Editors' Picks

Since The Vamps scored their first number one album with 2017’s Night & Day, they’ve been on something of a self-imposed hiatus. Their new album, Cherry Blossom, marks their first release in three years, during which time Britain’s biggest pop-rock boy band have, naturally, grown up a little. The four-piece, comprised of Bradley Simpson, James McVey, Connor Ball and Tristan Evans, are not the teenagers they were when the band first came to fame.

Amy Shark wears her punk roots loud and clear in her latest single ‘C’MON’ featuring Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker.

Ariana Grande demonstrates her mastery of the pop/R&B genre in her latest single ‘Positions.’ While the song is considerably less flashy than some of her previous features, it sneaks up on the listener with its earnest declarations of love and commitment.

Passenger’s latest single ‘A Song For The Drunk And Broken Hearted’ oddly manages to invite hope and companionship despite its exploration of grief. Passenger is a complete expert at tugging at heartstrings through his soulful, melancholic, and haunting melodies but the latest venture sees the British singer delve into some hearty folk-based sounds.

Hannah Grace’s new single ‘Closer’ is a daring pop adventure that pays homage to the groovy sixties in all the right ways. It rides on an unexpected melody that takes twists and turns at each and every note, setting itself apart from every other up-and-coming feature. The Welsh singer has had a dazzling couple of years and her willingness to experiment with distinct genres and arrangements has led to yet another enchanting production. Hannah Grace’s vocals are fairly standard, but the way she delivers those mischievous verses elevates the composition tenfold. The most memorable aspect of the song is the high-pitched harmony that drives the chorus; Grace is able to punch those soaring notes with ease without losing any of the momenta. 

Music mashups tend to be very hit and miss. They can either be masterful and brilliant or sad and tedious, often with little in between. But when done right, they can become pieces of art and music history. This latest offering, a delicious blend of Lady Gaga’s pop masterpiece “Just Dance” and rockers Linkin Park’s “Faint” created by YouTuber William Maranci, is absolutely done right.

Singer Daya explores the physical sensations of falling in love with her new single ‘First Time’. The 21-year-old single from Pennsylvania had stolen our hearts a couple of years back; her scintillating singles at the time showcased youthful vigour and a thoughtful maturity, an irresistible combination that was sure to put her name in our radars for good. However, following the release of her debut studio album Sit Still, Look Pretty, she’s been fairly quiet with a few singles here and there but no word of a second album. The latest entry, however, is widely associated with talk of a second album, and her core of fans couldn’t have asked for a better single. 

Labrinth pulls off yet another pristine, passionate endeavour through his latest number ‘No Ordinary.’ The British singer-songwriter has always displayed a knack for taking simple melodies and working wonders with them, and he does so again with this latest feature.

It’s more than a decade since Emma-Lee Moss, known professionally as Emmy The Great, first captured our imaginations with her delightful debut album First Love. Since then, the solo singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist has called several places home: New York, London (where she spent her teenage years), Xiamen, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong (where she was born). Her latest LP, April / 月音, sees Moss explore her the impermanence of her life, the transition of one place of belonging to another, and the changing and uncertain state of these places right now.

London-based singer-songwriter Izzy Bizu dropped her latest single this week. MG follows hot on the heels of her previous single Tough Pill, which landed back in July. It’s another soulful, rich number of the sort she has carved out a burgeoning reputation for, and this time it features Bizu’s friend Dom McAllister too. The two first met when he supported Bizu on her tour of Europe in 2017. It was also co-written with another of Bizu’s friends: Tancrede Rouff.

American synthpop sensations Future Islands are back with their sixth studio album As Long As You Are, the follow up to 2017’s The Far Field. Still, though, the band remain perhaps most well known for their 2014 performance on the US TV show Letterman of their song Seasons, which thanks to frontman Samuel T. Herring’s utterly and completely compelling performance went viral (3.3 million YouTube plays and counting). And in a way, that makes sense. As a four-minute-something distillation of the band’s ethos, magic, quirks, power, showmanship, and, crucially, soul-stirring electro sound, there is little better.

