FEATURE:
One for the Record Collection!
IN THIS PHOTO: Billie Marten
Essential July Releases
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NEXT month…
IN THIS PHOTO: Wet Leg’s Rhian Teasdale (left) and Hester Chambers/PHOTO CREDIT: Alice Backham for The Guardian
is a busy and exciting one for new albums. I am going to highlight the very best of the month that you should pre-order. As there is a lot to get through, I am going to jump straight in! The first album is simply called . (Period). However you want to write it, it is both mysterious and a bold statement. Out on 4th July, it is the only album from this week that I am going to highlight. I am going to jump to 11th July and a few albums out then. You can pre-order Kesha’s . (Period) here. A hugely established artist, there is a lot of anticipation around her upcoming album:
“Kesha’s new album, . (Yes, it's just a period.) is an unapologetic declaration of artistic freedom and fearless authenticity. With over 3 billion streams, 10 Top 10 hits, four #1 pop radio singles, and two chart-topping albums, this two-time Grammy nominee has consistently redefined the boundaries of pop music.
Now, independently releasing under her own label, Kesha Records, she’s liberated from constraints, taking complete ownership of her voice and vision. On . Kesha transcends pop norms to create a raw, daring, and intensely personal sonic journey with the entire project conceived, co-produced and written by Kesha. It’s more than an album—it's a defiant act of self-expression, refusing to adhere to expectations or play it safe. Unfiltered, audacious, and vibrant, this record finds Kesha at her most powerful, turning her experiences into unapologetic art. Breaking free and fully in control, . isn’t just music— it's Kesha unfiltered, fearless, with a spiked heel at the neck of pop culture”.
The first amazing album from 11th July that you need to pre-order is Gina Birch’s Trouble. You can pre-order it here. I know a little bit about Gina Birch, but I have become more involved in her latest work. It is a fascinating album that I would recommend to everyone. An artist that needs to be on your radar. July is really eclectic in terms of new albums! One you should add to your shelf:
“Trouble is a patchwork of sorts: its 11 songs are not only eclectic in genre, but play like stitched-together vignettes, fly-on-the-wall scenes in which Gina describes meeting a stranger on a train, or a flare up with her teenage daughter, or the nostalgia of driving past a certain part of your neighborhood that’s been unchanged for as long as you can remember. It’s the politics of the everyday, a work that is feminist not because of slogans or placards, but because it’s a candid portrait of a female artist simply existing. “It's a bit out there, a bit off the tracks, and I always like to go there,” says Gina about the album’s diaristic undertones. “I unofficially subtitled the album ‘Trouble I've Caused and Trouble I'm In’, so the songs are based around that feeling—that dangerous place to be.”
As such, the connecting factor that links all the songs on Trouble together isn’t one single ideology or theme or topic, but Gina herself. It’s her vision, informed by her status as a rock icon, her voice as a forward-thinking artist, and her perspective as someone who just thinks life should be a bit of a laugh sometimes. For a musician who has had such an impact on her genre, it’s downright life-affirming to realize that she still has so much to share with her audience—and frankly, Trouble is just cracking the surface. “These songs came to me like a radio tuning, the airwaves going along, and I just plucked them out of the air. Something just clicks in the atmosphere, and I just take it. I'm not writing an opus about one thing. I'm writing an opus about being me”.
Three more albums that I want to include from 11th July that are well worth exploring and pre-ordering. The next is Gwenno’s Utopia. A remarkable artist who I have loved foe a very long time now, I am interested to see what Utopia offers. Go and pre-order the album now. What has been released from the album so far is sensational. Some of Gwenno’s absolute best work. Singing in English for her new album, it takes her once more in a new direction. I wonder if she will return to Cornish or Welsh for her next album:
“Having released three albums in Welsh and Cornish, Utopia is Gwenno Saunders’ first album recorded predominantly in English, and presents a very different side to her life and songwriting.
