Griff's debut album has been 5 years in the making. Ever since she was signed by Warner right after her A-levels, Griff has been grafting. An EP, ( shouldabeen a debut album) mixtape, a string of loosies, collaborations with electronic musicians Zedd and Honne, supporting slots on tours by Dua Lipa, Coldplay and Ed Sheeran. It has all been leading to the release of her debut album "Vertigo".

What must feel like a big culmination for Griff, has ended up feeling semi ... read more

10 albums in and 25 years since their mainstream breakthrough with "The Man Who" the Scottish four piece are back with "L.A. Times" an album that explores many faces of Travis.

Lead singer Fran Healy has shared how this is the most personal album since the aforementioned 1999 multi-million seller. But the classic "most personal" trope doesn't really bear fruit lyrically across the album. A lot of the topics, tread familiar territories; hoping for a better ... read more

Act II, following 2022's "Renaissance" is here, and this time Beyoncé is embracing country. But country as a concept, not necessarily as a genre. Of course there is plenty of country music on this, from the banjo strings on "Texas Hold 'Em", the Line dancing on "Ya Ya" or the homage to country legends on "Jolene", thematically, Beyoncé has exploded the culture of the black experience in the South and has created a musical collage in its ... read more

The 12th album by the US rock musician comes 5 years after she claimed she would never release another album. After 2019's "Threads", an album on which she collaborated with a number of her influences, from James Taylor to Willie Nelson, Crow thought "For me to make a full artistic statement with a beginning and a middle and an end, and to put the emotion and the money and the time into it only to have it not be heard [in a way it wasn't intended]? It seems slightly ... read more

Written entirely by John Squire who has been on hiatus from music since 2017, during which he’s been painting in his home in Macclesfield. Now he’s back with 10 new sing-a-long anthems to add to the post Brit Pop canon.

Liam Gallagher is drafted in here to provide vocals on the tracks in Ian Brown’s shoes, his trademark rasp sounds great over the wall of guitar, bass and drums. Squire pushes Gallagher to new sounds, like on “I’m A Wheel” Gallagher sings ... read more

This is the fifth album by 26 year old Faye Webster, and I only put her age down as it’s pretty unique to see an artist allowed to have this space and time to hone their craft, slowly growing their profile over time, without label pressure to be a household name. As the years have passed, the dial has slowly come around the guitar focused singer-songwriter folk rock she is making, akin to a Boygenius.

The album is self-produced with long time collaborator Drew Vandenberg and covers the ... read more

The Manchester quartet’s seventh album contains an illustrative criticism of the impacts of capitalism on our society. “Mountainhead” tells the story of an alternate world in which workers excavate a pit at the base of a mountain deeper and deeper in order to build the mountain higher and higher. A culture of eliteness, vanity and wealth rules the people (the Mountainheads) on the mountain. At the peak of the mountain there is a mirror, to portray the ego of the mega-rich. ... read more

Belfast based Orlaith & Mollie deliver a promising debut record, "For Your Sins" is a concise and restrained outing from the rock duo.

I say restrained because Dea Matrona have not fallen into a common guitar band debut trap of having numerous songs that overstay their welcome. The songs on this record have been tightened up and polished into quick, digestible and relisten-able 2/3/4 minute long tracks. While the sonic pallet is guitar heavy, the choruses are pop in nature; ... read more

Croydon based singer songwriter Rachel Chinouriri is aiming to redefine what Britishness looks like on her debut album "What A Devastating Turn Of Events".

Inspired by Brit pop, she is stating her place, and the place of black British women, in the British indie scene. Songs like "the Hills" have gorgeous grungy guitars and "Never Needs Me" is a vibrant shoegaze and drum fuelled romp as Chinouriri breaks away from an ex. Her gentle, husky tone, offsets nicely ... read more

From Bon Iver to Grimes, Albarn to Radiohead, geographical isolation is a popular tool for tapping into the artist's vulnerability. This is tool wielded by Kelly on his latest album. Recorded on a remote island, Giske, in the North Sea, off the coast of Norway, Kelly shares the mind of man meditating on his mortality.

Kelly's resounding rasp, a signature Stereophonic sound, is scored by strings, light-strums and piano keys across 8 tracks. Vocally, he's purging, you can feel the songs come ... read more

Aided by several recognisable interpolations, Anne-Marie's third album is jam packed with catchy hooks. Lyrically the album leans too heavily on overwrought emotions (lots of I-would-die-for you's, if-it-kills-me's, I'm obsessed/psychotic/cockoo etc.) And characterization that veers far into caricature. Catchphrases are used in lieu of choruses and she appears hesitant to be anyway sincere or vulnerable, which prevents her music being anything other than meme deep.

A bloated album is to be expected from Posty, but this time out he has his best hit rate to date, folding guitars and rock aesthetic (including collaborators), Malone finally finesses the formula to spin pop/trap into gold.

Post refines his trap pop formula and manages to accrue a handful of genuine pop bangers. It's a shame he sprinkled them throughout a bloated, soulless, underproduced and uninspired tracklist which overstays it's welcome.

Post Malone hits on his own brand of mixing contemporary trap with pop, but the most remarkable thing this album achieves is laying a path for what is to come. It's overwrought, it's bloated, it repeats ideas constantly, lyrically and production-wise. Post is still finding his feet on an album, which demonstrates all the hallmarks of having been released before the artist is fully formed.

Without Jae5, Hus abandons the genre clash of the debut and focuses each song on one of the genres within his ouvre, hip hop, drill, r&b, afrobeats. For the most part it's vibes, bars and dick jokes, with little to no hooks, an aspect of his work that made him a cut above the rest. Without them, the vast majority of the album fails to excite.

A more genre-focused outing, with leaner hooks and a tighter run time, J Hus veers his afroswing sound into a darker space. With a lot of the infectiousness of the debut and better use of its collaboraters, J Hus has swerved the sophomore slump.

A magical mix of jazz, afrobeats, hiphop and pop. Despite it's long run time, every song has an infectious hook, with some song soaring with joy courtesy of Jae5's intricate production like the sax solo on the title track on the deployment of strings throughout the full album. An excellent debut.

Madonna returns stateside as Pharrell and Timbaland Sexyback-ify her sound. Jammed with effortlessly catchy top lines sprinkled with vulnerable lyrics, its cohesion gets jammed in the contrast between its 2 producers (of which Timba is superior).

Reimagining 70s disco through a European lens (Abba, Pet Shop Boys, Goldfrapp), Madonna sacrifices lyrical heft (and rhyme - New York/dork) for a timeless, spacious production. But, this cohesive sound is missing on the final 3 songs.

Despite its lack of "top tier" Madge, it's her most vulnerable to date. A consistent set of songs which juxtapose brash bravado (techno) and emotional rawness (acoustic guitar) but, ultimately, most feel like refracted versions of "Don't Tell Me".