Some artists don’t ask permission; they just land in your gut and stay there. Some records arrive polished and pristine. Others bleed the moment you press play. On their debut album ‘Put A Smile On For Me’, the fast-rising London four-piece Keo choose the latter. Raw, bruised, and unflinchingly self-aware, their first full-length release captures the emotional fallout of love, guilt, shame, and self-destruction with a clarity that feels almost confrontational. The record captures a band documenting themselves in real time, preserving every fracture, ugly thought and moment of collapse without compromise.

Blending grunge intensity, shoegaze textures and confessional songwriting, the record draws on the charged candour of artists including Led Zeppelin, Sun Kil Moon and Smashing Pumpkins, while carrying the lyrical directness and storytelling instinct of artists like Radiohead. Across its 11 tracks, Keo move between moments of towering vulnerability and total collapse, pairing brooding atmospheres with melodies that feel built to be screamed back in over-spilling rooms.

“The next big guitar band." - The London Standard.
“A sound that has given UK guitar its biggest kick up the fretboard in years.” Rolling Stone UK.
“Keo are already that band." - DORK.
“There’s something undeniably compelling about Keo’s willingness to lay everything bare.” -Kerrang!
"Indie-rock’s most promising new proposition” - DIY.

The Dinked Edition of ‘Put A Smile On For Me’ comes in an exclusive collector’s format featuring alternative artwork and a limited yellow marbled vinyl pressing. It includes a heavyweight outer sleeve with alternate artwork, a printed inner sleeve, transparent outer sticker and exclusive fold-out poster. 

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Be Happy
That’s Me
Fly
Best I Can Do
Bird On The Wire

Side B
Pistol
Loser
Black Dress
Blue Song
Spent On You

In an age of algorithms, Westside Cowboy are pure-spirited proof of the magic that can only come from human connection. Just three years on from forming in Manchester, starting a band for the fun of it without so much as a plan to even play a gig, the quartet - Jimmy Bradbury (vocals, guitar), Reuben Haycocks (vocals, guitar), Aoife Anson O'Connell (vocals, bass) and Paddy Murphy (drums) - have crafted perhaps the year’s most exciting debut by simply figuring out what feels good, and following it into the horizon.

There’s no computer that could make 'It Goes On'. No formula to creating the joyous whack of emotion that comes from these four mates pooling their ideas and watching them fly. “If you go in with a preconceived notion of what you're doing, it’s sort of destined to fail because you’re not truly being yourself,” suggests Aoife. “So because we didn’t think we were gonna [do any of this] at the beginning, all we were thinking was: ‘What’s going to be the most enjoyable thing to play right now?’"

Aoife, Reuben and Paddy all knew each other from the Royal Northern College of Music; Jimmy and Paddy had played in a band together a few years previously. When they decided to sit in a practice room as a quartet for the first time, there was only one rule for what would follow. “We just wanted to make simple music. I think the reason there was such chemistry - and when we look back, even after two weeks we were really working well together - is because it was such a simple statement of intent,” recalls Reuben. “Any time we’d disagree on something - which was very rare - we’d just consult the original mission statement: if you’ve got too many chords in it, you’re wrong.”

A purposeful reaction against the “more abstract” styles they’d individually been dallying with before, Westside Cowboy swiftly became a place for concise, straight-hitting ideas influenced by “early rock’n’roll: Lonnie Donegan, The Beatles and The Velvet Underground,” says Paddy. Jimmy remembers spending the bulk of 2023 playing the first five songs of an Elvis Presley album on repeat. “When we started the band, people would ask who was in it and we’d be like, ‘We got this guy who works in a guitar shop, only listens to Elvis and dresses like Marty McFly - you know, that guy!’” Aoife laughs.

If these were the solid early seeds of Westside Cowboy, then the biggest thing that’s shaped them into the exploratory, melodically robust band they are now, has been their own journey. When they did start playing gigs (their first two shows were at a coffee shop, and for an animal rights charity), they found that their songs were being stretched and pushed forward in real time. Paddy notes that the true crux of It Goes On’s propulsive, heady opening track ‘Kick Stones (The Boys)’ is “as much about how we made it as the lyrics”.

“We loved the way it felt to play, but we thought we couldn’t record it like that or people would think we wanted to be a stadium rock band,” Aoife jokes. Instead, they translated it through their own lens, using a live recording of The Velvet Underground’s ‘What Goes On’ as their primary reference point. “We always thought, if we can pull this off it could be really fun,” Paddy grins. “Taking this mad, ‘70s rock thing but then having it played by a bunch of scrawny kids.” Since those first shows, Westside Cowboy have found themselves notching up an increasingly wild list of live milestones. Last year, they won Glastonbury’s prestigious Emerging Talent Competition, leading them to an opening slot on the televised Woodsies Stage. Since then, they’ve toured with Black Country, New Road and Geese while, later this year, they’ll play their biggest headline gigs to date, including stop offs at London’s O2 Kentish Town Forum and Manchester’s Albert Hall. Winning the Glastonbury slot, says Reuben, felt like “the first moment that we realised we really were a band”. Now, with the making of 'It Goes On', Westside Cowboy have underlined exactly what kind of band they want to be.

Recorded with producer Loren Humphrey (Geese, Cameron Winter, Wunderhorse) at Greenmount Studios in Leeds over a period that saw them thinking on their feet and remodelling their production into an even more directly energetic new form, there’s an urgency of feeling to 'It Goes On' that could only ever really happen with a young group’s debut record. “First albums are often my favourites because you can tell there’s a point to prove. You’re firing on all cylinders because you know that this may never happen again,” says Paddy. “You’re trying to create these big feelings, but all you have with you to string it together is a pencil and a Pritt Stick.”

Big feelings are at the heart of the matter: these are songs that aim to distill the confusion, desperation and blind hope of youth into eleven tracks that hit you in the chest. Westside Cowboy describe it as ‘the yank’. “There’s a major key, triumphant sound to some music - like the first Arcade Fire album, or ‘Someone Great’ by LCD Soundsystem - where there’s a persistence that’s contemporary and energetic, but also a simplicity,” Paddy continues. “It’s as though someone is shoving emotion into it in a way that feels like it’s reverberating,” Aoife nods. The lyrics across Westside Cowboy’s debut might often be up for interpretation, but the emotion that pours out of them is clear. On ‘Well Done Kid, You Did It’ they address the confusion of trying to make your way in a broken and terrifying world with the same cathartic forward motion of its central idea: that sometimes, all you can do is try your best. The rousing ‘Pin Up Boys’, explains Reuben, became “heavier and more aggro” every time they played it live; a mirror to its preoccupations with the struggles of self control. Meanwhile, though ‘Worried Age’ might wear its fears in its title, there’s a sense of defiance and resistance to its steadily escalating sonic scale that feels like strength. By the track’s raucous, screaming crescendo, the only answer is to come together and dance it out.

In a time of terrifying division and conflict, Westside Cowboy always try to focus on what unites us. Early on in the group’s life, they co-created No Band Is An Island: a Manchester-based collective putting on fundraising nights to spotlight both local artists and important issues via speakers from charities and direct action groups.I think we wanted to engage with politics in a way that felt more impactful beyond the music,” notes Aoife. In their current video for ‘Kick Stones (The Boys)’, they called upon the skills of FC United: a splinter team that started when Man United were sold to an American corporation. “They’re very community minded and they have a similar atmosphere to what we want to be,” says Reuben. “Their ethos is ‘making friends not millionaires’.”

'It Goes On' ends with ‘You Could Have Died There On The Dancefloor’: a track that the quartet purposefully wanted to leave as the record’s parting note. It’s a wide-eyed, open-hearted ellipsis that cuts to the core of everything that’s come before; the final air punch in the name of hope. “The final lyric is ‘I am everything but perfect / But I’m trying, so please keep me around,” smiles Reuben. “And that’s the spirit of Westside Cowboy.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Kick Stones (The Boys)
2. Paper Chains
3. Dobro
4. Well Done Kid, You Did It
5. Worried Age
6. Big Wheels
7. Pin Up Boys
8. Coyote
9. Patchwork
10. Take My Leaving As I Love You
11. You Could Have Died There On The Dancefloor

Ariana Grande returns with a new studio album 'Petal', the follow-up to 'Eternal Sunshine', is executive produced and co-written by Grande and Ilya, reuniting her with the 'Problem' hitmaker.

Grande describes 'Petal' as “something that is full of life and growing through the cracks of something cold and hard and challenging.” The album marks her return to music after a period of blockbuster screen success, notably in the Wicked franchise. 

TRACK LISTING

TBA

Since their beginning, breaking through as a smart, witty new force within the British guitar music landscape back in the dark days of the pandemic, Yard Act have been wrangling with the knotty complexities of the human condition.

Their Mercury Prize-nominated 2022 debut The Overload span wry, winking tales of capitalism and the strive for success, wrapped in the sort of propulsive, serrated riffs that quickly saw them labelled as post-punk’s new darlings. With its Top Five-placing 2024 follow-up Where’s My Utopia?, the band - vocalist James Smith, bassist Ryan Needham, guitarist Sam Shipstone and drummer Jay Russell - blasted both of those conceits apart, creating a musically-exploratory and diverse record that worked to unpick and examine the very notion of ambition and fulfillment; of ‘what happens next’.

The journey of Smith’s lyrics across each of their albums, Shipstone muses, has always been quite Faustian: “It’s someone who’s seeking a goal, and then makes a pact with the devil to get the goods they want, but when they get them they’re corrupted so they get the rewards but also this bitterness too.” “And how does Faust end?” questions Needham. “Oh, not well…” If this sounds like a macabre place to root the objectively excellent third album from one of the country’s most celebrated bands of the last decade, then it’s also crucial to understanding Yard Act’s newest - and best - record yet, You’re Gonna Need A Little Music. Simultaneously the most dynamic, collaborative, energised work they’ve laid to tape, but also containing some of the darkest, most cynical and truly questioning moments they’ve concocted too, it picks up their tale and examines the findings more unsparingly than ever.

It feels appropriate that, in order to interrogate these existential subjects, the writing and recording of You’re Gonna Need A Little Music involved the four musicians coming together and strengthening their own core unit more than ever. Weirdly, for a band so associated with incendiary live shows and constant touring, their third LP marks the first time that the quartet have ever made an album together, as a live band in the same room. “The first two records were both laptop records essentially,” says Smith. The Overload was written alongside Needham before the band had fully formed; its follow-up was carved out in snatches of time on tour buses and hotel rooms, amongst a relentless schedule of “slinging [all our gear] in the rehearsal space, going back home, and then a week later piling it back into a van again.”

If their last record was created like a game of Exquisite Corpse, each member taking the track and adding their part in turn (“I always thought that was a really over the top name for a piece of folded down paper…” Needham notes), then this time they laid down roots and gave themselves time. Russell kitted out their new studio in Leeds with everything they required to track the band live at the same time throughout the writing process, including an old piano passed down from Smith’s late aunt that would become integral to the process. For the first time in a long time, Yard Act were able to settle into an “uninterrupted five month period” of creativity, crafting “40 or 50 songs” and allowing themselves to follow their ideas with no external pressure. “It felt like freedom,” says Smith. “It felt like everything I’d wanted from being in a band - to be able to make enough money to be left alone.

The results speak for themselves. Recorded between Leeds and Glendale, Los Angeles with producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen (Nine Inch Nails, Beck, St. Vincent), You’re Gonna Need A Little Music rings with the chemistry and energy of a band absolutely locked in. Each track has its own distinct character, whether in the ominous, guttural ferocity of ‘Redeemer’, the sleazy disco odyssey of its title track, the fizzing indie smarts of ‘Cherophobe Rock’ or the loose, cerebral meditations of ‘Janey Said’. It stems from a time of experimentation and exploration - ask Shipstone about “The Code” and he’ll give you a technical explanation as to why these songs are able to constantly veer into unexpected places whilst never undermining their melodic clout. The sense is of a band hitting a purple patch, where all the efforts of the last half-decade come together and create magic. “I think most bands’ best stuff comes around the 3rd or 4th album where they really outgrow their influences and become their own thing,” muses Smith as Needham chips in: “I keep saying, it’s like Blur. This is Parklife. The first album they were doing the genre-y thing; the second one was a kick against that but they didn’t really know what they were doing, and then they made Parklife, which was the perfect distillation of it all.” You’re Gonna Need A Little Music, however, is no whimsical walk through suburban England. From the opening self-analytical sprawl of ‘Empty Pledges’ - a track that begins with juddering deep breaths at the top of a skyscraper and freefalls into a torrent of thoughts about purpose, pride and the feeling of punching your way out of a prison of your own making - Yard Act’s third seeks to work through some of the most complicated facets of life.

In some ways, and on purpose, it is a step away from Smith’s venerated vignettes and character studies; a move towards something more “impressionistic” and up for interpretation. “I felt like I’d taken it to its logical extreme on ‘Blackpool Illuminations’ [on the last record], and I didn’t want to tread old ground,” he says. And yet the feeling still pours through, perhaps more than ever. There is a journey, should you want to trace it, from the fictional Isle of Balamory to the fantasy/ reality of San Francisco Bay. Tread the path with him and you’ll keep running into Janey - a mirror to Smith’s own psyche; a person but, y’know, not exactly. “I think the album is about multiple realities and how individualism has led us, in the modern world, to question if there even is a shared reality anymore because everyone just believes what they want now, this is the price we've paid for pursuing neoliberalism ultimately” Smith suggests.

The questions are deep, but the spirit of You’re Gonna Need A Little Music is boundless - not for nothing does its title point to the power of art and creativity to rescue us from the mire. ‘Thrill of The Chase’, with its snarled, frenetic climax as close to rap as Smith has ever reached, is filled with venom but you can also picture it giddily going off in the mosh pit. ‘Redeemer’ might have thrown the kitchen sink - or at least its cookware - at the situation, with Meldal-Johnsen concocting a brittle, metallic soundscape out of a day of rattling pots and pans, but the result is direct, visceral and exciting.

It’s a balancing act that culminates, as all Yard Act albums do, with a final moment of optimism in ‘Over The Barrel’: a track that travels from rinky dink bar-room piano through a euphoric indie- rock chorus and out, finally, into that sought-after ocean. Perhaps it’s less certain than Smith has been in the past. “‘Over The Barrel’ [as a saying] can have multiple meanings. The choice is yours. But,” says the frontman, “personally, I still have a bit of hope in me for how it all works out.” The destination might still be unknown, but the journey is unequivocally Yard Act’s finest yet. Maybe Faust didn’t have the ending all worked out after all.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Empty Pledges
New Beginnings
Tall Tales
Fiction
You're Gonna Need A Little Music
Cherophobe Rock

Side B
Thrill Of The Chase
Janey Said
Redeemer
Talky Talky People
Over The Barrel

Nia Archives returns with 'Emotional Junglist', an album about love – but not just the shimmering romantic parts. Written throughout 2025 – a year that saw Nia fall in, and horrifically back out of, love – each track will encompass something of the experience.

Marking her biggest sonic leap to date, her alt-jungle sound honed alongside James Ford (Arctic Monkey’s, Blur), Ethan P. Flynn (FKA Twigs, David Byrne) and Julia Michaels (Lady Gaga, Sabrina Carpenter), will see her flirt with everything from dewy-eyed indie pop and nineties electronica, underscored by the syncopated beats and thudding basslines of her jungle roots with a tracklist that features Jorja Smith and Sampha.

The motif for the album is a shell – tough on the outside, but through pressure, maturation and resilience, something precious is built within. Nodding to the female form, the spiral chamber also symbolizes growth and self-development.