Forty-three years into her life, Saunders has been many people. The disaffected Cardiff schoolgirl; the teenage Las Vegas dancer; the singer in indie pop group The Pipettes. There was a turn in a Bollywood film, a nightclub tour, a stint cleaning floors in an East London pub. Long before she would become an acclaimed solo songwriter in both Welsh and Cornish, a winner of the Welsh Music Prize, a nominee for the Mercury, a Bard of the Cornish Gorsedh, there were the days of Nevada, London, Brighton; of Irish dancing, techno clubs, messiness and chaos.
Utopia, Saunders’ fourth solo album, is an extraordinary exploration of all of these selves. If the singer regards her first three solo records — 2014’s Y Dydd Olaf, 2018’s Le Kov and 2022’s Tresor as “childhood records”, rooted in her upbringing, her parents, her formative identity, then Utopia captures a time of self-determination and experimentation. These are songs of discovery, of the years between being someone’s daughter and becoming someone’s wife and someone’s mother. They range from floor-fillers to piano ballads, via contributions from Cate Le Bon and H. Hawkline, and encompass William Blake, a favourite Edrica Huws poem, and the Number 73 bus. It is her finest work to date”.
Before getting to one of the most anticipated albums of the year, I want to recommend and spotlight Burna Boy’s No Sign of Weakness. Even though I do not really like the album cover at all – there have been some good ones this year, but artists still phoning it in too much in my view! -, the music on No Sign of Weakness will be supreme. There is not a lot of information on it, so I can only include what Rough Trade have written. I would still advise people to pre-order the album, as it is from an artist who is a true legend. Someone who is an innovator and pioneer:
“Grammy Award-winning global icon Burna Boy ushers in his highly anticipated eighth studio album No Sign of Weakness including the singles TaTaTa (feat. Travis Scott), Sweet Love, Update and Bundle By Bundle.
Global superstar Burna Boy stands among the most significant and influential African artists of all time. Known for his genre-blending sound, Burna has redefined Afrofusion through his mix of Afrobeats, pop, reggae, hip-hop, and R&B”.
Although primarily known as a two-piece, Isle of Wight’s Wet Leg perform as a band on the road. Led by Rhian Teasdale and completed by Hester Chambers, this incredible duo have played huge live dates and were nominated for a Mercury Prize for their eponymous debut album in 2022. There is a great recent interview that gives a bit more insight into the album. That album is moisturizer. You can pre-order it here. Even if you are not a Wet Leg fan, this is going to be among 2025’s biggest and best albums. One that you absolutely will need! Go and order your copy:
“moisturizer is the bold, second album from Wet Leg, the Isle of Wight five-piece founded by Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers. Joined by Ellis Durand, Henry Holmes, and Joshua Mobaraki, Wet Leg has spent the past few years on the road, evolving into a feral, electrifying live force. This new record captures that energy, delivering a sound that’s tighter, bolder, and more self-assured, yet still brimming with the same quick wit and raw, unrefined energy.
Isolated in a remote house in the countryside, moisturizer was written in a creative frenzy, diving into themes of obsession and all-consuming love. While their 2022 debut earned Grammy wins and chart-topping success, moisturizer brings the bite: brash guitars, heavy beats, and a fearless devotion to feeling everything—all at once”.
There are four albums due on 18th July that I am going to recommend. The first is Laura Jane Grace’s Adventure Club. I liked her 2020 debut album, Stay Alive. I am going to move to some other albums soon, but it is important we discover more about Laura Jane Grace’s forthcoming release. One that you should pre-order:
“Following the release of her debut album, Stay Alive (2020) and its follow-up Hole In My Head (2024), Emmy-nominated artist, author, musician, activist and Against Me! founder/songwriter, Laura Jane Grace, returns with her fourth full-length album, Laura Jane Grace in the Trauma Tropes - Adventure Club - a powerful new statement featuring some of her most intense and thought-provoking work to date. Adventure Club was recorded in Athens, Greece and made possible by a grant through the Onassis Air Program, "an artistic research, residency, and fellowship program that fosters artistic process and experimentation by bringing together creative practitioners from a variety of geographies and practices", which Grace was awarded a fellowship through.
