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Howling Bells - Strange Life
New album: The Australian and now UK-based band return after 12 years, with singer Juanita Stein (who has since released four solo studio albums and is co-titled with the album) rejoins brother Joel Stein, and Glenn Moule, with solid, strong, resonant, shoegazey, grungey, indie rock
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Plantoid: FLARE
New album: The nimbly inventive, experimental prog trio from Brighton return following their debut LP Terrapath, with an evolved, often catchier style of oddball riffs, licks, clever tempo changes, unusual rhythms, and unconventional chord progressions with a stirring of jazz inflections, dream pop, psych rock and shoegaze
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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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They Are Gutting A Body Of Water: LOTTO
New album: Experimental, strange, shoegazey, disturbingly dark, atmospheric post-rock from the Philadelphia fronted by songwriter and guitarist Douglas Dulgarian, with some echoes of My Bloody Valentine, also with vivid spoken word and evocative, and differently visceral, haunting, heavy guitar-textures
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Jay Som: Belong
New album: Los Angeles artist Melina Duterte returns with a first LP for six years, an absorbing fusion of indie, electronica, shoegaze and multi-textured dream pop, all about self-healing and truth-facing, expanding from a past DIY methodology to collaboration with various with guests including Jimmy Eat World's Jim Adkins and Paramore’s Hayley Williams
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Wednesday: Bleeds
New album: Quintessential, classy southern creek rock and shoegaze sound by the band from Asheville, North Carolina, fronted by singer and lyricist Karly Hartzman, in this sixth and possibly best yet LP packed with rich, meaty grungy guitar tones, and sharp, highly detailed, emotionally potent, narrative lyrics
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The Reds, Pinks and Purples: The Past Is a Garden I Never Fed
New album: The San Francisco indie-dream-pop-shoegaze band fronted by Glenn Donaldson release a new LP of jangling guitar and beautifully wistful songs, centred around small talk and everyday water cooler moments with an mischievous but heartfelt delivery and a finely tuned sense of pathos and irony
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Hotline TNT: Raspberry Moon
New album: A third album by the New York indie-rock band fronted by Will Anderson, with rich, meaty, shoegaze fuzz guitars, subtly droll love songs and more of a live band guitar recorded sound rather than the previous studio-created layering of their first two LPs
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Maria Somerville
New album: This wonderfully absorbing, otherworldly second album from the Irish musician from Connemara in Galway, is a fusion awash with slow, gentle, misty shoegaze and folk, and rewards multiple listens with its many sonic textures and atmospheric layers in what feels like expansive celebration of solitude
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BRONCHO: Natural Pleasure
New album: The Oklahoma-based alt-rockers return more than six years since their last LP, Bad Behavior, with a fifth LP of finely crafted songs of a distinctively warm, gentle sound, textured guitar layers and Ryan Lindsey’s unusual, high, understated, oddly soothing voice
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da Googie + Cary Tivey: The Golden Thread
New album: A mesmeric, cutting-edge, experimental tapestry of dark, magical, musical textures and songs by an English duo of seasoned, innovative collaborators – My Bloody Valentine bass player Deb Googe, and pianist and composer Cara Tivey in a superb debut LP together
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HONESTY: U R HERE
New album: Moody, dark, atmospheric, cross-genre inventiveness comes aplenty in this debut LP for Partisan Records by the Leeds-based collective who bring a hard-to-define fusion of ambient, restless electronica, shoegaze, goth, abstract industrial, krautrocky momentum, soulful trip-hop and alt-pop
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The second part of our favourite albums of 2024
Favourite albums of 2024: Welcome to The Song Bar’s favourite albums of 2024 Part 2. Part 1 can be found here. There’s no such thing as ‘best of’ and everything is subjective, but please dig into this rich seam of originality and quality, and even suggest more of your own
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This year’s selections include some returning veterans at the top of their game as well as some fabulous newcomers
Favourite albums of 2024: Welcome to The Song Bar’s favourite albums of 2024 Part 1. There’s no such thing as ‘best of’ and everything is subjective, but rich seams of originality and quality are certainly here to be enjoyed. Peruse away …
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Du Blonde: Sniff More Gritty
New album: With a startling new look, the multi-talented British singer-songwriter and video artist Beth Jeans Houghton returns with her powerfully anthemic glam rock, grunge pop and fuzz guitar indie in this follow-up to 2021’s Homecoming
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Thurston Moore: Flow Critical Lucidity
New album: The prolific Sonic Youth guitarist, singer and songwriter returns another solo album, an entrancing, meditational lo-fi experimental release of fascinating string textures and poetic lines, with guests including Laetitia Sadler, and lyrics by the London-based writer Radieux Radio
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Been Stellar: Scream From New York, NY
New album: A dynamic, stormy-guitar postpunk debut by the New York quintet in an LP filled with landmark references of that famous city, but also given a texture and edge under the production guidance of by London’s brilliant Dan Carey
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New album: A brilliantly bold, experimental, original third LP by the now south London indie-post-punk trio of Clottie Cream (Lottie Pendlebury), Rosy Bones and Holly Mullineaux, one that bubbles with unusual musical dynamics and lyrics
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Yungatita: Shoelace & A Knot
New album: Absorbing, eclectic, strangely addictive, catchy, jangly indie shoegaze with unusual guitar timbres by the Los Angeles musician and artist Valentina Zapata and band best known for the dreamily offbeat 2021 single 7 Weeks & 3 Days
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Favourite LPs of 2023, Part 2.
Welcome once again to the annual tradition of Song Bar’s favourite album releases of 2023. This is Part 2, and Part 1 was yesterday. There’s no such thing as a chart rundown or ‘best of’ here, and these come in no particular order …
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