In this post I’m going to take a look at the releases that surprised me. That doesn’t necessarily mean that I think every album here is stunning. If I did all of them would also be featuring in my Albums of the Year post, and none of them do.

Indeed, some aren’t very good at all, but still stunned me due to them not being completely atrocious (!), and/or the listening experience did give me reason to pause, making me see the artist in question in a different light.

Some releases surprised just by the fact that they exist or have seen the light of day at all. Others, for a hand-break turn in style that paid off… or largely did, anyway.

Without further ado, let’s dig in. As with the previous posts, this is in A-Z order.

Addison Rae – Addison
While I’m not as head over heels for this album as many are, it came as a HUGE surprise to me how good it is. Being a protégé of Charli XCX would never be a bad thing in my eyes, and there’s clearly a massive influence here, but Addison Rae is very much her own pop artist. I’m not sure I can think of another artist that has moved from social media influencer to this level of commercial success before. Others might rival her in excitable loyal followers, but Addison also received critical acclaim, too.
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AFI – Silver Bleeds the Black Sun
Dope album name, instantly recognisable album artwork, and a wholesale reinvention of their band. Okay, chaps! AFI have been going for three decades now and they claim to be a band of “constant reinvention”. I shan’t quibble with that, except to say that I’ve never felt such a paradigm shift between their albums as I did until now. Opening a bold new chapter, that fits them like a glove, the band sounds as though they’ve been producing gothic post-punk all their career. I’d stick rather than twist for the next.
LISTEN HERE

Behemoth – The Shit Ov God
From a fantastic album title above, to a face palm moment when I first read the announcement. Oh dear… and yet… The Shit Ov God is a very solid album. In fact, dare I say that it’s Behemoth‘s best since 2014’s utterly iconic, The Satanist? Ignoring the stupid name of the LP and that the band and especially Nergal (Adam Darski) can be far too ‘edgy’ for their own good, the music speaks for itself. I went into my first listen expecting to completely write them off for the future, and instead found myself intrigued for they might do next, once again.
LISTEN HERE

Bleeding Through – NINE
I won’t mention the album title… I won’t! Oh, wait, I already did. So, you may not be surprised to learn that NINE is the ninth full-length from Bleeding Through, but what I was surprised about was how well it went down. An album of transition, with two new guitarists joining for the writing and recording. Following completing the studio sessions and initial touring, it would prove to be the last for their long time bassist. Which perhaps lends the album a freshness (new blood) and a sense of maturity too (involvement of old members, before passing the reigns). Either way, this hits harder than I had any reason to expect. They were excellent live and extremely nice people when I saw them “by chance” headlining on a tour that included Shai Hulud and Darkest Hour.
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Caliban – Back from Hell
Perhaps I’m just going mad, but I thought this was pretty decent, and revisiting it recently, my opinion is the same. And that surprises me because I never really saw what people enjoyed about Caliban. Hilariously, their long term fans don’t seem as enamoured with it, so we’re clearly all on different musical paths.
LISTEN HERE

Cardiacs – LSD
I’m not sure many truly thought that the sixth Cardiacs LP would ever see the light of day. Recording began almost twenty years ago, in 2007, with a planned released date of late 2008. But in the summer of that year founding member and frontman Tim Smith suffered a cardiac arrest and stroke, leaving him unable to play or provide vocals. Over the next twelve years, the lyrics and final compositions for each of the songs were established by Tim’s family and friends communicating with him via the position of his eyes and his left hand, using an alphabet board, with Tim’s brother and bandmate Jim completing the album in his stead, after Tim died in the summer of 2020, following what was believed to be another heart attack. The fact that it’s a masterful journey and an absolute delight to experience is the icing on the cake of this feat of personal and music persistence.
LISTEN HERE

