Editors' Picks

Shuffle over. Inhaler is here with their latest effort “Totally”.

Imagine Dragons are a hit machine! The challenge at this stage of the bands journey is to try and do something different, yet not alienate their fans in the process.

Kojaque, otherwise known as Kevin Smith, is the latest in a long line of musical talent coming out of Dublin. On his debut album, the young rapper specialises in carving out sharply observed slices of life in the Irish capital, and in particular the experiences of the city’s young people, ravaged by years of political, economic and social change that have priced many out of finding their own home. Indeed, Kojaque wrote the album while living at home with his mum. 

Best known as the lead vocalist of Australian pop rock outfit 5 Seconds Of Summer, Luke Hemmings has stepped away from the band to launch his solo career, beginning with the release this week of his new single Starting Line, produced by Sammy Witte.

Willow manages to push her limits as an artist once again with an analog twist. “t r a n s p a r e n t s o u l”, her newest single with the percussive powerhouse Travis Barker (Blink 198).

“Cathartic” is the single word 21-year-old Londoner Aziya Aldridge-Moore (known as just Aziya) used on her official Facebook page to describe the release of We Speak Of Tides, her first EP and a release that was spawned from the last year and more of life lived under lockdown. Unable to perform with her band, Aziya instead took to social media, releasing covers of some of her favourite artists, and working on the tracks that would form her debut EP.

Maisie Peters has already enjoyed a truly meteoric rise. After gaining popularity through YouTube and dropping the EPs Dressed Too Nice for a Jacket (2018) and It's Your Bed Babe, It's Your Funeral (2019) through Atlantic Records, the 21-year-old singer songwriter penned a record deal with none other than Ed Sheeran earlier this year, and the ginger-haired pop behemoth is all set to release Peters’ debut album You Signed Up For This later this summer through his Gingerbread Records label. 

Birmingham-born singer, songwriter and composer Laura Mvula has endured a particularly difficult few years. It’s not just the constraints and strains of lockdown that we’ve all endured either. After her first two albums – 2013’s Sing To The Moon and The Dreaming Room in 2016 – were both Mercury nominated, her debut winning two MOBO Awards and the followup an Ivor Novello Award, Mvula was unceremoniously dropped by Sony from her five-album deal. Incredibly, she only found out the news by email. 

Hailing from Atlanta, Georgia and led by the captivating vocals of frontman Andy Hull, Manchester Orchestra are a band that have achieved one of the trickiest feats for an indie rock outfit – making each album feel at once unique yet quintessentially identifiable as theirs. From debut album I’m Like A Virgin Losing A Child all the way through to their most recent release, 2017’s A Black Mile To The Surface, each new Manchester Orchestra record not only felt like it contained the band’s DNA at it’s very core, but also progressively improved on its predecessor and offered something new. Very few bands can do this, and it's a sign, if any were needed, of their incredible talent as songwriters and performers.

Let’s start this review with a quick bit of trivia: what is the best selling album of all time in the UK?

Hailing from Washington, west coast rockers Modest Mouse were one of the key flag bearers for the indie revival of the late 1990s. Their rapid fire release of three albums in just five years, from their debut This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About, to follow up The Lonesome Crowded West, and 2000’s The Moon & Antarctica, catapulted them to worldwide acclaim, and rightfully so. These early volumes were captivating, free flowing masterpieces of the genre that stand up more than two decades on.

Lockdown must have been a tricky prospect to deal with for Ripley Johnson, the hardworking singer and multiinstrumentalist who is one half of Moon Duo and the frontman of west coast psychedelic rockers Wooden Shjips. Suddenly forced off the road, the enigmatic Johnson turned his hand instead to crafting a new album, despite only releasing his last offering as Rose City Band last summer.

The boss and killers unite. Sounds like a plot for a new Mob film, but it aint!

Everything old is new again, but only if it “Feels Right”! With vintage synth stabs, and a rockin bass, Darius & Dune have created a laid back, danceable, head boppin tune that lifts experimental electronic music to a higher level. 

If you’re looking for the perfect song to accompany you on a road trip this summer, Last Train Home, may just be the one! 

If you’re a fan of country music, you’ve probably noticed an abundance of “Drinking Songs”, or songs which make reference to drinking. 

With all the hallmarks of a Disco/Pop anthem, Jessie J is back with a vengeance with her freshly released single, I Want Love. 

It is not only tempting to compare Mammoth WFV's debut album to Van Halen's work; it is almost impossible not to. Much as you are going to want to listen to this with an open mind, from the opening riffs of the very first track "Mr. Ed," the homages to Wolfgang's late, great father are everywhere.

It has been five long years since fans of the Wisconsin-founded Garbage have been able to celebrate a new album from this legendary band. But it was five years that needed to happen, with 2020 in particular proving to be the most profound in leading to the creation of “No Gods No Masters.”