TRACK LISTING

1. Feelingz Go Numb
2. Around Tha Bend
3. Danger
4. Vertical
5. This Could Be…
6. Dance With Me 2nite
7. Get Me Down (feat. Jorja Smith)
8. Train Of Thought
9. Superlust
10. There Goes Ma Head
11. Almost Always
12. Tender (feat. Sampha)
13. Tha Darkest Hour
14. Lovers Grief
15. Boys In Blue

Suki Waterhouse, the indie pop storyteller behind the critically acclaimed Memoir of a Sparklemuffin, is back with her third album 'Loveland'.

Featuring 14 new tracks and co-written with some of music's brightest luminaries including Amy Allen, Aaron Dessner, Joel Little, Dan Wilson, Jules Apollinaire, and Natalie Findlay, 'Loveland' charts the tender distance between who we were and who we are becoming — a meditation on identity, motherhood, and the quiet pull toward something truer. It is Suki's most intimate and fully realized work yet.

TRACK LISTING

TBC

Recorded live at their iconic run of shows in 2019 at Coventry Cathedral, ‘Live from the Cathedral’ will be the next and final release of music from The Specials. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Man at C&A
2. Rat Race
3. Vote for Me
4. Friday Night, Saturday Morning
5. Embarrassed by You
6. Blank Expression
7. It Doesn’t Make It Alright
8. The Lunatics
9. Do Nothing
10. Blam Blam Fever
11. A Message to You Rudy
12. Stereotype
13. 10 Commandments
14. Nite Klub
15. Do the Dog
16. Concrete Jungle
17. Monkey Man
18. Gangsters
19. Too Much Too Young
20. B.L.M.
21. We Sell Hope
22. Ghost Town
23. Breaking Point
24. You’re Wondering Now

RED XEROX is a vision of Chicago emerging from a pandemic to find itself changed; a new generation of young people under the banner of Youth Revolution Now! Tired of psychic death and corporate capitulation, they grasped at true words. An explosion of creativity seeping across the country grounded in friendship, joy and support, here documented in 33rpms for the first time.

TRACK LISTING

1. Horsegirl - Sea Life Sandwich Boy 
2. Friko - Get Numb To It! 
3. Lifeguard - Crate 
4. Post Office Winter - Mother, Sister, Nurse 
5. Dwaal Troupe - En Utero 
6. Sharp Pins - You Turned Off The Light 
7. Current Union TM - Dukkha Coca 
8. TV Buddha - Baby, Woah! (Version)
9. P. Noid - Go Somewhere Else 
10. Amaya Peña - Song For Avi 
11. Free Range - Lost & Found
12. Uniflora - Two or More 

'Be Sweet To Me', the debut album by Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Violet Grohl, who is the daughter of Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl.

The Violet Grohl LP is a surprisingly assured debut that balances raw emotion with sharp musical instincts. Drawing from grunge, indie rock, and lo-fi pop influences, the record feels both nostalgic and refreshingly personal. Grohl’s vocals carry a natural vulnerability that gives the lyrics weight, especially on the quieter, introspective tracks. The production stays intentionally rough around the edges, which adds charm rather than distraction. While some songs blend together stylistically, the album’s sincerity keeps it engaging from start to finish. It’s not trying to reinvent rock music, but it captures the restless energy and honesty that make young artists exciting to watch.

TRACK LISTING

1. THUM
2. 595
3. Bug In The Cake
4. Last Day I Loved You
5. Big Memory
6. Mobile Star
7. Often Others
8. Applefish
9. Cool Buzz
10. Pool Of My Dreams
11. Plastic Couch

Over the past twenty years Future Islands have travelled a rare arc, from promising newcomers to best-kept secret, from cult favourites to heroes of the genre. As they reach this remarkable milestone, they resist the obvious move. Instead of a ‘best-of’ compilation victory lap, Future Islands present 'From a Hole in the Floor to a Fountain of Youth' - an immediate and accessible collection – half of which has never appeared on streaming services – comprising alternate hits, rarities, and fan favourites that showcase the band’s palette and bring further colour to their uniquely universal appeal.

As the title suggests, this double-LP traces the group’s journey from humble origins toward ever-widening horizons. Twenty songs for twenty years, four members of the band, four sides of vinyl. Future Islands have always been more than a viral moment; their career contains extraordinary depth and nuance, often overshadowed by louder peaks. These songs reveal a band comfortable with subtlety, grace, and emotional endurance - and they have never sounded more eternal.

The songs were first gathered into a playlist by bass lynchpin William Cashion, who also chose the title - “I’ve always loved the imagery of that lyric,” he makes clear, “the hole in the floor is the everyday, but the fountain is the magic that happens when the life you dreamed about actually becomes the one you’re living. It’s the dream and the reality existing in the same room.” A well-known Tennessee Williams quote talks of this kind of duration - “time is the longest distance between two places.” It is time that really separates the floor from the fountain.

Yes, Future Islands can wow and dazzle, but this release is about something else, something understated and more profound. “This is for everyone who has carried these songs with them, from the first house parties to the rooms we’re playing today,” explains Cashion.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A blazing collection of mostly unheard rarities from Future Islands' inception through to present day, with a wide range of styles covered from their melodic, electronic indie business to ambient-leaning sections and gritty dancefloor electronica. A fine example of why Future Islands are so enduring.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Ink Well
2. Pinnochio
3. Happiness of Being Twice
4. In the Fall
5. Awake and Dreaming
6. Virgo Distracts
7. Find Love
8. Cotton Flower
9. The Fountain
10. Tomorrow
11. One Day
12. The Chase
13. Calliope
14. Six Weeks
15. Haunted By You
16. Sail
17. As Long As You Are
18. Days
19. Rager
20. Glimpse

Simon Joyner is among America’s best songwriters, so says Gillian Welch, Conor Oberst, Kevin Morby, and others. "Singer-songwriter" is a frustratingly confining term; to truly understand exactly just how confining, look no further than the recorded works of Simon Joyner, an artist whose work consistently transcends the narrow parameters of genre classifications and record shop bin cards. Though his music has always honored, reckoned with - wrestled with - the tradition set forth by his songwriting forebears (Cohen, Van Zandt, Ochs, Dylan, Reed to name a few), Joyner can always be counted on to defy expectations; as a lyricist, melodicist, and arranger, Joyner likes to keep us on our toes.

Joyner traverses the human predicament, in general, and the American psyche specifically, using fiction to tell difficult truths. Characters struggle through personal crises while absorbing America's currently failing experiment.

Joyner's 19th studio album, continues this upward trend. While intrinsically linked to the personal grief of 2024's 'Coyote Butterfly', the autobiographical album Joyner made in the wake of his son's death, this new album explores the concept of tough love as a dichotomy applied to various fictional relationships including romantic, familial, and political. This balancing act comes through in vivid portrayals of everyday heartache and in the exploration of political rage and the betrayals of the American Dream.

One of the marvels of Joyner's catalog is how his patterns don't repeat but transform. Knowing nods to Cohen, Dylan, and the Velvets have been part of his songwriting since the early lo-fi days, but the ways these touchstones get infused keep changing. While Joyner's ragged acoustic songs are in the spotlight, they're prodded by electric guitars and imbued with experimental tendencies. Rock songs split the difference between minimal grooves learned from 'Loaded'-era Velvet Underground and the ecstatic rhythmic weirdness of Can. By the time we arrive at the penultimate track, 'Anniversary Song', the ghost vocals and scratches of microtonal synth have blurred the lines between Joyner's folk singer heart and his avant garde spirit.

All of this leads to the 20-minute title track which closes 'Tough Love', an eviscerating plunge into a seemingly bottomless pit of regret, survivor's guilt, and unvarnished grief. Borrowing a repetitious structure from Lou Reed's narrated suite, 'Street Hassle', and combined with the full-side testimonial of Dylan's 'Sad-eyed Lady of the Lowlands', Joyner narrates from the perspective of his departed son speaking to his father and laying out his every failure and brutally highlighting how none of it can be undone. Soon, though, this agony opens up into something transcendent, in both its elegant imagery and ethereal atmospherics. The final moments of the album grant permission for self-forgiveness and hopefully someday, understanding.

TRACK LISTING

1. Annelie
2. Wild Palms
3. Drowning Man
4. Two Black Irises
5. Vagabond
6. Isn't This How the Story Always Begins?
7. Winter Says
8. Last Call for Karaoke
9. In a Room Like This
10. How to Talk to Your Man
11. Allegiances
12. Anniversary Song
13. Tough Love

The complete 19-track collection combining both instalments of Yungblud’s GRAMMY® nominated album ‘Idols’, which adds 6 brand new songs and a re-imagined version of the GRAMMY® nominated single “Zombie” with The Smashing Pumpkins.

TRACK LISTING

LP Tracklisting:
1. I Need You (To Make The World Seem Fine)
2. The Postman
3. Zombie (feat. The Smashing Pumpkins)
4. Time
5. War Pt. II
6. Blueberry Hill
7. Suburban Requiem
Bonus CD (Idols):
1. Hello Heaven, Hello
2. Idols Pt. I
3. Lovesick Lullaby
4. Zombie
5. The Greatest Parade
6. Change
7. Monday Murder
8. Ghosts
9. Fire
10. War
11. Idols Pt. II
12. Supermoon

CD Tracklisting:
1. Hello Heaven, Hello
2. Idols Pt. I
3. Lovesick Lullaby
4. Zombie
5. The Greatest Parade
6. Change
7. Monday Murder
8. Ghosts
9. Fire
10. War
11. Idols Pt. II
12. Supermoon
13. I Need You (To Make The World Seem Fine)
14. The Postman
15. Zombie (feat. The Smashing Pumpkins)
16. Time
17. War Pt. II
18. Blueberry Hill
19. Suburban Requiem

Sixteen killer 70s reggae funk and soul cuts from the likes of John Holt, Lee Perry, Cornel Campbell, The Cimarons, The Chosen Few and more featuring superb reggae takes on songs by artists including The Jackson 5, William DeVaughn, Diana Ross and The Supremes, War, The Temptations, Roberta Flack, The Stylistics and others!

Well-documented is the influence of American black music on Jamaican styles of the 1960s – from the birth of ska music, when The Skatalites ska-ified the jump-up southern USA rhythm and blues music of Rosco Gordon, Louis Jordan and Fats Domino, through to the creation of rocksteady when Jamaican artists like The Techniques, The Paragons, Alton Ellis and The Melodians turned to the slower rhythms and soulful harmonies of groups such as The Impressions and The Drifters for inspiration.

Less-well established is that in the 1970s Jamaicans didn’t (shock!) stop listening to American black music styles, with many 70s reggae artists as invested in soul, funk and the proto-disco sounds of Philadelphia, as was the case with rhythm and blues in the previous decade. In the 1970s, while Jamaica promoted its own roots reggae styles around the world, powerhouse USA soul labels such as Motown, Philadelphia International and Stax Records were at the same time all popular on the island.

This interaction between American and Jamaican music was not limited to Jamaica. In Britain, first-generation Caribbean-émigré children in the 1960s and early 70s grew up with an equal love of both soul and reggae, which manifested itself in the home-grown arrival of lovers rock in the mid-1970s.

Soul Jazz Records’ new ‘Reggae Island Soul’ tells this story of how soul and funk-infused reggae in the 1970s united the sounds of Jamaica, USA and the UK into a highly-addictive cultural hybrid of styles.

When Elder Island went into the studio to record the follow-up to their critically acclaimed 2021 album, 'Swimming Static', they were determined to “turn everything on its head”. The trio are celebrated for their brooding indie-electronica that draws on their Bristol roots, creating vastly detailed and immersive soundscapes. But 'Hello Baby Okay' marks a new era for the band, fuelled by a longing for transcendence and euphoria. An effervescent counterpoint to the current times, their new music is threaded through with a liberated energy, lilting funk-pop guitars, danceable beats and a renewed sense of play. “We wanted the joy to shine through,” they say.

While 'Swimming Static' was densely constructed, with instrumentation meticulously layered in the editing suite, its follow-up was a totally different process where “we did the complete opposite,” says Katy. When they went into the studio in 2023, they went back to their roots with free-flowing jam sessions, rekindling their sense of spontaneity while channeling the warm embrace of the dancefloor. “Our sound got pigeonholed into a chillout coffee-shop playlist space,” says Luke, but in fact, David continues, “DJ culture has been heavily influential on our approach to music.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Ordinary Love
2. Pink Lemon
3. Bang
4. White Corridor
5. Snapshot
6. Faster Faster
7. Broken Melody
8. Letters
9. Bigger Than Us
10. The Inner Light

The 10-track 'Train On The Island' was co-produced by long-time collaborator John Parish (PJ Harvey, Dry Cleaning) at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, Wales, where the pair recorded the New Zealander’s previous bodies of work, 'Party' (2017), 'Designer' (2019) and 'Warm Chris' (2022). Joining Harding and Parish on 'Train On The Island' were pedal steel player Joe Harvey-Whyte, harpist Mali Llywelyn, synth artist Thomas Poli, drummer Sebastian Rochford (Polar Bear) and Huw Evans (H. Hawkline) on bass, vocals, acoustic/electric guitar and organ.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A wonderfully evocative collection of swooning alt-pop, insistent folky indie and jam-adjacent fluidity, all topped with Harding's unmistakeable vocal. A wonderfully warm, constantly evolving suite of pieces, packed with personality and groove.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Ate The Most
2. One Stop
3. Train On The Island
4. Worms
5. Venus In The Zinnia
6. If Lady Does It
7. San Fransisco
8. What Am I Gonna Do?
9. Riding That Symbol
10. Coats

'The Great Divide', the highly anticipated new album from 2x Grammy Nominee Noah Kahan.

A reflection on Noah’s past, his now-complicated relationship to family, friends, his native Vermont, as well as the disconnect and distance that silence and unspoken truths create between people.

Produced by 'Stick Season' collaborator Gabe Simon as well as new collaborator Aaron Dessner

TRACK LISTING

TBC

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2026 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

This limited-edition 7-inch vinyl captures The Last Dinner Party performing two standout tracks from their Live From The Pyre sessions recorded in New York. Pressed exclusively for Record Store Day 2026, the record features two stunningly recorded live versions of The Scythe & Second Best.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2026 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Record Store Day Only (Limited edition leaf green vinyl) on gatefold. Signed by artist on Inner Gatefold artwork. Max 500 copies pressed. Pavey Ark, beautiful cinematic indie folk. The album explores the theme of time. The backbone of the album was mixed by Paul Butler, frontman of English indie band The Bees. Now based in Los Angeles Paul has produced albums for Michael Kiwanuka, Andrew Bird and Teskey Brothers. Pavey Ark also worked with composer and producer Adrian McNally (The Unthanks) who led the live string quartet studio session and co-produced and mixed three songs on the new album.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2026 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

‘Bad Life’ was the single collaboration between Sigrid and Bring Me The Horizon, released via Island Records in 2022.

Being the fourth and final single from Sigrid’s second studio album ‘How To Let Go’, this is the first time the standalone track will be available on vinyl, meaning fans of both artists can add to their respective collections.

This special release for Record Store Day 2026 will be a limited edition, blue-coloured 7”.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Bad Life
B1. Bad Life (acoustic)

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2026 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 18TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM (BST) ON MONDAY APRIL 20th).

Mercury prize and BRIT nominated Kae Tempest re-imagines his fifth studio album Self Titled, once again teaming up with critically acclaimed producer Fraser T Smith. Pressed on exclusive transparent crystal black vinyl, the record features new, stripped back versions of every track from the album.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2026 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 18TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM (BST) ON MONDAY APRIL 20th).

Recipients of the coveted Mercury Music Prize, English Teacher’s 2024 debut album “This Could Be Texas” received universal acclaim upon its release and reached #8 on the UK Album Charts.

