just that.

English Teacher
This Could Be Texas
(Universal Island, 2024)

Another quartet of graduates from the 'Sprechgesang' school of talk-sung art pop who slowly gained more and more attention before their debut dropped in the spring. They might just benefit in the long run for not being subjected to the kind of hype that Wet Leg or Last Dinner Party have enjoyed/endured (see p35). Angular, choppy pop songs characterised this album, highlights including curiously infectious musings such as 'The World's Biggest Paving Slab'.

Greta Van Fleet
The Battle At Garden'S Gate
(Lava/Republic, 2022)

Few critics seemed to see the irony when dismissing these Michigan hard rockers as overly derivative of Led Zeppelin - the latter having themselves reappropriated blues and folk songs in their prime. But even if the echoes of Zep and also Rush are undeniable, and a tendency towards airy-fairy cod-philosophical lyrics may put others off, you can't deny they rock the house in a way few bands of their generation can manage. This second LP is arguably their best to date.

Boygenius
The Record
(Interscope, 2023)

It took nearly five years for this supergroup trio to follow up a debut EP with a full-length album, but their joint songwriting input bore fruit on songs such as 'Without You Without Them' and 'Not Strong Enough', the latter also offering a poignant take on the impact of mental illness. Meanwhile, individually penned contributions like Julien Baker's '$20', Phoebe Bridgers' 'Emily I'm Sorry' and Lucy Dacus's 'True Blue' showed contrasting facets to their sound.

Last Dinner Party
The Prelude To Ecstasy
(Island, 2024)

One of this year's most eagerly awaited debut albums (reflected in their BRITs Rising Star award) lived up to the hype with 12 tracks of elegantly turned, baroque pop. The five-piece offered a whiff of old English poshness allied to art school cool and an edge of dry wit. 'Nothing Matters' was the lead single and remains a memorable calling card, but other standouts, including 'Portrait Of A Dead Girl' and 'Our Lady Of Mercy', are just as full of idiosyncratic charm.

Jockstrap
I Love You Jennifer B
(Rough Trade, 2022)

Comfortably winning this rundown's award for most offputting band name is a duo fronted by the far more enticing tones of Georgia Ellery, who also made her mark elsewhere in this feature [p32]with Black Country, New Road. On this second album she fronts richly orchestrated but intriguingly jittery electronic dream pop - think Saint Etienne remixed by a sample-happy producer with anxiety issues - that charms the ear yet has you wondering what's coming next.

Wet Leg
Wet Leg
(Domino, 2022)

After their debut single 'Chaise Longue' became a 'viral' hit during lockdown, this Isle of Wight duo must have felt no shortage of expectation on their shoulders when releasing their first album. But they rose to the challenge admirably, accompanying that gloriously droll and suggestive indie-rock gem with similarly arch art-pop offerings such as 'Wet Dream' and 'Oh No' as well as the knock-kneed but heartfelt 'Being In Love' and the sweetly self-doubting 'Too Late Now'.

Chloe X Halle
Ungodly Hour
(Parkwood/Columbia, 2020)

As sibling child actors turned R'n'B duo, the Bailey sisters managed to retain their musical cred while still remaining Disney-friendly on their fun-focused 2018 debut The Kids Are Alright. This sophomore LP stepped up the sophistication, blending classic soul with contemporary hip-hop-informed production, shot through with recurrent invention. The pop hooks and sassy attitude made it a highly accessible affair though, as did their dovetailing vocal harmonies. Little wonder they've been endorsed by peers such as Jay-Z and Beyoncé, who picked the duo to be the opening act on their On The Run II Tour.

Lankum
False Lankum
(Rough Trade, 2023)

Taking the drone-based, gnarly sounds they used to make on Dublin's punk scene and blending them to flinty traditional folk, brothers Ian and Daragh Lynch then added further colours to their palette with multi-instrumentalists and singers Cormac MacDiarmada and Radie Peat. But it wasn't until this album that audiences outside Ireland really began to take notice. 'A younger, darker Pogues', The Guardian gushed. Which is fair comment.

Nova Twins
Supernova
(Marshall, 2022)

Londoners Amy Love and Georgia South were outspoken on their late 2010s emergence about the limiting preconceptions rock fans apply to heavy music, and this second album did even more than their debut to show how much women of colour could bring to the noise-rock genre. Not least because it rocks like a beast. Steelcap booted R'n'B and rap-metal broadsides such as 'Antagonist' and 'Cleopatra' exemplify their thrillingly fired-up brand of electro-rock, and while they're certainly a thrilling live act, they did a potent job of bottling their feminist fire in the studio for this arresting set.

Yard Act
The Overload
(Universal Island, 2022)

It doesn't half help if a band has a mouthpiece that can grab you by the lugholes and demand your attention. And while James Smith's cynical rhymes and off-beam musings can sound like a drunken student waffling to his mates on the top deck of a night bus, his bandmates deliver gutsy grooves to hang it all on. The bespectacled frontman also has a talent for storytelling, as demonstrated on the epic suburban sketch 'Tall Poppies'.

Kneecap
Fine Art
(Heavenly, 2024)

Terrorist chic is hardly new in rock 'n' roll, but these Belfast tykes have rekindled the balaclava look in the age of cancel culture, skating on the very edge of questionable taste, as a visual representation of their fiercely Republican but anarchically inclined take on hip-hop. They draw on grime, rave and techno styles too, but what's most impressive is how they lurch from goofy humour to cutting satire, laced with a righteous rage as they party while police trucks burn.

Floating Points/Pharoah Sanders
Promises
(Luaka Bop, 2021)

A band? Well, close enough. Floating Points is DJ/musician Sam Shepherd, who hooked up with jazz sax legend Sanders for this dreamlike 46-minute piece and enlisted the LSO to add further rich textures to an intoxicating, freewheeling trip. Although Sanders' notes are added sparingly to a minimalist, spacey soundscape spread across nine interlocking pieces, they seem to stand out all the more for it. It's a record to lie back and, well, float in.

Bob Vylan
Humble As The Sun
(Ghost Theatre, 2024)

No relation, musically or philosophically, to the legend whose name they pun, this pair of London-based East Anglians have combined the clashing styles they grew up listening to - grime and hip-hop on the one hand, indie, grunge and punk on the other - to carve out a distinctive soundclash style that is redolent of The Prodigy one moment, Eminem and Tricky the next. Here they are irreverent and funny as often as they are incisively, charismatically furious.

Sault
Untitled (Rise)
(Forever Living Originals, 2020)

When they first emerged, no one seemed to know quite who Sault were or where they came from, but their beautifully well-appointed brand of soul music was so seductive, the personalities behind it seemed barely relevant. Sashaying R'n'B shuffles like 'Fearless' and 'I Just Want To Dance', underpinned by slick basslines and dressed in sleek strings, recalled the jazz-funk of Roy Ayers and Gil Scott-Heron, only this time with touches of psychedelia and afrobeat adding fresh intrigue.