The Sweet Goodbye review | Opus Kink bury real feeling under the punchline
Opus Kink's debut took roughly eight years to finish. The cover looks like a crime scene; almost nothing inside sounds like it's mourning anything.
Reviews
The Thread review | Five months on from her last album, Willow slows right down | whynow
Willow released The Thread five months after her last album. It's her eighth solo record and easily the least hurried-sounding of the two.
Reality Awaits review | Nine songs, no consensus
Reality Awaits is nine songs long and somehow still feels too long to some critics. Others think it's the most cohesive thing The Strokes have made in years. Both are right about different parts of it.
Different When It's Silent review | The Tricky album where Tricky goes missing
Recorded quietly between France and Bristol with singer Mitch Sanders throughout, Different When It's Silent is Tricky's 15th album, and the one where he disappears into his own record on purpose.
You're Gonna Need A Little Music review | Yard Act burn the Rover and build a studio
Yard Act's teaser trailer showed their famous old Rover going up in flames. Their third album, recorded live together as a full band for the first time, sounds like the aftermath.
Sungazer review | The Temper Trap finally learn to slow down
The first song The Temper Trap wrote when they reunited was 'Kuru' - the closing track on Sungazer, not the first. Eight years after burnout ended their run, it's the sound of a band that finally learned patience.
Frozen Charlotte review | Jack White proves some things shouldn't change
Jack White's Frozen Charlotte reviewed: how Victorian folklore and a road-tested touring band built his most focused solo record since the White Stripes.
The Black Parade is alive | My Chemical Romance deliver jaw-dropping night in Liverpool
Onstage executions, suicide vests, a new verse in 'Mama' and Gerard Way crawling into a corpse outline: My Chemical Romance's Black Parade show at Anfield Stadium was everything it needed to be.
Role Model Hermit review | Mary in the Junkyard announce themselves with one of the year's best debuts
Clari Freeman-Taylor and Saya Barbaglia met at classical music summer camps when they were fourteen, and both play cello and viola alongside their...
The Ground Above review | Beth Orton has earned the right to say 'what has kept me alive is feral invincibility'
Self-produced and built around a remarkable cast of collaborators including Adrian Utley, Tom Skinner and Shahzad Ismaily, The Ground Above is Beth Orton's most physically present and most emotionally direct record. The opener sets a bar the rest nearly clears.
Your Day Will Come review | The same title, a better album, and music that sounds like nothing else right now
Shane Lavers called his second album the same thing as his first. The question he kept asking himself while writing it was whether love is enough to survive the state of the world. Your Day Will Come (2026) does not answer that question, which turns out to be the right decision.
Castle Park review | Charming, modest and occasionally inoffensive: Graham Coxon's long-overdue pop record
Flamenco, Motown, Scott Walker vibraphone and a whistling solo: Castle Park is Graham Coxon doing exactly what he wants with no audience in mind. It sounds like it, in the best possible way.
Hum review | Swim Deep make their finest record fifteen years in, on their own terms
Five albums deep and still working day jobs, Swim Deep return with Bill Ryder-Jones producing and their most emotionally grounded record yet. 'Mud' alone justifies the fifteen-year wait. The occasional moment of caution is the only thing standing between this and something genuinely great.
Inferno review | Thirteen years of silence and Boards of Canada come back angrier, darker and better than ever
Morse code, unmarked VHS tapes, and thirteen years of near-total silence. Inferno is Boards of Canada's most direct and most menacing record, a 70-minute occult document that ends on a human heartbeat and lands harder than anything they've made since Geogaddi. Worth every year of the wait.
For Love of Grace & the Hereafter review | Iceage stop apologising for being good at this
Five years since Seek Shelter, Iceage return with an album that trades productive nihilism for something more complicated: actual hope. 'Ember', 'Star' and 'No Fear' are the strongest singles run of their career. The mid-album dips slightly. The closer lands hard.
Experimental Rap review | JPEGMafia is still the most interesting rapper alive, for about 12 of these 25 tracks
Total creative control, 25 tracks, and a rollout designed to antagonise the press. Experimental Rap is JPEGMafia at his most unfiltered and his most uneven. When it works, nobody else sounds like it. When it doesn't, it's a long way down.
