metal

→ July 29, 2026
→ By keith
→ Leave a Comment

Music update, July 2026.

This one took some work, with the draft and my prospect rankings in the middle of the month, plus the misfortune to have two audiobooks I’d requested from my library months ago both show up in the same week, with 14 days to listen to each of them. Anyway, this playlist features the return of the greatest MC in hip-hop history, several of my favorite contemporary artists, some great metal and post-hardcore tracks, even a good dose of psychedelic rock. And I still have to listen to the rest of the new albums from Jack White, Pond, and Quicksand, and give a second spin to Yard Act. As always, if you can’t see the widget below you can access the playlist on Apple Music or Spotify.

Rakim – A Different Kind. The R returns with his first true solo track in 15 years, and I’d argue his best since at least 1999’s The Master, as he sounds rejuvenated, with something close to the pacing and rhythm of his peak output. I didn’t know if we’d ever hear Rakim sound this good again.

Noname feat. DRAM – Squatter. The second song from rapper Noname’s announced, unscheduled mixtape Cartoon Radio comes nearly a year after the first one, “Hundred Acres.”

Moses Boyd – Say Yeah. Boyd’s 2020 album Dark Matter was fabulous, spawning my top song of the year (“Shades of You”) and showcasing his talent both as a percussionist and as a jazz composer. It was gloriously dark, so this return, his first truly solo song in six years, is a big surprise – it’s a gospel-influenced track and very bright. I don’t know if I want a whole album of this, but it’s interesting to see Boyd try something new.

Jorja Smith feat. WizKid – Alive. Smith’s latest album What Are the Odds comes out on August 21^st, with this sultry track featuring Nigerian Afrobeats star WizKid as the first single. Smith also appeared on Nia Archives’ “Get Me Down,” but that’s the sort of electronic/drum-and-bass music that I think wastes Smith’s voice.

Meaningful Stone feat. Jay Som – 1+1=0. Meaningful Stone is Kim Jimin, previously a member of Sailor Honeymoon (see below), and her latest single has Jay Som on vocals. It’s dream-pop, driven by a shimmering acoustic guitar, reminiscent of Hatchie and even the Sundays.

mary in the junkyard – Thou Shalt Sprout. I have heard at least half of the songs on this London folk-rock band’s debut album Role Model Hermit, but none of the singles grabbed me at all. Even this one was getting close to the skip button until around 1:35 when the electric guitar shows up and brings a darker counterweight to the vocals.

Wishy – All the Rage. That’s two for two, as both of Wishy’s singles this year (the other was “Lovesick”) are modern jangle-pop bangers. Their second album, Nature’s Pill, comes out on October 2.

The Tubs – Who’s Gonna Love You Now. More jangle-pop goodness from this Welsh group founded by two former members of Joanna Gruesome, one of whom has since left the band. Their third album Hard Life comes out on September 11^th, featuring this and another single that just dropped called “Stoop to Me” that’s solid as well.

Echo & the Bunnymen – Brussels is Haunted. Ian McCullough and Will Sergeant will release their 13^th album, Apples for Isaac, on September 18^th. It’s not “The Killing Moon” or “Bring on the Dancing Horses,” but it’s pretty good for a band approaching its 50^th anniversary.

Slow Fiction – turning down flowers. Slow Fiction are a NYC-based quintet that leans into post-punk with some synth-pop and shoegaze revival, but most impressive to me is that this song is six minutes long, which had to give some record label exec a coronary. Their debut album dollhouse comes out on August 7^th.

DMA’s – Killing Time. DMA’s put out a four-song EP this month called Killing Time, with “Heatin Park” the best song, followed by this one, plus two other slightly more tepid numbers. DMA’s are at their best when they go big, earning or re-earning the Oasis comps that they have seemed eager to avoid since their second album For Now came out in 2018.

Westside Cowboy – Pin Up Boys. This Mancunian quartet toured with Geese last year, and there’s some similarity in the guitars, although Westside Cowboy’s vocals are more straightforward and I get a Phish vibe from the chorus on this rousing song. Their debut album It Goes On drops on August 21^st.

Temples – Megalith. This psychedelic-rock group’s latest album, BLISS, came out in July, highlighted by “Vendetta,” “Jet Stream Heart,” “Glimmer,” and this midtempo track.

Arab Strap – Fighting for You. A satirical number about pining for “the halcyon days” of measles, nuclear war, and high unemployment over a driving rock track.

Elephant Stone – Everything Evil. I don’t think I’d heard Elephant Stone before, but this Canadian psychedelic-rock band is about to release its tenth album, ASHA. This song is punk-influenced in music and lyrics, although they often incorporate Indian elements into their songs (as you might have guessed from the new album’s title).

Sailor Honeymoon – I Wanna Leave You. Feminist punk from Seoul, with their debut album The Worst of Sailor Honeymoon coming on August 14^th. The first half of the song has them singing the title over and over; the second half offers a list of reasons to leave a partner.

Disgusting Sisters – Sorry Mister. Definitely for fans of Wet Leg, this duo – actual sisters – have released a few singles over the last three years, with their first album Skin & Blisters coming out on October 30^th.

Getdown Services – The Bins. This was the first track I’d heard from this British duo, half of which is a guy named Josh Law, so I have some investigatin’ to do. The song reminds me quite a bit of Yard Act’s first album if YA used a drum machine instead of actual percussion, with a dose of Confidence Man, too. Their second album Massive Champion comes out on August 14^th.

Yard Act – Fiction. I’ve only gone through You’re Gonna Need a Little Music once so far, and that’s not enough; it’s a complicated, genre-bouncing album, consistent with this British post-punk band’s history of pushing their own boundaries with each release. “Thrill of the Chase” is probably the most Gang of Four-like song on the record, just with more of a punk tempo and heavier flourishes in the chorus; the title track is very Arab Strappy. “Fiction” is a dark, funk-inspired track, with a rhythm that’s consistently off beat so you feel unstable for much of the song.

Gurriers – Nobody’s Coming to Save You. The title track from this Irish post-hardcore quintet’s second album, due out September 24^th, is a harsh, dissonant song that still manages to find a hook in the chorus. “Party Lines” came out at the same time and would have made this playlist if they hadn’t released an even better track.

Quicksand – Regenerate. I haven’t gotten to this seminal post-hardcore band’s latest album, Bring on the Psychics, which came out five days after the draft, but I’ve liked the three songs I’ve heard – this one, “Crystallize,” and “Get to It.” Quicksand and Thrice are the two bands who most define what I think of as “post-hardcore.”

Protomartyr – Sounds We Cannot Hear. Tigers fan Joe Casey & co. return with this lead single off their upcoming seventh album Hotel Usona, and if this is any indication it’s going to be a darker affair than their last LP, Formal Growth in the Desert.

Mastodon – Snakes for Dinner. So “Your Ghost Again” wasn’t just a one-off tribute to Brent Hinds, but the first single from Mastodon’s upcoming album Marrow Deep, coming out on August 28^th. This second single features vocals from QotSA’s Josh Homme.

Index – Fractured. Control Top was a short-lived DIY punk band from Philly that broke up after releasing one album in 2019. Singer/bassist Ali Carter appears to be out of the music business, but the other two members have founded Index, whose first track leans more into hardcore punk with some faint metalcore elements as well.

