Scowl - Are We All Angels (Album Review)

Hardcore was perhaps always going to be too small to contain a band such as Scowl. Their breakout debut ‘How Flowers Grow’ might’ve been fiery but in its title track there was unexpected tenderness, setting the scene for further shapeshifting as the subsequent EP ‘Psychic Dance Routine’ pushed on into grunge and alt-rock. 

Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Friday, 11 April 2025

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