“Nearly Daffodils”, the second single from this album, was never made available physically and will be released as an extremely collectable sky blue 7” for Record Store Day, paired with Matt Maltese’s rework of the track on the reverse.

TRACK LISTING

A. Nearly Daffodils
B. Nearly Daffodils (Matt Maltese Rework)

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2026 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 18TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM (BST) ON MONDAY APRIL 20th).

30th anniversary first colour pressing for the groundbreaking debut album that launched one of the UK’s most acclaimed soundtrack producers. Released on Go! Discs in 1995, the album established Holmes as a unique talent capable of bridging the worlds of dance music and cinema.

Long out of print, this double vinyl reissue celebrates the album’s enduring influence on electronic and soundtrack music alike, highlighting the genesis of a producer whose work would go on to define 1990s and 2000s film sound aesthetics.

TRACK LISTING

A1 No Mans Land
A2 Slash the Seats
B1 Shake Ya Brain
B2 Got F*cked Up Along the Way
C1 Gone
C2 The Atom And You
D1 Minus 61 in Detroit
D2 Inspired by Leyburn
D3 Coming Home To The Sun

Jessie Ware returns with her new album ‘Superbloom’ – the crescendo of her latest era – out via Island EMI Records.

Superbloom’ erupts into a glittering rush of Studio 54-inflected groove-pop. Expanding Ware’s increasingly euphoric body of work as she explores our shared craving for touch, pleasure, intimacy and connection.

The album features recent single ‘I Could Get Used To This’, hailed as her “ultimate entry into divahood” and the first track to fully capture the record’s assured, expansive spirit, carried by cascading strings and a sense of full-bodied release.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Huge widescreen synth-pop forged from huge synth swells and saw-wave stabs, cavernous percussion and Ware's wonderfully evocative vocals. Though her work has moved deftly between the more serene pieces and the poppier outings during her career, this is definitely a lean more toward the dancefloor. All the better for it too.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Garden Prelude
2. I Could Get Used To This
3. Superbloom
4. Automatic
5. Chariots Of Love Interlude
6. Sauna
7. Mr. Valentine
8. Love You For
9. Ride
10. Don't You Know Who I Am?
11. 16 Summers
12. No Consequences
13. Mon Amour

Alabama duo Sister Ray Davies follow their debut album 'Holy Island' with an EP of alternative versions and reworkings. The EP features two remixes by Pye Corner Audio, who has made new shapes out of ‘Aidan’ and ‘Morning Bell’; the former with a harder, Suicide-style approach, the latter expanding on the almost ambient nature of the original and elevating it. “This version of ‘Aidan’ found new space, new depths, new melodies and new rhythms,” enthuses singer/guitarist Adam Morrow. “While the mix of ‘Morning Bell’ carries the song into a whole new, mythic place. “I think the EP adds extra layers of depth to the original album. We’re aware that it’s a short record, so having some additional tracks to dive into feels like a way to extend your stay in that space as a listener. There is more waiting down the rabbit hole. Genre collapses a bit, too, which is great.” There’s a Boards Of Canada-style version of ‘Nave’ by Malaphors – aka Chris Tomsett who, in his Innerstrings guise, spent a couple days wandering around Holy Island filming the stunning trilogy of videos that accompanied the album. The band themselves rework the remaining two tracks. The Portside Dub of ‘Iona’ came from them “sending stems to various effects boxes” and capturing the results, while the Guitar Armada version of ‘Big Ships’ takes a similarly fun approach, with the band inviting nine acoustic guitar players into the old Muscle Shoals Sound Studio B and recording live to tape.

“We tried to include as many friends as we possibly could and capture the wall of sound in real time, versus building it up with the studio,” explains Adam. “Music is fun, and it feels good to turn the studio into a big tent and invite people in.” The duo have been surprised to have been similarly welcomed into many people’s record collections. “We really didn't imagine that our record made in a little corner of Alabama would have the reach that it's had or find the crowd that seems to have really gotten it,” concludes Adam. “Finding that community is really wonderful.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Aidan (Pye Corner Audio Mix)
2. Iona (Portside Dub)
3. Big Ships (Live Guitar Armada Version)
4. Morning Bell (Pye Corner Audio Mix)
5. Nave (Malaphors Mix)

Thrillhouse have previously earned support from BBC Introducing, Radio X and KEXP along with comparisons to The National and Arcade Fire. Yet leaning into a more intimate sound charged with pure emotion has introduced them to a new audience, with the recent track ‘Wanna See You Smile’ amassing 25 million views across Instagram. Now the Brighton (UK) duo are poised to capitalise upon that interest when they release their second album, ‘Smile’.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: An emotionally charged, beautifully evocative suite of off-kilter folk and rolling Dylan / Springsteen-adjacent singer songwriter business. Understated drifting ambience and swooning harmonica solos, roughly hewn melodic phrases that stick in your head.

TRACK LISTING

Wanna See You Smile
See You
I'll Still Be There
Seven Wonders
Drain
The Tide
Where Would I Be Without You?
Ready For Whats Comin'
Couldn't Save It
A Light Drive
Torn Right Out Of The Palm Of Your Hands

Sea Island is a collection of new material composed and recorded over the past two years. While many of these compositions were performed live extensively prior to recording, others were constructed in the studio and are being heard for the first time here.

Musically, the album represents a range of compositional approaches. Murky, densely textured depths of sound are explored with subtle pulses and pings woven within, contrasted with composed or improvised moments of acoustic instrumentation making a move into the foreground. Certain tracks on Sea Island such as album opener Ahull make rhythm their focus by exploring subtle polyrhythms and investigating colliding moments of repetition and variation.

Though staunchly electronic at its core, instruments such as vibraphone and piano make appearances, and layers of live musicality, improvisation and detail appear in the looped and layered beds of manipulated sound recordings.

A varied cast of players appear in the loscil “ensemble”, some familiar collaborators from the past such as Jason Zumpano on rhodes and Josh Lindstrom on vibraphone, and others new to the mix such as Fieldhead?s Elaine Reynolds who provides layered violin on Catalina 1943, and Ashley Pitre contributing vocals on Bleeding Ink. Seattle pianist Kelly Wyse, who collaborated with loscil on his 2013 edition of piano-centric reworks Intervalo, performs on the tracks Sea Island Murders and En Masse.

Grammy and BRIT award winners, Mumford & Sons return with their 6th studio album, 'Prizefighter', co-produced by Mumford & Sons and Aaron Dessner, and featuring Hozier, Gracie Abrams, Gigi Perez, and Chris Stapleton. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Here (with Chris Stapleton)
2. Rubber Band Man (with Hozier)
3. The Banjo Song
4. Run Together
5. Conversation With My Son (Gangsters & Angels)
6. Alleycat
7. Prizefighter
8. Begin Again
9. Icarus (with Gigi Perez)
10. Stay
11. Badlands (with Gracie Abrams)
12. Shadow Of A Man
13. I’ll Tell You Everything
14. Clover

Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Disclosure's sophomore studio album, 'Caracal'.    

This record features an eclectic lineup of vocal collaborations including The Weeknd, Sam Smith, Gregory Porter, Lorde, Jordan Rakei and many more. With a total of five singles, the acclaimed second single, 'Omen' featuring Sam Smith was the highest charting of the singles, peaking at No.13 in the UK charts, and has accumulated almost 1 billion global streams since release. The Lorde featured track 'Magnets' follows closely behind with just under 710 million streams since release. 'Caracal' has sold over 135,000 physical copies worldwide since release and was Grammy nominated for The Best Dance/Electronic Album back in 2016.

The limited edition will be available for the first time on a 2LP Zoetrope, housed in a gatefold die cut sleeve. Each side of the vinyl is inspired by the original album artwork and campaign poster from the time, using the caracal cat and the featured vocalists illustrations to create animated movement across the discs as they spin.

TRACK LISTING

1. Nocturnal (ft. The Weeknd)
2. Omen (ft. Sam Smith)
3. Holding On (ft. Gregory Porter)
4. Hourglass (ft. LION BABE)
5. Willing & Able (ft. Kwabs)
6. Magnets (ft. Lorde)
7. Jaded
8. Good Intentions (ft. Miguel)
9. Superego (ft. NAO)
10. Echoes
11. Masterpiece (ft. Jordan Rakei)
12. Molecules
13. Moving Mountains (ft. Brendan Reilly)
14. Afterthought

The British electronic and sibling duo, Disclosure celebrate 5 years since the release of their third studio album 'ENERGY'.

For this album Disclosure shifted towards a more rhythmic and percussion focused sound, taking influence from UK house, garage, hip hop and world music.

It showcases a diverse range of vocal collaborations including Kelis, Channel Tres, Mick Jenkins, Fatoumata Diawara, Blick Bassy, Kehlani, Syd, and Common.

'ENERGY' was nominated for Best Dance/Electronic Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards and the single 'My High' was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording at the 2021 Grammy Awards. It is BPI certified Silver in the UK.

This 5th anniversary 1LP will now be available for the first time on limited edition Zoetrope, housed in a single die cut sleeve. Designed by Drew Tetz, each side of the zoetrope is inspired by the original album artwork, using the water and the clouds imagery to create lifelike movement with these earth elements.

TRACK LISTING

1. Watch Your Step (ft. Kelis)
2. Lavender (ft. Channel Tres)
3. My High (ft. Slowthai)
4. Who Knew? (ft. Mick Jenkins)
5. Douha (Mali Mali) (ft. Fatoumata Diawara)
6. Fractal
7. Ce N'est Pas (ft. Blick Bassy)
8. ENERGY
9. Thinking 'Bout You
10. Birthday (ft. Kehlani & Syd)
11. Reverie (ft. Common)

'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' sparked a 21st-century cultural renaissance. The soundtrack, which is certified 8 times platinum by the RIAA, reintroduced traditional American roots music to the masses and brought genres like bluegrass, gospel, blues, country, and folk back to the mainstream. The album’s critical success took the world by surprise, and subsequently by storm, influencing the next wave of popular music, rooted in the American South.

TRACK LISTING

1. Po Lazarus
2. Big Rock Candy Mountain
3. You Are My Sunshine
4. Down To The River To Pray
5. I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow
6. Hard Time Killing Floor Blues
7. I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow
8. Keep On The Sunny Side
9. I'll Fly Away
10. Didn't Leave Nobody But The Baby
11. In The Highways
12. I Am Weary (Let Me Rest)
13. I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow
14. O Death
15. In The Jailhouse Now
16. I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow
17. Indian War Whoop
18. Lonesome Valley
19. Angel Band

Jonny Liebeck Group features Jonny Liebeck (keyboards/synths), Tom Mason (electric bass), Andrew McLean (drums), and Santiago Morales (congas).

The A‑side is a breezy jazz‑funk tune full of Rhodes textures and a groovy rhythm, while the B‑side is a reinterpretation of Piero Piccioni's "Isole del Tramonto" from the film "In Viaggio con Papà".

TRACK LISTING

1. Sunset Islands
2. Sunrise Islands

You can’t plan for everything. Reuben Haycocks, Paddy Murphy and Aoife Anson-O’Connell didn’t have anything specific in mind when Jimmy Bradbury asked them if they fancied starting a band called Westside Cowboy during his shift at a music shop. Yet a couple of years, a clutch of singles, a killer live reputation, and a record deal from Island Records imprint Adventure Recordings later, it seems like the idea’s got legs: whether they meant to or not, Westside Cowboy have become one of the most exciting new acts in the UK.

STAFF COMMENTS

Liam says: Shop faves and local legends Westside Cowboy are back with their second EP and it's another belter. If you've been lucky enough to catch them live, then you'll know why we're all so excited - and boy does it live up to the hype! Burstin' with their homegrown brand of "Britainicana" that we've all come infatuated with, Westside are gonna be massive - so hop aboard YEEEEEHAWWWW!!!!!

TRACK LISTING

1. Strange Taxidermy
2. Can’t See
3. Don’t Throw Rocks
4. The Wahs
5. In The Morning

Remixes and reworks of the Mercury Prize winning album ‘This Could Be Texas’.

“So grateful that some of our favourite contemporary artists and friends were up for doing this with us x" - Lily Fontaine

TRACK LISTING

Albatross (Bug Teeth Remix)
The World’s Biggest Paving Slab (Daniel Avery Remix)
Broken Biscuits (Lewis Whiting Remix)
I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying (Water From Your Eyes Remix)
Mastermind Specialism (SHERELLE’s 160 Steps To Enlightenment Mix)
This Could Be Texas (Baxter Drury Remix)
Not Everybody Gets To Go To Space (Working Men’s Club Remix)
R&B (Max Cooper Remix)
Nearly Daffodils (Matt Maltese Rework)
The Best Tears Of Your Life (FDC DJs Remix)
You Blister My Paint (Silver Gore Remix)
Sideboob (TAAHLIAH Remix)
Albert Road (Blossom Caldarone Rework)

THIS IS A BLACK FRIDAY 2025 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON FRIDAY NOVEMBER 28th FROM 10AM ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8AM ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 29th).

Two iconic pop hits first shared by Chappell Roan in live performances, 'The Subway' and 'The Giver' both display her soaring vocals and witty songwriting. With 'The Subway' an anthem for heartbreak, loss, and moving on was born. On the B-side, 'The Giver' serves camp and country, making clear Roan's ability to cover a multitude of genres with ease, authenticity, and individuality. It’ll make you want to cry on public transportation on the A-Side then line dance on the B-side while you sing along to both.

Following an iconic tribute performance at the VMAs, rock legends Aerosmith unite with rising force YUNGBLUD on ‘One More Time’, marking Aerosmith’s first new material in over a decade. The 5-track EP features vocals from Steven Tyler and YUNGBLUD throughout, including 4 new songs written by Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, YUNGBLUD, and Matt Schwartz, plus a reimagined version of the Aerosmith classic 'Back In the Saddle'.

TRACK LISTING

1. My Only Angel
2. Problems
3. Wild Woman
4. A Thousand Days
5. Back In The Saddle (2025 Mix)

'Wicked: For Good – The Soundtrack', features performances by the stars of the emotional, electrifying conclusion to Universal Pictures’ global cinematic Wicked sensation, Wicked: For Good. 'Wicked: For Good – The Soundtrack' follows last year’s acclaimed, history-making release of 'Wicked: The Soundtrack', which marked the highest debut ever for a theatrical adaptation of a stage musical. With music and lyrics by legendary Grammy and Oscar® winning composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz, the soundtrack includes two new original songs featured in the film: 'No Place Like Home' performed by 3x Academy Award® nominee, Grammy-winning Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, and 'The Girl In The Bubble' performed by Academy Award® nominee, Grammy-winning Ariana Grande as Glinda.

In addition, 'The Wicked Witch of the East' is exclusively featured on the film soundtrack. It has never previously been released as part of the Original Broadway Cast Recording. The soundtrack also features fan-favorites 'Thank Goodness', 'As Long As You’re Mine', 'No Good Deed', and the title track 'For Good.'

TRACK LISTING

1. Every Day More Wicked – Wicked Movie Cast, Cynthia Erivo Ft. Michelle Yeoh, Ariana Grande
2. Thank Goodness / I Couldn’t Be Happier – Ariana Grande, Wicked Movie Cast Ft. Michelle Yeoh
3. No Place Like Home – Cynthia Erivo
4. The Wicked Witch Of The East – Marissa Bode, Cynthia Erivo, Ethan Slater
5. Wonderful – Jeff Goldblum, Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo
6. I'm Not That Girl (Reprise) – Ariana Grande
7. As Long As You're Mine – Cynthia Erivo & Jonathan Bailey
8. No Good Deed – Cynthia Erivo
9. March Of The Witch Hunters – Wicked Movie Cast, Ethan Slater
10. The Girl In The Bubble – Ariana Grande
11. For Good – Cynthia Erivo & Ariana Grande

The brilliantly named duo – formed by Adam Morrow and Jamie Sego – might be based in “the hit recording capital of the world”, Muscle Shoals, Alabama, but somehow, they have made a concept album about the ancient religious outpost off the coast of northeast England.