The HU – Grey Hun. This Mongolian folk-metal band’s latest album HUN is out now, combining thrash and classic heavy metal with Mongolian throat singing, creating something that’s clearly kin to some of the less extreme folk and Viking metal coming out of the Norse countries (and a little bit of Entombed’s death-and-roll style too).

Insomnium – Gleam in the Black. This Finnish melodic death metal band has that country’s quirky combination of unusually hooky, major-key melodies with typical death-growl vocals, like peak Children of Bodom.

Amon Amarth – Gjallarhorn. More melodic death metal, this time from one of the pioneers of the form. Their lyrics often focus on Viking history and mythology, and their music borrows more from thrash than typical death metal.

Russian Circles – Eluvial. Prog-metal from a Chicago trio who’ll release their ninth album, pointedly titled Nine, on August 28^th.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2026 in music, hip-hop, melodic death metal, metal, Music, post-punk, rap

→ June 30, 2026
→ By keith
→ 3 Comments

Music update, June 2026.

June was heavy, in a good way – this list has more psycheledic rock, post-hardcore, or metal tracks than most of playlists do. If you want to rock out, I have a few songs for you. As always, if you can’t access the widget below, you can access the playlist on Apple Music or Spotify.

Mastodon – Your Ghost Again. How could I start this playlist with anything but this new track from Mastodon that pays tribute to former member Brent Hinds, who left the band (or was kicked out) in March of 2025, then died in a motorcycle crash in August?

Jack White – Dollar Bill. I’m very into this new Jack White vibe, which seems to be carrying over from 2024’s No Name, such as on that album’s “Archbishop Harold Holmes.” (That track got a surprise video last year starring John C. Reilly, who came up with the concept. It played at Tribeca this spring.) White’s new album Frozen Charlotte comes out on July 10^th.

Liminal – The Crop. Unabashedly late ‘60s psychedelic rock, very in line with what Temples typically does but a little darker in tone. Hailing from the Northern Rivers region of eastern Australia, this quartet has put out two albums to date, and promised a new and more experimental one this year, with this the only song released so far.

Temples – Glimmer. Oh, hey, speak of the devils. Bliss came out on Friday and it’s more of the usual, which is a good thing in my mind, as I love Temples’ guitar-forward psychedelia.

Pond – Skyworks. More psychedelic-rock, although Pond’s flavor is more experimental than Temples’ is. This Australian band put out their latest album, Terrestrials, on June 19^th, and it’s a little more pensive than their last few albums – I didn’t find anything as immediately compelling as “Neon River” or “America’s Cup,” but songs like this one, which is more powered by the beat than the guitars, still landed for me.

Les Big Byrd – Artificial Sunlight. Sticking with a theme, this is a psychedelic-space rock group from Stockholm whose latest album Ruin Everything came out on June 5^th. The first track is called “Hökvind” (featured on one of my previous playlists) if you want a sense of what they sound like.

The Afghan Whigs – Jungle Roux. The Whigs will release their tenth album, Soft Control, on August 21^st, featuring this driving lead single. I was never into the band in their 1990s heyday, but I’ve really enjoyed their second phase, especially 2017’s In Spades.

Suede – Emotionally Unavailable. Suede continues to evolve and surprise; this extra track from the deluxe edition of their 2025 album Antidepressants is in that album’s post-punk vein, but has a harder edge and rocks out in a way they haven’t really done much since their 1990s peak.

Quicksand – Crystallize. Another band I didn’t get into in their original tenure – which, in Quicksand’s case, lasted just two albums, and came way before I was at all a fan of what is now called post-hardcore – but whose work post-reunion I’ve loved. Their fifth album, and third since they got back together, is titled Bring on the Psychics and comes out on July 17^th.

Zoh Amba – Dead End Street. Amba is a multi-instrumentalist whose previous output was mostly free jazz, but on their latest album, Eyes Full, they’ve changed it up to a hybrid of alt-country and grunge to better tell stories of their childhood growing up in Kingsport, Tennessee.

beabadoobee – Sun Has Set. Beabadoobee’s fourth album, Pylon, comes out in Septeber; this lead single is a real rocker, and while it’s still clearly her sound, it feels like there might be some Olivia Rodrigo inspiration behind it.

Big Truck – Central Reservation Blues. Big Truck is the brand-new side project by Laurie Vincent, who is half of the English punk band Soft Play (ex-Slaves), but there’s no punk at all on this jangly indie-pop song or their other released track, the jazzier “Collided.”

feeble little horse – Poison. Bitknot is probably going to end up on my top albums of 2026 list; that swirling guitar lick between the verses here is a good example of why. It’s their first album since their founding guitarist left the group, but I don’t think I’d have noticed had I not read that fact, because this is still guitar-driven rock, pop and anti-pop at the same time, with harsh and even dissonant rhythms set against sweet melodies in the vocals and some of the lead guitar.

Slow Pulp – Better Man. I was mixed on Slow Pulp’s last album, 2023’s Yard, preferring their harder, more grunge-tinged stuff to some of the material that better matches their name. This track is the former kind – heavier, very ‘90s alternative rock, with a great hook in the chorus.

Young Empress feat. Prides – Never Enough. Young Empress is a duo of two unrelated people with the surname Davies, hailing from the West Midlands; Prides is now a solo act of Stewart Brock, the only remaining member, whose distinctive singing voice helps elevate this electro-pop song to something more demanding of your attention.

Rosa Walton – Romance is Dead On. Both members of Let’s Eat Grandma put out solo albums this year; Walton’s was my preference over that of bandmate Jenny Hollingsworth (who records as Jenny on Holiday). Both record in the same experimental dance-pop vein as their main band does, though, and I didn’t find either solo album that much a departure from LEG’s stuff.

Wishy – Lovesick. Wishy’s 2024 debut album earned them plaudits all over the music press, but I found most of it lacking in hooks, other than “Triple Seven,” which landed at #91 on my top songs of that year. This one is fucking banger, though. I name-check Velocity Girl a lot around these parts because that specific sound – power pop with distinctive, bright vocals above a rougher-edged backdrop – will always speak to me, and this song does it, too.

Meg Stalter feat. MUNA – Gay. It’s a novelty song, but kind of slaps? I have to admit I always thought Stalter’s Pride Month corporate videos were a riot, so perhaps I was primed to like this.

La Sécurité – Deny. La Sécurité started as a side project during the pandemic, but their debut album Stay safe! was such a success that they’re back with a new album, Bingo!, featuring more of the same dance-punk from the first LP.

Lakecia Benjamin feat. Terence Blanchard – Beyond the Dawn. Jazz saxophonist Benjamin released her new album We Dream on June 5^th; this track includes jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard, twice nominated for Oscars for his scores for Spike Lee films.

Yard Act – New Beginnings. This post-punk band’s third album You’re Gonna Need A Little Music drops on July 17^th; their sound continues to evolve from their first record, which was practically an homage to Gang of Four, to something more expansive musically, merging art-rock and even alternative hip-hop with that post-punk basis. This track has a very slow start, but the back half pays off with layers of sound behind an intense chorus.

Trashcan Sinatras – Melodramatic. This was actually the third single from the Scottish band’s upcoming album Ever the Optimist, due out July 31^st, and came out in May, but I prefer it to the June release “Games for the ZX Spectrum,” which is more maudlin and lacks this song’s hook.

Car Seat Headrest – Joe Drives Again. I’ve never loved CSH, mostly because of the vocals, but the vocals are more ‘normal’ here and it’s a catchy, bouncy melody. The first line of the chorus is definitely borrowed from another track that I can’t place.