The album features notable performances from outside collaborators known as the Trauma Tropes, including Grace’s wife, Paris Campbell (vocals), as well Athens based musicians Jacopo Fokas (bass) and Orestis Lagadinos (drums). On standout, “Your God (God’s Dick),” Grace and Campbell belt out some of Grace’s most anthemic lyrics ever penned, with an a capella intro channeling the stadium power pop of Queen. On “Wearing Black,” Grace critiques the corporatization of and police presence at Pride events, with her signature punk ethos and raw, unabashed outlook on full display”.
Make sure that you get Jade Bird’s Who Wants to Talk About Love. I could not find any new interviews with Bird when writing this (7th June), so there might be something that has come about by the time you read this. I would advise anyone to pre-order the album, as Jade Bird is one of our very best songwriters. Someone I have been following for years now and am a fan of. I want to bring in an article from The Line of Best Fit from April, that revealed the news of this wonderful upcoming album. I am looking forward to seeing how critics take to Who Wants to Talk About Love:
"Dreams" as Jade Bird explains is a “very dark song. I saw a billboard driving to the studio after a bit of a nasty breakdown. I'd gone to sleep at five am the night before and read 'this is what dreams are made of'. Combined with the LA sun I felt a deep irony. It's about feeling too broken to be with the person you love. Pushing them away because of generational habits and (I don't like the word) trauma.”
“I wrote this album while trying to make sense of the broken relationships in my family- my parents, both sets of grandparents - and the way they echoed into my own life when my engagement ended. It’s as much a question as an answer, wondering if I could break the cycle while finding my own path to forgiveness- not just from my dad, but for myself,” Bird explains.
"Dreams" follows "Who Wants", which marked her first new music since the Burn The Hard Drive EP, a collaboration with Mura Masa, was released last year. Who Wants to Talk About Love sees Bird evolving after the release of her 2019 eponymous debut album, and 2021's Different Kinds of Light”.
Another terrific album due on 18th July is FLETCHER’s Would You Still Love Me If You Really Knew Me? With a wonderful album cover and available on Lioncello vinyl, this is another artist that I have been following for a very long time now. You can go and pre-order the album now. I want to source from a recent Rolling Stone interview that is really interesting. If you do not know much about FLETCHER, then she is someone that you need to check out. One of the finest artists out there in my view:
“Fletcher has a few revelations to make. In fact, the singer born Cari Elise Fletcher has 11 of them, manifested as tracks on her third studio album, Would You Still Love Me If You Really Knew Me?, out July 18. All 11 songs are secrets spilled in one form or another; some of them might shock even the most fervent of Fletcher fans. Still, they are stories she had to tell.
On the album’s intro, “Party,” Fletcher sings about how she’s not the chaotic, drama-fueled pop star who taunted her ex’s new girlfriend on the viral 2022 hit “Becky’s So Hot.” “I’d love to let you love me/Cause I’m that kind of whore/Who needed the attention/I don’t need anymore/It’s not that kind of party,” she sings.
So what kind of party is it? “Maybe the kind of party where I have a chill, more intimate heart-to-heart with close friends,” Fletcher tells Rolling Stone in a new interview. “And revealing some really vulnerable shit.” In a note to fans announcing her new project, the singer calls Would You Still Love Me If You Really Knew Me? “both an open wound and an act of liberation.”
On the single “Boy,” released today, she shares something even more personal: “I kissed a boy,” she sings. “And I know it’s not what you wanted to hear/And it wasn’t on your bingo card this year/Well it wasn’t on mine/I fell in love.”
Fletcher has long emphasized her sexual fluidity, and she has many queer fans; the relationships that she’s sung about have, until now, exclusively been with women. “There will be people that feel disappointed and feel confused and have questions,” Fletcher tells RS. “Girl, I had questions and I was confused too. It shocked me just as much as anybody else.”
Of course, who a person chooses to date and how that person identifies across the gender spectrum doesn’t negate anyone’s queerness. “I am so proud to be queer,” Fletcher continues. “That is not something that has ever wavered or changed. Being queer for me is this lens that I get to view life through.” She knows not everyone will understand what she’s sharing, but she’s seemingly found peace with that in the name of being unabashedly herself.