Have you ever wondered what it felt like to have a panic attack in the most blissful way possible? Jesus Molina and his trio can easily show you with their recent track Night in Tunisia from Jesus' latest album, Departing.

Onto the list of rock supergroups that features the likes of Cream, Velvet Revolver, Asia, and Them Crooked Vultures you can now add The Jaded Hearts Club. Comprised of Miles Kane (lead vocals – Last Shadow Puppets), Nic Cester (lead vocals – Jet), Matt Bellamy (bass – Muse), Graham Coxon (guitars – Blur), Jamie Davis (Jamie Davis and Soul Gravy), and Sean Payne (drums – The Zutons), their Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band inspired name comes from the fact the group were originally assembled by Davis to perform Beatles covers at his own birthday party.

Scottish indie-rock superstars Travis remain one of the biggest selling British bands of the last thirty years thanks, in large part, to their 1999 smash hit album The Man Who, which spent nine weeks at the top of the UK albums chart, sold over three million copies, and spawned the songs Why Does It Always Rain On Me?, Turn, Writing To Reach You, and Driftwood: songs that remain on jukeboxes and playlists up and down the country. More than that, they’ve passed into wider British culture, as recognisable as anything by the venerated greats of UK music.

Chicago-born, LA-based Alexander Glantz – known as Alexander 23 – is generating a heck of a lot of interest. Signed to Interscope Records, the singer, songwriter and multiinstrumentalist spent the majority of 2019 on the road, including spots opening for Alec Benjamin.

With three hugely well-received LPs already under her belt (The Heart, The Body, and The Soul), excitement and anticipation are already growing for the debut album of singer-songwriter Starling, To Be Alive, though no release date has been set yet. In the meantime, the album’s lead single No Leader dropped this week and gave us all a peak at what we can expect from this rising star.

Dagny Norvoll Sandvik, known as Dagny, grew up in a musical family in Tromso, Norway. After moving to London in her early twenties, she was propelled to fame with her single Backbeat, which was used on the TV show Grey’s Anatomy and launched her on the path being one of Norway’s biggest stars, with over 450 million streams and a host of sold out tours to her name.

Irish singer-songwriter Gavin James has played shows with the likes of Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and Niall Horan, and amassed over a billion streams globally. In 2013 and 2016, he won the Choice Music Prize Irish Song of the Year award, and both his debut album, 2016’s Bitter Pill and it’s follow-up Only Ticket Home, reached the top five of the Irish albums chart. Now James is back with a hotly-anticipated new six-track EP, Boxes.

The ballad is a classic Demi venture — the young singer showcases her vulnerabilities whilst making room for self-empowerment and courage.

Los Angeles singer-songwriter Jesse Jo Stark has plenty of rock and roll pedigree. She’s the daughter of Richard and Laurie Stark, the couple behind Chrome Hearts, the fashion, fragrance and jewellery label that is an L.A. institution and has dressed all manner of celebrities over the decades, from Jay-Z to Mick Jagger. If that wasn’t enough, her godmother is none other than Cher.

Right now, the world needs Fleet Foxes more than ever. The American indie-folk outfit fronted by Robin Pecknold specialise in delivering shiny, shimmery laidback songs that take your cares away. The perfect antidote, then, to all this 2020 nonsense.

Believe it or not, Song To A Refugee – the new album from Nashville-based country singer-songwriter Diana Jones – owes its existence to Oscar-winning British actress Emma Thompson. It’s a sorrowful and powerful record that addresses the plight of those crossing the US-Mexico border, but without the film star who has appeared in films including Love Actually, The Remains Of The Day, Sense and Sensibility, and the Harry Potter series, it might not have even been created.

As a nineteen-year-old in 2003, Katie Melua released her debut album, Call Off The Search. It reached number one in the UK albums chart and sold a staggering 1.8 million copies in its first five months of release. The followup, Piece By Piece, has sold more than four million copies. By 2006, she had become the highest-selling female artist in the UK and Europe. Her rise was absolutely meteoric.

