FEATURE:
An Embarrassment of Riches…
IN THIS PHOTO: Olivia Dean
Albums That Could Be Shortlisted for the Mercury Prize
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ON 30th July…
IN THIS PHOTO: Lily Allen
the twelve albums on the Mercury Prize shortlist will be announced. The ceremony will take place on 22nd October at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle. There has been such an embarrassment of riches when it comes to albums eligible. Tremendous work from British and Irish acts. To be eligible for the 2026 Mercury Prize, albums must be by British or Irish artists and officially released between 30th August, 2025, and 17th July, 2026. It means Charli xcx’s new album, Music, Fashion, Film, misses out, as it was released on 24th July. I don’t think it will matter, as she is twice-nominated and will probably be nominated next year for this album. I am including below the albums I feel will be announced on Thursday. I am usually good when it comes to predicting the winner, but as the award is so broad and hard to predict, some of those I am mentioning below will miss out, whereas albums I have not considered will be included. My prediction for the winner is Lily Allen with West End Girl. She was nominated in 2018 for No Shame. I do feel like she will win, though there is part of me who feels that may be too obvious. Maybe the judging panel feeling another artist deserves it more. Leading off with my winner prediction, below are twelve albums that could be shortlisted on 30th July. It will be interesting to know…
WHO makes the cut.
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Lily Allen – West End Girl
Release Date: 24th October, 2025 (digital release; 30th January, 2026 (physical release date)
Producers: Lily Allen/Alessandro Buccellati/Seb Chew/Leroy Clampitt/Chrome Sparks/Jason Evigan/Micah Jasper/Kito/Blue May/Oscar Scheller/Leon Vynehall
Label: BMG
Standout Song: Pussy Palace
Review:
“Her signature contemporary pop twinned with stark and witty lyrics has cultivated an entire sub-genre since the mid-00s. The current ‘Y2K’ revival on social media, spearheaded by people barely born during that time, is dominated by spoken word pop once dominated by Allen. There are countless pop girls wanting to replicate what she can do so effortlessly. As eloquently and simply put by singer and admirer PinkPantheress, “Lily Allen made sounding like yourself feel cool.”
The allure of Allen is that she has always been candidly truthful, and fittingly, there is absolutely no holding back on Allen’s first album in seven years. West End Girl seems to detail the breakdown of her marriage to Stranger Things actor David Harbour, gory details and all.
Opening with the title track, “West End Girl” is where the story begins. A 14 song tale, it walks through every grievance, revelation and epiphany possible, piecing together the unfurling heartbreak, it's a rarity in the streaming age – an album intending (nay, screaming) to be listened to in tracklist order.
Swirling into “Ruminating”, it tells of the spiralling around the unanswered questions brought on by Instagram doom-scrolling, overthinking, and doubts. “Sleepwalking” shows the beginning of the unravelling with the softly spoken lyric, “You won’t love me / You won’t leave me” laying out the internal confusion. “Tennis” is the moment Allen reads the texts from a mysterious “Madeline”, before rolling into the track introducing her and Allen’s imagined interaction over the infidelity.
There is a drip of defiance in the form of “Pussy Palace” with the bold lyric, “I didn’t know this was a Pussy Palace” referring to Allen’s marital home. On “Dallas Major”, Allen’s dating bio comes to life. “I’m here for validation and I probably should explain / That my marriage has been open since my husband went astray.” That, as well as the track “Nonmonogamummy”, excellently showcase the all-too-universal feeling of despair and disappointment with modern dating apps.
Written over an intense 10 days in Los Angeles, West End Girl is a quite literal outpouring of emotion, in every intricate detail – an outlet for the grieving of the relationship. The album details not just a break-up, but a shift in how relationships and human connection work in modern times. West End Girl is not only an example of pop brilliance, but also incredibly vulnerable, raw and honest, true to Allen’s form. Simply, the pop pioneer has created the break-up album for the modern generation” – The Line of Best Fit
KNEECAP – FENIAN
Release Date: 1st May, 2026
Producer: Dan Carey
Label: Heavenly
Standout Song: Palestine (ft. Fawzi)
Review:
“Kneecap are often compared to the Sex Pistols for their ability to provoke a moral panic and have British MPs sputtering with rage at Westminster. But if the punk iconoclasts’ rapid rise serves as an inspiration, their rapid demise is a warning that nothing gets older faster than a rock band that has politicians foaming at the chops.
The daunting challenge the Belfast-Derry Irish-language rap trio therefore face with their second album, Fenian, is to prove that their talents go beyond annoying the worst people on social media. But they prove that they’re more than flash-in-the-pan outrage merchants with this brilliantly catchy and playful record, which you can enjoy regardless of your feelings about their politics, and which captures the glee and giddiness that have long been at the heart of their live shows.
