Happy New Year 2026

Happy New Year and my best wishes to all my followers and visitors. Thanks for sharing with us another year full of music, news, books, film, trendings and pop culture, we hope you enjoyed and loved every post throughout the year. So, let's stick together in 2026.

 

Rocktrospectiva: The Stroke's Biggest Failure "First Impressions Of Earth" Turns 20

Originaly released on 30 December 2005 in Germany, then on 2 January, 2006 in the UK and finally on 3 January worldwide "First Impressions Of Earth" was the third studio album by the Strokes, the album spawned three singles "Juicebox", "Heart In A Cage" & "You Only Live Once". 

 

The album was recorded over a ten-month period. The Strokes initially set out to record it with Gordon Raphael, the producer of their first two albums. However, guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr. later introduced them to Grammy Award-winning producer David Kahne, and they brought him in to collaborate with Raphael. The collaboration did not end up working out, leading Gordon Raphael to step down. As a result, Kahne produced the majority of the album.

 

Early this century, The Strokes broke into the worldwide scene giving fresh air to rock music and a new identity, their acclaimed debut album "Is This It" was the big hit back then and nothing would be the same again, things got even bigger with their second and acclaimed album "Room Of Fire" released on 2003, the album sold well  thanks in huge part by the success of their singles and cause it sounded like if it was a continuation of their debut albu, so the band was surfing high enough, however they were about to broke that mold themselved had created.

 

The first thing they did was to work again with Gordon Raphael the mastermind behind their first two albums, also they will used another producer David Kahne to add new things to their brand new combination, but things didn't work between Kahne and Raphael, the first one wanted a rocker raw sound to the band and the second wanted a continuation of the band landmark sound. After four months of experimentation, the band chose to create a sort kind of Frankenstein mixing pop sounds on "You Only Live Once" to power chords on "Heart In A Cage" almost close to hard rock, so by the time when the band released "Juicebox" you can guess to turn they're about to take. 

 

On songs like "Juicebox" and the standout "Electricityscape", drummer Fab Moretti and bassist Nicolai Fraiture form a no-nonsense rhythm section that keeps these songs as concise and focused as possible. Albert Hammond and Nic Valensi, meanwhile, build a complex weapons system out of just two guitars and launching short singsongy riffs that add tension and spark, particularly on tracks like "Heart in a Cage" and "Razorblade". 

On First Impressions, the band finally seemed eager to break the mold, but unsure how: On "Vision of Division" and "The Ize of the World", Casablanca strains harder, screaming through gritted teeth; "Heart in a Cage" and "Fear of Sleep" find him leaning too heavily on repetition of phrases that quickly become grating; during the Pogues-like stomp "Evening Sun", he fakes a Shane MacGowan accent for the first few lines before dropping the schtick altogether; and on "Ask Me Anything" and "On the Other Side", he makes this album the Strokes' loungiest to date.

A handful of these modifications resulted in a welcome as a change of pace, and at times make First Impressions sounded prickly and confident. When the band was on, the songs attained the force and fury of previous outings. Unfortunately, the album was also clogged with a number of tracks that are as sloppy as titles like "The Ize of the World" and "Vision of Division".

Worldwide the album was a complete failure in their career, nearly reached decent sales, although musically the album meant as a new world that later will explore as a band and in their parallel projects in the years to come. At the time, they weren't confident to move ahead even thought the album was like a huge rehearsal for their future as a band, at least they gave us some of their most finest songs of their discography that will turn into classics.  

 

First Impressions Of Earth Track List:

 

1. You Only Live Once

2. Juicebox

3. Heart In A Cage

4. Razorblade

5. On The Other Side

6. Vision Of Division

7. Ask Me Anything

8. Electricityscape

9. Killing Lies

10. Fear Of Sleep

11. 15 Minutes

12. Ize Of The World

13. Evening Sun

14. Red Light  

In Memoriam: The French Actress And Animal Activist "Brigitte Bardot" Dies Aged 91

Brigitte Bardot, a star of French cinema in the 1950s and 1960s, has died aged 91. Her signature roles - in films such as And God Created Woman - cemented her cultural status as a symbol of the sexual liberation movement that swept across Europe in the latter half of the 20th Century.

She stepped back from the silver screen at 39, with almost 50 films under her belt. "I gave my youth and beauty to men, I give my wisdom and experience to animals," Bardot famously pledged, and spent the remainder of her life campaigning for animal welfare under her Brigitte Bardot Foundation.

Brigitte Bardot, the French actor and singer who became an international sex symbol before turning her back on the film industry and embracing the cause of animal rights activism and far-right politics, has died aged 91.

Her cause of death was not made public. Bardot was briefly hospitalised in October for what her office called a “minor” procedure

Born in 1934 in Paris, Bardot grew up in a prosperous, traditional Catholic family but excelled enough as a dancer to be allowed to study ballet, gaining a place at the prestigious Conservatoire de Paris. At the same time she found work as a model, appearing on the cover of Elle in 1950 while still 15. As a result of her modelling work, she was offered film roles; at one audition she met Vadim, whom she would marry in 1952, after she turned 18. Bardot was cast in small roles, with increasing prominence, playing Dirk Bogarde’s love interest in Doctor at Sea, a big hit in the UK in 1955.

But it was Vadim’s And God Created Woman, in which Bardot played an uninhibited teenager in Saint-Tropez, that consolidated her image and turned her into an international icon. The film was a huge hit in France, as well as internationally, and catapulted Bardot into the front rank of French screen performers.

As well as for cinema audiences, Bardot swiftly became an inspiration for intellectuals and artists; not least the young John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who demanded their then girlfriends dye their hair blond in imitation of her. The columnist Raymond Cartier wrote a lengthy article about “le cas Bardot” in Paris-Match in 1958, while Simone de Beauvoir published her famous essay Brigitte Bardot and the Lolita Syndrome in 1959, framing the actor as France’s most liberated woman. In 1969, Bardot was chosen as the first real-life model for Marianne, the symbol of the French republic.n the early 1960s, Bardot appeared in a string of high-profile French films, including Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Oscar-nominated drama The Truth, Louis Malle’s Very Private Affair (opposite Marcello Mastroianni) and Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt. In the second half of the decade, Bardot took up a number of Hollywood offers: these included Viva Maria!, a Mexican-set period comedy with Jeanne Moreau, and Shalako, a western with Sean Connery.

Bardot also had a parallel music career, which included recording the original version of Serge Gainsbourg’s Je T’Aime … Moi Non Plus, which Gainsbourg had written for her while they were having an extramarital affair. (Afraid of scandal after her then husband, Gunter Sachs, found out, Bardot asked Gainsbourg not to release it. He went on to re-record it with Jane Birkin, to huge commercial success.)

