The Last Dinner Party - From The Pyre (Album Review)

Photo: Laura Marie Cieplik The Last Dinner Party’s debut album ‘Prelude to Ecstacy’ helped to establish them as one of the UK’s most unique bands, setting them on a path towards sold out shows and headline festival sets. Hot on its heels they have returned with a confident twist on their baroque-pop sound in the form of ‘From The Pyre’, a second LP that takes their established blueprints and doubles down rather than offering anything more versatile.

Written by: Laura Mills | Date: Wednesday, 22 October 2025

Militarie Gun - God Save The Gun (Album Review)

Now that hardcore is as popular as it’s ever been, the first half of the 2020s has given rise to a host of broadly successful post-hardcore (to flagrantly misuse that term) genre fusions. Militarie Gun play an alt-rock-hardcore blend, throwing a whole spectrum of influences, such as emo, shoegaze and even Britpop in with their harder-edged tendencies. 

Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Wednesday, 22 October 2025

Madi Diaz - Fatal Optimist (Album Review)

Photo: Allister Ann Last year represented a career high for Madi Diaz. Her sixth studio album ‘Weird Faith’ received two Grammy nominations as she enjoyed a higher profile after opening for Harry Styles before joining his tour band. ‘Fatal Optimist’, however, finds Diaz’s faith in love shattered. A break-up album, it’s raw and stripped back in a manner that’s even more intimate than her previous work, which always skewed personal and confessional.

Written by: Jeremy Blackmore | Date: Tuesday, 21 October 2025

Ashnikko - Smoochies (Album Review)

Photo: Vasso Vu Provocative is one word to describe Ashnikko, but it doesn’t go far enough when it comes to ‘Smoochies’. The follow up to her 2023 debut ‘Weedkiller’ jettisons much of the conceptual narrative that defined its predecessor and instead finds the rapper embracing a more club-oriented sound alongside a gloves-off rejection of modern puritanism.

Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Monday, 20 October 2025

Flock of Dimes - The Life You Save (Album Review)

Photo: Elizabeth Weinberg  Jenn Wasner launched Flock of Dimes as a solo project in 2011, seeking to explore the more atmospheric and experimental side of songwriting and recording outside the success of beloved folk indie-rockers Wye Oak.

Written by: Jeremy Blackmore | Date: Friday, 17 October 2025

Mobb Deep - Infinite (Album Review)

Eight years after bandmate Prodigy’s death, ‘Infinite’ arrives as both a memorial and mission statement: the final chapter of Mobb Deep’s towering Queensbridge saga. It’s a project that could easily have been exploitative or patchy but Havoc — alongside longtime collaborator The Alchemist — treats it with a degree of reverence.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Thursday, 16 October 2025

Jay Som - Belong (Album Review)

Photo: Daniel Topete ‘Belong’ may be the first album since 2019 from Jay Som, the alias of LA songwriter Melina Duterte, but it’s far from a musical comeback. Duterte has spent those six years as an in-demand musician, engineer and producer, winning a Grammy for her work on The Record by boygenius, the band she subsequently joined as a touring member.

Written by: Jeremy Blackmore | Date: Thursday, 16 October 2025

Richard Ashcroft - Lovin' You (Album Review)

Fresh from basking in Oasis’s reunion glow, Richard Ashcroft returns with ‘Lovin’ You’, his first album in seven years. Though, in truth, “return” might be too generous a word for what feels like an encore, or rather…a reheat.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 15 October 2025

Idlewild - Idlewild (Album Review)

Photo: Euan Robertson Anniversaries often give cause for reflection and a chance to bask in former glories. But in releasing their 10th album three decades on from forming in Edinburgh, Idlewild instead look to the future while celebrating their past. ‘Idlewild’ is a statement about where they are today by all the people they have been along the way.

Written by: Jeremy Blackmore | Date: Monday, 13 October 2025

Taylor Swift - The Life of a Showgirl (Album Review)

Photo: TAS Rights Management What you see isn’t always what you get, and ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ is no exception. Despite its extravagant, cinematic artwork raising hopes for a continuation of the meta commentary delivered on tracks such as I Can Do It With A Broken Heart from 2024’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department’, on her 12th album Taylor Swift has opted to retrace well-worn paths from a new perspective.