Chance the Rapper – STAR LINE
Chancelor Johnathan Bennett – aka Chance the Rapper – had one of the most famous fall from grace episodes the music world has ever seen. A buzzy debut mixtape in 10 Day, gave way to the phenomenon that was Acid Rap the following year, his second mixtape. The artist rode on a high for a long time, before doubling down four years later with a third acclaimed mixtape, Coloring Book. The world was his oyster – Chance only had to choose what condiment to have with it. The problem was that when it came time to deliver his massively anticipated debut album, he chose ALL THE INGREDIENTS. An infamous wet fart of a debut LP, it has aged worse with time. Hindsight’s a bitch, but with The Beautiful Day proclaiming again and again and again how in love and how proud he was of his rock solid relationship with his new wife, listening now makes for an even more awkward experience. Five years later they had divorced. Which all leads to say that there was a lot of pressure on this record, but, I’ll be honest, I didn’t hold out too much hope. It had been six long years… but STAR LINE is a solid return – good, even – and I am genuinely very happy for him. It took guts to come back.
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Coheed and Cambria – Vaxis – Act III: The Father of Make Believe
I’m always rather unfair on Coheed and Cambria, I think. After really enjoying their first three full-lengths, I drifted away from keeping up with them. Every time they release something new I assume it will be bad, and every time – to varying degrees, admittedly – I am surprised and remember they’re an extremely talented and adept band.
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Cradle of Filth – The Screaming of the Valkyries
Entering their thirty-fifth year in 2026, Cradle of Filth used 2025 to release yet another surprisingly good album in this unexpected second wind in the past decade that continues to befuddle me. They also chose to end the year by very publicly disintegrating on a South American tour. You win some, you lose some, I guess. The Filth aren’t strangers to a line-up change though, so I’m sure they will continue spreading their melodramatic [in a good way!] black metal for years to come.
LISTEN HERE (only a few tracks, unfortunately – seems to be the way with Napalm…)

De La Soul – Cabin in the Sky
What a wonderful record and tribute to their fallen comrade. The legendary hip-hop trio – now duo – return with their ninth studio album. Their first in nine years and first since the passing of Trugoy the Dove in 2023, Cabin in the Sky features unreleased recordings for their missing member as well as the return of Prince Paul, the producer for their classic first three album run. An LP that reflects on mortality as well as the strength found in family, both by blood and chosen, it was a surprise and joy to hear those voices again.
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Djo – The Crux
For anyone somehow not in the know, Djo is in fact Joe Keery of Stranger Things fame. I absolutely loved the lead single, ‘Roddy’, from Djo’s debut album Twenty Twenty, but found the remainder of that record and it’s follow up, 2022’s Decide, rather uninspired. By no means dull, but they didn’t excite me as ‘Roddy’ had. Fast-forward to 2025 and I didn’t expect much from this third LP, but it is far more consistent and engaging than previous efforts. A nice surprise. An almost greater one is the fantastic new album from Post Animal, the band Keery plays in, called Iron. Both The Crux and that are wonderful listens.
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Doja Cat – Vie
Here is an artist that I have underestimated and that I think a lot of people do more than I. Doja Cat may be a little late to the 1980s trend in pop, but Vie turned out to be one of the better results. The record marks a return to pop for the artist following Scarlet, an album focused on rapping, in part made to silence critics who questioned her abilities in that regard. Whether or not she put those questions to bed, the fact of the matter is that Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini does an even better job delivering salacious funk-pop about her romantic antics in the bed.
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Dream Theater – Parasomnia
The legendary progressive metal band‘s sixteenth album wasn’t one I was anticipating and truthfully isn’t a record that has stuck with me. But after some albums that I felt veered towards boring or bad [or both], the return of Mike Portnoy behind the drum kit after sixteen years (and his absence at the production desk) freshens up the Dream Theater sound enough.
LISTEN HERE

Fleshbore – Painted Paradise
This is a bit of a strange one because I think I had just made up what Fleshbore sounded like in my head. While I wasn’t a million miles away (brutal technical death metal, obvs!), they are much better than the false impression I had randomly made, so imagine my surprise when I spun their new record!
LISTEN HERE

