Elton John and Brandi Carlile - Who Believes in Angels? (Album Review)
Photo: Peggy Sirota At 78 and with his touring days behind him, you might expect Sir Elton John to be content resting on his laurels, legacy secured. But ‘Who Believes In Angels?, a collaborative album with Americana great Brandi Carlile, proves there’s still fire in those piano-playing fingers.
Written by: Jack Press | Date: Friday, 11 April 2025
L.A. Witch - DOGGOD (Album Review)
Photo: Marco Hernandez If you hear the phrase “garage rock trio” you might immediately begin to roll your eyes in anticipation of the copy and paste approach many such bands have employed in the past couple of decades. But on their third album L.A. Witch show it doesn’t have to be that way. With ‘DOGGOD’ they have delivered guitar music with its own unique style and identity, forcing a curious raised eyebrow among even the most hardened sceptics.
Written by: James Palaczky | Date: Thursday, 10 April 2025
Florist - Jellywish (Album Review)
Photo: V Haddad On ‘Jellywish’, Florist’s campfire jams stretch out like open arms, their liquid synths and fingerpicked acoustic guitars setting the stage for Emily Sprague’s existential musings.
Written by: Jack Press | Date: Thursday, 10 April 2025
Black Country, New Road - Forever Howlong (Album Review)
Photo: Eddie Whelan When Black Country, New Road burst onto the scene with their debut LP ‘For The First Time’ in 2021 they were already hard to pin down, with their sound blending post-punk, art-rock, chamber-pop and jazz. Quickly following it up with ‘Ants From Up There’ the following year, they threw another curveball by parting ways with vocalist Isaac Wood, leaving need for another recalibration.
Written by: Chris Connor | Date: Wednesday, 09 April 2025
Backxwash - Only Dust Remains (Album Review)
Between 2020 and 2022, Backxwash struck the perfect balance in terms of announcing her artistry. Ashanti Mutinta put out brash records so full of personality and emotion that they were impossible to ignore, but ‘Only Dust Remains’ shows that there was still plenty of headroom for the rapper to grow into. Here she is an artist, and a person, who understands what they’re about in a manner we haven’t seen before.
Written by: Jack Butler-Terry | Date: Wednesday, 09 April 2025
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Death Hilarious (Album Review)
Photo: Alex Telfer Here’s the thing about being a proven face-melting band: the expectation is that you will find new ways to melt faces with each record. Coming off the back of ‘Land of Sleeper’ — an album that solidified them as a leading name in stoner-rock — Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs find themselves burdened with this kind of heavy scrutiny as ‘Death Hilarious’ arrives.
Written by: James Palaczky | Date: Tuesday, 08 April 2025
Lucy Dacus - Forever Is A Feeling (Album Review)
With ‘Forever is a Feeling’, Lucy Dacus examines sapphic love in all its forms, excelling in painting intimate portraits of personal experiences. The singer-songwriter’s lyrics are poetic, skillfully capturing small moments and emotions that feel universal, even if they sometimes overshadow a more muted palette than the one employed on her past work.
Written by: Jennifer Geddes | Date: Monday, 07 April 2025
Perfume Genius - Glory (Album Review)
Photo: Cody Critcheloe As Perfume Genius, Mike Hadreas has been putting out celebrated work for 15 years, pairing for soul-warming elegance with gut-punch explorations of queer love and personal struggle. Zooming out, 2017’s ‘No Shape’ and the ensuing ‘Set My Heart on Fire Immediately’ are generally considered his crowning achievements, but ‘Glory’ certainly deserves to be in the conversation.
Written by: Matthew McLister | Date: Monday, 07 April 2025
Destroyer - Dan's Boogie (Album Review)
Throughout Destroyer’s 14th album, Dan Bejar is preoccupied with the long shadow cast by mortality. If the nine tracks on ‘Dan’s Boogie’ are anything to go by, though, there’s life in the old dog yet. Here Bejar weaves sardonic, wry character studies together with jazz, psych-pop, lounge music, and everything in between. It’s as wonderful as ever.
Written by: Jack Press | Date: Friday, 04 April 2025
Snapped Ankles - Hard Times Furious Dancing (Album Review)
Photo: Louise Mason Snapped Ankles’ ‘Hard Times Furious Dancing’ lives up to its title in every way, shaping up as a pre-apocalyptic dance album that delivers an uppercut to the collective chin of climate change deniers. Packed with addictive beats and sublime energy, it is their most impactful and exciting album yet.
