As we say every year, music isn’t a competition but we do still like to jump on the end-of-year lists trend and showcase five records that have struck a chord with us over the past 12 months. What have been your favourites? Divorce – ‘Drive to Goldenhammer’ The Nottingham four-piece’s debut album took you on…
Although we might not get many new songs to add to the omnipresent roster of festive songs, many acts still do get that festive feeling and delight us with Christmas songs every year. Here are just some of our favourites from this year’s selection… Ash – ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’ Following a year…
Editors frontman Tom Smith’s debut album finds hope and positivity, even in the most troubled of times. Recorded with producer Iain Archer, the album celebrates the strengths we can find – even when things look doomed. Sparse Nick Drake-style acoustic strums open the record as Tom sings about things happening ‘in the wake of December,…
Hitchin’s queer indie rockers Brutalligators have released second album ‘Still Here’, a collection of songs about survival, identity and moving forward while grappling with complex emotions, divisive culture wars and everything else life throws at you… The title track kicks off the album in uptempo fight pop style – instantly reminding you of Martha as…
Yorkshire art-rockers Deadletter have shared ‘To the Brim’ ahead of the release of sophomore album ‘Existence is Bliss’ on 27 February, 2026 via SO Recordings. The band said: ‘To the Brim explores the experience of dealing and living with denial and the way in which it will leave you feeling incapacitated and overflowing (brimming!) with…
Ailbhe Reddy has shared new single ‘So Quickly, Baby’ ahead of the release of new album ‘Kiss Big’ on 30 January, 2026 via Don Giovanni Records. Ailbhe describes ‘So Quickly, Baby’ as ‘the meltdown song, the album’s neurotic heartbeat. A tug-of-war between grace and chaos.’ Raw and honest with lines like ‘We were two strangers…
Jenny Hollingworth, one half of Let’s Eat Grandma, has shared new single ‘Good Intentions’ ahead of the release of debut solo album ‘Quicksand Heart’ via Transgressive Records on 9 January, 2026. Jenny said: ‘I wrote Good Intentions as a reflection on challenges I’ve faced in the past and how I relate to them in the…
Brooklyn-based indie-rockers Hiding Places have announced they’ve signed to Keeled Scales and shared new single ‘Holy Roller’, a song that vocalist Audrey Keelin describes as having ‘happened with no planning, no ‘trying to write, a pure, detached channeling’. A bittersweet piece of math-tinged indie pop that fits somewhere between Big Thief and Broken Social Scene,…
Lime Garden have made a welcome return with ‘Maybe Not Tonight’, the Brighton four-piece’s first new material since 2024’s ‘One More Thing’ album. Described by the band as ‘the soundtrack to a woman on the edge of making all the wrong choices’, it’s equal parts woozy indie-pop hooks and Garbage-esque defiant art-rock, albeit with some…
Following shows with Keo and Shame, Bleech 9:3 have shared their second ever single, ‘Jacky’. The now four-piece were formed when vocalist and guitarist Baz Quinlan met guitarist Sam Duffy at an AA meeting, with Baz becoming Sam’s sponsor. Combining the brilliant Brit rock of the early 2000s (think Hundred Reasons, Jetplane Landing and My…
Cork’s alt-rockers Pebbledash have shared ‘Isn’t It Always’, one of the standout tracks on recent EP ‘To Cast the Sea in Concrete’. Steeped in dark atmospherics, synth player and guitarist Cormac Donovan O’Neill says: ‘The environment in which we recorded these songs – a secluded makeshift studio minutes outside the city, but still surrounded by…
East Anglian emo rockers SUDS have shared ‘Hook Me Out’ ahead of the release of sophomore album ‘Tell Me About Your Day Again’ via Big Scary Monsters on 21 November. They’ve also announced a tour with Exeter indie-rockers Soot Sprite for early next year. Majestic, mathy and marvellous, ‘Hook Me Out’ combines elements of slow-burning…
thistle have shared new song ‘tied’ ahead of a tour with Humour and what’s set to be a breakthrough year in 2026. This follows shows with Man/Woman/Chainsaw, Upchuck and Westside Cowboy and airplay from the likes of Steve Lamacq, Deb Grant and Nathan Shepherd. Over and done in 95 seconds, the song combines a classic…
Man/Woman/Chainsaw have shared ‘Only Girl’ to celebrate their signing to Fiction Records (The Cure, St. Vincent, The Horrors). Described by the band as their ‘playful love song’, there’s a touch of late 2010s fightpop in the blend of gorgeous violin and crunching riffs while also slotting seamlessly alongside the contemporary batch of chamber-math enthusiasts like…
Theo Bleak has shared ‘Megan in New York’ ahead of the release of ‘Bargaining’ – ‘A chronological mixtape of my year through the most intense stage of grief I experienced’ – on 18 December, 2025. Against a blend of sampled drum effects and gorgeously glacial yet gothic guitar, the song chronicles a trip to New…
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