Bardot found the pressure of stardom increasingly irksome, telling the Guardian in 1996: “The madness which surrounded me always seemed unreal. I was never really prepared for the life of a star.” She retired from acting in 1973, aged 39, after making the historical romance The Edifying and Joyous Story of Colinot. Her primary focus became animal welfare activism, joining protests against seal hunts in 1977 and establishing the Brigitte Bardot Foundation in 1986.

Bardot subsequently sent letters of protest to world leaders over issues such as dog extermination in Romania, dolphin killing in the Faroe Islands and cat slaughter in Australia. She also regularly aired outspoken views on religious animal slaughter. In her 2003 book A Cry in the Silence she espoused rightwing politics and took aim at gay men and lesbians, schoolteachers and the so-called “Islamisation of French society”, resulting in a conviction for inciting racial hatred.

In Memoriam: The Cure's Longtime Guitarist "Perry Bamonte" Dies Aged 65

Perry Bamonte, longtime guitarist and keyboard player for the Cure, has died aged 65. The musician, known affectionately as Teddy, passed away after a short illness over Christmas, the band announced on their website.

The band described the musician as “quiet, intensive, intuitive, constant and hugely creative”, calling him a “vital part of the Cure story”.

Bamonte looking after the band from 1984 through 1989, he became a full member of the Cure in 1990, playing guitar, six-string bass and keyboard on the Wish (1992), Wild Mood Swings (1996), Bloodflowers (2000), Acoustic Hits (2001), and the Cure (2004) albums,

He was due to play on the Cure's UK and European tour in 2026, first joined the band as part of their road crew in 1984 through his brother, Daryl, who was the band’s tour manager at the time. He became a full-time member of the band after the departure of keyboardist Roger O'Donnell in 1990. Over the next 14 years, he performed more than 400 shows, playing on some of the band’s best-known tracks, such as Friday I’m in Love, High and A Letter to Elise.

Bamonte, who was born in September 1960 in London, left the Cure in 2005 after the band was reconfigured as a trio. In 2019, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside the Cure. He rejoined the Cure in 2022, playing another 90 shows, some of the best in the band’s history, culminating with the Show of a Lost World concert in London on 1 November 2024,” the band wrote on their website, adding: “Our thoughts and condolences are with all his family. He will be very greatly missed.”

Bamonte was also the bass player in supergroup Love Amongst Ruin, alongside former Placebo drummer Steve Hewitt and Julian Cope collaborator Donald Ross Skinner. The group have released two studio albums, their self-titled 2010 debut, and Lose Your Way, released in 2015. The musician was also interested in fly fishing and built a career as an illustrator, contributing to the magazine Fly Culture.

Absolute Christmas/Absolute Scrooged: Driving Home For Christmas

           

Driving Home for Christmas was first released as a B-side because the now late Chris Rea thought Christmas songs were novelties, and he didn’t want to draw attention to it. Perhaps it may be an atypical song for him, nevertheless. it’s a perfect song that had endured and captures the nostalgic feeling of Christmas since. 

Stuck in traffic on the A1, where the late Chris Rea found himself in Christmas 1978, his wife behind the wheel of her Mini, he beside her as they tried to get from Abbey Road Studios in London to their home in Middlesbrough, 220 miles away. He wrote the song on a whim, scribbling down the lyrics whenever passing headlights illuminated the car interior, then put it away with his other unfinished scraps when he got home. 

Eight years later, he paired his lyric with some jazzy chords he'd written and then a song was born. At first, he shoved it on a B-side, but in 1988 he re-recorded it for a compilation, put it out as a single, and nothing fantastic happened, it was not an instant hit, it was more like a slow burner that went from radio playlists and department stores into people's hearts throught the years.

It was a slow burner because it’s not grand, just a common track not packed with magnificent of the contemporary Christmas hits at the time, not a tremendous lyrics it's just about being trapped in the A1 and trying to get as much as possible home on Christmas eve, not other emotion or tenderness, just about being there sitting and awaiting in traffic, looking forward to getting home.

When the track was released during Christmas 1988, "Mistletoe And Wine" by Cliff Richard was the Christmas No.1 and then nothing else but others related songs and "Driving Home For Christmas" was at 53, and there you go, nothing happens and the song was there as another useless attempt to capture the No. 1 for Holiday Season, in fact, I never heard about this track until Christmas 2019 and curiously I was trapped in traffic too trying to get home as soon as possible, but inmeadiately caught my attention because it sounds older maybe vintage, like the way Christmas songs used to be and doesnt sound like this anymore, and here's the key part of everything.

"Driving Home For Christmas", is a common Christmas song but not a one that impose and use the usual sounds many Xmas songs use and do like sonic bells, whistles, Santa's Ho Ho, and even thought the song emerged in the late 80s., it's not dated because it was created to sound like that, nostalgic and in some ways tender and magic cause it alludes a common thing everyone of us have experienced once in while, being sat in an unmoving car for Christmas as a way to comfort us and make our stance easy and less complicated just like the way it was 35 years when were kids and Christmas had a different meaning, and that's why this anthem hits hard, not only because Chris' death but also because captures the season's true spirit as no other song do.

In Memoriam: Rock And Blues Singer-Songrwriter "Chris Rea" Dies Aged 74

Iconic Middlesbrough-born musician Chris Rea, who had hits with Driving Home for Christmas, On the Beach and The Road to Hell, has died at the age of 74, a spokesperson for his family said.

 

The statement said that he died "peacefully in hospital … following a short illness". 

 

Rea blended blues, pop, soul and soft rock on 25 studio albums, featuring hits including The Road to Hell, taken from a UK No 1 album of the same name; Driving Home for Christmas, a perennial seasonal favourite; and tracks such as On the Beach and Josephine that earned popularity in the Balearic dance scene. He sold more than 30 million albums.

 

He was born in 1951 in Middlesbrough to an Italian father and Irish mother, and had six siblings. "To be Irish Italian in a coffee bar in Middlesbrough – I started my life as an outsider," he later said. As a young man he dabbled in music while working labouring jobs, including in his father’s ice-cream factory, and considered being a journalist. He eventually joined a band aged 22, Magdalene, which had previously featured David Coverdale (later of Deep Purple). He then joined another band, the Beautiful Losers, but struck out solo when offered a record deal, releasing his debut single, So Much Love, in 1974.