Kneecap wrote and recorded the songs against the backdrop of the prosecution brought by the British state after one of the group allegedly waved a flag belonging to the proscribed terrorist organisation Hizbullah on stage.
Where less imaginative musicians might have played the victim or taken the easy route of woe-is-me lyrics, Kneecap are in an upbeat frame of mind throughout this extraordinary LP, where they throw up sparks with the Fontaines DC producer Dan Carey and collaborate with artists such as the London poet Kae Tempest and the Ramallah rapper Fawzi.
The vibe throughout is old-school gangsta rap mixed with the monster-truck onslaught of peak Prodigy. They also lean further into their use of the Irish language, starting with ethereal opener, Éire go Deo (“Ireland Forever”), where they sound like a trip-hop Enya.
Wispy grooves give way to ominous industrial beats on Smugglers & Scholars, where they cast a gimlet eye back on the Troubles and rhyme about “smugglers and scholars getting guns with American dollars”.
The circus around the prosecution in Britain is the subject of Carnival, in which a laid-back, Massive Attack-style rhythm is a counterpoint to their excoriation of the UK justice system. “This started in Coachella… a man tries to tell you: free Gaza… these lads are just nasty.”
The situation in Gaza itself is addressed on Palestine, where they trade rhymes with Fawzi on a superb song that dials into the diaphanous textures of SoundCloud rap – while name-dropping the “Paddy Losty” internet meme of a Dublin barfly who has sacrificed everything to a life of pints.
The best bands are often loved and loathed equally, and nothing on Fenian will assuage those who wonder why Kneecap talk at length about Gaza yet never mention Ukraine. But then the first mistake is to look to musicians for moral guidance. Twenty years ago, Irish artists were continually banging on about the Burmese politician Aung San Suu Kyi; before that, it was Free Tibet.
It’s great that they care, and they often do have an important message to impart, but in the end we should all really educate ourselves and make up our own minds.
The album outdoes itself with Cocaine Hill, a lamentation about the dark side of soaring success that is steeped in Pink Floyd-style prog guitars. The final fade to grey arrives with the gorgeous, piano-fuelled Kae Tempest duet Irish Goodbye – a melancholic farewell at the end of a knockout album” – The Irish Times
RAYE – THIS MUSIC MAY CONTAIN HOPE.
Release Date: 27th March, 2026
Producers: Pete Clements/Chris Hill/Punctual/RAYE/Tom Richards/Jordan Riley/Alex Robinson/Mike Sabath/Toneworld/Hans Zimmer
Label: Human Re Sources
Standout Song: WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!
Review:
“Brevity has very evidently fallen out of RAYE’s immediate consciousness. Just look at the 17-long tracklist of the hour-plus ‘THIS MUSIC MAY CONTAIN HOPE.’ - her second album proper - or the characteristic exaggerated scale of her big-band styled live performances, complete with ever-flowing personal candour and energetic anecdotes that both frame songs and offer an immediately amiable tangent.
It’s all a stunning showcase of her ever-growing confidence, the resulting expanse of which bleeds into her recorded music - now a self-proclaimed attempt to separate the album from the studio, encapsulating the live feeling that has driven her sound since her major label split, and which has spearheaded her immeasurably successful step to go it alone. And ‘THIS MUSIC…’ does all that and more.
The swaggering soul of ‘WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!’ forms just a tiny part of this immense picture; one that balances the grandeur of this lead single with RAYE’s overt vulnerability. Her lyricism is beautifully clunky, a perfect paradox of near-symbolic poetry and spoken intros which, peppered throughout the record, brim with personality. “This is a sad song, though it feels happy,” she offers at the start of the Al Green-featuring ‘Goodbye Henry’, noting that “it is not happy at all, in fact, it makes me so sad, before admitting that to protect identities, the song isn’t even about a Henry. Few, if any, artists would ever think of an intro like this one, never mind be able make it work with so much sparkling charm.
It’s an allure that hasn’t just attracted the likes of soul legend Al, either. Record-breaking composer Hans Zimmer lends his ear to the soaring ‘Click Clack Symphony’, a track that transcends from darkness to a fitting cinematic coda. It joins a cluster that carries a post-euphoria darkness reminiscent of new-wave breakthrough ‘Escapism.’, including the claustrophobic, dark pop-jazz crossover ‘The WhatsApp Shakespeare’ and the heartbreak of ‘Winter Woman’.