It’s a stunning record that mixes fuzzy guitars with folk horror and fantastic melodies – for fans of Ride, Slowdive, Galaxie 500, Talk Talk, Yo La Tengo and The Clientele. Despite its lyrical inspiration lying thousands of miles away, it comes imbued with the soulfulness of their surroundings – not least because it was recorded in the old Muscle Shoals Sound studio by the Tennessee River, now Portside Sound, which is run by Jamie.

“The story of Lindisfarne gave us a framework for what were otherwise very abstract ideas and emotions,” explains Adam. “It became a way to make sense of our own moment in history. We really want our lives and societies to always get better, and to be left alone to make that happen. But we are stuck in these cycles of progress and regression, and I think most people are really driven to make sense of it and assign meaning. Lately, we’ve lived through a global pandemic, a devaluation of truth and reality, and a resurgence of far-right politics into the mainstream. Not really what I expected out of life in 2025.” He is keen to point out that, despite the seriousness of its inspirations, the duo had a lot of fun making the album and really want it to be “a living and breathing thing”. “We want people to be able to engage with it regardless of whether they care about it as a concept record,” he says. “For me, it’s just another reason to expand the pedalboard,” concludes Jamie. “We hope you enjoy it. Peace, love and reverb from Alabama.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Lindisfarne
2. Iona
3. Aidan
4. Big Ships
5. Holy Island
6. Rowans
7. Nave
8. Cloisters
9. Morning Bell
10. War Machine (The Purpose Of A System Is What It Does)  - CD Only

Probably the first album to be written and recorded entirely in a Bundesliga soccer stadium, namely the Millerntor Stadium of football team FC St. Pauli in Hamburg. Don't worry, it doesn't sound like stadium rock at all. Quite the opposite in fact…Lo-fi without being brittle and minimal without feeling sparse.

Dave Doughman is the heart and voice behind Swearing At Motorists, who perform and record mainly as a duo. Since 1995, Swearing At Motorists has built a cult following with their raw energy, heartfelt songwriting, and relentless DIY ethos. Dubbed "The World's Local Band," as well as "The Two Men Who", they've traveled countless miles playing shows worldwide, sharing stages with iconic acts like Guided By Voices, Songs:Ohia, The Breeders, Spoon, Unwound, Brainiac, The Lemonheads, My Morning Jacket, and more. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Didn't Cross The Ocean
2. All That I Have
3. Italian Wine 
4. Jackie And Will
5. Miss My Lion 
6. Eleven Hours 
7. Roll On Arte 
8. Naked And Famous 
9. 31 Seasons In The Minor Leagues 
10. Your Beat Kicks Back Like Death 

"Island5" is Islandman’s most focused and detailed exploration of Anatolian psychedelia to date. They re-imagine the deep-rooted sounds of Anatolia through a modern lens. To them, this music isn’t frozen in time - it’s alive, shifting, and always becoming. Tradition, in their hands, isn’t something to preserve in glass, but something to carry, stretch, and let grow.

Each track offers a different angle into this reimagined sound. Analog synths mimic reed instruments, fuzzed guitars evoke forgotten tales, and percussion carries both the pulse of the city and the stillness of rural ground. There are meditative passages that invite silence ("Slwly"), and sunlit grooves that move the body before the mind ("Adada", "Rüzgar"). Everything flows as if improvised, but nothing feels accidental.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Is it Balearic? No! It's Anatolian! Tolga Boyuk completes his dream line-up with psychedelic guitar work from Erdem Baser and meditative percussion from Eralp Güven.

TRACK LISTING

1 Rüzgar
2 Adada
3 Eros
4 Ala Geyik
5 Cool Saz
6 SLWLY

The Weeknd's sophomore studio album 'Beauty Behind The Madness' was released in 2015 and features the #1 hits 'Can't Feel My Face' and 'The Hills'. 10th Anniversary Edition 2 LP set is pressed on standard weight transparent vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

1. Real Life
2. Losers Ft. Labrinth
3. Tell Your Friends
4. Often
5. The Hills
6. Acquainted
7. Can’t Feel My Face
8. Shameless
9. Earned It (Fifty Shades Of Grey)
10. In The Night
11. As You Are
12. Dark Times Ft. Ed Sheeran
13. Prisoner Ft. Lana Del Rey
14. Angel

The Last Dinner Party on the new album: “This record is a collection of stories, and the concept of album-as-mythos binds them. ‘The Pyre’ itself is an allegorical place in which these tales originate, a place of violence and destruction but also regeneration, passion and light.

“The songs are character driven but still deeply personal, a commonplace life event pushed to pathological extreme. Being ghosted becomes a Western dance with a killer, and heartbreak laughs into the face of the apocalypse. Lyrics invoke rifles, scythes, sailors, saints, cowboys, floods, Mother Earth, Joan of Arc, and blazing infernos. We found this kind of evocative imagery to be the most honest and truthful way to discuss the way our experiences felt, giving each the emotional weight it deserves.”

“This record feels a little darker, more raw and more earthy; it takes place looking out at a sublime landscape rather than seated an opulent table. It also feels metatextual and cheeky in places, like a knowing look reflected back at ourselves.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Agnus Dei
2. Count The Ways
3. Second Best
4. This Is The Killer Speaking
5. Rifle
6. Woman Is A Tree
7. I Hold Your Anger
8. Sail Away
9. The Scythe
10. Inferno

The debut EP, 'Shine' from Seattle’s Mother Love Bone. Fronted by legendary vocalist Andrew Wood, this is one of the key releases that jump-started the Grunge Rock evolution. With fully remastered audio, this is a must-have gem from one of the most underrated rock groups of the era.

TRACK LISTING

1. Thru Fade Away
2. Mindshaker Meltdown
3. Half Ass Monkey Boy
4. Chloe Dancer/Crown Of Thorns
5. Capricorn Sister

From the core of the Grunge era comes the essential landmark album, 'Apple', from Seattle’s Mother Love Bone. Two of its original members (Jeff Ament & Stone Gossard) went on to start Pearl Jam, but it all started here with the Andrew Wood-fronted band. Fully remastered for the first time since its 1990 release, this has become a sought-after fan favorite classic! Featuring the singles 'Stardog Champion' and 'This Is Shangrila'.

TRACK LISTING

1. This Is Shangrila
2. Stardog Champion
3. Holy Roller
4. Bone China
5. Come Bite The Apple
6. Stargazer
7. Heartshine
8. Captain Hi-Top
9. Man Of Golden Words
10. Capricorn Sister
11. Gentle Groove
12. Mr. Danny Boy
13. Crown Of Thorns

Third studio album from viral TikTok popstar Lola Young. Following on from 2024's 'This Wasn't Meant For You Anyway', 'I'm Only F**king Myself' features lead singles 'One Thing' and 'Not Like That Anymore'.

TRACK LISTING

1. How Long Will It Take To Walk A Mile? (interlude)
2. F*CK EVERYONE
3. One Thing
4. D£aler
5. SPIDERS
6. Penny Out Of Nothing
7. Walk All Over You
8. Post Sex Clarity
9. SAD SOB STORY! :)
10. CAN WE IGNORE IT? :(
11. Why Do I Feel Better When I Hurt You?
12. Not Like That Anymore
13. Who Fucking Cares?
14. Ur An Absolute C Word (interlude)

Hickey is the bold new album from Australian duo Royel Otis—a cleaner, more confident evolution of their sun-soaked indie rock. With jangly guitars, sticky hooks, and sharp, direct storytelling, tracks like “moody,” “car,” and “say something” capture the thrill of youth and the chaos of growing up. Romantic, rebellious, and irresistibly catchy, Hickey is made to leave a mark.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Evocative, jangling hooks and rich vocals draped over the top in true Royel Otis tradition, but as ever the horizons of their sound are widening all the time, drifting into snappy motorik rock and woozy ambient. Brilliant.

'Mustang Island', the third album from Austin-based band Little Mazarn, is a gentle force. Waves of grief crest like surf on the Texas coast. Wild horses break through long-shuttered gates, only to come back around. Lead songwriter, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist Lindsey Verrill (she/her) joins bandmates Jeff Johnston (he/him) and Carolina Chauffe (they/them). The ten-song collection continues work with Dear Life Records. A full-throated romp through the capabilities of community-minded songcraft, 'Mustang Island' is both naturalistic and futuristic, completely recasting Little Mazarn’s origins in primitive folk. Instead, the band reaches towards sonic experimentation and spacious expansion.

Lindsey’s heart-opening vocals and Jeff’s singing saw, both trademarks of the project, mix with unexpected bombastic drums, dissonant synthesizers, and a chorus of orchestral oddities. This mid-career ode dances confidently in the creative liberties granted by decades in the game – more dazzlingly lively, and honestly somber, than ever before.

The band’s crossroads branch across prominent Southern outsider music: On cello, Lindsey has recorded with Patty Griffin and Dana Falconberry. The Oklahoma-born Verrill didn’t write her first song until age 34. Jeff has played in Bill Callahan’s band, now drums with Thor & Friends and Orange Mothers, and still works on experimental puppet work. Little Mazarn has also collaborated with Thor Harris (Swans), Honey Island General Store (2023), following two previous LPs on Dear Life and Self Sabotage Records, and past LPs released by Keeled Scales (2022) and 10 (2019).

Alongside this new record, Lindsey directs music from Kate Wolf and Bob Wills to Six Texas Playboys, giving direct musical roots to Mustang Island. Lindsey left her job at a hearing clinic to help call a hot check in school. Recording also aligned with the death of Lindsey’s father, a career educator.
In Jeff and Lindsey’s hometown of Dallas.

“Grief, and the avoidance of grief, is a big part of being human,” says Lindsey.
“You make a choice, and then you grieve for the other choice. Or you finish a meal and literally grieve that it was so good. If you really befriend grief, you’re like, ‘oh, it’s here, in this pancake, which I loved so much that I ate the whole thing, and now it’s gone.’”

TRACK LISTING

1. Crystal Cave
2. New New San Antonio
3. The Cloud And The Snail
4. Dark Pleasure Of Endless Doing
5. Remember The Night
6. Mustang Island
7. The Gate
8. Murmuration
9. The Great Divide
10. The Golden Hour

‘The Slow Fire Of Sleep’ is the debut solo EP from L.Mayland. Written by Lizzie Mayland and produced by Imogen Williams and Will Lister with songwriting credits on the title track from Imogen Williams too. The front cover was hand painted by Lizzie and this format comes pressed on black vinyl with printed inners featuring EP lyrics with imagery from Cal McIntyre.

TRACK LISTING

1. Mother Mother
2. Homeward
3. From The Other Side Of The World I’d Hear You
4. Lighthouse
5. The Slow Fire Of Sleep

Hailed as “one of the most remarkable voices of their generation” (The Independent), Scotland’s Jacob Alon redefines contemporary folk with their debut album, ‘In Limerence’. Featuring the acclaimed singles’ Fairy In A Bottle’, ‘Confession’, and ‘Liquid Gold 25’, the Dan Carey-produced record weaves poetic storytelling with ghostly vocals and intricate guitar work. Alon’s deeply personal songwriting has earned praise from Clash, Billboard, and The Times, plus an appearance on Later… with Jools Holland and support from BBC 6 Music. A haunting yet hopeful debut, ‘In Limerence’ cements Alon as a singular new voice in British folk.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A beautiful wash of brittle, folky guitars and hushed vocals morph into powerful passages of reflective exuberance and celebratory praise. Though Alon's hushed vocals suggest timidity, the beautifully confident strokes of musicality and majestic changes juxtapose it beautifully. Brilliant.

TRACK LISTING

1. Glimmer
2. Of Amber
3. Don’t Fall Asleep
4. I Couldn’t Feed Her
5. Confession
6. Elijah
7. Liquid Gold 25
8. August Moon
9. Home Tapes
10. Zathura
11. Fairy In A Bottle
12. Sertraline

Having announced their return with 'Spike Island', and inspired by the overwhelming reaction to the track, Pulp will release the song on 7” – making it their first vinyl single since the acclaimed, James Murphy-produced After You in 2013.

What's more, it will be backed on its B-side by a brand new track that won't feature on the band's forthcoming album. A gently building, melodic meditation, 'Open Strings' will initially only be available on the reverse of the single.

TRACK LISTING

1. Spike Island
2. Open Strings

'Hurry Up Tomorrow' is the sixth studio album by the Canadian singer-songwriter the Weeknd. The album contains guest appearances from Playboi Carti and Anitta. Production was handled by the Weeknd himself, Max Martin, Oscar Holter, Pharrell Williams, Mike Dean, Ojivolta, Twisco, and Sean Solymar, among others. The album was supported by three singles: 'Dancing in the Flames', 'Timeless' (with Playboi Carti) and 'Sao Paulo' (featuring Anitta).

TRACK LISTING

1. Wake Me Up
2. Cry For Me
3. I Can't Fucking Sing
4. São Paulo
5. Until We're Skin & Bones
6. Baptized In Fear
7. Open Hearts
8. Opening Night
9. Reflections Laughing
10. Enjoy The Show
11. Given Up On Me
12. I Can't Wait To Get There
13. Timeless
14. Niagara Falls
15. Take Me Back To LA
16. Big Sleep
17. Give Me Mercy
18. Drive
19. The Abyss
20. Red Terror
21. Without A Warning
22. Hurry Up Tomorrow

Produced by Kelly Jones, 'Make ‘em Laugh, Make ‘em Cry, Make ‘em Wait' is the brand-new studio album by Stereophonics, featuring 8 tracks, including the brand-new single ‘There’s Always Gonna Be Something’.

As Stereophonics celebrate over 25 years as one of the UK’s most loved bands, with 'Make ‘em Laugh, Make ‘em Cry, Make ‘em Wait', Kelly Jones continues to cement his place amongst the great British songwriters. Stereophonics have developed an enduring success and deep-seated bond with their audience that is like few others. Their achievements include 8x UK #1 albums, 12x UK top 10 albums, 11x UK top 10 singles, including the UK #1 single ‘Dakota’. The group have sold over 10 million albums, 1.5 billion global streams and 5x BRIT award nominations, with 1x BRIT award win. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Make It On Your Own
2. There’s Always Gonna Be Something
3. Seems Like You Don’t Know Me
4. Colours Of October
5. Eyes Too Big For My Belly
6. Mary Is A Singer
7. Backroom Boys
8. Feeling Of Falling We Crave

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2025 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 12TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM ON MONDAY APRIL 14th.

Limited edition 7” vinyl featuring 'Conceited' on Side A and 'Crush' on Side B taken from the album 'This Wasn’t Meant For You Anyway'. Pressed on a stunning limited-edition transparent vinyl, this collectible piece captures Lola’s raw emotion and artistry. Shrink-wrapped for lasting preservation, it’s a must-have for any fan.

TRACK LISTING

1. Conceited
2. Crush

Grammy and BRIT award winners, Mumford & Son's return with their 5th studio album, 'Rushmere', released via Island Records and produced by Dave Cobb. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Malibu
2. Caroline
3. Rushmere
4. Monochrome
5. Truth
6. Where It Belongs
7. Anchor
8. Surrender
9. Blood On The Page
10. Carry On

Hamilton Leithauser's 5th studio album This Side of the Island (co-produced by Aaron Dessner of The National) boldly turns away from the folk-rock vibes of his two previous records and introduces a groovier, bass-heavy, modern sound — a sound undoubtedly influenced by several decades of music. Inspired by events in Hamilton’s personal life, the album's lyrics showcase his unrelenting optimism and biting wit and as they consider heavy themes of solitude, love, loss, and resilience.