 

His first flush of success came in the US, where his 1978 song Fool (If You Think It’s Over) reached No 12 and earned him a Grammy nomination for best new artist. He struggled to match that achievement for some years – likening industry machinations in this period to a big manure heap of bubbling stuff. I had no control over it, I didn't know what to do – though the 1985 album Water Sign was a hit across Europe and helped to turn his fortunes around.

 

The late 1980s were his most commercially successful period: finally embraced in the UK despite often sitting outside the dominant trends in pop, 1987's Dancing With Strangers began a run of six UK top 10 albums, two of them reaching No 1.

 

The 1988 compilation album New Light Through Old Windows contained his biggest hit, Driving Home for Christmas, originally recorded in 1986. It made little impact on its first release, but the gentle, sentimental song about the communal pleasure of its title has continued to grow in popularity ever since, reaching a chart high of No 10 in 2021. Rea originally wrote it at a low ebb when he was without a manager, out of a record contract and actually banned from driving – he had to be driven home by his wife from London to Middlesbrough because he couldn't afford the rail fare. He wrote the lyrics on the car journey, but didn’t complete the song until a few years later.

 

Rea's chart success waned somewhat in the 2000s, when, beginning with 2002's Dancing Down the Stony Road, Rea turned away from pop and back towards the Delta blues that had originally inspired him. 

 

Appropriately, given he often fixated on cars and roads in his songs, Rea was a motor racing enthusiast who raced models by Ferrari and Lotus, and participated in the 1993 British Touring Car Championship. For the 1995 Formula One season, he joined the Jordan team as a pit mechanic. "I really didn't want to do the VIP thing, so I was in charge of Eddie Irvine’s right-rear tyre," he later said.

 

Rea suffered a number of health issues during his life. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and eventually had his pancreas removed along with parts of his stomach and small intestine in 2001. The procedure caused him to become diabetic.

 

He had a stroke in 2016, which he described as a  "very scary moment … I got it into my head that my perception of pitch had gone with the stroke. And it took a lot of convincing from people saying there’s nothing wrong with what you're playing." In 2017, he collapsed on stage during a concert in Oxford, and was taken to hospital to recover.

 

Rea is survived by his wife Joan, whom he began dating aged 17, and their daughters Josephine and Julia, both of whom Rea named hit songs after.

The List: Singles Of 2025

Alright., it's time to review the best 100 singles of the year, someway somehow, it was a fantastic 2025 full of good singles of diferent genres and styles we hope you like 'em and shared the same feeling like us, now enjoy the list: 

 

01. Pulp   "Got To Have Love"   (Rough Trade)

02. Suede   "Disintegrate"   (BMG)

03. Saint Etienne featuring Confidence  "Brand New Me"   (Heavenly)

04. Florence + The Machine   "Everybody Screams"   (Polydor)

05. NewDad   "Everything I Wanted"   (Atlantic)

06. Manic Street Preachers   "People Ruin Paintings"   (Columbia)

07. Brian Dunne   "Clams Casino"   (Missing Piece)

08. The Charlatans   "We Are Love"   (BMG)

09. Suede   "Dancing With The Europeans"   (BMG) 

10. Sparks   "Do Things My Own Way"   (Transgressive)

11. Squid   "Crispy Skin"   (Warp) 

12. Florence + The Machine   "One Of The Greats"   (Polydor)

13. Doves   "Cold Dreaming"   (EMI North)

14. Deftones   "My Mind Is A Mountain"   (Warner)

15. Cate Le Bon   "Heaven Is No Feeling"   (Mexican Summer)

16. Paul Weller   "I Started A Joke"   (Parlophone)

17. Deep Sea Diver   "Shovel"   (Sub Pop)

18. Pulp   "Spike Island"   (Rough Trade) 

19. Geese   "Taxes"   (Partisan)

20. Haim   "All Over Me"   (Polydor)

21. Matt Berninger   "Bonnet Of Pins"   (Concord) 

22. Manic Street Preachers   "Brushtrokes Of Reunion"   (Columbia)

23. Doves   "A Drop In The Ocean"   (EMI North)

24. Squid   "Building 650"   (Warp)

25. Sparks   "My Devotion"   (Transgressive)

26. Sorry   "Echoes"   (Domino)

27. The Chameleons   "Saviours Are A Dangerous Thing"   (Metropolis)

28. Mark Pritchard & Thom Yorke   "Back In The Game"   (Warp)

29. Gwenno   "Dancing On A Volcano"   (Heavenly)

30. Suede   "Trance State"   (BMG) 

31. Kula Shaker   "Broke As Folk"   (Strange F.O.L.K.) 

32. Richard Ashcroft   "Lover"   (Richard Ashcroft/Virgin)

33. Pulp   "Tina"   (Roughtrade)

34. Billy Nomates   "The Test"   (Invada) 

35. Emma-Jean Thackray   "Weirdo"   (Brownswood)

36. Saint Etienne   "Glad"   (Heavenly)

37. Squid   "Buidling 650"   (Warp) 

38. Hot Chip   "Devotion"   (Domino)

39. Cate Le Bon   "About Time"   (Mexican Summer)

40. Tame Impala   "Dracula"   (Columbia)

41. Throwing Muses   "Summer Of Love"   (Fire)

42. Wolf Alice   "The Sofa"   (Columbia)

43. Deftones   "Milk Of The Madonna"   (Warner)

44. Shame   "Spartak"   (Dead Oceans)

45. Circa Waves   "Let's Leave Together"   (Lower Third)

46. Tame Impala   "The End Of Summer"

47. Geese   "Au Pays Du Cocaine"   (Partisan)

48. Alison Goldfrapp   "Find Xanadu"   (A.G.) 

49. Σtella   "Adagio"   (Sub Pop)

50. Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory   "Trouble"   (Jagjaguwar)