Florence + the Machine – Everybody Scream
Is it just me or are you surprised that Everybody Scream is only Florence + the Machine‘s sixth studio full-length album? Even though I knew it to be true, thinking about the band in the run up to the LP’s release, it surprised me to think of them as an old-school indie rock band, rather than a pop group. They release in a measured, artful way, unlike the pop churn that some of their old contemporaries fell victim to. Collaborating with IDLES guitarist Mark Bowen around the themes of folk horror, poetry and insanity, Welch herself said she was shooting for a record that nestled somewhere between “SWANS and Adele”. While it would be hard to identify overt traits of either, it somehow makes sense, nonetheless… Surprising, no?
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Garbage – Let All That We Imagine Be The Light
A band, particularly frontwoman Shirley Manson, who have only endeared themselves to me more and more over the past few years, due to their overt stance on Palestine, Trump, austerity and more, they ought to be recognised as the true punk rock band they are. While their sound has drifted from the blunt force of their earliest work, the message remains.
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Hayley Williams – Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party
Now here’s a record that I thought would likely make it into my Albums of the Year list for a long time. And it has, but here, rather than in the main run. That largely has to do with the fact that it is now officially an ‘album’. Let me explain. I loved the initial approach to the release – seventeen tracks released concurrently, all as singles with individual artwork. It felt like a novel experience, creating the album yourself (choose your own adventure sequencing; perhaps omitting a handful for a more focused running time), or perhaps even breaking them down into groups of little like-minded EPs. Eventually, Williams crowdsourced the most popular tracklisting and Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party was ‘born’ and officially released, albeit over time the track count actually grew by one… two… three more… A surprising release that unsurprisingly resonated with her legions of fans but expectedly did so for me, too.
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Helloween – Giants & Monsters
I thought the long-standing band (est. 1984!) were a complete joke. And while there’s been a tongue firmly lodged in the cheek for the past forty years, this new record kinda kicks ass?
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Idelwild – Idelwild
Remember my snide commentary of non-debut LPs being self-titled? There has to be exceptions to the rule and this tenth album is not only a very pleasant listen, but saw the band hit the highest they have in the charts for over twenty years. A concise and cohesive ten tracks of focused, crystal clear indie rock.
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Jennie – Ruby
All four members of K-pop sensation BLACKPINK had music in the public consciousness in 2025. Jisoo released a middling EP called Amortage and I wouldn’t blame you whatsoever if that’s the first you’re hearing about it. On the other end of the scale, Rosé continued to enjoy the success of 2024’s debut solo album Rosie, in particular the juggernaut hit ‘APT.’ (featuring Bruno Mars). My two favourite members of the girl group had their debut LPs out in 2025. Lisa released Alter Ego and as much as I tried to trick myself into liking it, the record came very close to featuring on my ‘Disappointments’ list. It was close. Jennie released Ruby and it is by far the best solo record of any of the members. She immediately feels like a fully fledged solo artist – with a clear sonic and aesthetic identity, distinctly separate from her bandmates as individuals and from BLACKPINK. A quality pop record.
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Katatonia – Nightmares as Extensions of the Waking State
Despite being a band in need no introduction in terms of musical pedigree or any question of their huge influence, Katatonia have been a band – like many progenitors of different sounds within the constellation of heavy music – where I have preferred those they have influenced. So, it was with some surprise that I found their new LP such an enjoyable listen. The surprise was further compounded upon discovering that many of their stalwart fans aren’t enamoured with this new opus. I am forever a contrarian, it seems.
LISTEN HERE (Napalm klaxon again)