Written by: James Palaczky | Date: Thursday, 03 April 2025
Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power (Album Review)
Photo: Nedda Afsari Though it remains a divisive record, Deafheaven’s ‘Infinite Granite’ might be remembered in time as a worthwhile experiment. The blackgaze pioneers sanded down their spiky edges into something softer and fuzzier – less ‘black’, more ‘gaze’ – and came the closest they’ve ever come to sounding genuinely soothing. But if it would be wrong to call ‘Lonely People With Power’ a return to form it is a restating of purpose: here they are back to sounding lethal yet beautiful and, crucially, heavy.
Written by: Emma Wilkes | Date: Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Mumford & Sons - Rushmere (Album Review)
Photo: James Marcus Haney ‘Rushmere’ has a lot riding on it. It’s Mumford & Sons’ first album as a trio following the departure of Winston Marshall and frontman Marcus Mumford’s confessional 2022 solo debut, but it also sees them return to their roots. The question is: can they still muster the magic that sent them to the top of the indie-folk mountain?
Written by: Jack Press | Date: Tuesday, 01 April 2025
Great Grandpa - Patience, Moonbeam (Album Review)
Photo: Rachel Bennett Unless a band reaches a certain level of stardom, these days their musical careers are destined to be punctured by the interruptions from ‘real life’ — the spaces they need to occupy between albums and tours to sustain themselves.
Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Tuesday, 01 April 2025
Spellling - Portrait of My Heart (Album Review)
Photo: Sarah Eiseman How do you try to expand upon and better the palette of one of the most ambitious pop albums of the decade so far? You don’t. And it seems that Spellling knows it.
Written by: Matt Mills | Date: Monday, 31 March 2025
Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco - I Said I Love You First (Album Review)
Photo: Petra Collins Five years have passed since ‘Rare’ and Selena Gomez has opted for a change of pace with ‘I Said I Love You First’, steering things in an electrifying direction in collaboration with her producer fiancé Benny Blanco. While her most recent album primarily revolved around themes of self-empowerment and discovery, here we find Gomez in a much more centred place, having found a healthy love again.
Written by: Issy Herring | Date: Monday, 31 March 2025
Brian D'Addario - Till The Morning (Album Review)
Photo: Anastasia Sanchez Brian D'Addario is best known as half of The Lemon Twigs, the retro-fabulous indie-pop band who have delivered five stellar, eclectic albums since their debut ‘Do Hollywood’ arrived in 2016. Their sound, especially on their most recent LPs, is an infectious blend of late ‘60s psychedelia and Beach Boys melody and Brian’s ‘Till The Morning’ is cut from similar cloth.
Written by: Chris Connor | Date: Thursday, 27 March 2025
Japanese Breakfast - For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women) (Album Review)
Photo: Pak Bae Throughout Japanese Breakfast’s discography, Michelle Zauner has consistently offered listeners a portal into her inner world. Each album has functioned as a diary, where raw emotion is alchemised into intricate indie-rock explorations. ‘For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women)’ continues this tradition, offering a deeply felt exploration of the dizzying heights of love, the sting of yearning, and the weight of sorrow.
Written by: Katie Macbeth | Date: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
The Horrors - Night Life (Album Review)
Photo: Sarah Piantadosi The Horrors have always been ones to stand out from the crowd. In the mid to late ‘00s, they brought a heap of cartoonish goth colour to an otherwise vanilla British indie scene, with 2009’s ‘Primary Colours’ scooping a Mercury nomination along the way. And they weren’t just a flash in the pan, either.
Written by: Matthew McLister | Date: Tuesday, 25 March 2025
Greentea Peng - Tell Dem It's Sunny (Album Review)
Photo: William Spooner ‘Tell Dem It’s Sunny’ is an insight into the inner workings of an artist at the top of her game. Marking an evolution both in terms of sound and identity, here Greentea Peng exceeds even her own expectations by producing an inspiring album that manifests growth and perseverance to the tune of her renowned blend of psychedelia and R&B.
Written by: James Palaczky | Date: Monday, 24 March 2025
Courting - Lust for Life... (Album Review)
Photo: Charlie Barclay Harris You can’t argue with Courting’s lust for life. Beginning with the release of ‘Guitar Music’ in 2022, the Liverpudlian band have adopted the mantra of more is more. Their debut threw everything it had at the wall to see what would stick, while 2024’s ‘New Last Name’ saw them play dress-up as The 1975. Beneath its eye roll-inducing title ‘Lust for Life, Or: ‘How To Thread The Needle And Come Out The Other Side To Tell The Story’ is another sense-assaulting splurge of ideas.