Ciao bella, is this a joke?

It’s easy to write off any winner of a Eurovision song contest and label these artists and songs as a novelty. After all, most of the past winners, with the exception of a few, notably ABBA in 1974, fade away into musical oblivion.

Don’t you just love a killer bass riff? If so, then you’re in for a treat, so sit back, relax and let Sleater-Kinney take you on a sonic journey through a path of wellness and out through the other side.

When you cross soulful vocals with a touch of Rage Against The Machine, and a stoic attitude, the result is a beautiful monster, which is exactly what Nothing But thieves have created in their latest release “Futureproof”.

A little bit of pop, a little bit of jazz, a little bit of dance, AJ Mitchell takes on all that in the titular song from his newest EP, ONE MORE FIGHT.

Often times, when we have something important to say, we take a big breath in…. then out it comes. In the first second of October Sky, we hear Yebba take a breath in before the vocals. I love the production team for keeping this in, as it sets up the introduction to Yebba’s heavenly vocals perfectly!

Right from the start of this track, you can sense you’re in for a chillin, cruisy ride. The intro features beautiful & soothing atmospheric guitars blended with distant vocal licks. If you close your eyes, you can almost feel the warmth and radiance of the sun on your face.

Dexter beautifully blends elements of both hip-hop and new-school jazz in his newest single, Blue Skies, creating a groovy, laid-back track through and through.

With a surprising new release, late-legend Prince has released a single titled Born 2 Die from his upcoming posthumous album Welcome 2 America. It truly feels like a throwback to old-school funk, and promises the album to be of utmost greatness. 

It’s very hard to find anything to criticize in fun, smooth, easy-listening rock, but even despite that, River Rise, David Crosby and Michael McDonald’s newest single, is a fantastic song that will wrap your ears and soul in warm wool and beautiful harmony.

With a star-studded cast composed with Pat Metheny, Dave Liebman, Billy Hart and Cecil McBee, it’s really hard to go wrong. Quite on the contrary, the supergroup’s new single, Heaven’s Gift, is everything but bad – it’s legendary.

Cody Fry’s newest album, Pictures of Mountains, opens with one of the tightest pop tracks the world may ever hear, Thinking About You.

Ain’t No Mountain High Enough is a beautiful celebration of one of the greatest time periods in music, sung by one of the most prominent figures in the genre; beloved Marvin Gaye. Supergroup Il Divo decided to have their own take on the classic, in a wonderful dynamic and eccentric reimagining of the classic.

In both a shocking, yet unsurprising twist of events, Coldplay released a new single that sounds like it could come straight from the 80s titled Higher Power.

After a long wait, J. Cole finally unexpectedly releases a song from his newest album, Off Season, titled i n t e r l u d e, which shows a whole new side of J. Cole that the world had never heard before this short two-minute track.

In a groovy and gritty mix of lofi and fusion, Hiatus Kaiyote manages to make one of the coolest, relaxing-yet-groovy tracks of the year with the release of their newest single, Red Room.

In a surprising grand return in 2021, 2017’s song I Hear a Symphony showed a new audience the beauty of Cody Fry’s genius in this simple yet complex three-minute magnum opus.

It’s common nowadays for band to take inspiration from old school rock and roll groups like Greta Van Fleet for example. It isn’t often, however, that you hear not only those roots glow through the music, but also in the production. Elevator Boots, Counting Crows’ newest single, is straight from 1968, and no one can convince me otherwise.

Smooth as butter and layered like an onion, RINI’s new single goes above and beyond what the artist has ever done before, and coupled with the talents of EARTHGANG the two manage to make a wonderful neo-soul tune true to the genre, while remaining true to their vision.

If All Gone, Beachy Head’s newest single, had wings, it would soar higher than planes could. The band have outdone themselves in one of the greatest soft rock ballads to surface in recent years.

Michaels has always had a knack for catchy, sharp, and poignant hooks, but she’s opted for a relatively subdued composition here and has succeeded to terrific effect.

In honor of 70s discos, Paris Jackson has partnered with hard rock legends The Struts with their newest, catchy single, Low Key in Love.

Gojira have always had a fantastic reputation with their releases. Every album is an expansion on everything they’ve done before, and they are excellent at continuing that moment with each release. With their newest single, Into the Storm, their fourth preview of their upcoming album Fortitude, they absolutely hold that momentum and propel it further on.

It’s very rare that artists manage to mix soft tones, sounding like water flowing down a river, and heavy, gut-wrenching beats, like the edges and bumps of the rocks the water flows over. But, as expected of Seq, the artist manages to mix the two in a perfect blend otherwise thought impossible in his newest single, worth.

Surfaces does a wonderful job subverting expectations with their newest single, Wave of You, by blending sounds from indie, R&B, jazz, and rock.