"Funny, sardonic, and literate... it's impossible not to be swayed by these acerbically funny story songs " - Mojo Magazine.

The Burning Hell have been writing party anthems about the apocalypse since before the apocalypse arrived at the party. With "Ghost Palace," the band presents their most joyful collection of songs about death to date, always finding something to smile about in the decay. Mathias Kom's maximalist lyrics are underlined with fluorescent highlighter, with surprising twists and turns through pop culture, animal life, history, architecture, and science fiction.

Grammy nominated Noah Kahan celebrates an incredible season of accolades by releasing a live album of his high point thus far - selling out 2 nights at his New England hometown Fenway Park, which saw 70K+ fans in attendance, special guests Gracie Abrams, The Lumineers & more! . Noah debuts many songs on tour as he writes towards his next album, this live album sees 'Pain Is Cold Water' 1st release, since the song is so new Noah hasn't even recorded it yet.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dial Drunk
2. New Perspective
3. Everywhere, Everything (feat. Gracie Abrams)
4. Forever
5. Pain Is Cold Water
6. Maine
7. Paul Revere
8. All My Love
9. Your Needs, My Needs
10. You’re Gonna Go Far
11. Homesick
12. Growing Sideways
13. She Calls Me Back
14. Orange Juice
15. Northern Attitude
16. Mess
17. The View Between Villages
18. Stick Season

“Here is my first-born child, a fuck you to all my exes, and basically me just trying to figure out some shit openly and honestly on record. First of many and if you don't like it, then this wasn't meant for you anyway.” - Lola Young.

'This Wasn’t Meant For You Anyway' marks a remarkable shift in Lola’s sound as an artist. Recorded in LA and produced by friend and collaborator Solomonophic (Remi Wolf, BROCKHAMPTON, Dominic Fike), 'This Wasn’t Meant For You Anyway' is a multi-faceted, fearless concept. As irresistible as it is unexpected, Lola’s album is crackling with kinetic energy and lyrically fuelled by rage, passion, narrative flair and comedy derision. A contemporary break-up album, 'This Wasn’t Meant For You Anyway' encapsulates the sound of what it means to be young and in constant romantic chaos. With exciting plans up Lola’s sleeve, her upcoming record will undoubtedly add to her musical trajectory. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A superb effort, moving between garage rock and punk-adjacent melodicism, soulful passages and grooves with cleverly wrought lyrics and ceaseless energy. Brilliantly written, incendiary lyrics and superb performances all round. Lola Young is one to keep an eye on.

TRACK LISTING

1. Good Books
2. Wish You Were Dead
3. Big Brown Eyes
4. Conceited
5. Messy
6. Walk On By
7. You Noticed
8. Crush
9. Fuck
10. Intrusive Thoughts
11. Outro

‘What’s Going On’ is the eleventh studio album by American motown singer Marvin Gaye, released in May 1971. The concept album is told from the point of view of a Vietnam veteran who has returned home to observe a country full of hatred, misery and injustice. This album has been credited with bringing awareness to issues such as poverty, drug abuse and war ahead of public outcry over these controversial issues. Now in limited edition evergreen vinyl.

The Weeks Island project began in 2018 when, itching for something during a break from his gig playing guitar for the Grammy-winning Cajun group Lost Bayou Ramblers, Jonny Campos ventured to his bandmate’s house and recorded a series of deep, amoebic, ambient pedal steel passages across two afternoons. It wasn’t all heavy, though: he paid that bandmate, Kirkland Middleton, in Cane’s chicken strips.

The tracks on Droste are named for bodies of water that no longer exist, their names wiped from maps thanks to the disintegrating shorelines of Southern Louisiana. That feeling of impermanence hangs over this record - the tracks don’t so much begin and end as slip in and out of your consciousness. It can be a serene passive listen or a deep one that marinates long after the runout.

Droste originally appeared on Nouveau Electric Records, run by another Rambler, Louis Michot, in 2020, digitally and on cassette. DFA picked it up via an connection from LCD Soundsystem’s Korey Richey, and began a years-long process to cut the record to vinyl, a task made difficult by the sharp pedal steel and waves of harmonic distortion that color the music. After more than a few tries and the addition of three brand new tracks, Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service nailed it, and it was pressed beautifully at Furnace Record Pressing in Alexandria, VA.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Gorgeous plaintive lap steel, shimmering reverb and drifting, lysergic ambience. A true triumph and yet another amazing entry into the lexicon of modern American Primitivism.

TRACK LISTING

1. Point Fortuna
2. Racoon Island
3. Fleur Pond
4. Bayou La Chute
5. Cyprien Bay
6. Yellow Cotton Bay
7. Locust Pond
8. Grace Pond

This album is a slow grower and even after 10 years, this dark work by the New York duo still sounds fresh, is touching and overall astonishing. Originally released in 2014 through the BB*ISLAND label the long out-of-print vinyl will be reissued as a special limited edition.

Pressed on 'Sparkling Starlight' vinyl and housed in a deluxe cardboard jacket, it comes with a folded poster incl the lyrics and a postcard with a download code. The download includes the album tracks and an exclusive 1-hour interview podcast with She Keeps Bees.

Considering how controlled the chaos is on Eight Houses, a record that's ruptured by riffs and rattled by rhythms without leaping straight off the rails, it's tough to imagine a time when Jessica Larrabee and Andy LaPlant didn't finish each other's sentences, creatively and personally. But that's how She Keeps Bees began: with LaPlant bashing a borrowed kit (including a garbage-picked floor tom) atop a step-ladder and Larrabee directing the dark solo recordings she began soon after moving from Philadelphia to Brooklyn.

"We grew together slowly," adds Larrabee, "like a tree. It felt powerful with him behind me. Nothing really clicked until I met Andy." That dynamic became more pronounced with each passing record, peaking with the self-produced songs of Nests and Dig On, the latter of which expanded the pair's minimal sound with bass parts and synths. Now joined by an outside producer (Rare Book Room's Nicolas Vernhes) and guest musicians including Sharon Van Etten and Adam Schatz, She Keeps Bees revels in the raw power of subtlety, silence and space, coloring Larrabee's compositions with lean piano lines, hazy horns and warm organ rolls.

TRACK LISTING

1. Feather Lighter
2. Breezy
3. Owl
4. Both Sides
5. Burning Bowl
6. Radiance
7. Wasichu
8. Greasy Grass
9. Raven
10. Is What It Is

Coyote Butterfly is the first album of new songs in two years from singer-songwriter, Simon Joyner, following the overdose death of his son, Owen, in August of 2022. Drawing on the kaleidoscopic nature of grief, Joyner explores his loss through a series of imagined dialogues and raw confessions. The album is a tribute to Owen, but what Joyner generously delivers is an intimate glimpse at his attempt to comprehend the incomprehensible.

Where do we go from here? Simon Joyner has tried to answer this question on almost all of his albums. Take it as the starting point for many of his songs. He traversed the human predicament, in general. To tell difficult truths, he used fiction. His characters struggling through personal crises in an inadequate American society. This time the album itself, the process of songwriting and recording might appear as the answer to that question of how to go on . Coyote Butterfly is rooted in Simon Joyner's grief over the death of his son, which occurred unexpectedly, shortly after the release of his 22nd album Songs From A Stolen Guitar. It took two years for his grief to form itself into songs.

In creating an album of such intimacy, Joyner reminds us of the importance of using art to alchemize the deeply personal into transformative beauty. Throughout the album we are invited to stand with him in the aftermath and have our own hearts crack open. Coyote Butterfly is a beautiful evocation of a father's grief but also serves as an enduring testament to love and the life that endures after loss.

TRACK LISTING

1. Red-Winged Black Birds (March 13, 2024)
2. I'm Taking You With Me
3. The Silver Birch
4. Biloxi
5. A Broken Heart Is Best Kept Out Of Sight
6. My Lament
7. Port Of Call
8. Coyote Butterfly
9. There Will Be A Time
10. Cicada Song (Late August 2022)

Off the back of winning the 2024 Mercury Award for their debut album ‘This Could Be Texas’;

Leeds’ finest band English Teacher release an exclusive limited edition 140g, 10” Crystal Clear vinyl of their Live from Maida Vale EP.

The EP includes 2 stunning covers of “Birds Of A Feather” by Billie Eilish and LCD Soundsystem’s “New York, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down”.

TRACK LISTING

BIRDS OF A FEATHER – Live From BBC Maida Vale
This Could Be Texas – Live From BBC Maida Vale
You Blister My Paint – Live From BBC Maida Vale
The World’s Biggest Paving Slab – Live From BBC Maida Vale
New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down – Live From BBC Maida Vale

This edition features the critically acclaimed studio album plus curated acoustic versions and covers.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: For those of you that missed the couldn't-keep-it-in-stock-for-long-enough-for-everyone-to-buy-it hit that was the original album, this version features that heavy hitter plus a load of great acoustic and liver versions on a whole second disc. Lovely stuff.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Prelude To Ecstasy
2. Burn Alive
3. Caesar On A TV Screen
4. The Feminine Urge
5. On Your Side
6. Beautiful Boy
7. Gjuha

SIDE B
8. Sinner
9. My Lady Of Mercy
10. Portrait Of A Dead Girl
11. Nothing Matters
12. Mirror

SIDE C
13. Ceaser On A TV Screen – Acoustic
14. Sinner – Acoustic
15. My Lady Of Mercy – Acoustic
16. Nothing Matters – Live From Studio Brussel
17. Mirror – Acoustic From The Brudenell Social Club (Leeds)

SIDE D
18. This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us
19. Up North – Live From Hebden Trades Club
20. Wicked Game – Live From Showbox Sodo (Seattle)
21. Army Dreamers – Live From Studio Brussel

Bold pop hooks, sex positivity, honest songwriting and a heavy dose of glitter make up the world of Chappell Roan, the next multi-faceted force in pop music. A technicolor celebration of self-discovery and transformation, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess tracks Chappell's cinematic journey of falling in queer love for the first time, while embracing all the messy and imperfect moments in-between. Penned by Amstutz alongside Dan Nigro (Olivia Rodrigo).

Debut and breakthrough record The Balcony has become a career-defining album for Catfish and the Bottlemen, with Double Platinum status and 9 BPI Certified Singles including ‘Cocoon’ and ‘Kathleen’, it was originally released through Communion/Island Records on 15th September 2014. Written by Van McCann and produced by Jim Abbiss, the collection of songs on this album showcase McCann’s talent for posing everyday, easily identifiable observations through his lyrics. The album’s success and the many sold-out shows resulted in a Brit Award for British Breakthrough Act.

In celebration of the 10 Year Anniversary and after their biggest headline shows to date this Summer, The Balcony will be released as a limited edition 7” boxset which mirrors the highly sought after and sold out series of 7” singles that were released around the album’s original release. This boxset features the full album (singles audio in album version), plus ‘Hourglass’ (Ewan McGregor version) and rare bonus track ‘ASA’, available on a 7” again for the first time after the original pressing 10 years ago. This boxset will be numbered and limited to 2,000 copies worldwide.

TRACK LISTING

Disc 1
Side A: Homesick

Disc 2
Side A: Rango
Side B: ASA

Disc 3
Side A: Kathleen
Side B: Business

Disc 4
Side A: Fallout
Side B: Sidewinder

Disc 5
Side A: Cocoon
Side B: 26

Disc 6
Side A: Pacifier
Side B: Tyrants

Disc 7
Side A: Hourglass
Side B: Hourglass (Ewan McGregor Version)

Originally released in 2016, Island Songs is the innovative brainchild of BAFTA award winning composer Ólafur Arnalds, this is the first time the album has been released on colour vinyl in beautiful green. Bringing the listener a unique and evolving audio-visual portrait of his home country of Iceland, Ólafur travelled to 7 towns across Iceland where he collaborated with 7 local artists, and at each location he created, recorded and performed a new composition with the artist.

It's official! Post Malone is finally releasing his long-awaited country album. This marks his concrete foray into country music. He ensures us this isn't just a few fleeting off-hand singles. Rather, he's doubling down on his excursion into Nashville. Includes the single ft. Morgan Wallen “I Had Some Help”.

A 9x diamond-certified GRAMMY® Award-nominated phenomenon, Dallas, TX artist Post Malone regularly rewrites history, blurs boundaries, and incites internet-breaking conversation with every move. 

TRACK LISTING

Wrong Ones (Feat. Tim McGraw)
Finer Things (Feat. Hank Williams, Jr.)
I Had Some Help (Feat. Morgan Wallen)
Pour Me A Drink (Feat. Blake Shelton)
Have The Heart (Feat. Dolly Parton)
What Don't Belong To Me
Goes Without Saying (Feat. Brad Paisley)
Guy For That (Feat. Luke Combs)
Nosedive (Feat. Lainey Wilson)
Losers (Feat. Jelly Roll)
Devil I've Been (Feat. ERNEST)
Never Love You Again (Feat. Sierra Ferrell)
Missin’ You Like This (Feat. Luke Combs)
California Sober (Feat. Chris Stapleton)
Hide My Gun (Feat. HARDY)
Right About You
M-E-X-I-C-O (Feat. Billy Strings)
Yours

Whisper it quietly, but Andrew Meecham’s ninth album as The Emperor Machine, Island Boogie, may well be the long-serving producer’s strongest set to date. Of course, all his albums ripple with vintage synth sounds, colourful lead lines, dub-flecked electronic disco grooves and lashings of cosmic intent, but this one just feels a little more special.

Island Boogie is certainly special. Meecham’s “most personal” full-length to date, it was inspired by his experiences at the Rotation Garden Party – a beloved micro-festival promoted by a group of friends (including sometime Bizarre Inc and Chicken Lips partner Dean Meredith), renowned for the quality of its custom-built Klipschorn soundsystem. “The album’s title sums up the vibe that you get from Rotation,” he explains. “It may be held in a landlocked venue but it gives a wonderful sense of isolation – it is an audiophile paradise.”

Meecham road-tested rough versions of the album’s eight tracks at Rotation 2023, with the feedback and dancefloor reaction guiding the sound and arrangement of the final mixes. Fittingly, Meecham will return to the event to showcase the album at Rotation 2024 this July. Given the inspiration he’s drawn from previous editions of the festival, that will be a very special occasion.

Musically, Island Boogie offers the most fully functioning and expertly constructed expression of The Emperor Machine sound yet, a style Meecham describes as “electronic cosmic disco-boogie”. It’s a sound that takes cues from early ‘80s NYC punk-funk and dub disco, vintage electro, proto-house and left-of-centre synth-boogie, but one that’s instantly recognisable to those who have followed Meecham’s career over the last three decades.

Island Boogie also sees Meecham continue his blossoming working relationship with Severine Mouletin, whose stylish and distinctive vocals previously graced his popular ‘Dance Por Amor’ and ‘Your Own Style’ singles. Here Mouletin features on four tracks: the acid-flecked retro-futurist wave-boogie of ‘La Cassette’ (featuring additional percussion by Rupert Brown); the infectious, bleep-sporting headiness of recent single ‘Devoilez-Vous’; and the squelchy analogue synth-funk of ‘Wanna Pop With You’ and ‘Vas-y-Le Chat’.

Meecham also finds space for a cover of Fox’s 1976 pop-rock classic ‘S-s-s-single Bed’, one of the Stafford-based artist’s all-time favourites. His version, featuring headline-grabbing lead vocals by Michelle Bee and guitar from Dave Atherton, re-imagines the track as a subtly Chic-influenced slab of infectious electro-pop rich in kaleidoscopic synth sounds, sing-along choruses and shuffling drums.