But perhaps the biggest curveball on a record filled with them arrives courtesy of ‘Life Boat’, a Fred Again..-adjacent emotionally heavy rave banger accompanied by hopeful lyrical affirmations. Yet, in keeping with the ambition of the album, it breaks immediately into ‘I Hate The Way I Look Today’, a jangly homage to ‘40s bebop camp.
“We’ve made it to the end, the seventeenth song,” she declares, referring to her own verbosity on the Disney movie musical climax, which is completed by a dramatic flourish and a wide-reaching list of credits. Its spoken reference to hope pulls the absurdity of ‘THIS MUSIC…’ further together, ultimately suggesting that life is beautiful chaos.
In over an hour, RAYE traverses love, heartbreak, life, death, resilience, despondency, euphoria and the comedown, infidelity, and the powerful value of family - ‘Fields’ is a stunning collaboration with Grandad Michael, while the embellished ‘Joy’ features both RAYE’s sisters. Could it have been edited or cut down? Who cares. It’s huge, expansive, bonkers and brilliant. It’s RAYE at her very core, and it’s fantastic” – DIY
Dry Cleaning – Secret Love
Release Date: 9th January, 2026
Producer: Cate Le Bon
Label: 4AD
Standout Song: Cruise Ship Designer
Review:
“It’s impossible not to see a direct meaning in the lyrics of ‘Blood’, as they oppose the social acceptance of globalatrocities as just another form of online content, including discourse around Gaza and Ukraine. “Blood on my skin / And hands and nails / And in my eyes as well”, calmly confides Shaw, adding, “Schools and hospitals and homes… / People are worse than you think”. These words are not just a maze of thoughts and ironic observations – they’re a declaration of personal stance, firmly sing-spoken over a The Flaming Lips-evoking tune. Timely and direct.
“I make sure there are hidden messages in my work”, Shaw states the obvious in ‘Cruise Ship Designer’. Sometimes it even seems as if she is mocking someone specific, as on this track. “Cruises are big business / I don’t personally like them / But I need to serve a useful purpose”, she utters with apparent similarity in pronunciation and wording to that of some billionaire. In the hypnagogic ‘I Need You’, built on chainsaw-like bass clarinet blasts, a rumination on longing for someone’s attention is compared to The Apprentice TV show. “And the finger coming down: you”, proclaims Shaw, hinting at the prominent phrase “You’re fired!”
‘Secret Love’ is politically charged and also full of personal fears and disappointments. Behind vivid imagery and deadpan puns, hundreds of hours of pondering are hidden. It’s evident that Shaw is pushing hard to find certainties about the world’s current state and the people in it by looking both outward and inward. We have all been occupied with the same exercise over the last few years or so. This mood is further emphasized by the gloomy and enigmatic rocker ‘Evil Evil Idiot’, with the chorus “I cannot feel it / The veil of black”, right out of the PJ Harvey or Sonic Youth playbook –one of Dry Cleaning’s darkest and bleakest songs.
At the same time, this is the most personal Shaw record to date. Along with her political stance, we also find out that she doesn’t want “to be lectured” and that she hates cleaning. “I like to sort, move my things around, colour coding / Everything has a home in my house / But I don’t like to clean, I find cleaning demeaning”, she reports in ‘My Soul / Half Pint’. Oh wait, here the personal is also intertwined with the social. In ‘Rocks’, a loud and rage-fuelled anthem, built around a ‘Lose Yourself’-evoking rhythm, she even mixes a reference to a “blob” from American political lore with her own dream symbols.
“Keep up with it all, be nice / Try to maintain high energy”, advised Shaw on the closing track ‘Every Day Carry’ from their debut album. A year later she repeated the trick on ‘Icebergs’ from the sophomore record, recommending: “Stay interested in the world around you / Keep the curiosity of a child if you can”. They just can’t leave listeners without a bit of positivity at the end, after taking us through a series of unpleasant images over the course of the record, and the closing track on ‘Secret Love’ is no exception. “It’s a horrorland / Destruction / Don’t give up on being sweet”, intones Shaw on ‘Joy’.
On surprisingly melodic tracks like ‘The Cute Things’, built around Iggy Popian punch-drunk guitar, Savages’ rawness, a tender chorus, and country-disguised synths, it’s easy to forget that you’re listening to a band that was singing about “a woman in aviators firing a bazooka” just five years ago. ‘Secret Love’ is Dry Cleaning’s most commercial record, likely to appeal to a much wider audience, yet it’s also their most experimental work.