Khruangbin – The Universe Smiles Upon You II
Before I use the term unironically, please let it be known that I utterly abhor the dismissive, lazy, often ubiquitous term ‘mid’. But, if ever I was going to use it, I would have used it for Khruangbin, especially as a goading response to just how much they were fawned over about five or six years ago. Not only was The Universe Smiles Upon You II a surprise release, it surprisingly caught my ear. More surprising still is the fact that all ten tracks are reinterpretations of those on their earliest album. Existential questions of whether I now enjoy their semi-instrumental, gently psychedelic, vibes-based surf-indie now plague my waking thoughts. This all acknowledged, I still don’t get why they’re SO popular, though…?
LISTEN HERE

Lacuna Coil – Sleepless Empire
As most mainstream rock and metal adjacent bands grow deeper into their careers, the prevailing direction of travel is for their records to become more melodic and often a little more sedentary in terms of pace. Italian goth metallers Lacuna Coil choose to push against that current, with their tenth LP embracing faster tempos and a heavier, sharper sound. Weaving in riffs that cross paths with metalcore and hardcore, the band reinvent themselves once again.
LISTEN HERE

Lady Gaga – MAYHEM
Even though I enjoyed Born This Way, the follow-up to Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta’s – aka Lady Gaga‘s – break-out debut + deluxe, The Fame / The Fame Monster, it was still different enough to make me long for that original sound already. As the years rolled by, it was apparent we had been gifted an unbelievable artist overall, but that I would have to make do with still seeing that debut ‘pair’ as my favourites. So, imagine my surprise and utter elation upon hearing MAYHEM! If it had maintained the punch and consistency of its first half it would have been in the upper echelons of my AOTY list. If it only lost steam in its latter third, as it does, it would have still just about made it. But finishing on the non-sequitur of ‘Die with a Smile’ (a duet with Bruno Mars), that just does NOT fit with the rest of the LP, meant it missed out. But the fact we can now add ‘Disease’, ‘Abracadabra’, ‘Garden of Eden’, ‘Perfect Celebrity’ and ‘LoveDrug’ alongside ‘Just Dance’, ‘LoveGame’, ‘Paparazzi’, ‘Poker Face’, ‘Bad Romance’, ‘Alejandro’ and ‘Telephone’ just shows what an absolute pop bombshell this is. Genuinely a little bemused it didn’t get even more hype and buzz than it did receive.
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Lily Allen – West End Girl
The surprise of this release is three-fold – 1) that Allen would be quite as bold and revealing about her relationship and ex partner as she is, b) that I liked it as much as I do, and c) that people went quite as utterly wild about is as they did. It’s a very good album, but its not without its faults, and the staying power some are ascribing it, I don’t see. Rather, I have a feeling it may suffer from being a “viral moment” and be quickly forgotten about. It shouldn’t be, but I fear that it might suffer that fate.
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Lorde – Virgin
The good news? It wasn’t the shit in the sand that Solar Power was. That was obviously welcome but not too much of a surprise. While many publications are trying to do some weird reevaluation and rehabilitation of that album, despite only having released in 2021, it does appear that Lorde – albeit not publicly – has acknowledged it was a creative (and commercial) misfire. Virgin is a strange record and for that I was pleasantly surprised. I feared that the failed direction of Solar Power would lead Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor into becoming timid, allowing the pressure of following up what has largely been deemed a failure (and the harsh, over-zealous critiques), to tempt her into safety. I imagined we might see her delivering an album that could have been many others’ next record – ironically, the effect I felt Solar Power had on first listen for me. Instead, the album at times feels as novel as Pure Heroine was in 2013. Unlike that record there’s a fair amount that doesn’t stick the landing, but it’s great to have the young pop artist back, and feeling able to flex their creative muscles.
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Manic Street Preachers – Critical Thinking
You discount Welsh rockers, the Manic Street Preachers, at your peril. And yet… I do! Every. Single. Time. Once again the band return with twelve songs delivered in forty minutes and change; and once again it’s great. Why am I surprised?!
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Marlon Williams – Te Whare Tiwekaweka
I really loved Marlon Williams‘ previous LP, My Boy (2022), and it served to gain him enough plaudits that he became far more recognised internationally outside of his native New Zealand. So it was a surprise to learn his follow-up record would be sung entirely in Maori. It shouldn’t have been, to be honest, as Marlon had joined forces with Lorde on her all-Maori EP, Te Ao Mārama, singing alternative versions of songs from Solar Power. Te Whare Tiwekaweka is an utterly enchanting album and I salute the courage of Williams’ artistic conviction. It paid off and then some. Another that just missed out on my AOTY list.
LISTEN HERE