Sleep – Have Spacesuit Will Travel (4;20 Flexi Edit). Sleep announced in June that guitarist Matt Pike is no longer part of the band after 25 years; their new lineup features Melvins drummer Dale Crover, ex-Void guitarist Bubba Dupree, and original vocalist/bassist Al Cisneros. I don’t know if this was related to Pike’s embrace of the work of antisemitic lunatic David Icke, but unlike most Sleep fans, I’m fine with them moving on. This song sounds a bit more commercial than what I think of when I think of Sleep, but I do like the melding of space rock and stoner metal, so I’m happy to see what else they produce.

Tygers of Pan Tang – Forevermore. Tygers of Pan Tang were part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in the late 1970s, churning out four albums over a three-year span, but their biggest success was a cover of “Love Potion No. 9” and they disbanded for about 13 years before original guitarist Robb Weir restarted the group in 2000. They’ve been prolific since then, with their new album Electifyed (due out in September) their eighth in 25 years, and frankly they sound pretty damn good. If you like Maiden, Priest, Angel Witch, or Saxon, this should be in your wheelhouse.

Lost in Kyiv – Liminality. Instrumental “post-rock” music from a Paris quartet, turning more towards metal on their third album (and changing the spelling of their name from Kiev). It reminds me a bit of Alcest, without the shoegaze/blackgaze elements.

Insomnium – Shadow Life. This Finnish melodic death metal band has put out some interesting stuff over their nearly 30 years, with flirtations with progressive/technical metal and even some overtly commercial elements – there are clean vocal harmonies in the chorus on this song – alongside the death growls. I can’t say I’ve listened to everything they’ve done since their great 2014 album Shadows of a Dying Sun, but this is the best track of theirs I’ve heard since then.

Warning – Night Comes Down. There’s doom metal, and then there’s Warning, who make Candlemass sound like EDM. Warning isn’t heavy like Cathedral; they’re slower, darker, more depressing musically. If you like Candlemass or Saint Vitus, check these guys out.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2026 in music, alternative, doom metal, indie, jazz, melodic death metal, metal, Music

→ June 3, 2026
→ By keith

Music update, May 2026.

Thirty-six tracks might be a record for one of my monthly playlists. May was loaded beyond the normal boost from having five Fridays, and I think it’s going to be a tremendous summer for new music given how many albums were teased with strong singles this past month.

As a side note: NPR appears to have put an AI-generated track by a fake band on its latest New Music Friday playlist. I can’t promise I’ll never be fooled, but I do not intend to ever put an AI-generated song on any of my playlists on purpose, and if I do so, I’ll own up to it. They’re spreading like ice-nine.

As always, if you can’t see the playlist below, you can access it on Apple Music or Spotify.

KNEECAP – Carnival. I loved the movie Kneecap, but I thought the group’s music was a little more of a novelty – they were certainly serious about their politics, but the music itself wasn’t that sophisticated. Their latest album Fenian turns that entirely on its head; as it’s smart, experimental in places, and surprisingly polished, without losing the urgency and power of Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap’s lyrics. It’s one of the best albums of the year, buoyed by a cavalcade of guest appearances, with some incredible hooks as on this song as well as the title track.

The Waterboys – Don’t Even Have to Say His Name. A one-off track by Mike Scott – the singer, not the 1986 Cy Young Award winner – that’s about you-know-who without ever having “to say the motherfucker’s name.”

Blondshell – Heart Has to Work So Hard. Blondshell just put out her second album last year, but she’s back with this new, way more uptempo rock track that’s one of her best songs yet. There’s a new album and a big tour coming, but there are no details on the LP yet.

DMA’s – Heatin Park. This Australian trio started out as a very Oasis-like rock band, with “For Now” and “Too Soon” among their best early songs, then tried an electronic sound for a few years, but now they’re back with what appears to be a return to their roots. Their new album, just called DMA’s, comes out August 7^th.

Mystery Jets – Black Sage. This is Mystery Jets’ first new track in over six years, with their last album releasing in April of 2020, so just in time to sink into the abyss of the pandemic. The British indie-rock band will release their seventh album, A Hole To See The Sky Through, in August; I don’t think I’d ever heard anything from them before, but I love the Amazons-style guitar riffs here.

Ceremony – Other Hells. Ceremony’s last album was my #1 LP of 2019, their post-punk/new wave In the Spirit World Now, with the opening 1-2 punch of the title track and “Turn Away the Bad Thing.” They’d released all of two songs since then before this single dropped in late April, and this one harkens way back to their early hardcore punk sound. No word yet of a new album.

Yard Act – Redeemer. My favorite group of Gang of Four fans return with a darker track that still features singer James Smith’s wry, sesquipedalian lyrics, ahead of their third album, You’re Gonna Need a Little Music, due out on July 17^th.

Y – Duplicate. Y is a fairly new band that crosses many genres and talks about it a lot in interviews, but it ain’t bragging if you can bring it. Their music is interesting, and unusual, and seems to combine elements of several musical styles while also pushing the boundaries of what you hear in a typical radio-length rock song. This is the first track off their second EP, ENTER, released in early May. T was unavailable for comment.

1000 Rabbits – White Horse. There’s some wildly inventive music coming out of the UK right now, with My New Band Believe, KNEECAP, Dry Cleaning, Yard Act, Plantoid, JJerome87, and 1000 Rabbits, just to name a few artists, all putting out new music so far in 2026. 1000 Rabbits is a five-piece experimental rock band from Suffolk who’ve put out three singles so far, all rather out there in arrangement and song structure.

Genesis Owusu – Life Keeps Going. I liked Owusu’s last album more than his newest, Redstar Wu & the Worldwide Scourge; this record seems more electronic, more dance-oriented, although the lyrics are more political and more (appropriately) angry than his previous work. This is the best song I’ve heard from the album, with the best hook, even though it’s one of the most dance-oriented tracks on the record.

Chanpan – confessions part ii. Chanpan are a trio of Asian-American musicians who try to blend drum & bass, jazz, and indie-pop with occasional dashes of other genres. The driving bass line is the big hook here on their second single of 2026, with one EP, Endlessly, to their credit before this year.

Weird Nightmare – If You Should Turn Away. Weird Nightmare is the side project of Alex Edkins of METZ, and just dropped its second album, Hoopla, at the start of May. This song is almost a 180 from METZ’ music; it’s mellow, jangly, and subtly catchy.

youbet – Ground Kiss. Shoegazey bedroom-pop from Nick Llobet and new bassist/vocalist Micah Prussack; Pitchfork referred to part of their sound as “country-grunge” and I had a similar thought on this specific track.

feeble little horse – Dior. FLH released their third album, bitknot, on May 26^th, with this extremely Smashing Pumpkins-esque track as the lone single that I could find. It’s more straightforward than thir last album, 2023’s Girl with Fish, at least.

Swim Deep – Mud. The second single from this shoegaze/dream pop band from Birmingham is one of their strongest yet. Their fifth album, Hum, comes out in June, almost exactly two years after There’s a Big Star Outside. If you’re going to go for a slower tempo like this, vast guitar sounds like Swim Deep has on “Mud” help give the song some textural contrast.

TV Star – The Package. Speaking of “country-grunge,” that may apply to this TV Star track even more than it does to youbet’s. It’s got the acoustic guitars of the former, the lo-fi distortion of the latter, and vocals that sound like early Miki Berenyi.