Written by: Jack Press | Date: Friday, 21 March 2025
Playboi Carti - Music (Album Review)
There are few things more testing than being a Playboi Carti fan. Throughout his career, the rapper has shown flashes of being truly brilliant, but his inconsistency and failure to stick to release dates has been equally frustrating. His third album ‘Music’ is one such example: initially named ‘Narcissist’ and slated for release in September 2021, it arrives following four years of name changes, broken promises and misdirection.
Written by: Jack Butler-Terry | Date: Thursday, 20 March 2025
Whatever The Weather - Whatever The Weather II (Album Review)
Photo: Darryl Daley A lot of abstract electronica can feel austere and cerebral, but Loraine James’ work is shifting that perception by infusing the genre with spectacular wells of feeling. Acute emotional intelligence was key to the success of her 2022 self-titled debut as Whatever The Weather, and its successor is similarly attuned.
Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Cleopatrick - Fake Moon (Album Review)
Photo: Ryan Faist Reining in the tempos and upping a sense of fuzz-fuelled lo-fi wonder, Cleopatrick’s ‘Fake Moon’ is less a reimagining of their sound and more a complete reinvention. A stark departure from the towering riffs and walls of noise that dominated their gritty 2021 debut ‘Bummer’, it finds guitarist-vocalist Luke Gruntz and drummer Ian Fraser continuing further down the rabbit hole they first stumbled into on the following year’s ‘Doom’ EP.
Written by: Maddy Howell | Date: Tuesday, 18 March 2025
Bob Mould - Here We Go Crazy (Album Review)
Photo: Ryan Bakerink Icon is an overused term, but when you’re talking about Bob Mould it fits. Having made some of the most ambitious hardcore records in history with Hüsker Dü before reinventing power-pop with Sugar in the ‘90s, he has inspired everyone from Metallica to Green Day.
Written by: Jack Butler-Terry | Date: Monday, 17 March 2025
Neil Young - Oceanside Countryside (Album Review)
Photo: Facebook With a catalogue as rich and extensive as Neil Young’s, ‘Oceanside Countryside’ feels like a time capsule that, for newer fans, opens up a fresh route into discovering his work, offering different iterations of songs that have cropped up on various albums across several decades.
Written by: Nieve Elis | Date: Thursday, 13 March 2025
Lady Gaga - Mayhem (Album Review)
Photo: Frank LeBon Lady Gaga has been a superstar for almost two decades, but in the recent past the pendulum has swung wildly between extremes, with her iconic breakout records rubbing shoulders alongside collaborations with Tony Bennett and the much-maligned Folie à Deux soundtrack, which arrived tagged to a cinematic turkey of giant proportions.
Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Tuesday, 11 March 2025
Andy Bell - Pinball Wanderer (Album Review)
Photo: Perou Too often in music criticism ‘interesting’ is used as a synonym for ‘bad’ but not so in the case of Andy Bell’s ‘Pinball Wanderer’, which is a hugely diverse and genuinely interesting record from the consistently busy shoegaze pioneer.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Monday, 10 March 2025
Divorce - Drive to Goldenhammer (Album Review)
Photo: Flower Up & Rosie Sco Since first making a splash in 2021, Divorce have been steadily amassing buzz thanks to their blend of alt-country, indie-folk and more besides. The Nottingham band’s debut album ‘Drive to Goldenhammer’ offers a glimpse into the future with the arrival of a fresh, vibrant voice.
Written by: Chris Connor | Date: Monday, 10 March 2025
Banks - Off With Her Head (Album Review)
Photo: Charlie Denis It’s been a decade since Banks arrived with ‘Goddess’ and in the years since, the Angeleno songwriter has reinvented herself over and over again, constantly shifting with the tides of time and taste. So it is once again with ‘Off With Her Head’, an album all about bypassing thought and going with your heart.
Written by: Jack Butler-Terry | Date: Friday, 07 March 2025
Architects - The Sky, The Earth & All Between (Album Review)
Photo: Ed Mason Alongside Bring Me The Horizon and Enter Shikari, Architects have long held a position at the very top of the UK metal scene. From their churning metalcore beginnings through to their progressive, pop-leaning present, they have kept things fresh and heavy for more than two decades now.