51. Deafheaven   "Magnolia"   (Roadrunner)  

52. Ladytron   "I See Red"   (Nettwerk)

53. The Farm   "Moment In Time"   (Modern Sky)

54. Sam Fender   "People Watching"   (Polydor) 

55. Sombr   "Undressed"   (Warner)

56. The Last Dinner Party   "This Is The Killer Speaking"   (Island)

57. Franz Ferdinand   "Hooked"   (Domino)

58. Florence + The Machine   "Buckle"   (Polydor)

59. Saint Etienne   "Take Me To The Pilot"   (Heavenly)

60. Bon Iver   "Walk Home"   (Jagjaguwar) 

61. Alison Goldfrapp   "Hey Hi Hello"   (A.G.) 

62. White Lies   "In The Middle"   (PIAS)

63. TOPS   "Falling On My Sword"   (Ghostly International)

64. The Moonlandingz   "The Sign Of A Man"   (Transgressive) 

65. Haim   "Down To Be Wrong"   (Polydor) 

66. Ashes And Diamonds   "Boy Or A Girl"   (Cleopatra) 

67. Say She She   "Cut And Rewind"   (Drink Sum WTR) 

68. Viagra Boys   "Man Made Of Meat"   (Shrimptech Enterprises)

69. Nation Of Language   "Inept Apollo"   (Sub Pop)

70. Sophie Ellis-Bextor   "Dolce Vita"   (Decca)

71. Florence + The Machine   "Sympathy Magic"   (Polydor)

72. Kula Shaker   "Charge Of The Light Brigade"   (Strange F.O.L.K.)  

73. Panda Bear   "Praise"   (Domino) 

74. Circa Waves   "Cherry Bomb"   (Lower Third) 

75. Ladytron   "I Believe In You"   (Nettwerk)

76. The Charlatans   "Deeper And Deeper"   (BMG)

77. Stereolab   "Melody Is A Wound"   (Duophonic UHF) 

78. The Waeve   "Love Is All Pain"   (Transgressive)

79. Deep Sea Diver   "What Do I Know"   (Sub Pop)

80. Mark Springer featuring Neil Tennant   "Phantoms And Monsters"   (Sub Rosa)

81. Big Thief   "Incomprehensible"   (4AD)

82. Florence + The Machine   "Simpathy Magic"   (Polydor)

83. The Kooks   "Never Know"   (Lonely Cat) 

84. Blondshell   "Even Of A Fire"   (Partisan) 

85. Yeule   "Evangelic Girl Is A Gun"   (Ninja Tune)

86. The Weather Station   "Mirror"   (Fat Possum)

87. Basia Bulat   "Disco Polo"   (Secret City) 

88. Bar Italia   "Fundraiser"   (Matador)

89. Divorce   "Hangman"   (Gravity)

90. Miki Berenyi Trio   "8th. Deadly Sin"   (Bella Union)

90. Cheap Trick   "The Riff That Won't Quit"   (BMG)

91. Sports Team   "Bang Bang Bang"   (Bright Antenna)

92. Skunk Anansie   "An Artist Is An Artist"   (FLG)

93. Gorillaz featuring Sparks   "Happy Dictator"   (Kong)

94. Yumi Zouma   "Cross My Heart And Hope To Die"   (Nettwerk)

95. Arcade Fire   "Year Of The Snake"   (Columbia) 

96. The Waterboys featuring Taylor Goldsmith   "I Don't Know How I Made It"   (Sun)

97. The Knocks & Dragonette   "Dreams"   (Neon Gold)

98. Car Seat Headrest   "CCF I'm Gonna Stay With You"   (Matador)

99. Bryan Adams   "Roll With The Punches"   (Bad) 

100. Styx   "Build And Destroy"   (Universal) 

The List: The Best 50 Albums Of 2025

01. Suede   "Antidepressants"   (BMG)

 

their 10th studio album Antidepressants via BMG. The album is a milestone achievement that sees the band at the top of their game which has been described as a post-punk and gothic rock with themes such as mortality and modern disconnection, and it is intended to be the second in a trilogy of "black and white" albums, starting with Autofiction (2022)The album explores themes such as paranoia, death, and disconnection in the modern age. While the overall result is dark, both in tone and in subject matter, the lyrics often employ a more optimistic perspective. Definitely a truly intense album, a courageous one to reclaim the band's place with a truly powerful and inspired sound, a matured one and of course we cannot forget the lyrircs and impecable voice of Anderson well-accomplished here.

 

02. Pulp   "More"   (Rough Trade)

 

the band's first solo album in nearly 24 years since their last "We Love Life" in 2001, and their first without beloved bass/guitarist Steve Mackey "Freaks" in 1987 who died in 2023, Mackey is credite as a songwriter on two songs. More is an elocuent affirmation of all the features that made of Pulp what it is now, they moved away britpop nostalgia and instead keep reaching new artistic summits in a time in which everybody seems to talk again about britpop, but Pulp don't appeal on that, they appeal for its place in music as a complete band in all senses

 

03. Florence + The Machine   "Everybody Screams"   (Polydor) 

The album was created during and inspired by a time of healing and discovering the body's limits for Welch, who underwent life-saving surgery during 2023's Dance Fever Tour. Because of this, she feels Everybody Scream is her most personal Florence and the Machine album to date. She also mentioned the project's title coming from the idea of celebratory screaming and her exploration of why people would be screaming and the emotions and reasons associated with such a physical and emotional act. Dedicated to finding strength in release from physical and psychological inhibitions with its traditiona arena-pop baroque, horizon-spanning anthems of resilience furnished with cinematic strings, gargantuan drums, and, yes, the occasional scream. While touring Dance Fever in 2023, Welch underwent life-saving surgery, which she's now revealed was due to massive internal bleeding caused by an ectopic pregnancy. The trauma of miscarriage is evident in the fury that fuels Everybody Scream:  "Sometimes my body seems so alien to me,” Welch sings over the steady chug of "Kraken," sounding despairingly numb before transforming into a creature of wrath. On "The Old Religion," she dreams of immateriality, yearning to be free of her physical self so long as it means relief from pain.

04. Saint Etienne   "International"   (Heavenly)

 

After Saint Etienne's 35-year excursion through pop, International is their final album-length statement. A dreamlike drift with friends and collaborators, International features cameos from the higher echelons of pop — 80s chart heroes, electro, acid house and all points in-between — from Vince Clarke to Nick Heyward, Confidence Man to Erol Alkan, Chemical Brothers, Orbital, Doves and Xenomania, through to the lesser known, but equally exhilarating Augustin Bousfield and Flash Cassette. Saint Etienne are the 90s band who never left us, never imploded, and never adhered to clichéd excess. They are a testament to getting along, getting on with creating something new and, of course, getting away with it.

 

05. Sparks   "Mad/Madder"   (Transgressive)

 

Sparks, brothers Ron and Russell Mael, are back with their 28th album MAD!, their first release with Transgressive Records. Most acts, by their seventh decade in the biz, would have slowed to a crawl, creakily playing their past hits on the heritage circuit and releasing nothing more than the occasional Greatest Hits collection. This is not the case for Sparks, who have triumphantly returned yet again, proving their resilience and relevance in a modern world with a fresh record and summer world tour to accompany it. MADDER!, a four-song companion piece to the album, is for everyone who isn't yet MAD! enough. We hope these new songs will take you to an even MADDER! place.