The instrumental foundations of the classic Emperor Machine sound come to the fore on the album’s three other cuts. There’s the jazz-funk-flecked warmth of the LP-opening title track; the sparse squelches, bleeps, TB-303 style bass and brightly coloured electronics of ‘Walk The Dog’; and the exotic, slow-motion cosmic electronica of ‘Cha Murrah Etem’, a warm but poignant affair dedicated to his late father. Heady and intoxicating, with hints of Balearica and digital reggae, it offers a fittingly beautiful and tactile conclusion to Meecham’s most expressive and accessible album yet. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The Emperor Machine (Andrew Meecham) is known for creating a beautifully Balearic fusion of funk, synth-pop and Scandi disco, so it's no massive surprise that that's part of what's on offer here. That's doing it a disservice though, because 'Island Boogie' is exactly the sort of rhythmic, synth-forward disco that turns a man into a disco appreciator. Believe me, I was that guy. Brilliant, propulsive beachtime groovers.

TRACK LISTING

1. Island Boogie
2. La Cassette Feat. Séverine Mouletin
3. Dévoilez-Vous Feat. Séverine Mouletin
4. Walk The Dog
5. S-S-S Single Bed Feat. Michelle Bee
6. Wanna Pop With You Feat. Séverine Mouletin
7. Vas-y Le Chat Feat. Séverine Mouletin
8. Cha Murrah Etem
9. S-S-S Single Bed Feat. Michelle Bee (Radio Edit) 

Leeds indie frontrunners English Teacher announce debut LP ‘This Could Be Texas’. Preceded by initial LP reveals ‘The World’s Biggest Paving Slab’, ‘Nearly Daffodils’ and ‘Mastermind Specialism’, which were all A-listed on the BBC 6 Music playlist, English Teacher’s remarkable ascent continues to reach new levels, having completed sold-out debut UK and US headline runs last autumn, following their thrilling debut appearance on Later With...Jools Holland. Announced as Independent Venue Week Artist Ambassador for 2024. Lead singer Lily Fontaine explains, “I want this album to feel like you’ve gone to space, and it turns out its almost identical to Doncaster. It’s about in-betweens, it’s about home, and it’s about Desire Paths." In several songs, Fontaine reflects on growing up as a mixed-race individual in a place, she says, “where many didn’t have any tolerance towards people who are different” in a post-Brexit landscape.

The debut album by Leeds frontrunners ‘This Could Be Texas’ will be released on 12th April 2023.

Lead singer Lily Fontaine explains, “I want this album to feel like you’ve gone to space, and it turns out its almost identical to Doncaster. It’s about in-betweens, it’s about home, and it’s about Desire Paths."

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It’s impossible to categorise ‘This Could Be Texas’ accurately, I mean, we’ll whack in in the indie section because in places, it does broadly fall under the sort of music you’d expect to find there. We’ve got distorted guitars, soaring synths and snappy percussion beneath Lily’s perfectly placed, athletically chameleonic vocals, but keep listening and there are hints of post-punk and art-rock, modern classical and even folk seeping through as things move further along.

For me, the perfect opening piece is the beautiful and mysterious ‘Albatross’ which is so melodically intricate and deftly delivered that while it gives you an idea of what thematically diverse delights are in store, it doesn’t show you quite how well the band manage to pull together the sometimes disparate sound worlds. There are playful, minimalistic growers like ‘Mastermind Specialism’ which could comfortably sit on an Explosions In The Sky album, or the vocoded rhythmic nu-jazz leanings of ‘Best Tears Of Your Life’. A particular highlight for me is the dreamlike lounge of ‘Blister My Paint’, which sounds like a touch of psychedelics in a smokey late night bar, or the acidic groove and wry vocals of the instantly recognisable ‘R&B’. While there are moments in ‘This Could Be Texas’ that feel like they stick out enough to not smoothly transition to the next phrase, the fear is never realised. A wonderfully forged, impeccably conceived album and a sure sign of what’s to come from English Teacher.

Nia Archives is not interested in being one fixed thing. Since emerging in 2020, the 24-year-old producer, DJ, singer and songwriter has been at the forefront of the latest era of jungle. The Bradford-born, Leeds-raised artist has garnered accolades including placing third in the prestigious BBC Sound Poll for 2023, alongside a nomination for the Brit Awards’ Rising Star prize, plus wins at the DJ Mag, NME, the MOBOs and Artist and Manager Awards. She has also toured the world – be it North America, Europe or Asia – and even opened a show in London as part of a little something called Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour. She’s renowned as a party-starter in her own right, too, with takeovers at Glastonbury, Warehouse Project and her own Bad Gyalz day event. She’s done official remixes for the likes of Jorja Smith, had a huge summer hit with her Yeah Yeah Yeahs rework ‘Off Wiv Ya Headz’, and worked with brands like Corteiz, Nike, Flannels, Burberry, FIFA and Apple. In just three years, it’s fair to say that Nia Archives has become a need-to-know name in dance music.

On Silence Is Loud, her much-anticipated debut album, Nia Archives sounds thrillingly free as she looks to make music for beyond the rave. Working with Ethan P. Flynn (known for his work with FKA twigs and David Byrne) Nia is intent that Silence Is Loud is taken in as a full body of work of something “more song-focussed, putting interesting sounds on jungle.” It means that this is a record which finds gloomy Britpop, warm Motown, soaring indie, a love for Kings of Leon’s Aha Shake Heartbreak, skittering IDM, Madchester, classic rock, old skool hardcore and more, woven and fused into her ragga and junglist tapestry, all layered with feeling, imbued with her songwriterly lyricism about loneliness, relationships, family, navigating her 20s, and the intense potential power of silence.

Sitting in the push and pull between melancholy and euphoria, Nia’s work is always a snapshot of where she’s at when she’s making it. This might not be the debut album you were expecting, but that’s what makes Silence Is Loud so special. Nia Archives has learned the rules of her sound, and is unafraid to break them, pushing jungle and herself into new, unchartered territories that, in turn, go some way to map the history of the greats of British dance music. More than that, it plants her firmly in that lineage.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: 'Silence Is Loud' sees the brilliant Nia Archives flawlessly pulling together soul, jungle and synth-pop influences into a distinctly after-party flavoured groove thats both hugely enjoyable and undeniably skilled. A ground-breaking and hugely enjoyable debut from one of the biggest upcoming names in UK dance music.

TRACK LISTING

Silence Is Loud
Cards On The Table
Unfinished Business
Crowded Roomz
Forbidden Feelingz
Blind Devotion
Tell Me What It’s Like?
Nightmares
F.A.M.I.L.Y
Out Of Options
Silence Is Loud (Reprise)
Killjoy !
So Tell Me…

Where’s My Utopia CD Fanzine edition. The second editions of the Yard Act Fanzine, designed by us for you for no other reason than to tear down more trees.

Where’s My Utopia? is the follow up to the Leeds band’s critically-acclaimed debut record The Overload which arrived in January 2022. The new album is a co-production between Yard Act and Gorillaz member Remi Kabaka Jr. The brand new album out 1st March 2024 features lead single ‘Dream Job’, which is out now.

The zine if printed on 140gsm uncoated paper and house in a beautiful 350gm uncoated cover. Includes the CD album.

TRACK LISTING

1. An Illusion
2. We Make Hits
3. Down By The Stream
4. The Undertow
5. Dream Job
6. Fizzy Fish
7. Petroleum
8. When The Laughter Stops
9. Grifter’s Grief
10. Blackpool Illuminations
11. A Vineyard For The North

Where’s My Utopia? is the follow up to the Leeds band’s critically-acclaimed debut record The Overload which arrived in January 2022. The Overload was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize after a slew of positive reviews, national radio playlistings and a placing at #2 in the Official Charts. The new album is a co-production between Yard Act and Gorillaz member Remi Kabaka Jr. 

Since first steering their golden Rover into swift public acclaim back in 2020, Leeds quartet Yard Act have become one of the great indie success stories of the decade so far. Along the way, they’ve ticked off milestones ranging from a Number Two chart placing and Mercury Prize nomination for debut album The Overload, to a co-sign from Elton John who joined the band to guest on a string-laden reworking of album closer ‘100% Endurance’.

Yet, whilst the band’s trajectory continuously shot upwards, vocalist James Smith and his wife had also welcomed in a son. And it’s this duelling sense of responsibility and ambition, guilt, love, drive and everything in between that forms the narrative backbone of brilliantly exploratory second album Where’s My Utopia?

Written in snapshots of time between a relentless touring schedule, and produced jointly by the band and Gorillaz’ Remi Kabaka Jr, the quartet’s second act is a giant leap forward into broad and playful new sonic waters. “The main reason that ‘post-punk’ was the vehicle for Album One was because it was really affordable to do, but we always liked so much other music and this time we've had the confidence to embrace it,” James explains. Across the record, influences ranging from Fela Kuti to Ennio Moricone via Spiller’s ‘00s pop smash ‘Groovejet’ make themselves known.

It’s a celebratory palette upon which Smith allowed himself to reach lyrically deeper into himself than ever. Gone, largely, are the outward-facing character studies of yore, replaced with a set of songs that stare fully into the headlights of life, wrangling with the frontman’s own fears and foibles to create a sort of Promethean narrative - but with jokes. “You can commit to the idea that we’re just animals who eat and fuck and then we die, and that’s fine,” he suggests. “But for me, creativity always seems to be the best way of articulating the absolute minefield of what human existence is.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: It’s not easy to write about Yard Act. You immediately want to find other wry social commentators to group them in with – Mark E Smith, Sleaford Mods, Mike Skinner, Jarvis Cocker - but James Smith is none of these people. Less vulgar and course than Mark or Jason, more poetic than Skinner, and without Cocker’s romantic filter; James Smith tells his tales with both wit and simplicity, highlighting humour in the mundane with incredibly fast and clever prose. “This Is My Utopia“ does however, have its more tender moments: “Down By The Stream” ends with him vehemently chastising school bullies and other abusers; while “Blackpool Illuminations” is a beautiful, personal, heartfelt message to his (recently born) son. They could well end here; but instead gift us one last hurrah via the arms-aloft anthem: “A Vineyard For The North” (which alongside “We Make Hits“ and “When The Laughter Stops“ comprises the album’s big indie-disco hits).

The band possess incredible depth and dimension. From jagged and jovial outbursts to lavish and luxurious orchestrations, sophisticated and structured arrangements seem to encompass more than they should, all with elegance and swagger. There’s sharp call-response vocal quips and jibes between Smith and his bandmates; while intricate, (sometimes) vocodered vocal harmonies, subtle dubs and plunderphonic sample usage a la Avalanches & DJ Shadow all contribute to a very ambitious album which pours out the contents of Yard Act’s hearts for us, the listener to digest and surmise: rock stars aren’t all that different to the rest of us.

TRACK LISTING

1. An Illusion
2. We Make Hits
3. Down By The Stream
4. The Undertow
5. Dream Job
6. Fizzy Fish
7. Petroleum
8. When The Laughter Stops
9. Grifter’s Grief
10. Blackpool Illuminations
11. A Vineyard For The North

Future Islands was never meant to last. After eighteen years and 1,400 live shows, Future Islands show they're not only still here, they're making the most powerful music of their fascinating, but unexpectedly long and storied career.

For Future Islands, albums aren’t a static reflection of a moment in time, they are a fluid chapter in their lives that can change and mutate. People change and pull away. The band is no different, coming up against their future while staring at their past. They’re not the same people they were when Future Islands began nearly two decades ago. They are now spread about, some settled down and some still moving. People Who Aren’t There Anymore reflects the transience of a band’s existence; the rare privilege of travelling all over the world contrasting with the sadness of fleeting moments in and out people’s lives. Being everywhere but also nowhere. Remembering the lives lost and the living they’ll never see again, cherishing the present and being grateful for the past.

Where they’ve pursued ever-higher energy anthems in the past, they’ve turned inward this time, and unlocked a new level of ferocity, delivering some of their most inspiring and most heartbreaking tracks by doing the opposite: taking their time, making each breath, each syllable, each cymbal crash count. The result is a powerful, defining statement from a group of musicians that have made the best album of their career.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: I have to say that I never particularly got Future Islands before this album. I obviously acknowledged that they were good musicians, but I found that Herring's delivery was a little overwrought for the comparatively subtle instrumentals. For me, the rich, widescreen instrumentals on 'People Who Aren't There Anymore' are the *perfect* way to frame Herring's strong presence and results in by far their best LP to date.

TRACK LISTING

King Of Sweden
The Tower
Deep In The Night
Say Goodbye
Give Me The Ghost Back
Corner Of My Eye
The Thief
Iris
The Fight
Peach
The Sickness
The Garden Wheel

At the turn of the year, The Last Dinner Party was little more than a new name being shared amongst those that had caught them live. Great songs, strong aesthetic. Having spent much of 2022 writing those songs, road-testing them, and then taking them into the studio, it wasn’t until April when the band released the instantly more-ish, dark guitar-pop of Nothing Matters that seemingly everyone had now formed an opinion on them. It was an introduction that took the online world by storm, and yet behind all the excitement and narrative was a fantastically confident indie-rock song by a band doing it the old-fashioned way, out on the road.

Following a heady first-on performance to a packed crowd at the new Woodsies tent at Glastonbury, The Last Dinner Party released Sinner, another gloriously infectious, leftfield pop song that fuelled the fully-formed zeitgeist and set the band up for a Summer that replicated that success of Glastonbury with uncomfortably packed tents ensuing at the likes of Green Man, Reading & Leeds, Latitude and End of the Road (interspersed with support slots to the likes of Florence & The Machine, Lana Del Rey and First Aid Kit). It was a breakthrough Summer for one of the most talked about new British acts in years, delivering on all that early promise emphatically.

Concentrating on their own headline shows, the band skipped confidentally from venue to venue, playing to bigger rooms and on wider stages. Shows sold out and shows were upgraded. In London alone, the band have moved from sell-out dates at Moth Club to Camden Assembly, Oslo to two nights at EartH, and now move on to the 3000 capacity Roundhouse on the eve of album release (remaining tickets on sale now). Crucially, it’s not just London where the band finds its early fans, but right across the UK and into America too, with all five debut shows selling out several weeks in advance.

The band often set a themed dress code for the shows, with many fans relishing the task of rising to the request and donning their finery for a night with their new heroes.

But this is no case of style over substance. With the release of their third single, My Lady Of Mercy, an almost gothic, haunting rock song, and the atmospheric and anthemic ballad, On Your Side, the band’s songwriting is testament to all the buzz and excitement already accumulated. As it should be. Rather than wilt under the spotlight, they’ve arguably become a tighter, stronger unit because of it.

Prelude To Ecstasy is both the closing of that introductory chapter and the opening of the next. The Last Dinner Party? Believe the hype. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A thrilling debut from The Last Dinner Party, channelling the spirit of PJ Harvey, the operatic intensity of Nick Cave and the soaring cinematic orchestral arrangements of Hans Zimmer or John Williams. A powerful, bold melting pot of perfectly manicured influences.

TRACK LISTING

1. Prelude To Ecstasy
2. Burn Alive
3. Caesar On A TV Screen
4. The Feminine Urge
5. On Your Side
6. Beautiful Boy
7. Gjuha
8. Sinner
9. My Lady Of Mercy
10. Portrait Of A Dead Girl
11. Nothing Matters
12. Mirror 

In celebration of the 20th anniversary of Amy Winehouse’s debut album, Frank, UMR/Island are releasing the album as a picture disc for the first time.

This 2LP set features singles: Take The Box, Stronger Than Me, F**k Me Pumps and In My Bed, and is housed in a gatefold sleeve. The disc artwork uses the original sleeve imagery, plus images by Valerie Phillips from the original artwork shoot on LP2.

