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War Child: HELP(2) follows 1995’s first compilation with another impressive range of music and artists
New album: Not only a timely and topical milestone charity record following the first in 1995 to help bring aid and wide variety of support to children in war zones around he world, but an impressive double-LP array of stellar British and international talent and powerful, poignant 23 songs from Arctic Monkeys to Young Fathers
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DEADLETTER: Existence Is Bliss
New album: This second LP by the South Yorkshire/London six-piece expands their post-punk sound palette with a collection of arresting, thrumming songs, often dark and challenging, with richly exploratory lyrics across dystopian and existential questions, yet despite a climate of difficult, shows how gasping for life’s oxygen is essential
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Gorillaz: The Mountain
New album: Released with an art book, new games, and extended videos, a multicultural, multifarious and multilingual return for the collective cartoon pop-hip-hop project led by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, with many intercontinental guest appearances, and a particular Indian musical and visual flavour centred on fictional Himalayan peak as metaphor for life’s journey and illusionary truths
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Cardinals: Masquerade
New album: Awash with passionate anguish and swaggering post-punk indie and gnarly energy, a strikingly impressive debut by the Cork five-piece, coloured by seething, stormy vocals and guitars, and flavoured by a distinctively rich accordion sound
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IST IST: DAGGER
New album: Throbbing, pulsating, dark, deep-voiced indie post-punk pop with a double-edged theme and an 80s goth-rock feel in this fifth LP in a decade by the Manchester quartet known for delivering exciting gigs
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Ulrika Spacek: EXPO
New album: Arresting, intelligent art rock and electronica, krautrock and psychedelia and a marriage of the analogue and electronic, all intermingle wonderfully different and intelligent new LP by the London band fronted by Rhys Edwards
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Mandy, Indiana: URGH
New album: An extraordinary second album by the Manchester experimental noise and electronica quartet of the visceral and playful, protest and cartharsis, in a fierce, throbbing, shape-shifting, genre-bursting tour de force that’s responds to very challenging times
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PVA: No More Like This
New album: Inventive, alluring, sensual, mysterious, minimalistic electronica, trip-hop and experimental pop by the London trio of Ella Harris, Joshua Baxter and Louis Satchell, in this second album following 2022’s Blush, boosted by the creativity of producer and instrumentalist Kwake Bass
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Sleaford Mods: The Demise of Planet X
New album: The caustic wit of Nottingham’s Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn return with a 13th LP of brilliantly abrasive, dark humoured hip-hop and catchy beats, addressing the rubbish state of the world, as well as local, personal and social irritations through slick nostalgic cultural reference, some expanded sounds, and an eclectic set of guests
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Part Two favourite albums of 2025 collage
Welcome to the second part of Song Bar favourite albums of 2025. There is also a first part and a third part this week. There is no countdown nor describing these necessarily as “best” albums of the year, but they are chosen by their quality, originality and reader popularity
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First selection of 25 favourite albums in no particular order …
Welcome to the first part of Song Bar favourite albums of 2025. There will also be a second and third part this week. There is no countdown nor describing these necessarily as “best” albums of the year, but they are chosen by their quality, originality and reader popularity
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Sorry: COSPLAY
New album: Consistently excellent singles before and heralding this brilliantly odd, clever third album by the London indie band all cement their reputation for a truly original sound filled with a variety of styles, captured in the experimental title of their third LP following 2022’s Anywhere But Here
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New album: Named after Billy Wilder’s 1959 hit comedy film, which is also centred around three musicians and lead characters (two male, one female) the London indie-rock trio return, gig-hardened from extensive touring, with a stylish, dynamic release filled with tales of strange romance, lust, identity, self-destruction, emotional vulnerability and modern-life mayhem
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Snõõper: Worldwide
New album: Following 2023’s debut Super Snõõper, the Nashville electro-punk band fronted by Blair Tramel and Connor Cummins bring a super-charged, pacy, energy boosting release of relentless, clever fun, produced by John Congleton
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Upchuck: I'm Nice Now
New album: A blistering new release of razor-sharp rage fuelled by social injustice by the punk and psychedelic rockers from Atlanta, Georgia, spearheaded by the charismatic vocalist KT, with thunderous drums and scalding guitars, and recorded at Sonic Ranch Studio in Texas with producer Ty Segall with a pacy, raw, rasping sound
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SPRINTS: All That Is Over
New album: Following last year’s blistering debut, Letter To Self, this follow-up by the Dublin post-punk quartet comes with title to to reflect dysfunctional, uncertain times, and an expanded musical dynamic, and fierce and reflective songs ranging from politics to philosopher to the personal
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Shame: Cutthroat
New album: The south Londoners return with a particularly musically polished as well as usually rowdy, raw post-punk fourth LP, angry at all sorts of social and political evils, and experimenting with other musical styles at the skilful hand of acclaimed producer John Congleton
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Suede: Antidepressants
New album: Their tenth album over all and fifth since the 2013 reformation, is classic Suede with a post-punk feel by the British rock band, with searing, strong, raw Magazine- and Cure-style guitar riffs by Richard Oakes and dark yet energised and emotive, declamatory lyrics by Brett Anderson
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The Hives Forever Forever The Hives!
New album: Subtlety, for some, is overrated. With another shamelessly, if also ironically self-aggrandising hyperbolic title, the Swedish band return with their classic, full-on, full-fat-fun, witty, explosive, screamingly entertaining catchy, punk and garage rock packed with shouty bangers
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Jehnny Beth: You Heartbreaker, You
New album: A superbly scorching, viscerally intense, emotionally arresting new release by the French actor and ex-Savages frontwoman Camille Berthomier, joined by longtime collaborator Johnny Hostile (Nicolas Congé) in a follow-up to her 2020 solo debut, To Love Is to Live
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