Make no mistake, this is a hotly anticipated debut offering. Pillow Queens, the Dublin four-piece with the risqué name who formed in 2016 and almost overnight won a legion of fans with their debut EP Calm Girls, have already wracked up sold-out tours across the UK and Ireland and played alongside the likes of IDLES, Pussy Riot, and American Football.

Royal Blood’s long-awaited return is finally here as the Brighton rock duo have released their first new music since their 2017 album How Did We Get So Dark. Ahead of the arrival of their third studio album, the band dropped new single Trouble’s Coming this week.

Los Angeles' KiNG MALA touches on themes of lust, recklessness and femininity in her work. Her last single, Sugarblind, was a swaggering track that gained widespread acclaim from the likes of Live Nation's Ones to Watch, Earmilk and American Songwriter to name a few. Fans will be glad to hear that her new single, If I Try To Find You, picks up where its predecessor left off.

London-based singer-songwriter Imogen Mahdavi only released her debut single Doormat Darling last year, but since then she’s been on a steady upward trajectory. She has starred in a lead role in the hit UK nationwide play Dressed, which she also penned the music for, while her track Crowd Of Thoughts, a soulful, ghostly number produced by Grammy Winner Eddie Serafica (Hamzaa, James Bay, Buddy Guy), won her even more fans and rave reviews from a host of publications. Now she’s back with new single Some Things Are Best Oversaid.

Bastille’s latest single ‘survivin’’ is just mellow enough to charm your socks off. The band has gained a reputation in recent years for undertaking dramatic features, complete with soaring choruses, intense instrumental solos, and sweeping melodies. But their latest tune keeps the proceedings smooth, refreshing yet oddly impassioned.

There’s something immediately warm and nurturing with CMAT’s music - that much has been made evident with her two last songs. With her new single, I Wanna Be A Cowboy, Baby!, the feeling remains the same, even rather heightened. In fact, everything about this track feels like a step up from her previous work. From the melodies, to the overall feel of the tune, CMAT’s newest single paved her a bright future, if her other songs hadn’t already done that.

Bristol punk rockers IDLES had carved out a reputation as an acerbic and utterly compelling live act with support slots for the likes of the Foo Fighters and The Maccabees under their belts before their second album, 2018’s Joy As An Act Of Resistance, achieved the remarkable feat of cracking the top 5 of the UK’s album charts, transforming the band into Brit Award and Mercury Prize nominees almost overnight.

You’ll almost certainly know Matt Berry from his comedy. He’s widely known for his performances in a huge list of shows including The IT Crowd, Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place, and The Mighty Boosh, as well as for co-creating and starring in the acclaimed Channel 4 comedy Toast of London, for which he won the 2015 BAFTA Award for Best Male Performance in a Comedy Programme.

Indie-pop trio LANY were launched to fame when their self-titled debut album catapulted them into the public eye and launched their tours of America, Asia, Australia and Europe in 2017. Since then, the band have barely paused to breathe, following up their debut LP with Malibu Nights in 2018, building a social media following of nearly six million, selling over four hundred thousand gig tickets, and clocking up well over three billion streams.

Norwegian art-rockers Gazpacho are masters when it comes to crafting richly layered cinematic rock music, often built around dark and menacing themes. They’ve experimented with concept albums throughout their long career, most notably on 2011’s Missa Atropo and on their lost album Random Access Memory, but their music is always grounded in the deeply melodic. They are a truly fascinating band with an excellent reputation for their live shows, and have released three live LPs to date.

Canadian singer and songwriter Alex Frew made a lot of people sit up and take note with his debut single Get Out Alive, which was released earlier this year. That track was a smart, slickly produced pop number that framed his rich vocals with a slow beat and warm sound.

