James Blake - Trying Times (Album Review)

Photo: Robbie Lawrence James Blake, like Laura Marling, emerged in the early 2010s as a kind of poster child for a particular strain of elevated British pop: austere, emotionally literate, faintly academic music that seemed to hover somewhere between cutting edge modernism and traditional singer-songwriter confession. 

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 18 March 2026

Lamb of God - Into Oblivion (Album Review)

Photo: Travis Shinn After exploding out of Virginia in the early 2000s Lamb Of God quickly found their groove — quite literally in a musical sense — and put out a string of good-to-great metal records. ‘Into Oblivion’ is their 10th, arriving off the back of a run of lukewarm releases that have threatened to upset that balance. The question is whether they continue that streak or if there’s fuel yet left to keep them going — the answer isn’t a simple yes or no.

Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Tuesday, 17 March 2026

The Scratch - Pull Like a Dog (Album Review)

There has perhaps never been a better time to be an Irish band. This is the era of Kneecap and Fontaines D.C., of Sprints, NewDad and The Murder Capital. But none of those groups sound remotely like The Scratch, who have created a fusion of metal and trad that’s aggressive and driving, with a quirky sense of joy to it too. At its full-throttle best, it ignites an urge to drink and dance that simply cannot be fought. 

Written by: Emma Wilkes | Date: Monday, 16 March 2026

War Child Records - Help(2) (Album Review)

Photo: Damon Albarn, Grian Chatten, Kae Tempest by Lawrence Watson Thirty years on from the first War Child charity LP ‘The Help Album’, which featured Suede, Massive Attack, Paul McCartney and Portishead, among others, ‘Help(2)’ brings together a similarly impressive ensemble spanning several generations and genres. The result is an eclectic mix of new material, unreleased tracks, and, in the case of Oasis, a huge live version of Acquiesce taken from their triumphant Wembley shows in 2025.

Written by: Chris Connor | Date: Friday, 13 March 2026

Harry Styles - Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally. (Album Review)

Photo: Johnny Dufort Inspired by time away from the spotlight, some of it spent dancing in Berlin nightclubs, and being a participant in the live music scene rather than a spectacle, Harry Styles’ ‘Kiss All The Time, Disco Occasionally’ is a shimmering record that promises to “let the light in”.

Written by: Sarah Taylor | Date: Thursday, 12 March 2026

Morrissey - Make-Up Is A Lie (Album Review)

Morrissey hasn’t really updated his sound since the 1990s. Even then, it often seemed slightly out of step with the moment. ‘Make-Up Is a Lie’, his 14th solo album, does little to change that impression: the same swooning croon, the same melodramatic arrangements, the same sense of a performer locked inside a self-constructed world.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 11 March 2026

Book of Churches - Book of Churches (Album Review)

There is something disarming about the naivety at the heart of ‘Book of Churches’, the debut solo record from Divorce guitarist and co-vocalist Felix Mackenzie-Barrow. Written in a day, recorded the next, and left largely untouched until mixing, its 10 songs possess an unguarded quality, with the sense of a songwriter thinking aloud. It is both its greatest strength and its central limitation.

Written by: Jack Press | Date: Tuesday, 10 March 2026

Mitski - Nothing's About to Happen to Me (Album Review)

Photo: Lexie Alley With a sound that spans jazz, rock and indie-folk, Mitski has proven to be one of the most eclectic artists of her generation. Fresh from the huge acclaim that greeted 2023’s ‘The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We’, her eighth album is, once again, a genre-hopping masterwork that shows a wonderful songwriter at her very best. 

Written by: Chris Connor | Date: Monday, 09 March 2026

Buck Meek - The Mirror (Album Review)

If 2023’s ‘Haunted Mountain’ was Buck Meek arriving at the summit, ‘The Mirror’ reflects what he found when he got there: a world so alive with warmth, curiosity, and human feeling that you never want to leave it. The Big Thief guitarist’s fourth solo record, and finest to date, treats love not as a destination but as an ongoing act of study: patient and searching, equal parts heartache and joy.

Written by: Jack Press | Date: Thursday, 05 March 2026

Bruno Mars - The Romantic (Album Review)

Photo: John Esparza Anybody with even a passing interest in the work of Bruno Mars will most likely have seen him perform as Elvis Presley when he was a kid. The man is a prolific homage-payer, as evidenced throughout a chart-topping, mall-soundtrack career that has borrowed the best bits from across the R&B, soul and pop arenas. But with ‘The Romantic’, his first album in a decade, his penchant for pastiche is his biggest problem.