Failure – Crash Test Delayed. With Location Lost, Failure has now released more albums since they reunited (four) than they did before they broke up in 1997 (three). This track reminds me quite a bit of Pinback, which is funny because 1) Pinback debuted after Failure’s first hiatus began and 2) I only really like one Pinback song, “From Nothing to Nowhere.”

Lip Critic – Shoplifting. There’s definitely a media/label push behind this dance-punk band’s second album, Theft World, as their tracks have shown up on all sorts of playlists, both curated and algorithmic, over the last month or so. The story behind the new album may be better than the album itself.

The High Curbs – RACER #23. Fun California surf-punk with a great melody and perfect run time. Also, check out the band name’s acronym.

False Advertising – Next Big Thing. I wasn’t familiar with this British duo, which features the niece of the original lead singer of Madchester band Inspiral Carpets, before this song, which comes off The Sorry Window, their first album since 2019. It’s close to a punk, with the slightly sung-talked cadence of many post-punk bands.

MUNA – Eastside Girls. MUNA’s latest album Dancing on the Wall is more MUNA-y, but I don’t think that’s necessarily better, and I much preferred Katie Gavin’s solo album to this. “Eastside Girls” is the best track here, and also a good example of the direction of this LP.

Radhika – Since Yesterday. I don’t include many covers on these playlists because they’re often boring and/or cash grabs. This is neither: It’s a cover of a wonderful 1980s new wave track by the one-hit wonders Strawberry Switchblade, sung in a late-60s folk-pop vein by an Indian-Scottish singer from Glasgow. Music is fuckin’ awesome, man.

Arab Strap – You You You. Like a dark synth-pop track sung by Brian Cox. And I’m into it.

Jorja Smith – What’s Done is Done. Smith’s vocals win every time, even when the music is just mid as it is on this electronic track. Also, she’s blonde now.

Alabaster DePlume – Bringing up the Nakba. DePlume is a saxophonist & jazz musician who often adds spoken-word lyrics with strong political content to his songs … or just gives them highly political titles, like this one, which refers to ethnic cleansing during the 1948 Palestine War.

Knats feat. Geordie Greep – Carpet Doctor. Knats are a “nu jazz” trio from the UK who sprinkle in various rock subgenres on top of many of their tracks; their latest album, A Great Day in Newcastle, was produced by Greep, former lead singer/guitarist of black midi, who also appears on this track.

Ezra Collective feat. Pa Salieu – Only Love. Salieu is the star of this track – less than two years after he was released from prison – with the Mercury Prize-winning Ezra Collective fading a little into the background with music that feels more jazzy than jazz.

Tamikrest – Imanin. Tamikrest is a desert blues (or assouf) band from Mali with a sound very similar to that of the Nigerien musician Mdou Moctar. They hadn’t released anything since 2020 before their sixth album Assikel came out last month.

They Are Gutting a Body of Water w/Horse Jumper of Love – charter spec. TAGABOW just put out an album in October, and now they’re back with this track, which alternates My Bloody Valentine-level shoegaze with what sounds like detuned guitars playing arpeggios without distortion alongside mumbled lyrics. It’s almost metal in its own strange way.

Gurriers – Nobody’s Coming to Save You. Noise-rockers from Dublin who clearly take some inspiration from post-hardcore bands like Thrice, while the chorus here reminds me quite a bit of Irish shoegaze revivalists Just Mustard. This is the title track from the band’s second album, due out September 25.

Monolord – Iodine. I’m new to this Gothenburg doom metal band, whose sixth album, Neverending, just came out on Friday, but I love what I’ve heard from them so far, including this, “You Bastard,” “Oozing Wound,” and “It’s Neverending.” It’s heavy, Pallbearer-level stuff with occasional dashes of the melodic death metal that’s a hallmark of Gothenburg bands.

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats – I’ll Cut You Down. I thought this was a pretty dumb name for a band, but there’s some history here, as their music is heavily inspired by the proto-metal band Vanilla Fudge, which devolved into Cactus, whose lead singer Rusty Day later had a band called Uncle Acid and the Permanent Damage Band. This Uncle Acid is from Cambridge, England, and their sound is bluesy hard rock mixed with doom metal and, appropriately, a dose of psychedelia, so the result is lighter than that of Monolord.

All Them Witches – Red Rocking Chair. The opening track from this hard rock/blues/stoner band’s latest album House of Mirrors, whichcame out on Friday, is a very slow burn, bordering on doom metal in pace and heaviness.

If These Trees Could Talk – Blurry Creatures. This “post-metal” band is a metal band. I hope that clears that part up. It’s instrumental, layered, with elements of post-hardcore (a genre name I accept), with more focus on atmosphere than melody.

Karmanjakah – Diamond morning. This Swedish progressive metal band produces highly technical, textured metal tracks that incorporate less traditional elements like synths and choirs, while also working in some of the dropped-tuning riffs common to extreme metal. (I’ve seen their music called “thall,” a subgenre of technical metal.) I’m into the big riffs near the end here and the way the song builds on its earlier textures for a finish that feels conclusive.

Cemetery Skyline – Dream Delusion. A bonus track from the new deluxe edition of this metal supergroup’s lone album to date, Nordic Gothic.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2026 in music, alternative, doom metal, hip-hop, indie, jazz, metal, Music, progressive metal

→ May 4, 2026
→ By keith

Music update, April 2026.

We’re warming up here, I think – the music is getting better, more albums are on the calendar, spring hath sprung, and so forth. My two favorite albums of the year so far came out in April or just before it, and I think May/June will add quite a few more to that list. As always, if you can’t see the widget below you can access the playlist on Apple Music or Spotify.

Angine de Poitrine – Sarniezz. I guess I barely got ahead of the wave of publicity from Angine de Poitrine’s KEXP appearance, but including them here now feels anticlimactic. Vol. II is easily my album of the year so far, not for the outfits or the weird interviews, but because their music manages to be wildly inventive (including the microtonal guitar, which blows my mind as someone who has played a regular guitar for 40+ years and finds it challenging enough) and still melodic and hook-filled and entertaining.

Courtney Barnett – One Thing at a Time. Barnett’s latest album Creature of Habit is a little more rock-oriented than her last proper LP, although I think her lyrics might be a little less clever? The best tracks on the record are “Site Unseen,” her duet with Waxahatchie; “Stay in Your Lane;” and this song.

Temples – Vendetta. I can’t help it. I love Temples’ throwback psychedelic-rock sound, and if they slip one crunchy guitar riff in there I’m putting the song high on the next playlist.

Snail Mail – Tractor Beam. Snail Mail’s latest album Richochet opens with this song, its best track, and a solid introduction to Lindsey Jordan’s newer sound, with better production and much stronger vocal lines.

Jack White – G.O.D. and the Broken Ribs. I like a lot of White’s time-traveling experimentation, but in the end he’s at his best when he drops a bluesy guitar riff and starts telling a story.

Failure feat. Hayley Williams – The Rising Skyline. Failure’s newest album Location Lost came out on April 24^th, and yes, that is indeed the Paramore lead singer contributing a verse – and elevating the entire song out of its gloom.

