Madonna - Veronica Electronica (Album Review)

Released in 1998, Madonna’s ‘Ray of Light’ fused digital atmospheres, UK alt-pop and introspective songwriting to reframe her artistry all over again, leaving a legacy as one of the most transformative records in a career studded with them. Almost 30 years later, ‘Veronica Electronica’ is a long-rumoured remix album that seeks to repeat the feat.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Friday, 01 August 2025

The Band Camino - NeverAlways (Album Review)

For the past decade, The Band Camino have lived at the intersection of emotional turmoil and euphoria. Doubling down on both counts with a sharp sense of clarity, the Nashville-based trio have hit the sweet spot on their third studio album, ‘NeverAlways’.

Written by: Maddy Howell | Date: Thursday, 31 July 2025

Indigo De Souza - Precipice (Album Review)

Photo: Lea Garn Sometimes an album’s cover will lock you in before you even hear a note of its music. Indigo De Souza’s ‘Precipice’ arrives adorned with an incredible painting by the musician’s mother, whose colourful, unusual but warm hues adroitly capture the music contained within it.

Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Wednesday, 30 July 2025

Bleach Lab - Close To The Flame EP (Album Review)

Photo: Alex Eden Bleach Lab have quickly proven themselves adept at capturing a mood. The dream-pop specialists delivered one of 2023’s most captivating debuts as ‘Lost in a Rush of Emptiness’ soundtracked singer Jenna Kyle’s mental state post-toxic relationship, and its follow up ‘Close to the Flame’ is similarly breathtaking at its best.

Written by: Matthew McLister | Date: Wednesday, 30 July 2025

The Dirty Nil - The Lash (Album Review)

Photo: Drew Thomson In 2021, ‘Fuck Art’ catapulted Canadian outfit The Dirty Nil to fresh heights, encapsulating their colourful aesthetic and skull-rattling rock anthemics. ‘The Lash’ feels like a reaction to all that, with the now-duo hitting reset to offer a more cynical outlook on life and music.

Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Tuesday, 29 July 2025

Zac Farro - Operator (Album Review)

You could easily forgive Zac Farro for wanting a breather. His debut solo record follows a whirlwind period in the songwriter’s life, with new records by Paramore and HalfNoise emerging amid a year of stadium touring with Taylor Swift. Instead of sounding tired or jaded, though, ‘Operator’ finds him creatively unshackled, free from Paramore-level scrutiny and expressively building upon the psychedelic foundations of HalfNoise’s ‘City Talk’.

Written by: Jack Press | Date: Tuesday, 29 July 2025

Tyler, The Creator - Don't Tap The Glass (Album Review)

Photo: YouTube It’s not even been nine months since ‘Chromakopia’ landed and we have yet another album from Tyler, the Creator. Even by his prolific standards — that’s nine albums now, and three in the past four years — this is unprecedented, especially when you take into account the aesthetics and themes he meticulously crafts for each album.

Written by: Jack Butler-Terry | Date: Monday, 28 July 2025

Joe Bonamassa - Breakthrough (Album Review)

Photo: Ian Potter On first listen, this splendid record from the king of genre-bending blues-rock might feel a tad too polished and accessible. The key to understanding its artistic choices is revealed during its epic centrepiece, Broken Record, when Bonamassa cries, “I’ve been on this road for too long, lost in the wilderness.” What initially sounds like standard bluesy exorcism is, in fact, indicative of an endearingly upbeat effort that, instead of wallowing under a black cloud, revels in the music’s capacity for emotional release.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Friday, 25 July 2025

Fletcher - Would You Still Love Me If You Really Knew Me? (Album Review)

Photo: Carissa Gallo Cari Fletcher has become a queer icon during the course of the past decade, her debut ‘Girl Of My Dreams’ something of a TikTok-fuelled cultural phenomenon within the LGBTQ+ community. Now, the New Jersey songwriter has taken a different approach with her third effort ‘Would You Still Love Me If You Really Knew Me?’, falling headfirst into heated discourse with songs that don’t quite stack up.

Written by: Issy Herring | Date: Thursday, 24 July 2025

Burna Boy - No Sign Of Weakness (Album Review)

Photo: Shot By Nee To simply call Burna Boy an Afrobeats artist does the Nigerian superstar a disservice. Across seven albums, he’s stirred dancehall, hip hop and R&B into his work to firmly establish himself as one of today’s most respected future-gazers. But despite the bullish nature of its title, ‘No Sign of Weakness’ shows the cracks starting to form.