Critics of the pop-punk genre often (unfairly) point to the formulaic output of many of the scene’s bands, but that’s a criticism that could never be levelled at Knuckle Puck. The five-piece craft richly complex songs that manage to be at once immensely catchy, but also reward repeated listens by slowly unveiling the components that come together to create their tracks.

Canadian punk rockers PUP only dropped their third album Morbid Stuff last year, but already the frantic four-piece are back with a new single called Rot, taken from their upcoming new six-track EP This Place Sucks Ass, which is due out through Little Dipper/Rise on 23 October.

New York rockers American Authors burst into the mainstream more than half a decade ago with their hit singles Believer and Best Day Of My Life taken from their 2014 debut album Oh, What A Life. By that point though, the band had been together for almost a decade, having met while in college in Boston and played together under the moniker The Blue Pages until they rebranded in 2012. A heavy touring schedule and follow up albums What We Live For in 2016, and last year’s Seasons continued to win the group fans for their eclectic, party-starting anthems.

After dropping her debut album On Hold in 2018, Bristolian singer songwriter Fenne Lily toured Europe and spent time on the festival circuit, before holing up in Berlin to pen a follow up. That new record, Breach, is a deeply personal offering, much like her first, only this time there are a far wider range of elements under the microscope, which isn’t surprising. On Hold was written when Lily was just a teenager, while this record, in her own words, “is proof that I can be emotionally stable, even if right now I feel a little bit up and down”.

Justin Bieber’s latest single ‘Holy’ featuring Chance the Rapper is a sweet, serendipitous exploration of love at its most sacred and innocent.

Ali Gatie’s latest single ‘Welcome Back’ would have been a pleasing, catchy tune on its own but Alessia Cara’s inclusion takes it to the next level.

Astrid S’s new single ‘It’s Ok If You Forget Me’ functions as an adorable nostalgia piece that will transport you straight to the last 1990s.

Kygo once again travels back to the late seventies to seek inspiration for his latest mix ‘Hot Stuff.’

Few bands remain as synonymous with their biggest hit as Semisonic, whose 1998 smash hit Closing Time has become the band’s legacy, the kind of signature track that has far outlasted the group itself. More than that, Closing Time has passed into wider popular culture, appearing in a wide variety of films and TV shows, and will probably remain on karaoke playlists for centuries to come. It’s not ridiculous to speculate that more people know that song than know who wrote it.

Doves were always a tricky band to place precisely within the UK’s early noughties musical landscape: Britpop without the youthful swagger of Oasis or Blur, psychedelic but without the menace of Primal Scream, soulful indie without the pop sensibilities of Embrace. Despite, or perhaps because of, their slightly indefinable qualities, they amassed a loyal following, releasing four studio albums between 2000 and 2009, two of which reached number one in the UK album charts.

Eels, the melodic, low-key indie-pop moniker of singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mark Oliver Everett’s band, have released a second new song in as many months with the unexpected arrival of Who You Say You Are.

Swedish rockers Perfect Plan are back with their second album Time For A Miracle, the followup to 2018’s All Rise.

British singer, songwriter and model Foxes has continued her busy year by releasing her third new song of 2020, titled Friends In The Corner.

Hailing from Georgia, USA, Lauren Alaina first appeared in the public eye as a 15-year-old on series ten of American Idol, where she eventually finished as runner-up to Scotty McCreery. Her performances though earned her a record deal and her first album Wildflower followed later that year, debuting at number five in the Billboard 200 chart, and making Alaina the youngest female artist to debut that high since LeAnn Rimes.

Navvy is the stage name of Auckland-born Phoebe Lee Jasper, the latest graduate from Oceania’s apparent fast track development programme for smart, female electro-pop solo artists that launched the careers of household names such as Sia and Lorde (who even comes from the same town as Navvy).

Between You And Me marks eleven years of San Cisco, and the Australian indie-pop group have come a heck of a long way in that time. With three albums, all top 20 hits in their homeland, and a string of EPs and awards and nominations under their belts, they’ve become one of the biggest bands in their field down under, and gained an increasingly strong reputation beyond Aussie shores too.