This record is less rough and harsh, with angular guitars and rhythmic drums giving way to more upbeat-yet-moody and off-kilter tunes. With Le Bon’s help, the band has managed to smooth out the rough edges without losing their sonic identity. But what’s more important – this more mainstream-friendly, luscious-yet-intimate sound is a huge gamble for Dry Cleaning, and they came through this stress test shining, delivering their best work so far. Using their own found words, they definitely managed to squeeze some “blood from a stone” with their music.
9/10” – CLASH
Dove Ellis – Blizzard
Release Date: 5th December, 2025
Producer: Dove Ellis
Labels: AMF Records/Black Butter Records
Standout Song: Love Is
Review:
“His debut album arrives with no biography and barely any information at all apart from the track listing and a few minor details. He doesn’t appear to have ever given an interview and in one song here scolds: “Keep their cameras off my face.” His publicist, whose job thus far seems solely to be sending out music, describes Ellis as a “an introverted character”.
One can piece together this: he’s 22 and from Galway but relocated to Manchester. The songs he posted on Bandcamp led to a bidding war, but he rejected the attentions of major labels to go with an independent. He recently opened for Geese on their US tour dates but otherwise seems to have been playing pubs and small venues in London (including the buzzy Windmill) and Manchester for a couple of years now. As recently as October he was opening the student night at Sheffield’s Sidney & Matilda, where he apparently went down the usual storm. His next London show (at the ICA on 9 December) sold out within an hour, but if his self-produced debut arrives to burgeoning expectations it’s entirely because of the quality of the music.
The few reviewers who have seen Ellis so far mostly compare him to Jeff Buckley or his father, Tim Buckley – fair comparisons given how Ellis’s remarkable vocals can settle into a dreamy falsetto so fragile he could be dancing on a pin, and then suddenly perform a handbrake turn into intensity, even anger. The way the arrangements (including saxophone and drums) dart around his voice in ornate little counter-melodies recalls fellow Irishman Van Morrison, and recent single To the Sandals noticeably nods to Joan Armatrading’s Love and Affection. Thom Yorke and Rufus Wainwright have also been mentioned, but none of these comparisons quite pin Ellis down, not least because he shifts shape so frequently.
Beautiful opener Little Left Hope begins as fragile as Nick Drake, but erupts into something much more rousing, the words capturing the rocky road to making music: “Maybe we’ll start a band / With the stranger you have to like / Cos he knows how to play the drums.” Ellis’s lyrics frequently seem to flutter between hope and despair, before building to a purifying conclusion. In the magically warm Pale Song, the past is a trouble which, perhaps, can be shaken off: “The past is like a sign / A sign it never talks / A sign you think you’ve lived / But it’s just stone with a little chalk.” In the singalong-friendly Love Is, he roars, “Love is not the antidote to all your problems,” but concludes, “Love is your last chance.” In Jaundice he uses the unlikely vehicle of rumbustious rock’n’roll infused with an Irish jig to seemingly rail against unfairness: “Sometimes a child is born without any face / At the breast of their own mother right out of place.”
Ellis has described To the Sandals – a Bandcamp release now mixed/spruced up by Big Thief producer Andrew Sarlo – as concerning “reflections on a failing shotgun marriage in Cancún”. Not that the unlikely subject of an ill-fated union hastened by pregnancy in Mexico is particularly obvious in lines such as: “From your grace / The sadist fails / Their red blade / A-rallying, tallying.”
Trying to unravel the songs’ meanings can become a parlour game, but it’s enough to savour his dazzling use of language or the sheer emotion in heart-swelling songs such as When You Tie Your Hair Up. The 10 tunes are so strong they seem as familiar as old friends, and if Ellis isn’t reinventing the wheel, he’s certainly giving the old thing a caring coat of varnish. His songs sound meticulously crafted but the recordings themselves have a beautifully intimate, unadorned, down-home feel. At times, the picked and strummed guitars, rolling 70s rock piano, wind instruments and clattering percussion are interspersed with random noises and distortion, but somehow everything seems to have fallen perfectly into place on a glorious debut” – The Guardian
Dave – The Boy Who Played the Harp
Release Date: 24th October, 2025
Producers: Dave/Dom Maker/Fraser T. Smith/James Blake/Jim Legxacy/Jo Caleb/Jonny Leslie/Kyle Evans/Nathan
Label: Neighbourhood
Standout Song: My 27th Birthday
Review:
“The former Mercury Prize winner executes this perfectly on songs like ‘Selfish’, ‘Fairchild’ and ‘Chapter 16’ – launching listeners into cinematic vignettes, painting the most vivid scenes with the rawest words. On ‘Selfish’, assisted by James Blake’s ghostly production, Dave continues his quiet rebellion against masculine repression – turning therapy into theatre, and confession into courage. It’s a revolutionary act in itself: a man daring to name the emotions he was never taught to hold.