Matt Berninger – Get Sunk
Every once in a while someone’s name will refuse to stay in my memory bank. Matt Berninger is one of those names. In a few weeks, if someone mentions him in passing, I will blankly stare, not being able to recall him as being the frontman to The National. Nor, in this case, could I remember him as the artist behind his own fantastic debut solo LP, Serpentine Prison. This sophomore release is every bit as good as its predecessor, and being a tiny bit more direct and catchy, should mean more people get wise to his solo material. I am, but I’ll have forgotten again by morning.
LISTEN HERE

MIKE – Showbiz!
Similarly to the above, it’s sometimes not so much that I’m surprised by the artist or the quality of the material, but rather surprised by the record because I forget how much I have enjoyed and/or respected previous releases. Such is the way with NYC rapper extraordinaire, Michael Jordan Bonema (MIKE), whose dry and dusty rapping ironically flows deliciously over incredibly well chosen samples and beats. Showbiz! is his finest album to date, in my opinion, and were it not for one or two songs that really didn’t hit for me, this would have easily found its way into my Albums of the Year list. But due to that list being so tight – despite it’s size (wait for it…) – it just missed out, like a handful in this ‘Surprises’ section.

Miley Cyrus – Something Beautiful
It’s truly maddening when other music reviewers and listeners decry the lack of ambition and experimentation in modern pop, and then when someone comes along and does it, they scamper back towards radio, chart friendly fodder to cover endlessly. We all know Miley Cyrus has one of the best and unique voices in the game, but it’s fair to say that she has veered between failed experiments (some truly horrendous, it must be said) and unadulterated pop-blandness (bowing to the pressure of the modern music industry). With Something Beautiful, it felt that Miley truly hit upon her sound, as well as working with a litany of cool, underground artists in the writing process, including Cole from Model/Actriz, no less! But – and it’s a big BUT – it’s already apparent that this record has been a total flop commercially, so whether Cyrus has the desire, power and/or cultural capital to continue ploughing this furrow for an album or two more, is yet to be seen.
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Panda Bear – Sinister Grift
I don’t think I’ve really paid much attention to Noah Benjamin Lennox’s Panda Bear before this record, truth be told. One of those weird artists where I’ve been very much aware of their existence, but never found the time or had the wherewithal to dig in. Having absolutely loved this record, I had a quick listen back, and in my opinion, this is clearly his best. Not sure if that’s a hot take or not, but either way, this was a pleasantly surprising listen, made less so by acknowledging that it’s primarily a collaboration between Lennox and his Animal Collective bandmate Deakin, with additional contributions from their other bandmates as well as Spirit of the Beehive‘s Rivka Ravede and Cindy Lee.
LISTEN HERE

PinkPanthress – Fancy That
While technically a mixtape, rather than an album, I had to shoehorn this in somewhere, as PinkPanthress (Victoria Beverley Walker) absolutely smashed it in 2025, with this and the extended edition, Fancy Some More? The original mixtape isn’t perfect, but with smash viral hit ‘Illegal’ and the criminally underrated ‘Tonight’, this was just a taste of what’s to come. It’s surprising to me and many how she has very smoothly managed the transition from TikTok trendsetter to bona fide UK pop royalty.
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Pulp – More
In the forever debate between Oasis and Blur, the true alternative would insist upon putting Pulp into the debate, too. While I’m all for antagonising people – it’s every music nerd’s duty, after all! – it never made much sense to me. Despite actually liking Oasis and Blur a lot, Pulp were cut from different cloth. Sure, they were then sort of part of the ‘Britpop’ zeitgeist, but they had originated from far darker, weirder origins than they two other bands. Despite some reunions, there had never been any new material since 2001’s We Love Life, and it’s a dangerous, brave thing to put a new LP out after almost quarter of a century of silence. But Cocker and the band delivered with More. Jaw appropriately on the floor.
LISTEN HERE