My New Band Believe – In the Blink of an Eye. Former black midi bassist Cameron Picton has released his first album since that band went on hiatus in 2024, with a number of guest musicians supplementing him. It’s not surprising that it’s experimental and ambitious, crossing and blending genres; it’s surprising that it’s extremely catchy and seems to exist simultaneously in 2026 and 1969. So much of this self-titled album reminds me of Love’s Forever Changes, from the acoustic guitar work to the tempo shifts to the musical patterns in his vocals. It’s also much more coherent and less pretentious than former bandmate Geordie Greep’s album. MNBB released another song earlier this year, “Numerology,” that’s quite good but only appears on the deluxe CD version of the album.

JJerome87 – Track and Field. JJerome87 is Joe Newman, primary lead singer and guitarist for alt-J, and is now releasing his first solo album, The Canyon, in June. I’ve heard the whole thing already and it’s better than either of alt-J’s last two records, but not close to the brilliant combination of experimentalism and cohesion of An Awesome Wave. The best news is that he’s turned away from some of the most commercial aspects of Relaxer or The Dream, which convinced me that the worst thing that ever happened to alt-J was when “Left Hand Free” became an accidental hit.

Pond – Two Hands. This Aussie psych-rock band will drop their xth album Terrestrials on June 19^th; the title track came out first and is the stronger of the two, a more immediate, catchier song, while this one takes about half its run time to get fully going.

Lime Garden – Cross My Heart. This British indie band released its second album, Maybe Not Tonight, on April 10^th; this is the first song of theirs I’ve liked enough to include, with a drum/bass line that’s extremely catchy and danceable.

World News – Sidestep. I loved both of World News’ singles from last year, representing some of the best modern jangle-pop I’ve heard in … ever? This song veers into a different space entirely, with a more atmospheric rock sound that calls back to Oasis and Stone Roses (and, of course, the DMA’s).

La Sécurité – Snack City. The second Quebecois group on this month’s playlist is this art-punk collective from Montréal, about to release their second album Bingo! on June 12^th.

The Reds, Pinks and Purples – Houses. I can’t decide if I love the mournful, Cure-like quality of Glenn Donaldson’s voice, or if it’s just too depressing to work at scale. This track comes off their latest album Acknowledge Kindness, as did “Heaven of Love” from my February playlist.

Fotocrime – Plowjob. I struggled a little with this one, because the music is so much like mid-80s Killing Joke, but the vocals don’t measure up to it across the entire album. Fotocrime is an offshoot of Coliseum, another post-hardcore band from Louisville, and their new album has guest appearances from Barney Greenway of Napalm Death, Jay Weinberg of Slipknot, and Brian Cook of Sumac, so they’ve got the right friends. I wish the vocals were stronger.

MORN – The Standard Model. MORN is a post-punk band from Monmouth, Wales, right near the border with England, not exactly a hotbed for new music, and this is just their second single to date. It’s fast and more punk than post-punk, reminiscent of DEADLETTER and a little of Yard Act.

Tooth – Restless in Bloom. Tooth are a very new grunge-adjacent quartet from London who’ve gotten a bit of music press buzz already after just a couple of singles this year. This is their best one to date, again grunge-like but not derivative of the style or any specific band.

Lambrini Girls – Cult of Celebrity. Good, but more of the same from this punk duo, who I think have to step up their lyrics and/or add something musically to get to the next level.

The Tubs – Fade to Black. Yes, it’s a jangle-pop cover of the Metallica song, and it’s weird and ultimately I think it comes off as snarky, but it is certainly interesting.

Downward – Drawl. A recommendation from Riley Breckenridge of Thrice, Downward blends post-hardcore and shoegaze with just enough melodic sense amid the gloom to make it all work. They put out a two-track single in April with this and “Get Some.”

Monolord – You Bastard. Doom metal from Gothenburg, that haven of melodic death metal, with all of the crunch and depth of that genre but clean vocals that make it way more accessible to a broader audience. They put out two tracks in April, with this the better of the two over “Oozing Wound.”

Armored Saint – Hit a Moonshot. The two tracks I’ve heard so far from Armored Saint’s Emotion Factory Reset, due out on the 22^nd, are making me question everything I previously thought about this 1980s metal band, who I always thought of as less interesting than their thrashier contemporaries and less catchy than some of the bands who ended up in the hair-metal bucket (like early Mötley Crüe, before they went all glam). This is better than anything from Testament since the 1980s, really.

Venom – Kicked Outta Hell. I’ve always thought of Venom as something of a joke; they were much better known for their inane Satanic lyrics than for musical ability or great riffs, so their fan base had a lot of people attracted to the controversy rather than the tunes. Their album Black Metal gave the genre its name, but black metal, which just refers to metal with Satanic or sometimes occult lyrical themes, is itself dumb. It’s all for attention, and if in 2026 you still think that stuff is either cool or controversial, man, you’re about forty years behind the times. So I was surprised to hear that this new track, from a lineup with just one original member, is actually a decent song, sitting right in the middle of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (into which Venom sometimes gets lumped) and early speed or thrash metal. Go figure.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2026 in music, alternative, doom metal, indie, metal, Music, thrash

→ March 8, 2026
→ By keith

Music update, February 2026.

Whew, February turned out to be a loaded month, especially with experimental or art-rock bands, along with a decent supply of new metal and more singles from the newest War Child charity album HELP(2). As always, if you can’t see the widget below, you can access the playlist on Apple Music or Spotify.

Temples – Jet Stream Heart. This British psychedelic-rock band is good for at least one absolute banger per album, sometimes more, with this track following “Cicada,” “Holy Horses,” and “Shelter Song,” among others. The guitar riff that drives this sucker is the earworm of the year so far.

Savages – Prayer. Savages’ second album Adore Life turns 10 this year, and it’ll serve as their final music, aside from this one-off track and a bizarre piano-ballad cover of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid.” It’s a damn shame, as their first album Silence Yourself was an outstanding work of feminist post-punk.

Arlo Parks – Heaven. Another lovely vocal track from the Mercury Prize-winning British singer/songwriter, although I’m still not as big a fan of her electronic-backed songs as her folkier early work. Her third album, Ambiguous Desire, comes out on April 3.

flowerovlove – Casual Lady. An absolute gem of a pop track; recommend this to people in your life who unfortunately love the washed-out pop of Sabrina Carpenter. The hooks are better, the lyrics are wittier, and it hasn’t been produced within an inch of its life.

Jorja Smith – Don’t Leave. Smith’s best track since her last album, 2023’s Falling or Flying, is a jazzy R&B/grime track that is, as usual, powered by her indelible voice.

Brigitte Calls Me Baby – I Danced with Another Love in My Dream. They sound so British, but this new wave-revivalist quartet is from Chicago, and I think they’re about to get huge, with the first two singles from their sophomore album Irreversible (due out on the 13^th) both among the best tracks of this year – and last year, too.

Trashcan Sinatras – Bitter End. I assumed this Scottish band was done, as they hadn’t released any music since an EP in 2022 and hadn’t put out a full album since 2016, so this song, very reminiscent of their third album A Happy Pocket, was a pleasant surprise. There’s apparently a new album in the offing but I can’t find any details.

Crystal Tides – Better Weather. Crystal Tides are unsigned and released their album Toothpaste independently, cracking the British top 40 albums chart last month without the typical support you get from a record label. It’s power-pop in the vein of the Lottery Winners, and this is the album’s best track.

The Reds, Pinks and Purples – Heaven of Love. I wasn’t familiar with this band, led by Glenn Donaldson, which will release its latest album Acknowledge Kindness on April 24^th. This song sounds like the Cure decided to experiment with shoegaze’s atmospheric sounds, but not the heavy distortion.