Fletcher tells Rolling Stone that the flood of emotions that informed her new album happened around late 2024 and early 2025, after her last tour. When asked whether she and the muse behind “Boy” are still together, she doesn’t answer directly, but makes it known that she’s in a great place. “I am getting to experience love again,” she says. “That is the most magical feeling in the entire world. I met a boy who is somehow way more connected to his feelings and his emotions and his heart than even I am.”
Would You Still Love Me If You Really Knew Me? is a candid retrospective of the singer’s twenties, navigating love in all its forms, and thinking about fame. On “Hi, Everyone Leave Please,” Fletcher questions why she’s not getting more radio play despite selling out Radio City Music Hall (“Kinda bruises my ego”). She says it’s her favorite song on the new project.
During our conversation, Fletcher takes a few emotional pauses while chatting about identity, her support system, the new album, and feeling like Cari was getting lost in her larger Fletcher persona.
PHOTO CREDIT: Carissa Gallo
Have the assumptions people made up until this point about you bothered you?
I think people have experienced me as what I’ve shared with them, you know? All of my romantic relationships over the last 10 years have been with women. And it’s what I’ve written my music about. Through this larger-than-life character that Fletcher became, I feel like there wasn’t a lot of room for the parts of me that weren’t wild and crazy and aching. There were other parts of me that, as I’ve gone through this healing journey, I’ve felt haven’t been fully brought to life. I’m a queer woman. I’ve always been queer. I will always be queer. My identity is not shifting and it’s not changing. My community is not changing. But I’ve had these new experiences that I wanted to let people in on and give them a chance to know me now.
How gradually did your life change? When we talked early last year, you had already become more measured with certain things. A water between each margarita, that type of thing.
I think it’s been gradual. I had so many different eras throughout my career. In between all of them, there was love, but there was also my toxic “Becky’s So Hot” era. Then there was [In Search of the Antidote] and going on this deeper health journey and learning so much about myself. I feel like it’s been gradual, but…. My last tour was just so hard for me. It was really painful for me. I thought that people didn’t know the most current version of me. I thought that Cari was getting lost in this larger persona.
Is there any part of you that is scared of how people are going to react to a song like “Boy”?
Oh my gosh, yeah. I’m terrified. It’s so scary to share your truth, you know. My career launched with a song called “Wasted Youth” in my early twenties about falling in love with a girl. Here I am, 10 years later at the start of my thirties, with a song about falling in love with a boy. Through this entire time, all I’ve expressed…. My deepest desire for people was for them to boldly and unapologetically be themselves. And I have to walk that walk. If that’s what I’ve been preaching to my fans who I love so much this whole time, then I have to give myself that same grace. Otherwise, what the fuck is the point?
I understand that my love life is not the most important thing in global news in the world, especially within the queer community. Trans people’s existence right now is being threatened, and their rights are being threatened at every angle. There’s a lot more important things to put attention and energy and love to. But at the same time, even through the fear that I have, the commitment to being myself no matter what is where my heart will always lay. It’s my north star that I have to just run towards.
What kind of support system are you leaning on these days?
I have my family and my friends who love me so much, and I have people who love on me through every single season. I know there will be people that feel however they’re going to feel. That’s OK. I’m OK with that. I could have buried this song somewhere in the soundtrack in the larger context of this album. I chose to lead with it first. That’s because I knew that it was something that my fans, and the people who have supported me all these years, would care about. I didn’t want there to be any veil between me and my truth. It’s something that I’m willing to talk about. I have cycled through every emotion through the making of this album. I have cycled through tears, and grief, and guilt, and shame, and fear, and excitement and joy. It is an embodiment of the human experience.
Are there other revelations on this album that you hope fans pay attention to?
My biggest hope is for everybody to be free to be themselves and to love themselves and to express themselves. It’s scary to share new discoveries about yourself. This album, and “Boy,” is really a permission slip for me to be myself. And for me to love and express myself. I just want it to be a permission slip, you know. I’m stepping into this bravery even if I’m scared, in hopes that other people are able to do that in their own lives. Whatever evolution in your life, whatever doesn’t fill your cup anymore — a relationship, or a job, or some version of you that evolved and wants to come through. Fuck it. Life is way too fucking short. Truly. To do anything else. At the end of the day, even if everybody hated me, I’m still myself.
