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Puma Blue: Croak Dream
New album: A mesmeric, experimental, otherworldly, hypnotic fusion of trip-hop, dub, electronica of nocturnal ambience, haunting, intimate vocals and sensual grooves by the south London/Atlanta multi-instrumentalist and producer Jacob Allen, centred around the existential theme of strangely knowing when and how were going to die
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The Cribs: Selling A Vibe
New album: A first LP in five years by the likeable and solid guitar indie-rock Jarman brothers trio from Wakefield, now with their ninth - a catchy, but at times with rueful, bittersweet perspectives on their times in the music business
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Match album artwork to the titles below from favourites of 2025 Part Three (in no particular order)
Brògeal: Tuesday Paper Club
New album: Raw yet refined, raucous yet emotional, following two EPs, a stirring, boisterous melodic debut LP by the Falkirk band, who bring a strong, Scottish flavour to the folk-punk style and energy reminiscent of the Pogues, but also sounds reminiscent of the indie jangled guitars of Teenage Fanclub, Stone Roses and The Smiths
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Other Lives: Volume V
New album: A fifth LP, but also the first in a decade by the band from Stillwater, Oklahoma, of multi-instrumentalists Jesse Tabish, Jonathon Mooney and Josh Onstott and co, with impressive, stirring, grandiose, cinematic, dynamic, orchestra-layered indie rock
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Geese: Getting Killed
New album: Dramatic and swaggeringly different - a crazed cauldron of anger, tenderness, the strangely eccentric, surreal and psychedelic, the Brooklyn band’s latest is an experimental odyssey of garage riffs to Ukrainian choir samples, frenzied drumming and prog riffing, with lullabies to explosive mayhem topped by wonderfully weird, wailing and yearning vocals of Cameron Winter
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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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Shura: I Got Too Sad For My Friends
New album: With her first music since 2019’s acclaimed album forevher, the British singer-songwriter and producer Alexandra Denton returns with a third LP, one that embraces melancholy and addresses the self, capturing six years of uncertainty with a gentle, intelligent perspective, wrapped in refined, matured indie, pop, folk and Americana
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Cameron Winter: Heavy Metal
New album: Released last month, the Geese frontman’s solo LP is nothing like its title in genre, but a brilliantly eccentric, eclectic, inventive, surreal mosaic of dream-like DIY oddness – blues, folk, pop and psych rolled up in droll humour, existential dread and creative patchwork streams of the sub-conscious and non-sequitur
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Joan As Police Woman: Lemons, Limes and Orchids
New album: New York’s Joan Wasser returns with fabulously classy, intelligent, stylishly stripped-back LP, her first set of new songs since 2018’s Damned Devotion, and all centred on love and loss
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Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds: Wild God
New album: The 18th studio LP by the messianic Australian and band, first since 2019’s Ghosteen, is perhaps the best for some time – grandiose, passionate, powerful, using deity, religion, myth and narrative, and despite all the tragedy and loss in Cave’s family, somehow flows with rapturous hope
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EELS TIME!
New album: Serial survivor Mark Oliver Everett returns with that familiar mix of droll, ironic but catchy, melancholy but upbeat numbers, on themes of love, the passage of time, as well as more extreme experiences – family trauma, and his recent open-heart surgery
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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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Part 1 selection of 2023 favourite albums
Welcome once again to the annual tradition of Song Bar’s favourite album releases of 2023. This is Part 1, and Part 2 is also out here. There’s no such thing as a chart rundown or ‘best of’ here, and these come in no particular order. This is all about quality and innovation …
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Quantic: Dancing While Falling
New album: Inexorably catchy, lavishly orchestrated 70-era disco, funk, gospel, soul and pop from the British New York-based musician and DJ Will Holland in his Quantic moniker, joined by great guest vocalists and collaborators, particularly Andreya Triana
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Lol Tolhurst x Budgie x Jacknife Lee: Los Angeles
New album: The ex-Cure drummer and the acclaimed percussionist of Siouxsie, Creatures and other bands team up with the Irish producer for a wonderfully rhythmic, sharply witty, krautrock-style/synth pop-punk fusion with guest vocalists including LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy
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Geese: 3D Country
New album: A brilliant second album following 2021’s Projector by the Brooklyn indie-rock quintet, packed with thunderous rocky, bluesy psychedelic grooves, retro yet fresh, stop-start rhythms, and charismatic deep-voiced delivery of Cameron Winter
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Courting: Guitar Music
New album: Short, snappy, sharp and caustically ironic, the Liverpool indie post-punk band’s 30-minute, eight-track LP follows their excellent 2021 EP Grand National with biting lyrics, catchy melodies and ferocious energy
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EELS: Extreme Witchcraft
New album: Mark Oliver Everett, who always wrestles with personal demons in his music, returns with an album characterised with a sparky upbeat energy, buzzing guitars and pace with often wry, but very catchy numbers
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Hop Up by Orlando Weeks
New album: Mellow, ethereal, and with Talk Talk as an musical influence, the former Maccabees frontman’s solo follow-up to A Quickening emanates carefree, floating joy with light funk-pop electronica and his high, soft vocal delivery
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