Swim Deep – Pieces of You. Speaking of shoegaze, this British band will drop its fifth album, Hum, in June, with this lead single sneaking in some jangle-pop melodies and a generally more upbeat vibe than you typically get from the shoegaze genre.

Puscifer – Pendulum. I always forget this is Maynard James Keenan’s side project because it’s so unlike anything from Tool or A Perfect Circle – and I was never a huge fan of either band. This is weird, but in a very good way, a minimalist art-rock track that showcases Keenan’s baritone.

King Tuff – Twisted on a Train. I’ve heard plenty of King Tuff’s music before but I believe this is his first appearance on one of my playlists. I just like the guitar riff.

Bedelia – Valley Sadness. This is the first single from Bedelia, a trio of members of Fleshwater, Ethel Cain, and other bands you’ve never heard of. It’s dream-pop, with spacey (fine, ethereal) vocals and a sweet melody through the chorus.

Lucia & the Best Boys feat. Lauren Mayberry – Lonely Girl. Including CHVRCHES singer Mayberry on your track isn’t a guarantee to get it on my playlist … but the song is actually pretty good even before her guest verse. There’s a little Wolf Alice here, and Lucia Fairfull’s vocals in the chorus remind me of Jehnny Beth from Savages.

Charli xcx feat. Sky Ferreira – Eyes of the World. I don’t know if Ferreira’s second album, Masochism, will ever see the light of day, but getting her on a Charli xcx track – especially one this searing – has to help at least generate some buzz.

Greg Foat, Jihad Darwish, Moses Boyd – Skipping Tones. This showed up on my Release Radar because of Boyd, a jazz drummer whose work I’ve appreciated for a decade; his “Shades of You” was my #1 song of 2020. He’s part of this new project with Foat, a jazz pianist and composer, and Darwish, a multi-instrumentalist whose talents include playing the double bass, sitar, and guitar. Their album Opening Time came out last August, but I only caught it because of the new version, Opening Time (Library Edits), that dropped last month.

1000 Rabbits – Virgin Soil. This British quintet, formerly known as Rabbitfoot (although Virgin Soil would be a better name than either of these), adds a violinist to the usual guitar-bass-keys-drums combo. Their first single starts with a quirky art-rock vibe before a sudden crescendo to a big post-punk finish.

Hen Ogledd – End of the rhythm. This Welsh experimental folk-rock quartet, which includes the solo artist Richard Dawson (not the Family Feud host, he’s dead), just released its ~~first~~ third album Discombobulated, which includes this clever offbeat track … and a nearly 20-minute song called “Clear pools.”

Angine de Poitrine – Fabienk. A reader asked last month if I’d heard this Québécois duo, who perform their experimental rock/jazz hybrid in disguises and under pseudonyms; the next day, they appeared on my Release Radar, because the algorithm is listening. I hear Battles, Altin Gün, even a little King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. They’re called math rock and they’re using microtonal guitars, but it’s also just catchy.

Ezra Collective feat. Greentea Peng – Helicopters. HELP(2), the latest record to support the efforts of War Child International, features 23 songs from a broad array of artists, including Arctic Monkeys, Fontaines DC, Olivia Rodrigo, Depeche Mode, and Arlo Parks. This song is one of the better ones I’ve heard so far, although it’s mid as Ezra Collective tracks go.

plantoid – Parasite. More experimental jazz-rock, which seems to be the flavor of the month for February, here with a more pronounced rock guitar in front. This song actually has words, though.

Mateus Asato – Cryin’. Some fun instrumental guitar work from this Brazilian guitarist who Wikipedia tells me rose to fame through posting videos of his playing on Instagram.

Blackwater Holylight – How Will You Feel. I’m new to this doomgaze (is that a thing?) trio, but I’m into it – it’s dark and atmospheric, but rather than veering towards death metal with extreme vocals, they offer melody and the added instrumentation of Sunny Faris’ voice.

Green Carnation – Sanguis (Blood Ties). Prog metal from Norway with a dash of growled vocals in the last third of the track, which also has a Hammond organ and a very Creeper-esque melody and vibe throughout.

At the Gates – The Fever Mask. At the Gates are pioneers of the melodic death metal sound, with their 1995 pre-breakup album Slaughter of the Soul one of the pillars of the subgenre. I liked their earlier stuff more than their music since their return; singer Tomas Lindberg, who died in September of 2025 of cancer, always had a higher-pitched death growl style, but it became screechier as he got older (and maybe because of his illness). Their final album with Lindberg, The Ghost of a Future Dead, comes out on April 26. I’ll also mention Worm’s Necropalace as an incredible album of music that unfortunately gets too extreme for me in its vocals. Former Megadeth/Cacophony guitarist Marty Friedman guests on the album closer.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2026 in music, experimental music, indie, jazz, melodic death metal, metal, Music

→ February 8, 2026
→ By keith

Music update, January 2026.

This playlist includes a handful of tracks from December 2025 that I heard after I compiled my top 100 tracks of the year or that didn’t make the cut, plus songs from this January, through songs released on the final Friday (the 30^th), but not anything released this month. As always, if you can’t see the playlist below you can access it on Apple Music or Spotify.

Courtney Barnett feat. Waxahatchee – Site Unseen. This second single off Barnett’s upcoming album Creature of Habit features Katie Crutchfield, so it couldn’t be more in my personal wheelhouse.

Brigitte Calls Me Baby – Slumber Party. BCMB’s sophomore album, Irreversible, is due out on March 13^th; they do one of the best new wave-revival sounds out there, honoring the genre without sounding overly derivative of it. It’s catnip for me.

Arlo Parks – 2SIDED. Parks will release her third album, Ambiguous Desire, on April 3^rd; she has yet to miss for me, with this song leaning more into a dance sound beneath her unmistakable voice.

Daughter – Not Enough. This Irish trio’s album Not to Disappear turns ten this year, so they re-recorded one of the tracks that didn’t make the cut, “Not Enough,” which showcases Elena Tonra’s haunting voice over a typically sparse backing track that hints at electronica, folk, and shoegaze.

Makthaverskan – Pity Party. I’d never heard of this rock band from Gothenberg (a town best known for producing melodic death metal), but I love this song, which has some dreamgaze and post-punk elements, and is the lead single from their upcoming album Glass and Bones, which will be their first new album in five years.

Ratboys – What’s Right. I can’t say I’m a huge fan of Ratboys, in part because of Julia Steiner’s warbly, sometimes off-key vocals, but their best stuff can be pretty catchy folk-tinged alt-rock. Their latest album Singin’ to an Empty Chair came out on Friday.

DEADLETTER – It Comes Creeping. I loved DEADLETTER’s very Madness-like 2024 track “Mere Mortal;” and this song is in a very similar vein. Their second album Existence is Bliss comes out on February 27^th.

Flea – A Plea. Flea, best known as the bassist who replaced Derf Scratch in Fear, is about to release his first solo album, Honora, in March; it’s a jazz album, featuring six original tracks and four covers, and the two singles to date – this one and “Traffic Lights” – are both fantastic, featuring Flea on bass and trumpet, with Thom Yorke providing vocals on the latter song.

Whitelands – Blankspace. Whitelands is a shoegaze band from London – aren’t they all – who just released their fifth album, but second on a proper label, at the end of January. Sunlight Echoes also includes an appearance from Lush’s Emma Anderson on “Sparklebaby.”