‘Chapter 16’ is a crowning moment, too. In the biblical story referenced throughout the album, King David is chosen by God through the prophet Samuel, and on this record, Kano takes on a role similar to the latter. Over a debonair instrumental, the two generations of UK rap sit across a dinner table trading fears like old friends – one wrestling with legacy, the other with longevity. Kano even anoints Dave as “the rap messiah” while sharing his observations of UK rap’s evolution, making the track a spiritual handover where the old guard blesses the new generation.
‘Fairchild’ is particularly striking as Dave and newcomer Nicole Blakk go back and forth, bringing hip-hop back to its spoken-word foundations. The latter’s chilling appearance gives a voice to women silenced by rape culture and femicide, sharing the bleak reality of those left unheard. Dave provides a nuanced male perspective: disgusted by red-pilled counterparts yet questioning his own complicity: “All know a victim, don’t know a perpetrator / Am I one of them? The men of the past.”
And yet, you can’t shake the sense that you’ve seen this film before. The major themes remain: trauma, therapy, confession, redemption, and social responsibility. The palette is more refined, but the movements feel familiar. Where his previous albums (2019’s ‘Psychodrama’ and 2021’s ‘We’re All Alone In This Together’) arrived in the moment and dominated the game, ‘The Boy Who Played The Harp’ realises Dave’s genius again rather than redefining it.
There are no album smashes like ‘Location’ or ‘Crash’ were for ‘Psychodrama’ and ‘We’re All Alone In This Together’, respectively. Even his groovier collaborations – the Isaiah 54:17-chanting ‘No Weapons’ with Legxacy, and the Tems-featuring Afro-house-inspired ‘Raindance’ – are slick and upbeat, but only offer a small moment of levity through a restrained groove rather than any seminal erupting moments. Dave’s delivery throughout is blunted by solemnness, as if he hoped to make an unrelenting thinkpiece over something anthemic. If that’s his purpose, he’s perfected it.
Dave’s music will always be regarded as high art, and ‘The Boy Who Played The Harp’ continues his stream of providing true slice-of-life depictions of a Black British man in London. However, some elements of his cathartic raps are starting to err on the predictable side. Although the record is vivid, striking and thought-provoking – with nearly every song on this album a deep, pensive sonic sulk – the south Londoner’s voice is beginning to slip further away from a generation he intended to represent: one that’s done overthinking and just wanting to feel” – NME
Olivia Dean – The Art of Loving
Release Date: 26th September, 2025
Producers: Julian Bunetta/Olivia Dean/Matt Hales/Bastian Langebæk/Leon Michels/Zach Nahome/John Ryan/Max Wolfgang/Matt Zara
Labels: Capitol/Island
Standout Song: Man I Need
Review:
“It’s rare for music to be both deep and breezy, isn’t it? Minnie Riperton does it on “Lovin’ You” (1974) – all those casual la-la-la-las sinking into something profound. Corinne Bailey Rae did it too, with “Put Your Records On” (2006), flagging the nourishment of some much-needed downtime. Olivia Dean’s second album, The Art of Loving, manages the same feat. Her rich, intelligent voice casually blows through a range of plush soul-pop settings that shift the mood from the slow pour of the VIP lounge (all golden brass and richly upholstered string sections) to the barefoot chill of acoustic guitars at the beach bar.
In an interview with Elle over the summer, the 26-year-old Londoner – whose debut album Messy was shortlisted for the 2023 Mercury Prize – said the record was inspired by an exhibition she visited in LA by the artist Mickalene Thomas, titled All About Love. It was an homage to the late American author/activist bell hooks’ book of the same name: “That book is like the Bible,” Dean said. ‘Love is something that can feel quite mystical. It’s this thing we all crave but aren’t properly taught how to do. Why don’t we have a module at school? So the album was just me zooming into that and looking at the last two years of my life and everything I’ve learnt until now.”
The simple yet wise thesis is that love shouldn’t be so hard if we’re honest and take the pressure off of ourselves. Dean’s appealing message about dropping the games and relaxing into kindness runs through every song on this record, from beginning to end. Over the top-down strum of the opener, single “Nice to Each Other”, she sings of stepping outside of expectations and labels (“I don’t want a boyfriend”) and simply enjoying one another’s company. The peaceful closer "I've Seen It" finds an electric guitar tracing the familiar chord progression of Pachelbel’s Canon, while Dean muses over the places she’s noticed love. She’s found it in the films and books her parents shared with her; around the table with friends; “sat right across me on the tube, seen it miss a stop or two, seen it trying not to fall apart”. Towards the chorus, she borrows the melody from “Just The Two of Us” (1980) by Bill Withers, another master of the breezy-but-deep.