Blue Morpho review | Ed O'Brien steps out of Radiohead's shadow and into his own
Made during the worst depression of his life and released under his own name for the first time, Blue Morpho is Ed O'Brien's most personal and most fully realised solo record. Paul Epworth produces. Shabaka Hutchings plays flute. The closer alone is worth the price of entry.
Little Wide Open review | Kevin Morby makes peace with the Midwest and his best album yet
Eight albums in, Kevin Morby has stopped trying to prove anything. Little Wide Open, produced by Aaron Dessner and featuring Justin Vernon, Lucinda Williams and Katie Gavin, is the record that makes the strongest case for him yet.
Remember the Humans review | Not the BSS record you were waiting for, but possibly the one you needed
Broken Social Scene's sixth album is shorter, more intimate and less chaotic than You Forgot It in People. That's not a criticism. With Kevin Drew having lost his mother during recording and the band firmly in their forties, it sounds exactly like it should.
Train on the Island review | Aldous Harding gets more personal and no easier to decode
Nine years of recording with John Parish, and Aldous Harding is still finding ways to surprise him. Train on the Island is her most rewarding and most demanding record, sometimes within the same track.
Sugar Girl review | A bold left turn from Little Simz that doesn't quite justify the detour
Coming off the conceptual weight of Lotus, Little Simz drops a four-track rage-trap EP that finds her pitch-shifted, autotuned and largely absent from her own project. JT is excellent. The second verse of 'That's a No No' is a reminder of everything being sacrificed. The rest is an experiment that doesn't quite land.
Fenian review | Dan Carey, Palestine, and a tribute to a dead mother: Kneecap's most complete album
After terrorism charges, cancelled US visas and a Wembley Arena show, Kneecap return with Dan Carey producing and 14 tracks of proof that the controversy was never the point. Fenian is their most ambitious and most moving record.
LP4 review | American Football's divorce album is the best thing they've done since 1999
Seven years on from LP3, American Football return with a divorce album produced by Sonny DiPerri and anchored by Mike Kinsella's most direct confessional writing yet. It's denser and more orchestrated than anything they've made before. It's also their best since the debut.
The Great Divide review | Noah Kahan goes home, gets told to leave, and writes 17 songs about it
Noah Kahan's fourth album wrestles with fame, guilt, and the Vermont he left behind. When it's specific and still, it's extraordinary. When it's running through its mid-album motions, it's 70 minutes long.
Your Favourite Toy review | 430 therapy sessions and a guitar: Foo Fighters' most personal record yet
Foo Fighters' 12th album drops Kurstin, brings in Nine Inch Nails drummer Ilan Rubin, and arrives carrying more biographical weight than anything they've made before. Whether the music matches the moment depends on which track you're on.
Cruel World review | Holly Humberstone finds her gravity, and hints at something bolder
Three years of touring, a sold family home and a daily studio routine have sharpened Holly Humberstone considerably. Cruel World is her best work, and the gap between its best and weakest moments maps exactly where she still has room to go.
Distracted review | Thundercat centres Mac Miller, grief, and the price of a polished comeback
Six years on from It Is What It Is, Thundercat returns with a more structured, pop-leaning record produced largely by Greg Kurstin. The Mac Miller track alone justifies its existence. The second half asks for more patience than it earns.
Ambiguous Desire review | Arlo Parks's sharpest writing yet, in a sound she hasn't quite claimed
Two years of New York nightlife and a new producer have shifted Arlo Parks decisively toward the dancefloor. Ambiguous Desire is more alive than My Soft Machine, more specific, and - on its best tracks - genuinely thrilling. But the second half? That's another matter.
Honora review | Flea’s jazz album proves more than a vanity project
Flea’s Honora trades stadium funk for reflective jazz, a trumpet-led debut that feels considered, sincere, and effective.
Is This All There Is? review | Anna Calvi delivers a focused and cinematic return
Anna Calvi returns with Is This All There Is?, a tightly controlled four-track EP that blends cinematic ambition with carefully chosen collaborations.