Tigers Jaw – Head is Like a Sinking Stone. Another new-to-me artist, Tigers Jaw hails from Scranton and they’re also about to put out their first album in five years, Lost on You.

The Cribs – Never the Same. I think the main thing I knew about the Cribs was that they’re one of the eighty-nine bands Johnny Marr has joined since the end of the Smiths. They’ve been around for over 20 years now, with their ninth album Selling a Vibe coming out last month; this is the best track I’ve heard, while the album as a whole gets a little one-note.

The Twilight Sad – Designed to Lose. It’s the Long Goodbye, The Twilight Sad’s first album since three members left the band, leaving only founding members James Graham and Andy MacFarlane, will be out on March 27^th, a big day for new albums, as it turns out. This song is pretty vintage Twilight Sad, dark and a little gothic-new wave but also still informed by pop.

Butler, Blake & Grant – Lonely Night. That would be Bernard Butler (Suede), Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub), and James Grant (Love and Money). They released a self-titled album last March, while this is a folk-rock reworking of a song Blake wrote for Teenage Fanclub that that band recorded as “Dark & Lonely Night.”

Billy Bragg – City of Heroes. “When they came for the immigrants/I got in their face/When they came for the refugees/I got in their face/When they came for the five-year-olds/I got in their face/When they came to my neighborhood/I just got in their face.”

Arctic Monkeys – Opening Night. A midtier Arctic Monkeys track off the upcoming Help(2) charity album to benefit War Child, featuring other tracks from Olivia Rodrigo, The Last Dinner Party, Damon Albarn, Fontaines DC, and more.

The Format – Boycott Heaven. The Format just released their first new album in 20 years; they were Nate Ruess’ original band, before he and Jack Antonoff formed fun., which released that one album (note: and one before that, which I missed) and then broke up. I’ve always liked Ruess’ voice, even when they got stupid with autotuning it, and this track showcases it well in a great indie-pop vein.

SAULT – Chapter 1. SAULT’s latest album is full of … salt. It’s clearly a response to Little Simz’ Lotus, which was her album about how SAULT leader Inflo borrowed a seven-figure sum from her and didn’t repay it; here Inflo leans further into his religious act, with songs like “God, Protect Me From My Enemies” and “Lord Have Mercy,” along with hackneyed lyrics like “They’re jealous of what’s in your brain” and “Must go higher. I refuse to fight with fire.” But damn, nobody does ‘70s soul/funk revival like SAULT does.

TIGRA & SPNCR – Do It Like This. If you’re old enough to remember the 1980s rap duo L’Trimm, which had a couple of minor hits in “Grab It” and “Cars with the Boom,” Tigra was half of that group (as The Lady Tigra), and she’s back with an EP called Black Rice. Bunny appears on a different track, “Guillotine.”

Home Star – Come To. This track, by Evan Lescallette of the band Marietta, is perfectly fine punk-pop-emo whatever, but I couldn’t ignore an artist named Home Star.

Blackwater Holylight – Bodies. Metal in general is a male-dominated genre, and doom metal even more so, with the occasional female vocalist but very few all-women bands. Blackwater Holylight is three women, from Oregon, who put out three albums from 2018-21 and then took five years off before their fourth album, Not Here Not Gone, came out at the end of January. This track blends heavy, crunchy guitar lines with ghostly vocals to make it all much creepier than just some guy doing the Cookie Monster voice.

Maria BC – Marathon. Maria BC is an experimental singer/guitarist from Oakland whose music starts out as ambient but often goes in unexpected directions; here, their vocals sound like Alejandra Deheza of School of Seven Bells, set over dark guitar sounds like some of Alcest’s best work.

The Hu – The Real You. The Hu are a Mongolian folk-metal band that incorporates native instruments and throat singing into their music; they’ve toured with Iron Maiden and even covered “The Trooper.” Their third album will be out later this year, and yes, it’s pronounced like “the Who.”

Port Noir – Noir. Port Noir is a progressive rock band that has always at least toyed with metal, but their upcoming album The Dark We Keep seems to lean all the way into the heavy stuff – they’ve actually said on their Instagram that it’s the heaviest album they’ve ever made. Also in the metal space, The Ruins of Beverast has some great guitarwork on their newest album, but the death growls here are way too prominent for me; Kreator’s Krushers of the World had some solid stuff but also got a little clownish, as on the title track; and Sylosis’s “Erased” had some strong thrash riffs but got too metalcore for me.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2026 in music, alternative, hip-hop, indie, jazz, metal, Music

→ December 24, 2025
→ By keith

Top 25 albums of 2025.

When I started doing best-of rankings at the end of 2013 for music, I had the not all that clever idea to do a number of albums equal to the last two digits of the year and keep that going until I reached 2025. I broke that a few times, going under twice and over once, but we are now in 2025 and I think I’ll stop expanding the list after this. Finding 26 or more albums in an era when the music industry deprecates the format – even if artists still value it – is just more work than I want to put into these rankings, which remain a labor of love. So here are my top 25 albums of 2025, with I assume an unsurprising record at the top spot but I hope a few records that are new even to regular readers.

Honorable mentions: The Hives – The Hives Forever Forever The Hives, Cœur de pirate – Cavale, Black Honey – Soak, Bleary Eyed – Easy, nabeel – ghayoom, Total Wife – come back down, Nathan Salsburg – Ipsa Corpora, SAULT – 10. And since someone will ask, I didn’t care for the Beths’ album.

You can see my previous year-end album rankings here: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, and my top albums of the 2010s. My top 100 songs of 2025 will go up some time in the next week.

Unranked. Nell Smith – Anxious. This is a hard one to rank for me, because it feels like a work in progress that will never be completed. Smith died in a car crash in September of 2024 at age 17, after recording this debut album of original material and an album of Nick Cave covers she did with The Flaming Lips. There’s so much promise on this album, and a few standouts among these sparse psychedelic-pop numbers, like “Split the Sky” and “Billions of People,” but it’s very much like a prospect’s rookie season where you see flashes of their ultimate potential but they haven’t put it all together yet. I’m putting it in the last spot on the list, ahead of some albums I would be much more likely to listen to again, so more people might see and listen to it.

25. Thrice – Horizons/West. The follow-up to 2021’s Horizons/East is the superior of the two records to me, and feels more deliberate in lyrics and music, perhaps because the previous one was recorded during/right after the pandemic. Full disclosure – drummer Riley Breckenridge is a friend and we’ve hung out a few times, but I wouldn’t put the record on here if I didn’t like it. These songs sounded incredible live, too. Standout tracks include “Albatross,” “Gnash,” and “Crooked Shadows.”

24. The Tubs – Cotton Crown. This Welsh band, formed by members of Joanna Gruesome, churns out catchy jangle-pop singles that end before they wear out their welcome, with the whole nine-song album coming in just five seconds short of a half an hour. Standout tracks include “Freak Mode,” “The Thing Is,” and “Chain Reaction.”

23. Wolf Alice – The Clearing. I really prefer Wolf Alice when they rock out, because they’re so damn good at it, and Ellie Rowsell’s voice soars over big, crunchy guitar riffs, but as on pretty much every album since their debut, they’ve chosen to mix it up, with ballads (“The Sofa,” the snoozy closer) and country-tinged songs (“Leaning Against the Wall”) amidst some real bangers. I admire the ambition, even if I always want them to pick up the pace. Standout tracks include “White Horses” (with verses sung by drummer Joel Amey), “Bloom Baby Bloom,” and the very 1970s “Bread Butter Tea Sugar.”