Sandwiched in between, you’ll find the slinky, sax-draped “Close Up” (“I feel stupid for wearing that dress/ I guess I saw something you didn’t”) with its nod to the prowling beats of Amy Winehouse. Also, the sweet-strummed “So Easy (To Fall In Love)”, on which she promises to be the perfect blend of “Saturday night and the rest of your life”. Backing vocals are layered like chiffon as cocktail piano notes shimmy around a Bacharach and David-indebted trumpet. Dean lays down her deal for a prospective lover: “There’s no need to hide if you’re into me/ Cos I’m into you quite intimately.”
She slips out of this conversational Jill Scott mode to dial up her inner Prince on the dramatic, lighters-aloft ballad “Let Alone the One You Love”. The centrepiece is the gorgeous single “Man I Need”, with its splashy-fun keyboard riff and upward inflected chorus. At a time when the pop charts are a little saturated with women (quite understandably) calling out toxic masculinity, there’s a lovely optimism in Dean’s sunny olive branch of a track. I loved the way this record de-complicates and de-escalates romance, particularly at a time when the climate feels so combative. Dean doesn’t downplay the challenges or the risks of heartbreak. But she offers sussed-up hope with a playful generosity of spirit. Deep’n’breezy does it” – The Independent
Suede – Antidepressants
Release Date: 5th September, 2025
Producers: BMG
Label: Ed Butler
Standout Song: Dancing with the Europeans
Review:
“They could've even chosen to sideline the 2022 triumphant ‘comeback’ success of Autofiction’s punk energy and decided to settle. But instead they arrive with Antidepressants, a tenth studio album that feels less like a late-career coda and far more like a daring new beginning.
The band, for all their beautiful intimacy and orchestration, have always thrived on rawer sounding, more fractured songs that crack with a live electricity. Brett Anderson, when angry and anxious, seems to embrace the chaos in a way that feels assured and perversely safe. Antidepressants is deliberately darker, adopting a reverberating post-punk approach making “broken music for broken people,” but it’s exactly those people who will save the world.
From the thunderous opener “Disintegrate”, Suede fling themselves into the melee, with a visceral anthem that reframes fear and mortality. It’s a stark opening statement, glitching with little polish and pulsing with intent. It’s a heartbeat and the urgency isn’t accidental, they’ve honed their sound over time to communicate with fans directly through its umbilical tether. There is a real sense this time though that the cord could be cut at any moment, but not intentionally. Anderson's lyrics are laced with dread, paranoia, neurosis, and the dissonance of our disconnected age. This is a Suede album that doesn’t console us, it's deliberately confrontational – even dishing out a frustrated ‘tough love’. Kind of like saying wake up and do something, or fail. That may sound bleaker than it comes across in reality but with titles like, “Antidepressants,” “Broken Music for Broken People”, “Trance State”, “Life Is Endless, Life Is a Moment” it’s not entirely wrong. The band aren’t averse to surrender either, “come and disintegrate with me,” Anderson sings in a moment of solidarity and concession.
There’s a stark emotional gravity to the angular, icy guitar production of the title track as it interpolates Magazine’s “Shot By Both Sides”, and the sneer of The Teardrop Explodes literate pop. It’s a time machine directly into the turmoil of that post-punk era, but reflected through our contemporary mirror. Anderson’s voice is weathered, precise, and weary, perfect for this material. He has an ability to sound utterly shattered by age and experience, and then exude refined elegance on “Somewhere Between An Atom And A Star” and “Life Is Endless, Life Is a Moment”. The latter two are softer bookends to the harsher pressures in between. “Tance State” is suitably hypnotic, in that communal singalong sense. We must obey.
Throughout their career, Suede have evolved in phases, from deviant provocateurs of a Britpop-era they despised, to emotive anthem-makers, introspective dramatists, and visceral social commentators, album after album. There’s always been a defiance at play, too. Brett has said that even when they stretch out into experimental territory, it always snaps back to raw rock and that restlessness has been Suede’s secret engine.