If you knew how everything would play out — who you would meet last year — would you do anything differently?
No. There’s nothing that I would rewrite. There’s nothing that I would change about any of my journey. I love all of the women that I have been and the woman that I am becoming. I would never rewrite history. It all happened exactly the way that it was meant to. I celebrate it all”.
The final album from 18th July that I want to recommend is perhaps the one release from this year I am looking forward to most. Billie Marten’s Dog Eared is an album you very much need to pre-order. Again, I love the album cover and vinyl options. This album cane be purchased in Pearl colour. It is another remarkable album coming from an artist whose 2016 debut, Writing of Blues and Yellows, is my favourite of the previous decade. Having been busy on tour, there has not been a whole lot of time for new interview. I know there will be a few published before the release of Dog Eared. A title that seems to refer to books and her love of them – where you turn the corners of pages to get this dog-eared effect -, I am really looking forward to an album that will surely rank alongside the best of 2025:
“The prolific British singer-songwriter headed to New York in the summer of 2024 to record with producer Phil Weinrobe (Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek, Laura Veirs) at his Sugar Mountain studio, alongside an all-star cast of musicians. The likes of Catalan singer-songwriter/guitarist Núuria Graham, bassist Josh Crumbly, virtuosic guitarist Mike Haldeman, multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily, revered indie-rock musician Sam Evian, former Dirty Projectors vocalist/folk musician Maia Friedman, Brazilian percussionist Mauro Refosco, drummer/multi-instrumentalist Vishal Nayak, and acclaimed folk musician Sam Amidon sprinkle their gold dust over Dog Eared. A band packed with talent and cumulative credits across records by Cassandra Jenkins, Kamasi Washington, Moses Sumney, Robert Glasper, Tune-Yards, Empress Of, Nick Hakim, David Byrne, Atoms for Peace, Feist, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, and now Billie Marten.
Dog Eared is a warm, rich, and textured record that bristles with confidence and self-belief, with Billie already approaching the prolificacy of a ‘lifer’ with so much life left to live. It’s a left turn from her previous recordings, albeit a subtle one, taken with a deftness of touch. A musician embracing change, while staying true to her core self. There’s a certain strength of conviction here that finds its voice more prominently in the extensive pool of her acclaimed American contemporaries, of which she now surely stands shoulder to shoulder with. With Dog Eared, Billie calmly posits herself at the top of the tree of not just British contemporary folk artists, but with British songwriters at large”.
There are three albums due on 25th July that I am keen to recommend. The first is a treat for Madona fans (me included). Veronica Electronica is a really exciting album that was a project that was going to come to light around 1998 – around the release of Ray of Light – but never materialised. Now, this overdue and much anticipated album will come to light. You can order it from Rough Trade here:
“Veronica Electronica, an eight-track companion to Ray of Light, was originally envisioned by Madonna as a remix album in 1998. The project was ultimately sidelined by the original album’s runaway success and the parade of hit singles that dominated the spotlight for more than a year. Ray of Light went on to sell over 16 million copies worldwide and earned Madonna four Grammy® Awards, including Best Pop Album.
More than 25 years later, that long-rumored concept finally comes to life. The collection features newly edited versions of club remixes by Sasha, BT, and Victor Calderone, along with the original demo of “Gone, Gone, Gone”—a previously unreleased recording produced by Madonna and Rick Nowels.
SIDE A
01 – Drowned World/Substitute For Love (BT & Sasha Bucklodge Ashram New Edit)
02 – Ray Of Light (Sasha Twilo Mix Edit)
03 – Skin (The Collaboration Remix Edit)
04 – Nothing Really Matters (Club 69 Speed Mix Meets The Dub)
SIDE B
05 – Sky Fits Heaven (Victor Calderone Future New Edit)
06 – Frozen (Widescreen Mix and Drums)
07 – The Power Of Good-Bye (Fabien’s Good God Mix Edit)
08 - Gone, Gone, Gone (Original Demo Version - Previously unreleased)”.