Written by: Matthew McLister | Date: Friday, 07 March 2025
Rebecca Black - Salvation (Album Review)
If 2023’s ‘Let Her Burn’ found Rebecca Black starting to cast off the long shadow cast by her proto-viral hit Friday, ‘Salvation’ is a no-holds-barred emergence as a major player in forward-thinking modern pop. In following up her debut album, she focuses on hyperpop and EDM to create a cohesive and extremely entertaining record that indicates a fearless approach to exploring what her art can be.
Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Thursday, 06 March 2025
Mdou Moctar - Tears of Injustice (Album Review)
Photo: Nelson Espinal A year on from the release of ‘Funeral for Justice’, a record that might be remembered as his masterpiece, Nigerien guitarist and bandleader Mdou Moctar is back with an acoustic take on the very same material.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 05 March 2025
LISA - Alter Ego (Album Review)
Photo: Wontae Go LISA has perhaps always been someone who just needed the right push to become one of the world’s biggest stars. BLACKPINK’s 2016 formation put her on the path towards that level, but it was the chance for all four members to take time out and focus on their own music that’s given her the opportunity to drill down into what the next step might look like.
Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Tuesday, 04 March 2025
Doves - Constellations For The Lonely (Album Review)
Doves have been at the vanguard of British indie since the release of 2000’s ‘Lost Souls’ but more than two decades later they are still a band driven by a desire to push forward and innovate. Emerging from the ashes of dance act Sub Sub, their moody, atmospheric brand of alternative-rock has captured legions of fans and ‘Constellations For The Lonely’, their first LP in five years and only their second since 2009, is a fine reward for their patience.
Written by: Chris Connor | Date: Monday, 03 March 2025
Tate McRae - So Close to What (Album Review)
Photo: Charlie Denis ‘So Close to What’ is a reflective record. Having broken out musically at just 14 with the viral hit One Day, Tate McRae’s journey has been rapid but remarkably reflective. On 2024’s ‘Think Later’ she delivered a vivid exploration of young womanhood, complete with its attendant themes of self-discovery and resilience, but with ‘So Close to What’ she revisits the challenges of growing up.
Written by: Katie Macbeth | Date: Friday, 28 February 2025
Nao - Jupiter (Album Review)
On ‘Jupiter’, Nao celebrates growth with songs that elevate her self-styled “wonky funk” to fresh heights. A spiritual sequel to her 2018 album ‘Saturn’, which dealt with the turmoil of being in your 20s, it explores what it’s like to be in your 30s, whether as a parent, as a partner or as a friend.
Written by: Jennifer Geddes | Date: Thursday, 27 February 2025
Saya Gray - SAYA (Album Review)
Photo: Jennifer Cheng To date, Saya Gray has stopped just short of assembling a body of work that realises the eclectic brilliance hinted at through her singles and EPs. On ‘SAYA’, her debut album proper, the self-described “vagabond” is more focused and deliberate with her songwriting choices, cementing her status as an original, exciting voice in modern pop even if a reliance on certain tropes puts her squarely in the same ballpark as her contemporaries.
Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Thursday, 27 February 2025
Sam Fender - People Watching (Album Review)
Photo: Sarah Louise Bennett When Sam Fender burst onto the scene with 2019’s ‘Hypersonic Missiles’, he was already in possession of blueprints that would set up his current status as a stadium-filling draw capable of combining Bruce Springsteen’s widescreen rock with modern indie. But the following ‘Seventeen Going Under’ blew all expectations out of the water, with its titular anthem proving to be particularly potent. Expectations prior to album three, then, are at an all-time high.
Written by: Chris Connor | Date: Wednesday, 26 February 2025
Porridge Radio - The Machine Starts To Sing EP (Album Review)
‘The Machine Starts To Sing’ is a fitting farewell for Porridge Radio: a four-song EP that distills their sound while also hinting at what could have come next creatively for the quartet had they not decided to call it quits.
Written by: Jack Press | Date: Wednesday, 26 February 2025
Youth Lagoon - Rarely Do I Dream (Album Review)
Photo: Tyler T. Williams “What have you in common with the child of five whose photograph your mother keeps on the mantelpiece?” George Orwell once wrote. “Nothing, except that you happen to be the same person.”