 

06. Squid   "Cowards"   (Warp)

 

Cowards is about evil, nine stories whose protagonists reckon with cults, charisma, and apathy. Real and imagined characters wading into the dark ocean between right and wrong. Cowards is Squid's most courageous album: simultaneously growing in scope and returning to basics. Cowards has been described as both post-rock and art rock, with influences from a diverse set of other genres, including electronica, folk music, and psych rock. The album was seen as a continuation of the band's distancing from their earlier post-punk sound

 

07. Doves   "Constellations For The Lonely"   (EMI North)

 

Constellations For The Lonely, a new, intense, filmic, yet classic Doves album. Featuring ten new tracks of enkindled, future-facing, meticulous manipulation of mood from the Manchester trio. described by the band as a "dark" album, guitarist/singer Jez Williams. with its songs of disconnection and reconnection in a volatile world, is an emotionally powerful listen that packs an authentic punch matched by its widescreen sonic beauty. Despite many obstacles thrown in their path, Doves seem to never fail to impress when they return and this album is no exception

 

08. Mark Pritchard & Thom Yorke   "Tall Tales"   ( Warp)

 

Tall Tales showcases Pritchard’s mastery of archaic machines that he had previously unearthed in synthesizer archives, guiding the music down unexpected and experimental paths. Yorke meanwhile delivers a haunting and expansive vocal performance, evoking Radiohead’s OK Computer-era digital FX while delving into dark, introspective storytelling. Also central to the project, visual collaborator Jonathan Zawada’s artistry enhances the project with his hyperreal environments that blur the line between the organic and digital, juxtaposing uneasy landscapes of natural beauty with the brutal aesthetics of a dystopian world. Through Yorke’s lyrics, Pritchard’s atemporal compositions and Zawada’s visuals, Tall Tales questions where our insatiable appetite for ‘progress’ might have landed us. 

09. Brian Dunne   "Clams Casino"   (Missing Piece)

 

The New York singer poses life’s big questions in the form of exuberant, classic pop-rock. His new album sounds like it could’ve been made any time in the past 45 years Dunne, across his album, is preoccupied with the haves and have-nots. He’s at home watching too much TV, scrolling on his phone, and ordering takeout. He’s dreaming of taking it to “the sore winners up on top of the hill.” He’s anxiously talking too much on a boring conference call. He’s turning inward and wondering what it says about him that he’s not satisfied. Even at his most bothered, there’s no malice. Clams Casino is funny, sweet, and often wise and poetic, too. You’ll find yourself rooting for its protagonist, sympathizing with him and bearing grudges on his behalf. It’s a good time for anyone who may be teetering on a bad time—a winner’s album for the losers

 

10. Deftones   "Private Music"   (Warner)

 

Deftones have always defined boundless creativity in the music space. Across nine prior studio albums, they have carved out an unmistakable sonic identity — ferocious yet dreamlike, while making space for constant refinement and surprise Meditating on the beauty and peril of nature, the challenge of cultivating a positive mindset, and visions of a journey beyond the physical realm, private music showcases Deftones at their most evolved. At once a psychedelic voyage and a skull-rattling wallop, it’s the latest peak in a catalog filled with immersive, emotive triumphs.

 

11. Cate Le Bon   "Micheangelo Dying"   (Mexican Summer)

 

Cate Le Bon’s seventh record Michelangelo Dying usurped the album she thought she was making. The product of all-consuming heartache, her feelings overrode her reluctance to write an album about love, and in the process became a kind of exorcism. What emerges is a wonderfully iridescent attempt to photograph a wound before it closes up — but which in doing so, picks at it too. Musically, there is a continuation and expansion of a sound — a machine with a heart — that has taken shape over her last two recordsAn exercise in the viscerality of life, of love, of humanity for both listener and artist, Michelangelo Dying knows what it is to hold, to be held, and to be exquisitely, profoundly alone. “The characters are interchangeable” concludes Cate, “but at the end of it all, it’s me meeting myself.

 

12. Geese   "Getting Killed"   (Partisan) 

 

Geese return with their 3rd album, Getting Killed. They tracked the album with Kenneth Blume in 10 fast-paced days. With scant time for overdubbing, what emerged is a chaotic comedy, shambolic in structure but passionately performed, informed by an exacting vision. Big riffs are layered on choir samples; hissing drum machines pulse softly behind screeching guitars. They balance a disarming tenderness with an intensified anger, trading their love of classic rock for a disdain for music itself. The new album,  incorporates the New York band’s art-jazz and prog tendencies, definitive structures and recurrent motifs are readily employed; soundscapes unfurl more as shamanic palimpsests than flux-y improvs. In terms of songcraft and delivery, singer Cameron Winter draws from his solo 2024’s album Heavy Metal; joined by his bandmates – Emily Green, Dominic DiGesu, and Max Bassin – however, his idiosyncratic vocals and memeish lyrics take on added relevance and urgency. You have here a project that frequently sweeps the listener into a trance, ruptures that trance, and then reestablishes it

 

13. The Charlatans   "We Are Love"   (BMG)

 

The Charlatans are back with their highly anticipated new album, We Are Love. Their first studio album since 2017, this eleven-track collection marks a significant return for the band. We Are Love sees The Charlatans pushing their sonic boundaries, featuring exciting collaborations with the acclaimed Dev Hynes and renowned producer Steven Street, promising a fresh yet unmistakably Charlatans sound. A welcome return to form from this iconical band and proving they're still worth attention, celebrating their history throught this album and creating formidable and important music in the process to make of this album a must-have. 

 

14. Franz Ferdinand   "The Human Fear"   (Domino)

 

Produced with Mark Ralph, who previously worked with them on their 2013 album Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, the album showcases Franz at their most immediate, upbeat and life-affirming, unashamedly going for the pop-jugular in classic Franz style. The 11 songs on The Human Fear all allude to some deep-set human fears and how overcoming and accepting these fears drives and defines our lives. Ever since their beginnings, throwing illegal parties in condemned Glasgow buildings, Franz Ferdinand have been defined by a fresh, unfading, forward-facing outlook, a transgressive art-school perspective, but with a love of a big song and The Human Fear undoubtedly continues in this tradition; distinct yet new, musically, and creatively it’s a record eager to push forward. The first studio album to feature members Audrey Tait and Dino Bardot, the record also sees Julian Corrie step forward to collaborate with Alex Kapranos and Bob Hardy on songwriting and creative duties. 