There is something electrifying about watching a band exist so authentically in their present, not trapped in nostalgia or chasing youthful audacity. Suede’s life exists between glamour and grit, between intimacy and spectacle; now, they embrace that tension fully. Antidepressants is not about memory, it’s real life now, trembling in its own imperfection. Not necessarily healing, it’s just honest. And sometimes, that’s what we need most. As the languid chords of the final track drift away only the cold sounds of the outer atmosphere surround us. Time to contemplate. We’re adrift, weightless. After all, we're all just floating on a rock in space and we have to make the most of our time here” – The Line of Best Fit
Nia Archives - Emotional Junglist
Release Date: 17th July, 2026
Label: Island Records
Standout Song: Get Me Down (ft. Jorja Smith)
Review:
“There was always a sense that Nia Archives was destined to take jungle somewhere new. Since bursting onto the scene, she's become the genre's most exciting modern ambassador, introducing breakbeats to audiences far beyond the underground without sacrificing the culture that shaped her. Emotional Junglist feels like the moment that ambition fully crystallises, pairing the frenetic energy of rave music with some of the most emotionally exposed songwriting of her career. If Silence Is Loud hinted at untapped potential, its successor delivers on every promise. Rather than leaning further into nostalgia, Archives broadens her sonic palette, weaving together jungle, indie rock, R&B, Britpop and electronic pop into a record that's remarkably cohesive despite its fearless experimentation. Collaborations with James Ford, Ethan P. Flynn, Sampha and Julia Michaels help expand her world without ever overshadowing the unmistakable identity at its centre. Conceptually, Emotional Junglist traces the full emotional arc of a relationship, from the intoxicating rush of new love to the devastation of heartbreak. Early highlights such as Danger and This Could Be... radiate excitement, wrapping fluttering guitars and restless breakbeats around lyrics filled with hope and anticipation. Archives has rarely sounded this carefree, allowing melody to breathe without losing the rhythmic urgency that's become her trademark. The album's emotional weight grows steadily heavier as it unfolds. Lovers Grief is quietly devastating, balancing gloomy indie textures against skittering drums while Archives delivers some of her most direct and affecting lyrics to date. Meanwhile, Tender, featuring Sampha, strips everything back to reveal a fragile honesty that's impossible to fake. By the time Boys In Blue arrives, its pounding percussion and snarling guitars transform personal trauma into an anthem of resilience rather than revenge. Even the guest appearances feel carefully chosen. Jorja Smith glides effortlessly through Get Me Down, their voices intertwining over shimmering basslines to create one of the album's warmest moments, while the live instrumentation throughout gives the record a scale that elevates it beyond club music without diluting its rave DNA. What makes Emotional Junglist so compelling is its refusal to choose between emotional vulnerability and dancefloor euphoria. Archives proves that jungle can carry intimate storytelling just as naturally as breakneck rhythms, expanding the genre's possibilities without abandoning its roots. Few artists manage to redefine their own sound on only a second album. Emotional Junglist does exactly that, establishing Nia Archives not simply as the future of jungle, but as one of Britain's most inventive and emotionally fearless artists” – gigshack
JADE – THAT’S SHOWBIZ BABY!
Release Date: 12th September, 2025
Label: RCA
Standout Song: Plastic Box
Review:
“If it feels like this, the debut solo album from JADE - aka former Little Mixer, Gallagher mocker and national hun Jade Thirlwall - has been a long time coming, it’s because, well, it has. Announcing her as the single most exciting name in topline pop (bar, perhaps, Chappell Roan and Charli), lead single ‘Angel Of My Dreams’ first descended over a year ago, its madcap exploration of fame’s double-edged sword a show-stopping demonstration of her artistic ambition. And that was just the start: since then, the South Shields singer has kept everyone - fans and critics alike - well and truly on their toes, dropping appetite-whetting tracks that ran the gamut from pulsing, hot and heavy club numbers (‘IT girl’; ‘Midnight Cowboy’) to Lady Gaga-esque melodrama (‘FUFN’) and funk-flecked grooves (‘Fantasy’). Lyrically, too, she always seemed one step ahead: between the sex-positive, feel-good bangers were vulnerable admissions of insecurity amidst the fickle fame machine and eviscerating asides about exploitative industry types (well, one high-trousered, Dayglo-toothed exec in particular). Hers was a run of singles of such consistent quality that you couldn’t help but think - has JADE already played all the best cards in her hand?