Written by: Jack Butler-Terry | Date: Thursday, 05 March 2026

Maria BC - Marathon (Album Review)

Photo: Senny Mau It’s hard to summarise a record as complex as this in a few hundred words, which only underlines the most enticing thing about Maria BC’s music: their ability to harness the messy strands of soul and conscience and channel them into a hypnotic storyline.

Written by: James Palaczky | Date: Thursday, 05 March 2026

Bill Callahan - My Days of 58 (Album Review)

Photo: Bill McCullough On his 19th album (that’s 11 as Smog, and a further eight under his own name, stats fans) Bill Callahan continues his turn towards warm and lucid songwriting. The alt-country auteur who once sang about broken marriages and “teenage spaceships” is now far more likely to write a turn of phrase that melts your heart, rather than breaking it.

Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Wednesday, 04 March 2026

Howling Bells - Strange Life (Album Review)

Photo: Orlando Cubitt ‘Strange Life’ represents a triumphant return for Howling Bells, some 12 years after their last album. Amid distorted, squalling guitars, thunderous riffs and swooning harmonies, the Australian indie-rock trio contemplate past regrets and their lives as working musicians. Full of sweeping, psychedelic melodrama and dark romance, the album’s quieter moments also deliver an abrasive update to the ‘60s girl group sound.

Written by: Jeremy Blackmore | Date: Wednesday, 04 March 2026

BLACKPINK - Deadline (Album Review)

Photo: YG Entertainment K-pop has not-so-quietly become a worldwide cultural force, and the runaway success of BLACKPINK has plenty to do with it. Despite not releasing new material since 2022 — almost unheard of in the genre’s lightning-fast world— they’ve only gotten bigger with solo ventures and group world tours. ‘Deadline’ is a mini-album or, in old money, a five-track EP, that underscores their position as trailblazers without ever doing anything particularly groundbreaking.

Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Tuesday, 03 March 2026

Gorillaz - The Mountain (Album Review)

Photo: Gorillaz/Reuben Bastienne-Lewis Never ones to stand still, Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s ninth album with Gorillaz is a sprawling genre-hopping affair, with glam-rock, post-punk and soul thrown into the melting pot. The title track really underlines how different this will be, with Albarn fading into the background on an almost entirely instrumental track studded with traditional Hindustani instruments.

Written by: Chris Connor | Date: Monday, 02 March 2026

Megan Moroney - Cloud 9 (Album Review)

Photo: Amber Asaly Donald Trump has made it weirdly difficult to enjoy a lot of otherwise apolitical country music. Even when a record has nothing to do with him, the cultural static lingers like a low hum beneath the pedal steel. On ‘Cloud 9’, Megan Moroney largely tunes it out by doubling down on what she does best: sharp, self-aware dispatches from the women left cleaning up after charming idiots.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Friday, 27 February 2026

Leigh-Anne - My Ego Told Me To (Album Review)

Photo: Niklas Haze It’s been a busy season for Little Mix, even with the girlband on hiatus. Following the breakout success of Jade’s ‘That’s Showbiz Baby’ last year, Leigh-Anne is the latest member to release a highly anticipated debut album that doesn’t simply meet expectations — it exceeds them.

Written by: Laura Mills | Date: Thursday, 26 February 2026

Mumford and Sons - Prizefighter (Album Review)

Mumford & Sons are a true Marmite band — as loved as they are hated. They’re either posh boys cosplaying as farmers, or purveyors of immensely popular, rousing, countrified folk-pop. On their sixth album, they are keen to escape the foot-stomping sound that propelled them towards international stardom thanks to the single Little Lion Man and their 2009 debut ‘Sigh No More’. And, in truth, they are all the better for it. 

Written by: Matthew McLister | Date: Thursday, 26 February 2026

Hen Ogledd - Discombobulated (Album Review)

Hen Ogledd don’t sound interested in tidying themselves up for polite company. ‘Discombobulated’ is messy on purpose: a record that treats 2026 less as backdrop and more as battleground, stitching together protest, pastoral myth and free-form freak-outs into something defiantly un-housetrained.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 25 February 2026

Tyler Ballgame - For the First Time, Again (Album Review)

Some voices demand to be heard. Voices that draw deserved comparisons with the greats like Roy Orbison, Harry Nilsson or Elvis Presley. ‘For the First Time, Again’, the debut album from the splendidly named Tyler Ballgame (born Tyler Perry), arrives with that voice fully formed. It’s deep, rich, full of warmth and utterly authentic. It’s surprising it took so long for his talent to be recognised.

Written by: Jeremy Blackmore | Date: Wednesday, 25 February 2026