Sam Fender – People Watching
This is probably more of a surprise for those that know me than for myself, as I wasn’t all that sure what to expect from this record. I suppose I was surprised by just how much I really enjoyed it, given I’m not the most ardent fan of Bruce Springsteen, that Sam Fender gets accused of musically cosplaying. Now the proud owner of a Mercury Prize, Fender is also a massive, outspoken supporter of the Music Venue Trust, who I am a member of, so he gets extra props there. It’s not perfect, but there are some absolutely brilliant songs on here, and ‘Crumbling Empire’ is an absolute worldy, especially for anyone who has grown up in a down-and-out Northern English town and who holds no false pride in being British.
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Skrillex – F*CK YOU SKRILLEX YOU THINK UR ANDY WARHOL BUT UR NOT!! ❤
The simple fact that I was listening to anything by Skrillex in 2025 was a surprise, and then realising I’d never even listened to an album by Sonny John Moore because Scary Monsters and Nice Spites (2010) is actually only an EP! At thirty-four tracks and forty-six minutes it’s too long, as it starts to feel a bit relentless in a bad way by its close, but the LP is a huge amount of fun.
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Sleep Token – Even in Arcadia
I think this is a pretty bad album. I’m just surprised it’s got SO much hate. It’s undeserving of that. I also still can’t quite believe I saw these guys supporting Perturbator, Deafheaven and ]HYPNO5E[ at ULU (the University of London Union’s bar), now called Student Central (why?!) in 2017. That said, back then, they had only released their EPs One and Two, which were great. You can read my review of that gig, over at Echoes & Dust, by the way – right here. I don’t like this. It’s bad. But the internet is interneting when it comes to these guys.
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Soulfly – Chama
Similarly to Skrillex, I didn’t really expect to listen to a new Soulfly album in 2025 and was surprised by how solid I thought it was. Zero cringe, not great, but their thirteenth album is entertaining while on!
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Spiritbox – Tsunami Sea
It’s a bit too polished for its own good, which goes for the band’s debut and basically all “mainstream” metal, but damn, there are some grooves and riffs on display here. Courtney LaPlante also delivers an incredible vocal performance across the entire record. Bravo!
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Tallah – Primeval: Obsession // Detachment
Sometimes I’ll get the unshakable urge to want to like something. Don’t ask me why, because I don’t understand most of the time myself. When it came to Tallah I had heard interesting things; a band pushing the revival of nu-metal to its limits and that their vocalist Justin Bonitz had the most incredible range and chameleonic voice. I just don’t hear the former and, if I’m being brutally honest, half the time it just sounds to me as if he’s putting on weird accents. It’s a fun LP but as much as I wanted to to like it, I was surprised by how little stuck with me given the lavish praise I had read and heard heaped on the band beforehand.
LISTEN HERE

Testament – Para Bellum
To say that I was stunned listening to this album the first time around would be an understatement. This might not hit the highs of Testament‘s absolute classics, but it comes damn close. If I was more of a thrash metal fiend, this huge return to form would probably hit far more, but it didn’t stop my eyebrows from nearly popping off the top of my head only a few minutes into opening track, ‘For the Love of Pain’. Hell yeah!
LISTEN HERE