In a word: no. The latter half of ‘THAT’S SHOWBIZ BABY!’ is a dizzying journey through genre, era, and Jekyll and Hyde dynamic shifts that more than lives up to the vitality of its previews. ‘Headache’, for example, has all the attitude of a heat-warped Pharrell 7”; ‘Natural At Disaster’, meanwhile, offsets earnest crooning with choral BVs and glitchy, video game-like effects, a Frankensteined collage of the shredded pop ballad blueprint. The album’s only slight stalls come with ‘Self Saboteur’ and ‘Lip Service’ - a pair of shimmering synth-led cuts which, while not bad by any stretch (both recall Caroline Polachek at best, The 1975 at worst) feel frustratingly safe next to the balls-to-the-wall experimentation of the rest of the record. Because, clearly, JADE thrives most when she’s throwing curveballs: namely, the gloriously ‘80s guitar pop of ‘Unconditional’ - which could sit shoulder to shoulder with Pet Shop Boys and Depeche Mode - and The Supremes-sampling ‘Before You Break My Heart’: an impossibly catchy instant-classic that casts her as the natural successor to Diana Ross’ girl-group-to-solo-superstar trajectory. After a career’s worth of constricting, prescriptive pop formula, she’s now finally concocted a recipe for success on her own terms - and it’s anything but vanilla” – DIY
Elmiene - sounds for someone
Release Date: 27th March, 2026
Label: Polydor Records
Standout Song: Reclusive
Review:
“Much has happened since Elmiene first shot to fame in 2021 as a university student covering the late great D’Angelo’s ‘Untitled (How Does It Feel)’ in his garden. Now, on his debut LP sounds for someone, influences like him, whom Elmiene wears on his sleeve, are weaved into a stunningly diverse record.
Take ‘Light By the Window’, which sounds like an extension of Lauryn Hill and D’Angelo’s ‘Nothing Even Matters’, such is Elmiene’s understanding of R&B sensibilities. Elsewhere, there are gospel influences on ‘Saviour’ and something markedly Sade-esque about the gorgeous vocals and orchestral elements of ‘Lonely People’.
The record is a showcase of both his dynamism as a vocalist – his range and control are astounding – and his adeptness at delving into various sounds. Each song is its own distinct musical journey, the final package never disjointed, each fabric and texture is stitched together by an expert curator.
There’s lyrical substance, too: Elmiene drifts from sugary love songs to themes of grief, longing and heartache. A highlight comes on ‘Cry Against the Wind’, as Elmiene wrestles with his guilt around the death of his father Jameel: “I think it’s really real that I hate you my Jameel, but I’d watch the whole world drown to see you cry again,” is a gut punch wrapped in velvet tones.
This is an extraordinarily talented young artist who proves that he can operate in any sonic lane he likes. That his next step is to find one which is his own is incredibly exciting” – Rolling Stone UK
The Coral – 388
Release Date: 21st May, 2026
Producers: Chris Taylor/The Coral
Label: Run on Records
Standout Song: Leave It in the Past
Review:
“In these days of indie nostalgia it’s easy to look back on the 00s as some kind of halcyon era. Truth be told, a lot of groups peddled the same stuff – military jacket clad three chord gruel, which didn’t really have a lot of substance beyond the guestlist for the Bull & Gate. Citing dub, gypsy jazz, Captain Beefheart, and lot 60s psych records as influences, The Coral stood out a mile. Not a lot of groups did that back; not a lot of groups do that now.
New album – their thirteenth – ‘388’ finds The Coral spinning the creative dials once more. Since their five-year hiatus in the 2010s the band have been on a rich run of form, with 2021 concept record ‘Coral Island’ reaching No. 2 on the charts – Simon Cowell didn’t stand a chance.
‘388’ is proof of the band’s enduring creativity and their determination to buck the norms. Informed by Jamaican rocksteady and Ethiopian jazz – in addition to their beloved psych and beat records – it shifts their palette while dialling down on their songwriting prowess.
A concise 11 tracks, opener ‘Let The Music Play’ is a joyous introduction, its ska-tinged offbeat matched to a super James Skelly vocal. ‘Ride That Train’ is wonderfully infectious, while the nimble upright bass and piano combo on ‘Leave It In The Past’ is superbly organic.
The analogue production is refreshing without seeming retro, giving the songs a natural gloss. Each part of left to breathe a little, the band operating with marked maturity. ‘You And Me (And The Beautiful Sea)’ is a whimsical festival singalong that pulls at the heartstrings, while the dancefloor-oriented ‘Shame’ offers up some old-school R&B with its snapping guitar strings.
The Liverpool band have also have a wistful, melancholic edge, something that comes to the fore on the Autumnal baroque pop number ‘Yellow Moon’ or the sultry doo wop of ‘Sad Girl’. There’s little, too – the neat ‘High Tide’ or the pirate skank that underpins ‘Spirit Catcher’.
Closing with ‘Crossing The Sands’, you’re left to marvel at both the changes and consistencies in The Coral’s musicality. The syncopated beat and reverb effect could sit on their debut, but everything is moved forward, dialled up a notch. It’s a lucky number thirteen for fans – The Coral remain a band to cherish.
8/10” – CLASH