TRACK LISTING

LP1, Side A
Intro / Stronger Than Me
You Sent Me Flying / Cherry
Know You Now

LP1, Side B
Fuck Me Pumps
I Heard Love Is Blind
Moody's Mood For Love / Teo Licks
(There Is) No Greater Love
In My Bed

LP2, Side A
Take The Box
October Song
What Is It About Men
Help Yourself

LP2, Side B
Amy Amy Amy / Outro

Acclaimed singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams’ classic 1998 album 'Car Wheels On A Gravel Road' is now on vinyl for the first time. The album won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album and features the songs 'Can’t Let Go' and 'Car Wheels on a Gravel Road'.

TRACK LISTING

1. Right In Time
2. Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
3. 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
4. Drunken Angel
5. Concrete And Barbed Wire
6. Lake Charles
7. Can't Let Go
8. I Lost It
9. Metal Firecracker
10. Greenville
11. Still I Long For Your Kiss
12. Joy
13. Jackson

THIS IS A BLACK FRIDAY 2023 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON FRIDAY NOVEMBER 24TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8AM ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 25TH).

In celebration of the 40th anniversary of U2’s Under A Blood Red Sky (1983), the 2023 Black Friday vinyl campaign sees a newly remastered release of the iconic live album on limited edition red vinyl. Consisting of live recordings from three shows on the band’s ‘War’ tour, the album helped to cement U2’s reputation globally as one of the greatest live acts of all time. Featuring legendary live versions of ‘Gloria’, ‘I Will Follow’ and ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’, the album remains faithful to the original track list, but is newly remastered at the renowned studio Bernie Grundman Mastering. Includes double sided insert with credits and lyrics, plus a large 2-sided poster.

Celebrating the 30th anniversary of U2’s Zooropa, September 2023 sees the release of a limited edition coloured vinyl pressing of the Grammy-award winning album to coincide with the band’s performances at the Sphere in Las Vegas.

Initially intended to be just an EP, Zooropa became a fully-fledged album with 10 tracks recorded in six weeks in 1993, making it the fastest U2 album ever produced. Produced by Flood, Brian Eno and The Edge, the album went to Number 1 in the UK, USA, Ireland, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Sweden, Austria, France, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Norway, Denmark and Iceland and featured the singles ‘Numb’, ‘Lemon’ and ‘Stay (Faraway, So Close!)’.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
Zooropa
Baby Face
Numb
Side 2
Lemon
Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
Daddy’s Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car
Side 3
Some Days Are Better Than Others
The First Time
Dirty Day
The Wanderer
Side 4
Lemon (The Perfecto Mix)
Numb (Gimme Some More Dignity Mix)

Deluxe reissue of the third album by the Cranberries that sold over 6 million units worldwide, reached number one in six countries and became the band’s highest-charting album on the US Billboard 200.

In this deluxe reissue the original album has been remastered by John Dent @ Metropolis, and, on the 2LP versions, split over 3 vinyl sides with a 4th side featuring bonus tracks including three unreleased album demos recorded with producer Tim Palmer in Paris.

The digital and 3CD set includes unreleased outtakes and early mixes of the studio album and twelve rare live tracks recorded on the band’s 1996 “Free to Decide” tour and the 2LP and 3CD versions include a 4000 sleevenote about the making of the album based on interviews with the remaining members conducted by band archivist Eoin Devereux.

TRACK LISTING

1LP
LP1 - Side A
Hollywood
Salvation
When You're Gone
Free To Decide
War Child
Forever Yellow Skies
The Rebels
LP1 - Side B
Just Shot John Lennon
Electric Blue
I'm Still Remembering
Will You Remember?
Joe
Bosnia

2LP Deluxe
LP1 - Side A
Hollywood
Salvation
When You're Gone
Free To Decide
War Child
LP1 - Side B
Forever Yellow Skies
The Rebels
Intermission
Just Shot John Lennon
Electric Blue
LP2 - Side C
I'm Still Remembering
Will You Remember?
Joe
Bosnia
Cordell
LP2 - Side D
The Picture I View
Go Your Own Way
When You're Gone (Paris Demo)
I Just Shot John Lennon (Paris Demo
Free To Decide (Paris Demo)

3CD Deluxe:
Disc One – To The Faithful Departed – Deluxe Remaster
Hollywood
Salvation
When You're Gone
Free To Decide
War Child
Forever Yellow Skies
The Rebels
Intermission
I Just Shot John Lennon
Electric Blue
I'm Still Remembering
Will You Remember?
Joe
Cordell
Bosnia
The Picture I View
Go Your Own Way
Disc Two – Unreleased Demos And Outtakes
When You're Gone (Paris Demo)
I Just Shot John Lennon (Paris Demo)
Free To Decide (Paris Demo)
The Rebels (Outtake)
Hollywood (Outtake)
Cordell (Early Mix)
Bosnia (Early Mix)
Salvation (Early Mix)
When You're Gone (Early Mix)
Electric Blue (Early Mix)
Intermission (Early Mix)
Joe (Early Mix)
Free To Decide (Alternate Mix)
Disc Three – 1996 Free To Decide Tour
Intermission + Forever Yellow Skies (Live In Toronto)
Sunday (Live In Toronto)
Linger (Live In Toronto)
The Rebels (Live In Toronto)
Waltzing Back (Live In Toronto)
I Can't Be With You (Live In Toronto)
Free To Decide (Live In Detroit)
Dreams (Live In Detroit)
Hollywood (Live In Detroit)
Zombie (Live In Detroit)
Dreaming My Dreams (Live In Detroit)
The Icicle Melts (Live In Detroit)
Salvation (Live At Milton Keynes Bowl)

Celebrate 5 of Tom Waits’ albums from the Island years, all of which have had an incredible impact on music history.

All remastered to HD audio.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Lucky Day Overture
The Black Rider
November
Just The Right Bullets
Black Box Theme
'Tain't No Sin
Flash Pan Hunter/Intro
That's The Way
The Briar And The Rose
Russian Dance
Side B
Gospel Train/Orchestra
I'll Shoot The Moon
Flash Pan Hunter
Crossroads
Gospel Train
Interlude
Oily Night
Lucky Day
The Last Rose Of The Summer
Carnival

Celebrate 5 of Tom Waits’ albums from the Island years, all of which have had an incredible impact on music history.

All remastered to HD audio.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Earth Died Screaming
2. Dirt In The Ground
3. Such A Scream
4. All Stripped Down
5. Who Are You
6. The Ocean Doesn't Want Me
7. Jesus Gonna Be Here
8. A Little Rain
9. In The Colosseum
10. Goin' Out West
11. Murder In The Red Barn
12. Black Wings
13. Whistle Down The Wind
14. I Don't Wanna Grow Up
15. Let Me Get Up On It
16. That Feel

Originally released in 1987 on Island Records, Franks Wild Years is Tom Waits’ 10th studio album. Titled for a play of the same name and authored by Waits and his wife, Kathleen Brennan, Franks Wild Years was performed by Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 1986. Franks Wild Years is an iteration of the track “Frank’s Wild Years” from Waits’ 1983 album Swordfishtrombones.The album divides the story neatly into two acts and although titled “un operachi romantic”, there is no opera in Franks. There is a hilarious touch of operatic styling by Waits himself in the song “Temptation.” His vocal character varies wildly throughout the work’s 17 songs, and is no more impressive than when the gruff, growly singer turns to impeccable Sinatra-esque phrasing on the Vegas number, “Straight To The Top.” While Franks featured a 14-member cast on stage, the album is all-Waits—yet suggests a multitude of characters by virtue of his chameleon vocals. The album is a startling group of lost dreams, bad dreams, dreams that might not even be dreams. The music is nightmarish, ethereal, beautiful. Think broken calliopes played by genius children, horns played at dawn in a graveyard, banjos leaking through practice room walls. Titles evoke Frank’s dime-store Odyssey: “Straight To The Top,” “Blow Wind Blow,” “Temptation,” “I’ll Be Gone.” NME ranked the work the number five album of 1987.

Newly remastered for the first time ever from the original ½” flat master tape and personally overseen by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan. Mastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering under the guidance of Waits’ longtime audio engineer, Karl Derfler. The album packaging has also been restored. Franks Wild Years includes tracks such as “Cold Cold Ground,” “Way Down In The Hole” – versions of which were used as the theme music of HBO’s series The Wire – and “Temptation.”

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Hang On St. Christopher
Straight To The Top (Rhumba)
Blow Wind Blow
Temptation
Innocent When You Dream (Barroom)
I'll Be Gone
Yesterday Is Here
Please Wake Me Up
Franks Theme
Side B
More Than Rain
Way Down In The Hole
Straight To The Top (Vegas)
I'll Take New York
Telephone Call From Istanbul
Cold Cold Ground
Train Song
Innocent When You Dream (78)

Noted as Tom Waits’ most critically acclaimed album, Rain Dogs follows the new musical path Waits had taken with Swordfishtrombones. Considered the middle of a de facto trilogy with Swordfishtrombones and Franks Wild Years, Rain Dogs is the first of Waits’ albums to be written in New York, in a Lower Manhattan basement. A 53-minute, 19-track monster, Rain Dogs is a kind of mutant, late 20th century musical “Canterbury Tales” with a shape-shifting band. There are banjos and marimbas and bowed saw and parade drum and howling horns (and Keith Richards and Marc Ribot) on this rollicking, rough-hewn opus—and Waits, using his voice in increasingly weird-and-wild ways. The songs are stories, sagas, laments, breakdowns, character studies, comedies and cabaret numbers. There’s the aching “Hang Down Your Head,” and the moving anthem, “Downtown Train,” which was covered by Patti Smith and Rod Stewart.Waits coined the term, “rain dog,” a reference to dogs who lose their way when touchstone scents are washed away in storms. Among the lost dogs on the album: gruff, wandering merchant marines (“Singapore”), an accordion player in a slaughterhouse (“Cemetery Polka”), a “jockey full of bourbon” (also the song title), an abandoned, withdrawn woman (“Time”), a “gun street girl,” the old drunks and hustlers of Union Square, and even Waits, himself: Aboard a shipwreck train / Give my umbrella to the Rain Dogs / For I am a Rain Dog, too...

Originally released in 1985 on Island Records, the album is newly remastered for the first time ever from the original ½” flat master tape and personally overseen by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan. Mastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering under the guidance of Waits’ longtime audio engineer, Karl Derfler. The album packaging has also been restored. Rain Dogs includes tracks such as “Downtown Train,” “Clap Hands” and “Jockey Full Of Bourbon.”

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Singapore
Clap Hands
Cemetery Polka
Jockey Full Of Bourbon
Tango Till They're Sore
Big Black Mariah
Diamonds And Gold
Hang Down Your Head
Time
Side B
Rain Dogs
Midtown
9th & Hennepin
Gun Street Girl
Union Square
Blind Love
Walking Spanish
Downtown Train
Bride Of Rain Dog
Anywhere I Lay My Head

Bridging Coral Island and Sea Of Mirrors, The Coral release a second album titled 'Holy Joe’s Coral Island Medicine Show'. With the full tracklisting limited to physical formats only, the album brings James and Ian Skelly’s grandad a.k.a The Great Muriarty back into the fold for the narrated post-script to one of The Coral’s most successful albums to date.

If Coral Island was a box-office hit in 2022, then 'Holy Joe's Coral Island Medicine Show' is it's low-budget little brother, written in a year and stitched together in less- think The Texas Chainsaw Massacre ll or Police Academy: Mission To Moscow- but without the plane fare to Russia. This is a sequel to rival the most shameless of cash-ins.

It features a ramshackle cast: along with the usual suspects, Coral Island compère (and Skelly Granddad) The Great Moriarty makes a return, alongside actor and friend-of-the-band John Simm, who recites wanderlust eulogy Drifter's Prayer. Glaswegian singer Rianne Downey is involved in a murderous duet. An unnamed pedal-steel player from the back of beyond plays a funeral score over Hotel.

Don't get me wrong, this isn't an act of self-sabotage or half-arsed in any way; more a deliberate attempt to make an art form out of the forgotten follow-up. Who else but The Coral are going to fill this important cultural sinkhole?

Framed inside a midnight radio show beaming out from a Michelin blimp that hovers somewhere past the piers of Coral Island, Holy Joe... is a love letter to the tradition of the death disc and murder ballad, from Stack-o-Lee to Skeleton Key, and everything in between.

Stay up late. Tune in. If you do, who knows? You might end up loving it more than the original.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The second of a duo of Coral releases hits this week, with the wild oddity 'Holy Joe's...' bridging the gap between their last LP and the newest. It's a fitting bridge though, with the melodic sensibilities of the latter segueing nicely into the oddball b-movie soundtrack business of the former. Brilliant.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1:
Holy Joe (Sounds From The Other Side)
The Sinner
Hotel
Holy Joe (Hitchhiker At The Highway’s Edge)
Affiliation
Leave This Town
The Road Is Calling
Holy Joe (Rita Is Having A Bad One)
Never Be In Love Like That Again
Side 2:
Drifter’s Prayer
Holy Joe (Bobby And Faith)
Long Drive To The City
Down By The Riverside
Holy Joe (The Graveyard Shift)
Baby Face Nelson
Holy Joe (A Wise Man Once Said)
The Coral Island Killer
Holy Joe (Let The Credits Roll)

The Trench Coat Museum is  on limited edition black vinyl, signed by no one and definitely not numbered, hand printed, stamped, and comes with no bonus prints, stickers or postcard
      
All well and good, but, what does it actually sound like!? Basically  this brand new track feels like something of a step up for this superb band. More propulsive and percussive with dare I say a funkier feel, frontman  James Smith spins a typical yarn about, well......find out for yourselves!

The A side is a whopping 8 minuts long but flip it over and there's an Arthur Baker ( yes, THE!) remix which makes the whole 12 a most desirable package,, no hand print, poster, sticker or number notwithstanding !!!

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: A brilliant step forwards for one of our favourite bands Love it!

TRACK LISTING

A-Side – The Trench Coat Museum
B-Side – The Trench Coat Museum (Arthur Baker Remix) (!)

'An adventurer, an entrepreneur, a buccaneer, a visionary' - BONOAs the founder of Island Records, fabled music producer Chris Blackwell has discovered and worked with some of the most important musicians of the second half of the twentieth century - from Steve Winwood to Cat Stevens, Bob Marley to Grace Jones, U2 to Roxy Music, plus countless others. He is also widely credited with having brought reggae music to the world stage. Now, as reflects on his life, Blackwell takes us back to the island where it all began: Jamaica - the place where his family once partied with the likes of Noel Coward, Ian Fleming and Errol Flynn and where, as Jamaican local music began to adopt contemporary American trends, Blackwell's burgeoning musical instincts flourished.

It was also the birthplace of the now-legendary Island Records, founded by Blackwell in 1959. Five years later, while living in London selling Jamaican records to Caribbean immigrants, Blackwell came across the vocal talents of teenager Millie Small, who he paired with the song 'My Boy Lollipop'. The producer added a ska beat and released what would be a worldwide hit.

But this was just the beginning of a truly remarkable career. In this fascinating memoir, including up to fifty photos supplied by Blackwell's team, the music icon will discuss the many artists he's worked with over the years, as well as unpicking the initiatives, decisions and risks that ultimately brought such success to both Blackwell and his esteemed musical collaborators.

In March 2022, Ben Howard was sat in his garden when he found himself unable to think clearly, form sentences or speak for almost an hour. A month later, after the same thing happened again, the Ivor Novello Award-winning singer-songwriter learned he’d suffered two TIAs (transient ischemic attacks - known as mini-strokes). “It was out of the blue,” says the 35 year-old. “It was a confusing time.”