The Birthday Massacre – Pathways
Remember when I argued against the phrase “never judge a book by its cover”? Well, I concede that this example is where it holds true. I saw the cover of this and thought ‘utter trash’ (and honestly not worthy of a spin). But I did choose to press play, and it’s very solid gothy post-punk with a strangely poppy, approachable edge.
LISTEN HERE

The Darkness – Dreams on Toast
The British band return with another dose of the tongue in cheek glam rock. It’s not reinventing the wheel, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it while it was on and how one or two tracks came floating back into my brain weeks afterwards. Nice things out of the way, I do wonder if most of these tracks would feel even more potent if they were each boiled down towards the two-minute mark. I’m sure Justin Hawkins would have critical thoughts on that suggestion, though…
LISTEN HERE

The Hives – The Hives Forever Forever The Hives
After an eleven year gap between studio albums the Swedish iconic garage rock band returned with 2023’s The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons, and while it had its moments, I found it lacklustre overall. So when a new LP was announced barely eighteen months later I pretty much dismissed it. Clearly the previous album was the quintet dusting off the cobwebs, because their most recent record is howlin’ good fun at absolute breakneck speed.
LISTEN HERE

The Lemonheads – Love Chant
How am I listening to all NEW Lemonheads material in 2025?!?!?! The fact it’s pretty great? Madness!
LISTEN HERE

The Mars Volta – Lucro sucio; Los ojos del vacio
Here is a strange example of most music fans having made a decision about a band and refusing to even countenance change. More than most it seems to me that The Mars Volta have been pigeonholed as “impossibly pretentious” (those who have never liked them) or over (due to the admittedly piss-weak self-titled reunion LP). This album seemed to come and go with a curious – and pretty sad – lack of fanfare. It’s a beautiful record. Admittedly, it’s more suited to a deep listen at midnight with a glass of red wine than taking a shot at the venue bar before running into a sweaty crowd and manically flailing to the guitar work! Things change – people do, bands do, music does. Embrace it.
LISTEN HERE

The Sound of Animals Fighting – The Maiden
When I saw the announcement of this album, I remember sitting back with a grin on my face. Then I leant forward and reread the entire article because I convinced myself I must have got the wrong impression. A new album by The Sound of Animals Fighting? What? A cool seventeen years since their previous full-length, The Maiden follows the return EP Apeshit at the end of 2022 (which I presumed wasn’t a sign of them fully booting up again). It’s an absolutely bonkers record, as one would expect, and there are almost too many memorable riffs. Most excellent. Unsure why it didn’t make more waves than it did…?
LISTEN HERE

Thrice – Horizons/West
I’m a big fan of Thrice, and while they’re a long way away from The Illusion of Safety, The Artist in the Ambulance and Vheissu, I’ve always checked in on their new material and found things to like. I won’t lie, though… I found this album’s predecessor and companion piece, Horizons/East hard going, albeit was a vast improvement on the snooze fest that was Palms. There was little I could get my teeth into, so when it came to the first time playing Horizons/West it was almost begrudgingly. I’m very happy to report that the band are fully back on form as they head towards their thirtieth anniversary in 2028.
LISTEN HERE

VIMIC – Open Your Omen
Well, here’s an album that I never expected to hear. I’m not sure many people did. Two deaths – Joey Jordison (drums, in 2021) and Kato Khandwala (producer, in 2018) – placed the debut album of VIMIC in complete and total limbo. Largely finished but in a grey area artistically and legally, it felt like it was destined to be an album largely spoken of as rumour. However, Jordison’s family estate announced in 2025 that they had acquired the rights to release it – and so they did, independently, via a Kickstarter campaign. It’s not something I particularly enjoy, but having heard about it for a decade, and recognising the tragedy that has dogged it, I’m glad it’s out there.
LISTEN HERE

Zara Larsson – Midnight Sun
I don’t know why but I expected this to be absolute trash. It’s good! Not everything can be groundbreaking. Zara Larsson delivers breezy, energetic dance pop and sometimes that’s all that you want.
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