Years and Years delivers one of the grooviest, most harmonically intricate post-disco song of the year with his newest single Starstruck, all while honoring the legends that paved the way for the genre, and sounding as modern as can be.

In a captivating twist of rock and industrial, Alice Merton blesses listeners with a power-house of an anthem with her new single Vertigo, sounding powerful, simple and complex all at the same time.

An interesting blend of some of the biggest artists of the decade, Stop by AJ Mitchell is a wonderful pop track that fits perfectly in the warming weather as a hint to whats to come in the summer.

The disco grooves, the 80s summer choruses, and soaring harmonies: Fickle Friends do it all with their newest release that embraces a multitude of classic genres that shaped the music of today in their newest single, Not In The Mood.

The post disco vibes are especially strong with Chiiild’s newest single, featuring the wonderful Mahalia, Awake, but the groovy track isn’t without some twists and turns.

There have been a lot of genres that have been revived over the years, but sounds as obscure as 80s prog rock have been long buried, and brought back from the dead by Daniel Santiago in his new single Song for Tomorrow.

Sung like a somber lullaby, Greta Svabo Bech’s newest single, Breathe, has all the dark themes of certain branches of neo-classical all toppled with an indie feel. The combination of those elements makes for an absolutely beautiful piece of art to be remembered for generations.

In an amazing blend of indie pop and jazz, Thomas Headon and Lizzy McAlpine have put their minds together to make an eccentric and interesting single titled Bored that would even color Jacob Collier impressed.

In an electric and exciting new single, Suburban Symphony delivers some of the most exciting melodies of the year with School Gate.

UK-based solo artist One Cure For Man, also known as James Parkinson, has gifted us with another incredible single. “Everything (Promise Me)” is a powerful, catchy, and toe tapping thrill ride from start to finish. I defy anyone not to bop their head along to this one, the beats provided by Parkinson’s brother Ben on drums are impeccable and provide the perfect backbone for the stunning track.

Anna Leone delivers arguably one of the most soulful folk ballads in years, both invoking feelings and emotions of old and new, in one carefully crafted song titled Still I Wait.

Both subtly and intensely, Cian Ducrot has just released one of the most powerful ballads of recent times with Crocodiles.

Do you need to get cheered up for that exam you have going up? Do you need to get pumped up for that gym session you’ve been dreading today? Do you need to make your daily run ten minutes faster than you normally achieve? Take out your phone, load up Louis and the Shakes’ newest single, How Badly Do You Want It, and let the magic of the tune do the rest.

Adapting the classic sounds of pop-punk and adapting it to modern standards, BLOXX does a wonderful job capturing the fun of guitar-driven songs in their newest single, Everything I’ve Ever Learned.

English singer-songwriter Ben Howard’s three previous albums all have a different feel to them. The folk artist made his debut in 2011 with Every Kingdom, his most instantly gratifying album, and followed it up with I Forget Where We Were, a more complex record that rewarded listeners’ efforts and remains to many his best collection. 2018’s Noonday Dream was darker in feel, and marked a change in tone for Howard, but was no less excellent. 

Lana Del Rey is an intriguing star. In so many ways, she’s one of the biggest singers and musicians around, a performer at the absolute peak of her creative powers. And in other ways, she seems to very deliberately eschew exactly the sort of fame and status this would otherwise bring her.

Discounting 2017’s Synthesis, which was a collection of existing tracks reworked to add orchestral and electronic elements and featured just two new songs, The Bitter Truth marks Evanescence’s first proper studio album in a decade. That’s a long time for fans to have waited to hear more from lead singer Amy Lee and co.

Two years ago, Taylor Swift’s very public battle with Scooter Braun over the rights to her back catalogue was huge news. “This was my worst case scenario” Swift wrote at the time in an emotional Tumblr post that blew up, and while the legal wrangling left Swift and her fans in an unfortunate position, many would argue she had the last laugh when she announced her decision to re-record her old music.

There comes a point, about half way through Justin Bieber’s sixth studio album Justice, where you might wonder what’s happening here. And strangely, it comes on the song that isn’t a song, MLK Interlude, which is instead an excerpt from a 1967 sermon given by Martin Luter King. “You died when you refused to stand up for right. You died when you refused to stand up for truth. You died when you refused to stand up for justice.” It’s incredibly powerful, but what’s it doing here, on an album from a pop star whose last album Changes was preceded by the single Yummy? A song so shallow it’s chorus went “Yeah, you got that yummy-yum / That yummy-yum, that yummy-yummy.”

In what might be one of the most driving and epic song of the year so far, Delta Goodrem delivers a fantastic western-infused showtune folk song that’s filled with excitement and eccentricity with her new single, Billionaire.