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Tuesday, 25 February 2025
Krept & Konan - Young Kingz II (Album Review)
Photo: @mrtmorgan & @will_ainsworth Not too long ago, Krept & Konan were on course for the very top. Their 2013 mixtape ‘Young Kingz’ went top 20 in the UK and paved the way for the duo to win the Best Hip-Hop Act MOBO a year later. But while they’ve kept material coming in dribs and drabs over the years, their focus has largely shifted to their community, where they’ve opened a foundation, a supermarket and a restaurant.
Written by: Jack Butler-Terry | Date: Tuesday, 25 February 2025
Horsegirl - Phonetics On and On (Album Review)
Photo: Ruby Faye Less is more as Horsegirl return with a stripped back and playful second album. On ‘Phonetics On and On’ the heavy feedback that soaked the Chicago trio’s debut is gone, replaced with breezy pop melodies and an evolved sound that still evokes ‘90s indie while feeling more personal.
Written by: Jennifer Geddes | Date: Monday, 24 February 2025
Mereba - The Breeze Grew a Fire (Album Review)
Photo: Adane Firde Mereba’s third album finds the LA singer, guitarist and rapper ushering in 13 tracks of luscious and sprawling R&B, with poetic commentary and reflections on motherhood that will live long in the memory. Though it occasionally lacks the stellar songwriting that might break a lot of new ground with audiences, ‘The Breeze Grew a Fire’ is a record of terrific poise and elegance by a recording artist in full flight.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Friday, 21 February 2025
The Wombats - Oh! The Ocean (Album Review)
Photo: Julia Friedland-Godfrey Inspired by a moment of clarity as frontman Matthew “Murph” Murphy stared out at the sea, if there’s one word to sum up The Wombats’ sixth studio album, it’s self-awareness. Diving deep into anxieties, avoidance, and the struggle in finding balance between isolation and connection, ‘Oh! The Ocean’ confronts the consequences of living inside your own mind.
Written by: Maddy Howell | Date: Thursday, 20 February 2025
Manic Street Preachers - Critical Thinking (Album Review)
Manic Street Preachers have continually evolved throughout a decades-long career, choosing to step around the pitfalls waiting for bands who are happy to rely on past successes. Duly, their 15th album houses critiques of the modern world while questioning the purpose of art and their own continued relevance.
Written by: Katie Macbeth | Date: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Larkin Poe - Bloom (Album Review)
Photo: Robby Klein You can’t teach authenticity. You’ve either got it or you haven’t. Sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell — better known as Larkin Poe — have long shown themselves to be the genuine article, travelling from their bluegrass roots through to a potent infusion of country and rock ‘n’ roll across five albums.
Written by: Jack Butler-Terry | Date: Tuesday, 18 February 2025
Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory - Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory (Album Review)
Photo: Susu Laroche Doing things in reverse somewhat, Sharon Van Etten’s first LP with the Attachment Theory finds the singer-songwriter parking a successful solo career in order to make music that allows her band to share the limelight for the first time. ‘Sharon Van Etten & the Attachment Theory’ arose from initial jam sessions where her collaborators were invited to run with things and, as it turns out, they didn’t take long to hit the jackpot.
Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Tuesday, 18 February 2025
Geologist and D.S. - A Shaw Deal (Album Review)
Photo: Josh Wildman Animal Collective’s artsy, feverish bodies of work aren’t for everyone, but they tend to connect almost spiritually with those who can get on the same page. ‘A Shaw Deal’ dutifully expands the AnCo-verse along these lines, getting into tangled realms that rely entirely on feeling over meaning.
Written by: Jack Butler-Terry | Date: Monday, 17 February 2025
Squid - Cowards (Album Review)
Photo: Harrison Fishman After an almost unprecedented boom in recent years, post-punk now seems to be in a lull. The breakout success of bands such as Fontaines D.C. and Shame et al has led to copycats springing up left right and centre, resulting in predictable albums and concepts becoming the norm. When the creativity behind a subgenre plateaus in this way, it takes something like Squid’s ‘Cowards’ to remind us how it’s done.
Written by: James Palaczky | Date: Monday, 17 February 2025
Maribou State - Hallucinating Love (Album Review)
Photo: Rory Dewar It’s been seven years since electronica duo Maribou State’s last album, ‘Kingdoms In Colour’. In that time, they've wrestled with health issues that swept music from the table and raised questions as to whether we would see them again. But ‘Hallucinating Love’ emerges from that uncertainty and resets their already high bar with a set of tracks that are about as emotional and celebratory as we’ve ever heard from them.
Written by: Jack Butler-Terry | Date: Friday, 14 February 2025
