The themes of Lotus are painfully abundant, as is the absence of a certain producer (it's almost like there's a correlation between the two), but Simbi still gets some good work done without her past collaborator, though it's a little more unremarkable overall. Still, as always, her stories and energy is great, and the moods and sentiments that Lotus floats around come off as genuine most of the time. The album just needed to cut the immature and goofy Young alongside some other ... read more

I thought a Monkeys album produced by Josh Homme would have been a roaring success with me, but sadly to me Alex Turner is a bizarre and uninteresting vocalist and lyricist. The best Humbug moments are when it sounds like a pseudo Queens record or a fun 2000's indie rock album. The worst moments are when Turner gets free reign to rattle on about pure nonsense. A decent album to say the least, but not a selling point for a band that I have a strange relationship with, wholly because of ... read more

Removing the artist and song names definitely helps to create an atmosphere and takes away all other distractions to help focus on the music, but I do feel bad for the contributors who will never be immediately known upon initially glancing at the album. There's some really good stuff on here, and also some very pretentious bits, overall making for an eclectic yet enveloping experience.

Favourite Song: Track 6

Best: Tracks 1, 2, 3, 7, 10

Worst: Track 8

Mr Producer, tears in his eyes, desperately looks into the recording booth for approval, his ears strained from pianos, Midwest emo riffs, and bizarre brass outro sections. After polishing this final song for the album, he could ensure that the band finally earns back their metal title. Well, at the very least, this one final song could earn it, as it's just a pure metal track. Sure, it's a bit melodic, but it's metal nonetheless, a good old riff here and some growling and ... read more

Inhaler? I hardly know her!!

Modern indie rock band guide

Step 1: One word band name
Step 2: Have two or three pretty good songs
Step 3: Write an album, include your good songs and make the other songs really unremarkable but produce it all glitzy and modern like
Step 4: Put the band on the album cover
Step 5: Title the album a weird out of context sentence that is contextualised within one of the album's songs
Step 6: Profit

Inhaler are okay, as is this album, but is this not yet ... read more

Not as directionally deranged as Cave World, but still some roaring punk bizarreness.

Favourite Song: Man Made of Meat

Best: The Bog Body, Uno II, Dirty Boyz, Store Policy, River King

Worst: Pyramid of Health

The most 2000's British indie rock that a 2000's British indie rock album could be.

Favourite Song: Naive

Best: Seaside, See the World, Sofa Song, Ooh La, If Only

Worst: Time Awaits

Extremely one note in its sad boy approach and it's lacking thematically and lyrically, but it's very impressively produced with tons of potential. Also, as great as it is, Feel It is incredibly out of place. It's like finding a unicorn after surviving an explosion, before another explosion goes off.

Favourite Song: Feel It

Best: Sky, Say It Back, Friend Again, What Are You Waiting For

Worst: Crashing

Mr. Aura Farmer General himself closes out his holy trinity of classic albums with Bad, which is good, contrary to unpopular belief. I love the vigour and particularly the guitar work on here, as well as the abrasive percussion which gets right in your face. The singles on here though, as with the last two albums, is where the real magic lies.

Bad (the song not the album) is a good (not bad, but still indeed Bad) purebred Jackson classic, with a little dose of swagger to give it extra edge. ... read more

Not quite as mystical as Las Flores but comes close. The liveliness that Natalia's music projects is so compelling, and more emphasis on the strings this time around definitely helped to create a lovely atmosphere.

Favourite Song: Luna Creciente

Best: Apertura Cancionera, Cancionera, Mascaritas de Cristal, El Coconito, El Palomo y La Negra, Cariñito de Acapulco, La Bruja, Lágrimas Cancioneras

Worst: Amor Clandestino

Such a great example of 2010s indie pop, fit with a few fun carefree tracks, but predominantly devastating ones. Heartbreaker is a perfect closer and a staggeringly good example of a pop ballad done right, which is an area that I feel the bigger modern pop musicians tend to struggle with outside of, literally maybe just, Billie Eilish. The air of sadness in Punch makes it all the more substantial and lyrically interesting, but its pop approach never makes the album too heavy.

Also for a pop ... read more

What if I was to say that PinkPantheress may be one of the few auteurs of the new generation of pop artists?

Her style is so distinct - bubbly and cutesy dance pop with UK electronic and dance influences - but it's deceptively complex, with numerous layers in each song and a breakneck pace that keeps every song pumped with adrenaline. This mixtape continues her style to a T, helped by her ability to utilise some really bizarre samples. Stars using 'Stars In Their Eyes' was a ... read more

It's like a deranged Soundcloud leak with a performative comedy opener. Fairly disappointing but Flume's wonkiness is fun, and when it's paired with an actual Peggy verse it does produce something interesting.

Favourite Song: The Ocean Is Fake

Best: Is It Real, AI Girlfriend

Worst: Track 1

A nice bit of synth pop/rock.

Favourite Song: Not A Love Song,

Best: Explode, Common Reaction, Covered, So Long, Dance With Me

Worst: Everyone

"Kill yourself" - Jane Remover, 2025

Jane removed all of her sentimentality and replaced it with endless undeniable bangers. Hard as hell and probably the most fun album that'll be released this year.

Favourite Song: Psychoboost

Best: TWICE REMOVED, Star people, Experimental Skin, angels in camo, Dreamflasher, TURN UP OR DIE, Dancing with your eyes closed, Fadeoutz, Professional Vengeance, JRJRJR

Worst: Dark night castle

They're back on form, tearing it up with their signature sound yet again.

Favourite Song: Amethyst

Best: Doberman, Magnolia, The Garden Route, Heathen, Revelator, The Marvellous Orange tree

Worst: Incidental I

You aaaaare
A cinemaaaa
I could watch you foreeeeverrrrrr

Dubstep is one of the goofiest genres knocking around, but somehow Skrillex made it feel emotional through pure nostalgia. I would say ANDY WARHOL marks an end to an era, but dubstep's era ended after the very last 2013 COD noclip montage was uploaded. This is either way a nice trip down Skrillex's memory lane, as he modernises his past dubstep scraps to make it a genre worth listening to.

Favourite Song: VOLTAGE

Best: ... read more

Some great and simple song writing but Dacus can't really escape the essence of boredom, especially in the first half which I really struggled to really get anything from, as it was all very one note apart from the catchy Ankles. A lot of the songs either felt underdeveloped (like Bullseye which should have 1. been a single, and 2. had a final chorus to tie the song together) or led to nowhere interesting (as with some of the second half songs). It's sad to say this because I do like ... read more

A pet peeve of mine is pop music that mixes guitars so badly that they sound like free samples you can get from 2012 copyright free YouTube videos. This album suffers from that notion pretty badly, alongside janky vocal performances and a really indiscernible style which makes it hard for me to see what SPELLLING is trying to go for outside of something that sounds like a collection of demos hastily made in GarageBand. I still haven't listened to Turning Wheel, and this isn't really ... read more

fABLE is a surprising change up from SABLE, and turns out to be one of Vernon's most different Iver releases to date. Very upbeat and lovely, and a warm goodbye to the boner jokes and the arguments between whether he's called bon eyever or boan eevair.

Favourite Song: If Only I Could Wait

Best: Short Story, Everything Is Peaceful Love, Walk Home, Day One, From, I'll Be There, There's A Rhythmn

Worst: Au Revoir