Written by: Jack Butler-Terry | Date: Thursday, 24 July 2025

Billie Marten - Dog Eared (Album Review)

Photo: Frances Carter Billie Marten, five albums deep and still only 26 years old, continues her creative tear with ‘Dog Eared’, her most striking evolution in sound yet. Recorded in New York with producer Phil Weinrobe and a stellar cast of collaborators including Sam Evian and Dirty Projectors’ Maia Friedman, it offers a deliberate departure from the stark intimacy of her earlier work.

Written by: Jack Press | Date: Thursday, 24 July 2025

Panic Shack - Panic Shack (Album Review)

Photo: Ren Faulkner Panic Shack are instinctively, unapologetically themselves, creating an authentic collective voice that their self-titled debut uses to Trojan horse topics such as sexism, body image, elitism and friendship into punk ragers that will soundtrack many a gig pre-gaming session this summer. The vibe here is very much double voddies all round.

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Wednesday, 23 July 2025

Alex G - Headlights (Album Review)

Photo: Chris Maggio Alex G’s ‘Headlights’ is a sombre, reflective album, the singer-songwriter exploring themes of loneliness and escapism while delivering a collection of songs almost perfectly suited for your next late-night drive to nowhere in particular. It’s almost there, with real ambience butting heads with lyrics that are too open-ended to dig much deeper than surface level.

Written by: James Palaczky | Date: Wednesday, 23 July 2025

Lord Huron - The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1 (Album Review)

Photo: Cole Silberman While Lord Huron might not be household names they are a streaming behemoth thanks to The Night We Met, a track that’s done Taylor Swift numbers after being used in the show 13 Reasons Why. It has generated renewed interest in the indie-Americana group’s other work, and the sturdy ‘The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1’ duly does a nice job of introducing their sound, delivering more of what fans have come to expect since their 2012 debut.

Written by: Chris Connor | Date: Wednesday, 23 July 2025

Clipse - Let God Sort Em Out (Album Review)

‘Let God Sort Em Out’ is a lot of things — the first Clipse record since 2009, a reunion of brothers, even side quest in the Kendrick Lamar-Drake saga — but chiefly it is a thunderous reaffirmation of their signature sound: coke rap.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Tuesday, 22 July 2025

Wet Leg - Moisturizer (Album Review)

Photo: Alice Backham Wet Leg’s self-titled debut set Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers on the road to stardom and success in 2022, scooping a couple of Brits while making the sardonic Chaise Longue into a breakout hit of note. Not many bands make such a splash so early on, making their return with ‘Moisturizer’ somewhat daunting, especially given its revamped aesthetic, fresh style and updated sound. This is a swerve in a new direction, then, but it’s an exciting one.

Written by: Laura Mills | Date: Tuesday, 22 July 2025

Gwenno - Utopia (Album Review)

Photo: Clare Marie Bailey During The Devil, Gwenno softly warns, “You’ll meet the devil in Brighton.” It’s a line freighted with personal history, feeling like a reference to her tenure with The Pipettes, a polka-dotted girl group that burned bright but left bruises. Their retro-pop sheen may have charmed the mid-2000s, but Gwenno’s own account of that period on ‘Utopia’ is one of fragmentation rather than fondness.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Monday, 21 July 2025

Justin Bieber - Swag (Album Review)

When a 15-year-old Justin Bieber released Baby in 2010, he became a global superstar overnight. Now aged 31, he seems hellbent on distancing himself from the teeny bopper image that catapulted him to the top of the world half a lifetime ago and his new album ‘Swag’, released as a surprise, suffers as a result. It is little more than an identity crisis set to tape.

Written by: Jack Butler-Terry | Date: Monday, 21 July 2025

Laura Jane Grace in The Trauma Tropes - Adventure Club (Album Review)

Photo: Pinelopi Gerasimou By now, Laura Jane Grace has proven she can write vital, visceral punk songs anywhere, but even might not have expected a whole  record to emerge from a delayed flight and a deep dive into the Greek scene. But that’s exactly what happened to spur ‘Adventure Club’ into being.

Written by: Maddy Howell | Date: Friday, 18 July 2025

Noah Cyrus - I Want My Loved Ones To Go With Me (Album Review)

Photo: Hannah Khymych Three years after ‘The Hardest Part’ established artistic credentials to match her famous name, Noah Cyrus returns with ‘I Want My Loved Ones To Go With Me’, which feels less like a difficult second album and more like a modern classic.

Written by: Jack Press | Date: Wednesday, 16 July 2025