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Thursday, 09 October 2025

AFI - Silver Bleeds The Black Sun... (Album Review)

Photo: Lexie Alley With ‘Silver Bleeds The Black Sun…’, AFI have delivered their most focused statement in a decade. Their 12th album clocks in at just 33 minutes — their shortest LP since 1997’s hardcore charge ‘Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes' — and this discipline proves transformative. By cutting the fat that has occasionally weighed down their 2010s output, the Californian quartet have uncovered the urgency that made them essential.

Written by: Jack Press | Date: Wednesday, 08 October 2025

Upchuck - I'm Nice Now (Album Review)

Photo: Michael Tyrone Delaney Whoever’s working on the soundtrack for a new Tony Hawk game should give Upchuck a call. On ‘I’m Nice Now’ the Atlanta five piece come out swinging with a ferocious punk sound, their fuzzy guitars and crashing drums underpinning a meat and two veg approach that’s perfectly suited for pixellated half pipes. It’s fun at times, but not much more than that.

Written by: James Palaczky | Date: Monday, 06 October 2025

Cate Le Bon - Michelangelo Dying (Album Review)

Photo: H. Hawkline Cate Le Bon’s ‘Michelangelo Dying’ is, at its core, a breakup record, though one only she could make. Emerging from the wreckage of a long-term relationship and relocations from Joshua Tree, California back to Cardiff, her seventh LP offers heartache rendered as shimmering atmosphere.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Friday, 03 October 2025

Robert Plant - Saving Grace (Album Review)

Photo: Tom Oldham While he remains best known as Led Zeppelin’s frontman, Robert Plant’s solo career is a fascinating journey spanning country, folk, blues and Americana. He returns with his latest solo project, ‘Saving Grace’, another late career highlight and eclectic blend of covers, showing that even at 77 he’s continuing to push forward.

Written by: Chris Connor | Date: Friday, 03 October 2025

Geese - Getting Killed (Album Review)

Photo: Mark Sommerfield While their breakthrough album ‘3D Country’ was an unhinged, chaotic out of control rodeo, on its follow-up ‘Getting Killed’ Geese have tamed the bull. It’s left to us to decide whether that’s a good thing, and there’s a coin flip in it.

Written by: James Palaczky | Date: Thursday, 02 October 2025

Mariah Carey - Here For It All (Album Review)

Photo: Dennis Leupold The lead single from Mariah Carey’s ‘Here For It All’ opened the summer with a bang. A sleek slice of R&B, with Carey’s wit and confidence front and centre, Type Dangerous reminded listeners that while she hasn’t released a full album of new music since 2018’s ‘Caution’, she’s lost none of her sparkle or relevance. It set the tone for an album that embraces her strengths rather than chasing trends.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 01 October 2025

Zara Larsson - Midnight Sun (Album Review)

Photo: Charlotte Rutherford After 2023’s unfocused ‘Venus’ failed to scale the heights of her early chart successes, Zara Larsson delivers a more cohesive statement with ‘Midnight Sun’. This 10 track collection represents a significant improvement in terms of quality control, even if it doesn’t entirely succeed in updating her sound.

Written by: Jack Press | Date: Wednesday, 01 October 2025

Biffy Clyro - Futique (Album Review)

Photo: Eva Pentel There is no straight line for a frenetic mathcore-tinged rabble to follow in becoming arena staples but, somehow, Biffy Clyro have managed exactly that. The Scottish trio’s early work displayed great technical prowess, along with a penchant for left-field heaviness and nonsensical lyrics, that they then managed to marry with mass-appeal rock in a quite remarkable crossover success story.

Written by: Jack Butler-Terry | Date: Tuesday, 30 September 2025

Sprints - All That Is Over (Album Review)

Photo: Emilia Spitale Some might say that to be truly great, an album should resonate on first listen. It’s true that there’s a certain magic to those records that instantly light a fire inside you, but there’s also something to be said for those with a more gradual impact. 

Written by: Maddy Howell | Date: Tuesday, 30 September 2025

Doja Cat - Vie (Album Review)

Photo: Greg Swales Doja Cat has made a career of swinging between sugary pop and acidic rap, often with whiplash-inducing severity. But where her last two albums have neatly represented these swings between extremes, on ‘Vie’ it seems like she’s finally found a happy medium between her two sides, showing that the two can coexist by blending sugary sounds with fiery, sometimes playful, bars.

Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Monday, 29 September 2025