Brighton quartet The Magic Gang won swathes of music fans over with their self-titled debut album that was about as feel-good a record as the indie scene produces. Packed with harmonious sunshine-tinged carefree tunes, it was a wonderful record and one that marked the band out as ones to watch.

It’s almost twenty years since American rockers Throwing Muses truly felt like part of the contemporary music landscape. After emerging as one of the defining alternative US bands of the late 1980s, they seemingly lost their way – and their interest – in the mid-1990s and the group disbanded, leaving lead singer Kristin Hersh to pursue a solo career.

From the howling vocal ad-libs to the intricate piano interludes with weaving musical arpeggios, this Avant-garde, from the howling vocal ad-libs to the intricate piano interludes with weaving musical arpeggios, this Avant-garde, freak folk style new release is organized chaos in audible form.

Indie pop foursome Fickle Friends emerged from the Brighton music scene in the mid-2010s with an undeniably impressive work ethic. In a bid to land a record deal, the group played 53 festivals in two years before being signed by Polydor Records, who recorded the band’s debut album, 2018’s You Are Someone Else, in Los Angeles with Brit Award-winning producer Mike Crossey. It reached number nine in the UK Album’s Chart and received some excellent reviews.

Welsh electronic musician and producer Kelly Lee Owens took an unusual step with the release of Inner Song, her second album and the follow up to 2017’s self-titled debut album which received widespread critical acclaim. With the Coronavirus pandemic looming large over us all, she chose to delay the release of her new album as a gesture of solidarity with record stores that had been forced to shut their doors.

If nothing else, Rudimental’s ‘Come Over’ presents one of the most inspiring tempos of 2020. As a master producer band, Rudimental know all too well about mixing up the beats and rhythms to develop pieces that are exhilarating, dynamic, and impassioned at the same time. This time around, they’ve listed the talents of fellow British artists Anne Marie and Tion Wayne to help take this feature onto the next level. 

Sasha Sloan’s ‘House With No Mirrors’ exemplifies the beauty of a simple, straightforward melody. At a time when the preferred style for most female artists seems to lean on the side of loud, showy, and explosive, it’s genuinely refreshing to see an artist touch upon her own vulnerabilities.

When two of the biggest names in pop music come together for a collaboration, you know it’s going to be worth a listen. The Weeknd and Calvin Harris’s ‘Over Now’ is a velvety-smooth drive through the nostalgic years of R&B and retro.

This is an easy review to write. With Lie Out Loud London-based four-piece BLOXX have composed an album that is stuffed full of smart, insanely catchy and well crafted indie-pop goodness. And if that’s your cup of tea, and even if it isn’t, you should go and give it a listen right now.

It’s a little bit of a paradox that Conor Oberst has arguably never been more well known than he is right now thanks to a string of solo albums that have made him, if not quite a household name then at least not far from it, but his most well-known moniker – that of Bright Eyes – haven’t released an album in almost a decade.

If you haven’t heard of Jerry Joseph, don’t worry, I’m sure you’re not alone. He’s had the kind of life and career in music that reads like a novel. From incarceration and being sent to boarding school in New Zealand as a child, to founding non-profit the Nomad Music Organization, and touring the world as a solo artist and with his succession of bands, from 1980s rock-reggae outfit Little Women to supergroup Stockholm Syndrome, and plenty more in-between, he’s amassed an enormous back catalogue and plenty of stories along the way.

Now into their fifth decade together, electro synth-pop duo Erasure have seen it all in their glittering career. As one of the pioneering acts of the UK electronica scene, they crossed over into enormous commercial success and became one of the biggest bands of the 1980s and 1990s. Incredibly, between 1986 and 2007, they achieved 24 consecutive Top 40 hits in the UK, and to date, they’ve sold over 25 million records.

Tennessee-born singer, songwriter and actress Mandy Barnett has one eye firmly on the past with her latest release, A Nashville Songbook. Her eighth studio album, released through Place Music / BMG, is a collection of covers of American country classics, taking in a wide range of artists including Kris Kristofferson, Roy Orbison, and Elvis Presley.