Brighton outfit Black Honey’s self-titled debut album was a glorious mixture of attitude and swagger, a indie punk whirlwind that evoked the likes of Elastica and Garbage and crashed into the top 40 UK albums chart. It teed them up for a frenzy of tour dates, an NME front cover appearance, and festival slots right the way across Europe. The departure of founding band member and drummer Tom Dewhurst at the end of 2019 might have derailed lesser bands, but Black Honey focused on completing their new record, Written & Directed, which landed this week.

Ringo Starr needs no preamble. As one quarter of the biggest band of all time, the man has seen it all and done it all and has nothing left to prove. Nor would he even want to – part of Starr’s enduring charm has always been his everydayness, content with his reputation as the definitive nice man of music. Now at the ripe old age of eighty and with the country still in lockdown, you’d imagine Starr was happy just to put his feet up. Not a bit of it. 

Amy Shark’s new single is a blend of what makes both alternative and indie so great in one fine package that drives a beat forward from the moment it starts to when it ends.

In a very odd blend of folk and EDM, Lost Frequencies have managed to make an unusual gem that will both make you raise your brow, and nod your head all the same.

Welsh-born multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer and author Catherine Anne Davies – otherwise known as the Anchoress – isn’t your normal pop star. A published writer with a PhD in literature and queer theory from University College London, she creates terrifyingly intense songs that often document heartbreaking pain. Tragically, much of this pain is told from personal experience, the last few years having brought the death of her father, a cancer diagnosis and treatment, and the loss of several pregnancies.

The multi-talented Jacob Banks moved to the UK from his native Nigeria when he was just thirteen years old, and with a creative streak that took in singing and playing guitar, he started writing songs of his own at the age of twenty. He plied his trade on the open mic night circuit around his hometown of Birmingham, where he quickly attracted attention for his powerful vocals and intimate songwriting, which fuses elements of soul, African music and synths to create a rich and unique sound.

Arguably one of the greatest album openers, and in consequence one of the greatest singles of all time, has been remixed in 2021 mixed in with whole new elements, as well as speeches from the civil rights icon MLK in what makes one of the most electrifying remixes of all time.

In one of the uncanniest collaborations of ideas and artists, Sting has returned with a new single, My Funny Valentine, embracing music of old along with one of the greatest forces in jazz and music as a whole.

Nearly forty-three years after the original release of the disco single I’m Every Woman, Chaka Khan, the original signer for the track, alongside Idina Menzel got together to re-record the classic hit, bringing modern life into one of the greatest tracks of the seventies.

Bedford-born singer-songwriter Tom Grennan took the name of his second album Evering Road from a street he used to live on with his ex-girlfriend. And his origin story is an interesting one too – Grennan trained to become a professional footballer but was released, finding work instead at a Costa Coffee. At the age of 18, he was attacked in the street leaving him with metal plates and screws in his jaw. He got into music, apparently, after friends were impressed by his impromptu singing at a party, and pushed him into pursuing it further.

When it comes to feel-good music, there is very few songs that come quite as good as Japanese Breakfast’s newest single, Be Sweet. 

Nick Jonas found fame as one third of the Jonas Brothers, the American pop rockers who emerged from their Disney Channel beginnings into one of the biggest boy bands of the late 2000s. Unlike many of his contemporaries though, Jonas managed to carve out a successful solo career once his group had split, with the singles Chains, Jealous, Close and Bacon in particular showing that he was capable of varied, contemporary pop classics with his distinctive high-pitched vocals.

BRIT-award-winning singer and songwriter Tom Odell’s new single Monster v.1 drops this week, complete with a video directed by George Somverville and Odell himself. The track is taken from Odell’s upcoming new album Monsters, his fourth studio LP which is due for release this summer. 

The dynamic duo is out and about again, just a week after their debut single, with another offering. This time, weirdly enough, they decided to release what is most likely the intro to their upcoming album, and despite only being a minute in length, there’s still plenty to unpack in this tune.

When lockdown first started a year or so ago, many of us made our peace with it by turning to that lengthy to-do list. ‘What a great opportunity to catch up on some jobs’, we thought. ‘Or perhaps I’ll learn a new skill’, we kidded ourselves. ‘I know, I’ll learn Japanese, and the piano’, we outright lied, as we locked the front door, kicked back on the sofa, and lined up yet another box set marathon. 

It's been sixteen years since Glasgow duo Arab Strap last released an album, and with it announced their split after a decade of subverting the airwaves with their gritty and sometimes absurd tales. In many ways, they paved the way for acts like Sleaford Mods to take their work to the mainstream, and in this post-truth, pandemic-ridden time, it feels like a new Arab Strap album would land perfectly.

Irish singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Imelda May has teamed up with none other than Ronnie Wood for her new track Made To Love, a joyous song about love in all its guises taken from her upcoming new album 11 Past The Hour, which is due for release via Decca Records on 16 April, a week earlier than originally scheduled.