That June, after a month of inconclusive hospital tests Howard and his band returned to Le Manoir de Léon recording studio in south-west France, where they’d previously worked on his acclaimed third album ‘Noonday Dream’.

“We went in and put down ten songs in ten days, then spent the rest of the year tinkering with them”. The record was produced by Bullion, known for his work on Westerman’s ‘Your Hero Is Not Dead’ and Orlando Weeks ‘Hop Up’. Howard says, “We worked through the heatwave, the air conditioning broke, after what had happened I was so tired in the afternoons that I slept a lot. We just played solidly and slept, they was no time for retrospection”.

The result is ‘Is It’, a lush, sonically splintered album which captures Howard working through those moments of seismic shift. “I found it impossible not to dwell on the absurdity of it, that with one tiny clot, one can lose all faculties. It really ate into the writing of the record”.

The songs range from the peaceful quotidian Days of Lantana, to cut up samples and driven beats of Walking Backwards, the formers’ pitched and warped Linda Thompson chorus reminiscent of Malcolm Mclaren´s ‘Madame Butterfly’.

Moonraker, a song about climbing in the Guadarrama mountains touches on the meditational, while in the cyclical Richmond Avenue Howard talks of shared childhood moments with his father.

There are colourful, left-field production choices throughout- a staple of Bullion - but with a twist

“We really bonded over records in the studio” he says. “Nathan has an incredible ear and catalogue of sampled beats and rhythms which quickly became the bedrock…There were contributing factors also. Our mainstay drummer Kyle lives in Seattle and as we made the record on the fly we just leaned into drum-machine world, and really left almost all of that side of things up to Nathan.”

“We also did a session at Real World Studios and put most of the record through an echoplex”.

That session featured additional instrumentation from Raven Bush (violin, viola) and Mick Mcgoldrick (flute, Eileen pipes) as well as Howards mainstay band of Mickey Smith (Bass, guitars, percussion) R.D. Thomas (synths, keys, harmonium) and Nat Wason (guitars).

“It’s actually mostly a guitar record, but there are some nice additions. We bought an old harmonium at the beginning of the trip which made its way onto most tracks. I was very much stuck in stuttered delay and synth led guitar patterns. Mick McGoldrick came in to play on Richmond Ave and straight away played Liam O´Flynn lines from the Mark Knopfler record ‘Cal’ which is a long favourite of mine and a big connection to my Dad who had it on tape. That was a beautiful moment, perhaps one of my favourites moments in the studio ever.”
“It was a refreshing way to record, unweighted by the past”

The change is evident on ‘Is It’ - an album which represents a further creative evolution from an artist known for never repeating himself throughout his already-storied career.

¨I was so aware of the overwhelming information coming from everything, almost like my brain couldn’t filter what was happening and had to start again. So we just pushed forward, lyrically it seems obvious to me in parts, It’s about sitting there wondering what the hell is going on.”

Yet with each listen it feels like more than that. A characteristically onion-layered record which rankles like a series of questions, or a series of vignettes throughout Howard´s life, perhaps best distilled in the whirling chorus on ´Spirit´.

‘What’s mine anyway?
My feelings seem to be arranged.
What´s mine anyway?
Spirit? Is it?´

‘Is It’ stands quite starkly on it’s own, buoyed by the circumstances of its creation. “Just to be playing music in the studio felt like a real privilege and a luxury,” says Howard. “It was probably the best studio session we’ve ever had.”

R.J

TRACK LISTING

1. Could Not Make It Up
2. Walking Backwards
3. Days Of Lantana
4. Life In The Time Of Captivity
5. Moonraker
6. Richmond Avenue
7. Interim Of Sense
8. Total Eclipse
9. Spirit
10. Little Plant

In March 2020, Jack reached out to Lee “Scratch" Perry to produce a dub remix album based on Jack’s most loved recordings. On 8/29/21 the project was brought to a halt as Scratch departed this physical world. In ‘22 Jack and Subatomic Sound System, Perry’s band of the last decade, connected directly and discovered they had all the pieces to bring Lee “Scratch” Perry’s 3 creations to completion. The LP also features dubs from Dennis Bovell, Scientist, Mad Professor, Nightmares on Wax & more.

isolée’s fourth album ‘resort island’ is a record as that's in turns hazy and thumping, euphoric and melancholy, always delivered in brilliant splashes of color. "coco's visa" sets the tone, its soft chords lapping against the drums like waves against a dock. Gentle moments like this and the exquisitely bittersweet "let's dence" offset dreamlike club tracks of the kind only Müller could make. "rumour", the album's first single, is all ghostly strings and loping synths, a mellow joy-ride in magic hour light.

isolée need not apologize for this flirtation with the sound of French touch. "pardon my french" has the key elements that give the best disco and disco-flavored house records their magic: impossibly smooth bass tones connect perfectly plump kick drums, a strutting rhythm, glittering synths, all joining forces to give you the feeling of having a supremely, impossibly good time. On Resort Island, it's a vacation within a vacation, an artist so skilled at subtle, ambiguous moods going for straight up bliss, just this one time.

The third single from Resort Island is "Canada Balsam," a dreamlike club track of the kind only isolée could make. The beat is taut and punchy, a welcome echo of the minimalist flair of his early records. The rest draws from the lush sonic palette he's perfected since then: vaporous chords, swirling hand percussion, a subtly dramatic earworm melody that almost sounds plucked from a harp. It's the kind of tune that brings a wash of technicolour onto the dance floor, a cool breeze riding on a perfectly tight groove.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Coco's Visa 3:15
A2 Canada Balsam 6:18
B1 Pardon My French 5:26
B2 Con O Sin 5:42
B3 Let's Dence 3:32
C1 Modernation 5:28
C2 Rumour (album Version) 6:35
D1 Clap Gently 2:39
D2 Tender Date 5:22
D3 7eleven2 4:41

‘The Portable Herman Dune’ Vol. 3 is the final part of Herman Dune’s acoustic anthology, in which 22 years of songwriting are laid bare, stripped to the most intimate bone. Though sonically naked, the songs are bundled up in emotion and loaded with life.

'My Mind Wanders And Sometimes Leaves Completely', Lola's debut project, is a defining statement: a work of pain, heartbreak, and inner strength.

TRACK LISTING

1. Stream Of Consciousness
2. Revolve Around You
3. Annabel’s House
4. Semantic Satiation
5. Pretty In Pink
6. Money
7. What Is It About Me
8. Black Cab
9. Don’t Hate Me
10. Chill Out

The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte marks Sparks’ first release on the venerable Island Records label in close to five decades, following such classics as 1974’s landmark Kimono My House, highlighted of course by the indelible hit single ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us’. The new album is described by Ron and Russell Mael as a record that is “as bold and uncompromising as anything we did back then or, for that matter, anytime throughout our career.”

The album includes such instantly intriguing new musical vignettes as ‘Mona Lisa’s Packing, Leaving Late Tonight’ and ‘Nothing Is As Good As They Say It Is’, songs which once again display Sparks’ seemingly ceaseless ability to craft complete, intricately detailed stories within perfect three-and-a-half minute pop masterpieces. Both characteristically timeless and unequivocally modern, The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte once again affirms that, after more than a half century making such masterpieces, Sparks remain inimitable, ingenious and, as ever, utterly one of a kind. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The sound of Sparks is uniquely theirs, bold pop chorus' and snappy vocal hooks, blooming from subtle and minimalistic to grand and orchestral without batting an eyelid. The title track is particularly enjoyable, showing both innovative groove and classic, Sparks melodies.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte
2. Veronica Lake
3. Nothing Is As Good As They Say It Is
4. Escalator
5. The Mona Lisa's Packing, Leaving Late Tonight
6. You Were Meant For Me
7. Not That Well-Defined
8. We Go Dancing
9. When You Leave
10. Take Me For A Ride
11. A Love Story
12. It's Sunny Today
13. It Doesn't Have To Be That Way
14. Gee, That Was Fun

Manchester band Afflecks Palace return with their sophomore LP.

Produced by J. Fender, Afflecks Palace vocalist and Spirit Of Spike Island label boss said “This album is an ode to escapism from the modern day obsession with superficial status, wealth and success - propelled by social media F.O.M.O (fear of missing out)”.

If you're not from round here, the band are named after the legendary shopping emporium which is just down the road from us. Afflecks Palace was, and still is, a mecca for all things "alternative"( a word from back in the day!) and rose to fame during the heady days of Madchester. It was also  home to the Identity clothing shop which became famous for it's legendary "On  The Sixth Day God  Created Manchester" t-shirts.

Afflecks Palace are real music magpies, in the best possible sense. They've taken the energy and attitude of '89 and created super melodic guitar gems that tip their (bucket) hat to The Stone Roses, Inspirals and the like, as well as plundering classic pop from the 60s via Britpop and right  through to the present day. In doing so they've managed to create their own euphoric, hook filled sound. 

The new soundtrack to dancing til the sun comes up and weekends mooching around the Northern Quarter, thers's just a vibe and spirit around this band that's gonna be difficult to resist.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Like a greatest hits of Manchester music, all rolled up into one jangling, baggy, indie-pop nugget, this band are gonna go far.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dancing Is Not A Crime
2. Holidays
3. Wide Eyes On The Night Bus
4. WAKE UP!
5. Patchwork Quilted Veins
6. Big Fish, Small Pond
7. Ghosts On The Underground
8. I'm So Glad You're On Ecstasy
9. Hey Stranger
10. Find Your Place

Including ‘One’, ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’, & ‘Pride (In The Name Of Love)’. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Martin says: I'm famously a massive fan of U2, and this epic collection sees them reworking (upcycling?) tons of their older tracks, but stripped back to a reasonably unadorned core instrumental skeleton. Once again, a clear sign of a band still in control of their craft.

Having lived their rollercoaster ride to the top of the charts and main stages inside just two years, The Lathums state their intentions to supercharge their continued rise with the release of 'Say My Name'.

TRACK LISTING

1. Struggle
2. Say My Name
3. I Know Pt. 1
4. Lucky Bean
5. Facets
6. Rise And Fall
7. Sad Face Baby
8. Turmoil
9. Land And Sky
10. Crying Out
11. Understanding

‘Cracker Island’ is the eight studio album from Gorillaz, an energetic, upbeat, genre-expansive collection of 10 tracks featuring yet another stellar line-up of artist collaborators: Thundercat, Tame Impala, Bad Bunny, Stevie Nicks, Adeleye Omotayo, Bootie Brown and Beck. Recorded in London and LA earlier this year, it is produced by Gorillaz, Remi Kabaka jr. and eight-time Grammy Award-winning producer / multi-instrumentalist / songwriter extraordinaire Greg Kurstin.

The virtual band exploded onto TikTok gaining over 2.1 m followers in the space of a few months where they continue to innovate, taking virtual characters where no character has been before…

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Another neon synth-heavy outing from Albarn & Co. This time sees previous collaborators Beck & Bootie Brown return, while inviting new assistance in the form of Tame Impala, Stevie Nicks (!) and Thundercat! R&B-tinged electronica, disco and synth-pop grooves atop jazzy bass and huge percussion loops. Unmistakeable, classic Gorillaz.

TRACK LISTING

1. Cracker Island (feat. Thundercat)
2. Oil (feat. Stevie Nicks)
3. The Tired Influencer
4. Tarantula
5. Silent Running (feat. Adeleye Omotayo)
6. New Gold (feat. Tame Impala And Bootie Brown)
7. Baby Queen
8. Tormenta (feat. Bad Bunny)
9. Skinny Ape
10. Possession Island (feat. Beck)

For the better part of a decade, LA’s scrappy rock n’ roll mystics Death Valley Girls have used their music as a means of tapping into a communal cosmic energy. On albums like Glow In The Dark (2016), Darkness Rains (2018), and Under the Spell of Joy (2020) the band challenged the soul-crushing banality of modern society and celebrated “true magical in­nite potential” through a collage of scorching proto-punk riffs, earworm melodies, far-out lyrics, and lysergic auxiliary instrumentation. But on their latest album Islands in the Sky, Death Valley Girls’ songwriting mastermind Bonnie Bloomgarden uses the band’s anthemic revelries as a guidebook to spiritual healing and a roadmap for future incarnations of the self. And while these may be the loftiest aims of Death Valley Girls to date, the resulting music is also by far their most infectious and celebratory.

“Death Valley Girls are a gift to the world.” - Iggy Pop

“Harnessing the allure of the occult and the power of self-help, the Los Angeles garage rockers break free from their roots and ascend to the realm of spiritual psych-jazz rockestra.” - Pitchfork

“(Death Valley Girls) taps out of traditional songwriting and tune into a new spiritual consciousness…” - Spin

“An insistent Banshees like boom and groove.” - MOJO

TRACK LISTING

1. California Mountain Shake
2. Magic Powers
3. Islands In The Sky
4. Sunday
5. What Are The Odds
6. Journey To Dog Star
7. Say It Too
8. Watch The Sky
9. When I'm Free
10. All That Is Not Of Me
11. It's All Really Kind Of Amazing

Neutral Milk Hotel‘s explosive 1996 debut, On Avery Island, receives the deluxe reissue treatment with a yellow and red vinyl 2xLP press, complete with revised artwork and cut at 45RPM.

Jeff Mangum’s songs are cryptic and crazed, his ideas fast and furious, and together they force the home-recording concept out of the basement and into a brave new world, a fuzzy masterpiece of experimental lo-fi recording.

Full of rapid-fire wordplay with true and heartfelt experimentation, both ambitious and eclectic, it’s not hard to see why this has been such an influential album.

Part of the fabled Elephant 6 collective, Neutral Milk Hotel won over many a music critic with this cult classic. The band are recognized as one of the most influential alternative acts to come out of the mid-90s and sowed the seeds for everything from anti-folk to the likes of Arcade Fire, Caribou and even Franz Ferdinand

TRACK LISTING

Side A (45RPM)
A1 Song Against Sex
A2 You've Passed
A3 Someone Is Waiting
Side B (45RPM)
B1 A Baby For Pree
B2 Marching Theme
B3 Where You'll Find Me Now
Side C (45RPM)
C1 Avery Island/April 1st
C2 Gardenhead/ Leave Me Alone
C3 Three Peaches
Side D (33RPM)
D1 Naomi
D2 April 8th
D3 Pree-Sisters Swallowing A Donkey's Eye

"Island Time" is the latest album from Joel Sarakula and his first since relocating to The Canary Islands at the height of the pandemic. From his home in the UK he accepted an invitation to perform a special concert Alfredo Kraus Auditorium in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria in November 2020 not realising it would change his life.

"Island Time" is a collection of songs covering themes such as island life, city life, loneliness and romantic love and our relationship with nature.

Stylistically covering soft-rock, soul, disco and reggae, "Island Time" and its first single "Tragic" is broad in scope but ultimately a cohesive record, with the production focusing on a small group of musicians featuring Phil Martin (Dawn Patrol, Martin & Garp) on drums and Xav Clarke on guitar and bass. Building on his previous records "Love Club" and "Companionship", Sarakula expands his palette with a broader use of synthesizers and drum machines and makes stylistically adventurous choices such as the AOR samba of "Dinosaur" and the 70s-cod reggae inspired title track "Island Time", a tribute to escape and re-invention. Sarakula sings "Don't bother me I'm on island time, don't bother my mind once again." For any overworked and over-connected city-dweller, this plea for isolation in a tropical island is a beautiful fantasy.

"Island Time" will be released on Jan 20th, 2023 with Sarakula bringing some tropical sunshine to the freezing European winter in January and February with performances already confirmed in The Netherlands and Germany.

TRACK LISTING

1. Love My Shadow
2. Sun Goes Down
3. Work For Love
4. Tragic
5. Give It Up For Nature
6. Lonely Town
7. Island Time
8. Truth
9. Dream Life
10. Dinosaur