The penultimate album I am highlighting is Patty Griffin’s Crown of Roses. This may be an artist you do not know about. You can pre-order Griffin’s new album here. An established and respected Folk artist whose debut album, Living with Ghosts, came out in 1996, there is a lot of curiosity around the Maine-born artist’s new album:
“Patty Griffin’s new album, Crown of Roses, is a deeply personal and introspective work that explores themes of identity, nature, family, and womanhood. Emerging from a creative drought during the pandemic, Griffin—two-time Grammy winner and Americana Music Association Lifetime Achievement honoree—found herself reevaluating the stories she’d long told herself. The result is an eight-track collection that is both sparse and emotionally rich, blending folk, Americana, and gospel blues.
Produced by long-time collaborator Craig Ross, the album features contributions from trusted bandmates David Pulkingham and Michael Longoria, and a haunting vocal cameo from Robert Plant. Griffin's vocal approach changed after cancer treatment, leading her to embrace a softer, more intimate style that reflects the vulnerability and strength woven through the songs.
Much of Crown of Roses is shaped by Griffin’s relationship with her late mother, whose love of music and nature left a lasting imprint. The album cover features her mother’s wedding photo, symbolizing their deepened bond in the last years of her life. Songs like 'Born in a Cage' and 'Way Up to the Sky' echo her mother’s observations of a vanishing natural world and Griffin’s own reckoning with mortality and legacy.
Griffin also confronts her past efforts to understand and please men, ultimately shifting her creative focus toward women’s experiences. She calls this her first album primarily concerned with women’s stories, signalling a liberating perspective change. Reflecting on her artistic journey, Griffin shares, “The older you get, you just get sick of yourself staying stuck.”
With Crown of Roses, Griffin offers a record that’s both grounded and transcendent - one that invites listeners to release old narratives, embrace new truths, and stay truly alive while they’re here”.
Paul Weller’s Find El Dorado is out on 25th July. Another album from Weller is a great thing. One that you can pre-order here, there is not a whole lot written about it. However, this Uncut feature gives us a bit of insight and background. This sounds like a really intriguing and interesting project. I am going to look forward to Find El Dorado and what comes from it. I know that Weller’s fans will snap this album up:
“The album is a deeply personal collection of reinterpretations. “These are songs I’ve carried with me for years,” Weller says. “They’ve taken on new shapes over time. And now felt like the moment to share them.”
The album has been produced and arranged by Steve Craddock and features collaborations with the likes of Hannah Peel, Declan O’Rourke, Robert Plant, Seckou Keita, Amelia Coburn and Noel Gallagher.
You can hear two songs from Find Eldorado below.
“Lawdy Rolla” below – originally by an obscure French studio band called The Guerrillas, who featured African jazz star Manu Dibango in their ranks.
And Brian Protheroe’s 1974 hit “Pinball”, which features saxophone from Jacko Peake.
And here’s the Find El Dorado track list – with the artists who originally recorded the songs in brackets…
Handouts in the Rain (Richie Havens)
Small Town Talk (Bobby Charles)
El Dorado (Eamon Friel)
White Line Fever (The Flying Burrito Brothers)
One Last Cold Kiss (Christy Moore)
When you are a King (White Plains)
Pinball (Brian Protheroe)
Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire (Willie Griffin)
I Started a Joke (Bee Gees)
Never the Same (Lal and Mike Waterson)
Lawdy Rolla (The Guerrillas)
Nobody’s Fool (The Kinks)
Journey (Duncan Browne)
Daltry Street (Jake Fletcher / PP Arnold)
Clive’s Song (Hamish Imlach)”.
I am going to end it there. I hope that the album above give you plenty of choice regarding terrific albums out next month you will want to pre-order. You can see what other albums are out in July here. From Billie Marten to Paul Weller to Wet Leg, there is plenty of variety. Something for everyone! If you need some options when it comes to albums worth saving up for, I am sure that those mentioned above…
SHOULD provide some inspiration.