15. Richard Ashcroft   "Lovin' You"   (Richard Ashcroft/Virgin)

 

Ashcroft returns with his new solo album Lovin’ You, his first new material since 2018's Natural Rebel. Lead track 'Lover' was written by Richard and, for the first time since his recording of ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’, incorporates elements of one of Richard's favourite works:  Love and Affection’, written by Joan Armatrading. Joan was approached before recording and loved the arrangement  

 

16. Manic Street Preachers   "Critical Thinking"   (Columbia)

 

The Manic Street Preachers return with their most urgent album in years. This is a record of opposites colliding - of dialectics trying to find a path of resolution. While the music has an effervescence and an elegiac uplift, most of the words deal with the cold analysis of the self, the exception being the three lyrics by James (Dean Bradfield) which look for and hopefully find answers in people, their memories, language and beliefs.

 

17. Mark Springer/Neil Tennant/Sacconi String Quartet   "Sleep Of Reason"   (Sub Rosa)

 

The album is planned for release in April 2025 and consists of three major pieces inspired by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya: a piece for solo piano, a string quartet and a quintet for voice and strings. Mark Springer plays the piano, The Sacconi Quartet perform the quartet and they are joined by Neil Tennant on vocals for the quintet. Speaking about the album, Neil said: "I bought a book of Goya's print series Los Caprichos which had inspired Mark's music and saw that the artworks were a satirical, cruel, nightmarish portrayal of the politics, corruption and culture of his era, exploring his dreams - or nightmares - while exposing the double standards of the ruling establishment

18. Ashes And Diamonds   "Are Forever"   (Cleopatra)

From the creative minds of Daniel Ash (Bauhaus/Love & Rockets/Tones On Tail), Bruce Smith (Public Image Ltd/The Pop Group) and Paul Spencer Denman (Sade/Sweetback) comes a darkly glittering new musical project that marks a huge evolutionary step in these storied musicians incredible careers!The album, recorded over the course of six years, contains sonically compelling, powerfully melodic music with mixing and engineering duties held by Robert Adam StevensonA prefectly crafted and arranged album, a genuine record that impressed since the beginning 'til the end with a haunting and magnificent finished, no doubt cause this is the work of a truly band with real music genius or veterans that come from the 1980s, and one of the most refreshing albums of the year.

 

19. Emma-Jean Thackray   "Weirdo"   (Brownswood)

Known for defying musical boundaries, Thackray's latest work is a deeply personal and utterly original exploration of selfhood, grief, and gratitude. Drawing on an eclectic mix of influences - grunge, pop, soul, p-funk, and jazz - Weirdo is a triumphant celebration of survival and individuality. Written, performed, recorded, mixed, produced and arranged entirely by Thackray in her South London flat, the album stands as a testament to her extraordinary musicianship and fearless self-expression. 

20. Matt Berninger   "Get Sunk"   (Concord)

 

Matt Berninger's second solo album, Get Sunk, is not an autobiographical album, but the narrator is processing how he became himself. Who is he compared to the kid on that sepia-toned farm? What is his idea of happiness? What the hell are we all searching for? Get Sunk is an ode to the infinite. The others that make us who we are; the possibilities our paths can take and the abyss of both misery and bliss. 

 

21. Sharon Van Etten And The Attachment Theory   "Sharon Van Etten And The Attachment Theory"   (Jagjaguwar)

 

Writing and recording in total collaboration with her band for the first time, Van Etten finds the freedom that comes by letting go. The result of that liberation is an exhilarating new dimension of sound and songwriting. The themes are timeless, classic Sharon – life and living, love and being loved – but the sounds are new, wholly realized and sharp as glass. Reflecting on this new artistic frame of mind, Van Etten muses. 

  

22. Haim   "I Quit"   (Polydor)

 

Written primarily by Haim and Rostam Batmanglij, with production by Batmanglij and Danielle Haim. The album radiates the raw energy of seasoned performers whose deep reverence for classic rock shapes songs that are built for live performance. The album features previously released album tracks “Relationships” and “Everybody’s Trying to Figure Me Out,” which were both met with critical praise, a return to the sleek genre-hybrid sounds of classic Haim.

 

23. The Chameleons   "Arctic Moon"   (Metropolis)

 

Arctic Moon sees them propelling forward musically while retaining the essence that originally made them iconic. The band's first full-length album since the release of 'Why Call It Anything?' in 2001. There is an obvious maturity to the songwriting on this record, and anyone familiar with our past work will hear that this is a positive step forward. While we're proud of the band's legacy, we really wanted to forge something fresh while retaining that profound and imaginative quality we're known for. We think that we have managed to do that and deliver a very strong record!.

 

24. Throwing Muses   "Moonlight Concessions"   (Fire)

 

Moonlight Concessions goes back to basics, a return for Throwing Muses to their esoteric off-kilter best courtesy of Kristin’s pin-sharp sketches and their suitably abrasive musical arrangements. The album follows their acclaime. Produced by Kristin Hersh at Steve Rizzo's Stable Sound Studio in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, Moonlight Concessions is a collection of snippets from everyday life writ large - think Raymond Carver Short Cuts, overheard conversations, recounted happenings and telling one-liners, all sewed together to illustrate the times as they slowly mature, fully peppered with original Muses’ vim and vigour.

 

25. Bon Iver   "Sable, fABLE"   (Jagjaguwar)

 

Bon Iver’s three-song collection SABLE was a prologue mired in darkness, a controlled burn clearing the way for new possibilities. fABLE is the book that follows. Where SABLE was a work of solitude, fABLE is an outstretched hand. Radiant, ornate pop music gleams around Vernon’s voice as he focuses on a new and beautiful era. On every song, his eyes are locked with one specific person. It’s love, which means there’s an intense clarity, focus, and honesty within fABLE

 

26. Shame   "Cutthroat"   (Dead Oceans)

 

Cutthroat is Shame at their blistering best. An unapologetic new album with producer John Congleton at the helm; it’s souped up and supercharged. It’s exactly where you want Shame to be. Stamped throughout with Shame’s trademark sense of humor, the album takes on the big issues of today and gleefully toys with them. Casting a merciless eye on themes of conflict and corruption; hunger and desire; lust, envy, and the omnipresent shadow of cowardice. Musically, too, the record plays with visceral new ideas. Making electronic music on tour for fun, Coyle-Smith had previously seen the loops he was crafting as a separate entity to the things he wrote for Shame. s an album that revels in the idiosyncrasies of life, raising an eyebrow and asking the ugly questions that so often get tactfully brushed

 

27. The Weather Station   "Humanhood"   (Fat Possum)

 

One of the most intense, invigorating and poignant recording ever made by The Weather Station, "Humanhood" written during one of the most difficult periods of Lindeman's life and rendered with a rock band just as she began to recover by reckoning with a awful truth, well you know, sometimes, life simply tries to dismantle us, no matter how good everything may seem, and we must accept that in order to survive. According to band, this album was performed by the six musicians who improvised alive in two sessions at the end of 2023, the whole concept was molded by the band itself in terms of form, arrangements, mood and feeling, obviously, Lindeman remians in the spot light as a singer and main composer, but the band play a key role here.