This is a truly 21st-century release, a record for our Coronavirus times. It is, rather wonderfully, a five-track collection of songs written by Snow Patrol in collaboration with their fans – referred to here as The Saturday Songwriters – with the creative process taking place through Instagram Live songwriting sessions hosted by the band’s frontman Gary Lightbody during the lockdown period.

New York rockers The Lemon Twigs have a heck of a backstory. Fronted by brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario, who appeared in Broadway shows and in a variety of TV shows and films as children, their last album, 2018’s Go To School, was a concept album about a chimpanzee raised as a human child and forced into education. Yes, really.

Singer and guitarist Brian Sella and drummer Mathew Uychich, known collectively as American lo-fi folk-punk outfit The Front Bottoms, took a sizeable creative risk with their previous album Going Grey, which they uncharacteristically packed with synths. It was a fine album, but their seventh release, In Sickness And In Flames, finds us back in familiar territory.

Comprised of Dale Norton (vocals), Callum Norton (drums), Jamie Darby (guitar), Thomas Ford (bass), and David Hardstone (guitar/keyboard), Broken Hands are an energetic stadium rock band hailing from Kent who have been playing together for well over a decade. Their debut album, Turbulence, was released last year and earned the outfit airplay and press coverage with the likes of Radio`1, The Independent and Clash.

London four-piece Sea Girls have been one of the hottest upcoming names in indie circles for what feels like years now. With a string of four EPs in the last three years, a host of singles under their belt, a reputation for high energy live shows and a nomination for the BBC Sound Of 2019 poll, they’re a band with all the components in place to take the world by storm.

The Killers conquered the world in the mid-2000s with their electro-tinged floor-filling indie rock blockbusters, and while they may never have quite hit those heady heights again, they nevertheless still fill arenas and headline festivals around the world and probably always will, and every single one of their previous five studio albums has hit number one in the UK charts.

The Manic Street Preachers have built a career around politically vocal, guitar-driven indie rock. A solo concept album paying tribute to the life and work of Chilean teacher, theatre director, poet, singer-songwriter and communist activist Victor Jara, from the band’s lead singer James Dean Bradfield, seems a natural progression then.

Scottish rock behemoths Biffy Clyro are pretty much a national institution these days. One of the UK’s biggest acts across any genre, their march to the mainstream has been unstoppable since 2007’s game-changing album Puzzle, which spawned the top-20 hit singles Saturday Superhouse, Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies, and Folding Stars, and reached number two in the UK albums chart. When X-Factor’s Matt Cardle reached number one with a cover of their track Many Of Horror a decade ago, their status as household names was confirmed.

Enigmatic country music star Orville Peck is hard to unravel. From his decision to wear a tasselled mask at all times – it’s claimed he’s never shown his face in public – to his intriguing back story that takes in ballet and musical theatre, it’s hard to know where the artist ends and the man behind the mask begins. Orville Peck, itself, is a pseudonym. He is a riddle, a puzzle, a mystery.

Wakefield indie-rock trio The Cribs have confirmed details of their first new album since 2017. Out on 13 November, it’s titled Night Network and is preceded by lead single Running Into You, which is available now and is accompanied by a video co-directed by Andy Knowles and Nick Scott.

In his thirty-nine short years on this Earth, Jason Molina was unbelievably prolific. Between his output as Songs: Ohia and the transition into Magnolia Electric Co., as well as his solo work, Molina released sixteen albums, eight EPs, and a large volume of singles.

It’s been a busy few months for American indie-folk ensemble Bon Iver. After dropping their single PDLIF (Please Don’t Live In Fear) in April, with all proceeds from the track going to Direct Relief, a company that is providing resources during the Coronavirus pandemic, they popped up again in July on exile, the second single from Taylor Swift’s new album Folklore, scoring their biggest hit in the USA to date as the song reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100.