 

28. Nation Of Language   "Dance Called Memory"   (Sub Pop) 

 

On Dance Called Memory, the band once again collaborated with friend and Strange Disciple producer Nick Millhiser. They imbued Dance Called Memory with a shifted palette — sampling chopped-up drum breaks on “I’m Not Ready for the Change” for a touch of Loveless-era My Bloody Valentine or smashing all of the percussion of “In Another Life” through a synthesizer to cast a shade of early-2000s electronic music.

 

29. Miki Berenyi Trio   "Tripla"   (Bella Union)

A new chapter, a new-line-up, a newly minted sound; Miki Berenyi Trio's debut album Tripla is a landmark record for its three creators: Miki Berenyi, KJ 'Moose' McKillop, and Oliver Cherer. The album's richly layered, imaginative, and uniquely slanted strain of dream pop is an often euphoric and sometimes melancholic mix of guitars and electronica, fronted by Miki's instantly recognizable vocal. Overlaid with an often profound and sometimes abrasive or yearning view of the world, Miki Berenyi Trio, or MB3 for short, is named after its lead singer - a direct way to convey the presence of the former singer/co-guitarist of Lush, and one of the most instantly recognizable faces of the '90s. 

30. Panda Bear   "Sinister Grift"   (Domino)

 

The first solo album in five years, Noah Lennox has returned with another statement that feels equally cumulative and unprecedented in his catalog. While his solo records have ranged from starkly intimate expressions of grief to colorful, electronic opuses, his music has never before sounded so warm and immediate. Their disarmingly laid-back approach marks Sinister Grift as his least experimental and most accessible record in the Animal Collective career., you definitely love it at the first listening, is catchy and not complicated

 

31. Wolf Alice   "The Clearing"   (Columbia)

 

The album marks their departure from Dirty Hit, the label under which they released their first three albums, and is set to be released through RCA and Columbia. The Clearing  has been described as "a classic pop/rock album", drawing influence from the 1970s while remaining "rooted firmly in the present.". The announcement compared the project to "something close to if Fleetwood Mac wrote an album today in North London". This record represents that moment of clarity and peace, and leaving your youthful turmoil behind, it’s a record that moves it forward in an assured, accomplished way that can only be achieved with time and experience, and this band has it for sure

 

32. Deafheaven   "Lonely People With Power"   (Roadrunner)

 

Deafheaven again confound expectations, piling element on element, and towering towards the sky with their most ambitious release yet. Tracked at EastWest Studios, Lonely People With Power includes additional vocal contributions from Jae Matthews of Boy Harsher and Paul Banks of Interpol.

 

33. Blondshell   "If You Asked For A Picture"   (Partisan)

 

The 2nd album from Sabrina Teitelbaum, aka Blondshell, is a no-skips, triumphant record that captures the unresolved process of figuring out who you are, too wise to suggest that it has a definitive answer. The album brims with an urgency, ambition, and devastating potency hinted at on 2023’s self-titled debut–the specificity, self-examination, and nonchalant humor of which turned her into one of the most lauded new artists in recent memory.

 

34. Sophie Ellis-Bextor   "Perimenopop"   (Decca)

 

Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s much anticipated 8th studio album Perimenopop is a playful celebration of where Sophie is at in her life, knowing exactly who she is and embracing the joy and empowerment that brings. Featuring previously released tracks ‘Freedom of the Night’, ‘Relentless Love’ and ‘Vertigo’, it is the record Sophie was meant to make 7 studio albums into her 25-year career, seeing her confidently return to her iconic dance-pop sound. 

 

35. Yeule   "Evangelic Girl Is A Gun"   (Ninja Tune)

 

After their breakthrough sophomore album in 2022, Glitch Princess, Nat Ćmiel crystallised their place as alt electronica luminary with their boundary-breaking 2023 album, softscars. Both albums were named ‘Best New Music’ by Pitchfork with the latter lauded as a “riotous, high-energy journey” by the Guardian. With Evangelic Girl is a Gun, the artist proves it's her most unrestrained and emotionally baring work yet, as they grapple with ideas of a self-destructive identity burning through the canvas of post-modernity. Through the album’s hypnotic melodies, they present a portrait of the tortured artist trapped within an image, as Ćmiel’s haunting vocals act as an emotional chokehold atop dance beats. 

 

36. The Kooks   "Never Knows"   (Lonely Cat)

 

The 11-track offering, self-produced by Pritchard, was born out of a mission to reconnect with The Kooks' original creative drive. Speaking about the album's impetus, Pritchard said "It's not about going back to the first album’s sound, but to the roots of our influences and asking,  'What is the identity of this band?". The whole thing was to just forget that the past had happened, he says. But to truly move forward, they had to reflect: “What kind of music do we want to make, and how do we make it feel natural?. Never/Know puts on show some of Pritchard’s most simple, yet expressive lyrics to-date. The songs are filled with witty one-liners and endearing nicknames for his children and loved ones, which resonate on the surface, yet carry a deeper, more personal significance.  Sonically, an intoxicating cover of Paul McCartney and Wings' "Arrow Through Me" is the clearest indication of the band’s influence, while the album’s closer, the moody "Talk About It" puts on show an appreciation for classic soul. 

 

37. Big Thief   "Double Infinity"   (4AD)

 

Produced, engineered, and mixed by longtime Big Thief collaborator Dom Monks. "How can beauty that is living be anything but true?" Adrianne asks as she drives nose against the future with childhood mementos on  "Incomprehensible". She understands, everything I see from now on will be something new. The silver hairs on her shoulders are new as well. Yet fear of aging is cracked by proof. If a life is shaped by living,  Let gravity be my sculptor, let the wind do my hair. Being born, then staying a while, remains the greatest mystery.

 

38. David Byrne   "Who Is The Sky?"   (Matador)

 

His first new album since 2018's acclaimed and award-winning American Utopia, via Matador Records. The album was produced by the Grammy-winning Kid Harpoon. I suppose I do that to give an anthropological view of life in New York as we know it,” says Byrne. “Everybody lives, dies, laughs, cries, sleeps and stares at the ceiling. Everybody’s wearing everybody else’s shoes, which not everybody does, but I have done. I tried to sing about these things that could be seen as negative in a way balanced by an uplifting feeling from the groove and the melody.

 

39. Sombr   "I Barely Know Her"   (Warner)

 

The Global alt-pop phenom sombr releases his highly anticipated debut album, I Barely Know Her, poised to catapult the 20-year-old artist into superstardom status. I Barely Know Her was written entirely by sombr and co-produced by sombr alongside esteemed, legendary producer Tony Berg. It follows a string of hit singles released this year; “back to friends” and “undressed” and more recently, “12 to 12,” his biggest single debut to date.

 

40. Sam Fender   "People Watching"   (Polydor)

 

This album is  easily Sam’s best body of work to date. Partly because it doesn’t need the big singles in the same way. His songwriting has become much stronger and more consistent over the past few years, and that rising tide lifts all tracks equally, to the point where it’s hard to find any filler wherein the record starts to lag. It’s also because the album feels like it’s making a conscious step away from that sound 

 

41. The Last Dinner Party   "From The Pyre"   (Island)

 

A full collection of stories and the concept of album-as-mythos binds them. "The Pyre" itself is an allegorical place in which these tales originate, a place of violence and destruction but also regeneration, passion and light. The songs are character driven but still deeply personal, a commonplace life event pushed to pathological extreme. Being ghosted becomes a Western dance with a killer, and heartbreak laughs into the face of the apocalypse. Lyrics invoke rifles, scythes, sailors, saints, cowboys, floods, Mother Earth, Joan of Arc, and blazing infernos. We found this kind of evocative imagery to be the most honest and truthful way to discuss the way our experiences felt, giving each the emotional weight it deserves. And album that feels a little darker, more raw and more earthy; it takes place looking out at a sublime landscape rather than seated an opulent table. It also feels metatextual and cheeky in places, like a knowing look reflected back at ourselves.

 

42. Circa Waves   "Death & Love"   (Lower Third)

Circa Waves release their double album Death and Love via Lower Third. Death and Love Pt.1 was both terrifying and liberating to write, and is the first installment of urgent, 9-track hits of cathartic guitar-pop, serving as a powerful coping mechanism to help process frontman Kieran Shudall's near-death experience. The album sees supreme indie hits including a nice big slab of Strokes-y dancefloor destruction of "Like You Did Before" to its first offering "We Made It", as well as the extremely topical and longing "American Dream".Death and Love is an incredibly powerful snapshot in time - a reflection on a moment of true terror, and the joy of coming through the other side. It's a brave and remarkable next step for a band in the finest form of their career. 

43. CMAT   "Euro Country"   (Cmatbaby)

 

It's almost inconceivable that it's only five years since the arrival of CMAT, as she approaches the release of her third album, EURO-COUNTRY. Country music has always been a lynchpin for CMAT, but this is country in an augmented, reimagined way. Mixed with classic indie and affirmative soul-pop, it resists the music industry's desire to pigeonhole artists as one genre. Not only is there a palpable tonal shift, EURO-COUNTRY also feels like a huge step-up creatively. There is a sense of determination, of urgency, of 'gather round and listen up'. From re-evaluating where you come from (geographically, metaphorically) and the impact of economics on a small country, to the attention that comes with increased fame (not all of it good) and being a woman in the music industry. 

 

44. Arcade Fire   "Pink Elephant"   (Sony)

 

It's music album composed of 10 new tracks and clocks in at 42 minutes. It is produced by Win Butler, Régine Chassagne, and Daniel Lanois. When experienced in its entirety, Pink Elephant invites the listener on a sonic odyssey – a quest for life – that exists within the perception of the individual, a meditation on both darkness and light, the beauty within. The layers of this condensed epic unfold to reveal new dimensions with each successive listen

 

45. Japanese Breakfast   "For Melancholy Brunettes (And Sad Women)"   (Dead Oceans) 

 

Zauner finds space enough inside it for glimmers of hope. They are the consolations of mortals that poets before her have called out to and that poets after will continue to rediscover: love and labor, and though they run like tonic resolutions through the record’s many episodes, they sound most saliently on its final song, “Magic Mountain,” an engagement with Thomas Mann’s famous novel of the same name. For her, making any work feels like scaling a mountain, but from the perch of For Melancholy Brunettes, she surveys the future.

 

46. Viagra Boys   Viagr Aboys"   (Shrimptech Enterprises)

 

Viagra Boys is the fourth studio album from Viagra Boys. It's another masterpiece for a band that only deals in masterpieces. Featuring single "Man Made of Meat", the LP sees VB turn inwards, leaving the acid-laced, conspiracy-addled societal commentary of previous LP Cave World behind to journey into the acid-laced, conspiracy-addled landscape within. Absurd, intense, and surprisingly tender, Viagra Boys shuts out the noise to find that the important part of being alive in the big, stupid world is figuring out that the world inside of you is equally big and stupid.

 

47. Say She She   "Cut And Rewind"   (Drink Sum WTR)

 

Led by the powerhouse vocal trio of Piya Malik, Sabrina Mileo Cunningham, and Nya Gazelle Brown, the group channels progenitors like Minnie Ripperton, Charles Stepney, Liquid Liquid, and Raw Silk to create a groove-forward, psychedelic soundscape of pulsing disco beats, heavenly whistle tones, and soaring three-part harmonies. Cut and Rewind is protest music dressed up as a sweat-dripping, hip-shaking, mind-expanding good time

 

48. Stereolab   "Instant Holograms On Metal Film"   (Duophonic UHF Disks / Warp Records)

 

The first Stereolab album in 15 years, unsurprisingly sounds like nobody but Stereolab. And yet that target has moved even farther during their absence, suggesting that they’ve bookmarked their place on their ever-expanding sonic continuum. The bright pop-art colors and typography on the album’s cover suggest the group’s aesthetic remains intact, as does their playfully disorienting John Cage bubblegum titling taxonomy

 

49. Robert Forster   "Strawberries"   (Tapete)

 

On his ninth solo album, "Strawberries", Forster once again knits together the ordinary and the remarkable, furring the edges with a craftsman's dexterity As a straight-up personal song, this album is a bit of a red herring in the context of this new album that deals almost exclusively in observational character studies or, as the author would have it, "story songs"

 

50. Bryan Adams   "Roll With The Punches"   (Bad)  

 

Roll With The Punches is his sixteenth album and the first on his own label, and inmeditately if you were a truly follower of his career will associate the sound just like in the days of "Cuts Like A Knife/Reckless" thing. Not a bad album, indeed it's an accessible record and it's enjoyable, definitely the Man is pointing his fans that definitely will love this, cause there's a lot of familiar sound from his back catalogue but in a freshly renovated way.