22. Rocket – R is for Rocket. I’ve seen Momma’s album on a number of year-end lists, but I found it disappointingly derivative, to the point that several songs sound like covers (notably “I Want You (Fever),” which is so much like a Veruca Salt song it’s embarrassing). So why does Rocket, who are heavily inspired by Smashing Pumpkins and even take their name from a Pumpkins song, get zero respect, when they’re at least bringing more original melodies to a familiar sound? Standout tracks include “Crazy,” “Wide Awake,” and “Another Second Chance.”

21. Creeper – Sanguivore II: Mistress of Death. I prefer their last album, Sanguivore, as this one is a little kitschier across the board, lyrically and musically, but I’m generally so in tune with their overall sound that I liked the album even with some of its excesses. It’s 1980s hard rock with an overly dramatic, Brett Anderson-like lead singer, and I can’t not enjoy it. Standout tracks include “Headstones,” “Prey for the Night,” and “Mistress of Death.”

20. Anxious – Bambi. I guess they’re emo, or screamo, although I just hear a punk-rock band here with some screamed vocals scattered over the course of the album, which is full of melodies – just as their debut album Little Green House was. I love that their profile picture on Spotify has one member wearing a T-shirt that reads “Turning Point,” referring not to the white nationalist movement but to the straight-edge band from the early 1990s. Standout tracks include “Counting Sheep,” “Head & Spine,” and “Audrey Go Again.”

19. Portugal. the Man – Shish. Portugal. the Man is now primarily a John Gourley solo project, and this album, the band’s tenth, is a whirlwind tribute to the vastness of Alaska, calling back to the band’s earlier experimental days (pre-Evil Friends, at least) and recalling the urgent despair of Foxing’s recent work. There’s no “Feel It Still” here, sorry. Standout tracks include “Denali,” “Tanana,” and “Angoon.”

18. Just Mustard – We Were Just Here. This is real shoegaze, maybe the most authentic shoegaze by any band that wasn’t part of the original wave in the early 1990s. If you liked early Lush, or like the sound of My Bloody Valentine with a female vocalist you can hear, you’ll probably like this Irish band, who lean into the genre’s more dissonant aspects in a way that the majority of shoegaze revival acts don’t. Standout tracks include “Endless Deathless,” “Pollyanna,” and the title track.

17. SPRINTS – All That Is Over. This Irish punk quartet released its first LP in January of 2024, then returned with their second this September, showing significant growth and expansion in their sound from their punk and garage roots. Standout tracks include “Descartes,” “Need,” and “Beg.”

16. Courting – Lust for Life, Or: ‘How to Thread the Needle and Come Out the Other Side to Tell the Story’. This Liverpudlian band had one of my favorite albums of 2024 in New Last Name, then returned fourteen months later with this mouthful of an album title. It clocks in at just 25:40, with only nine tracks, and it feels more EPish to me, but still has some infectious alt-rock tracks on it like “Pause At You” (which came out in 2024), “Namcy,” and “After You.”

15. Pelican – Flickering Resonance. I’m late to this party, but Pelican rocks. This is the seventh album from the Chicago instrumental metal band, which has some progressive and post-hardcore elements, and it’s the first to include founding guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec in over a decade. Wikipedia calls them “post-metal” and I have to admit I don’t really know what that means and can’t think of how it applies. This is a metal band, and a good one. Standout tracks include “Cascading Crescent,” “Gulch,” and “Indelible.” If you like these guys, check out Town Portal, whose latest album Grindwork was the #2 album of the year for Thrice drummer Riley Breckenridge.

14. Hotline TNT – Raspberry Moon. This album is the third under the Hotline TNT name, but the first recorded by a full band, rather than as a Will Anderson solo project. The result is by far their best album to date, a far more cohesive and melodic work that doesn’t hide any of its limitations behind distortion. And no, this still isn’t shoegaze, by any definition. Standout tracks include “Julia’s War,” “The Scene,” and the jangle-pop “Candle.”

13. Sunflower Bean – Mortal Primetime. This NYC-based trio returned with their first new album in three years, and first since “Moment in the Sun” became a hit thanks to the TV series Heartstopper, this time adopting a harder rock sound that draws far more from 1970s glam-rock bands like T. Rex than any of their previous material. Standout tracks include “Nothing Romantic,” “Champagne Taste,” “There’s a Part I Can’t Get Back,” and “Crashing Highs” from the deluxe edition.

12. Coroner – Dissonance Theory. Coroner were more influential than commercially successful during their brief run from 1987-1993, when they released five albums, including the technical thrash metal masterpieces Mental Vortex and Grin, the latter of which was ahead of its time but boded poorly for its popularity. The trio broke up after that and didn’t release any further music for thirty-two years, with the guitarist and bassist from those albums still on board for this new album, which sounds like almost no time has passed at all since their last record. Highlights include “Consequence,” ”Symmetry,” and “Crisium Bound.” Some other metal albums of note that I didn’t mention on this list: Castle Rat’s The Bestiary, Messa’s Spin, Testament’s Para Bellum, and Paradox’s Mysterium.

11. Automatic – Is It Now? The third album from this LA-based trio, whose drummer is the daughter of the drummer of goth-rock icons Bauhaus, is a dark electro-rock affair that’s heavy on the synth and bass lines. You can certainly hear that Bauhaus influence here, but these women also clearly have their own sound, and it deserves a far, far wider audience than it’s received so far. Standout tracks include the title song, “Terminal,” “Black Box,” and “mq9.”

10. Obongjayar – Paradise Now. The latest album from this genre-defying Nigerian singer is a sprawling epic of styles and rhythms, often but not exclusively drawn from Afrobeat, with plenty of western rock influences evident across the album. Oddly enough, my least favorite track here is the one with his frequent collaborator Little Simz, “Talk Olympics.” Standouts include “Not In Surrender,” “Sweet Danger,” and “Holy Mountain.”

9. The Horrors – Night Life. Faris Badwan & company released their first full-length album in eight years, and for some reason, it didn’t make much of a dent in the music press at all, which is bizarre given how much praise the previous album, just titled V, received. This record is a darker, more electronic affair, but nearly as compelling as its predecessor, and maybe a little more accessible too. Standout tracks include “Ariel,” “More Than Life,” “The Silence that Remains,” and “Trial by Fire.”

8. keiyaA – Hooke’s Law. There were two albums this year that made me go “WTF” in a good way; this is the first of the two on this list. I’d never even heard of keiyaA before she appeared on (I think) an NPR weekly new music list, and I was already intrigued by the album’s title, which refers to a law of physics that says that the force required to compress a spring scales linear with respect to the distance covered by the deformation. She starts from a modern soul/R&B foundation, but experiments all around it, drawing on electronic music, alternative rock, rap, noise, and more. Her lyrics aren’t always easy to make out in the cacophony beneath them, but they’re sharp and often very funny, too. Standouts include “k.i.s.s.,” “i h8 u,” and “this time” featuring the wonderfully named rapper Rahrah Gabor.

7. Suede – Antidepressants. Suede promised this would be their post-punk album, and they delivered. This might be their best full-length in 20 years, and it’s probably their most polished and cohesive work yet. Standouts include “Disintegrate,” “Trance State,” and “Dancing with the Europeans.”

6. YHWH Nailgun – 45 Pounds. The absolute most WTF album of 2025, and even going back to it six months later I still find it perplexing and jarring. The entire album runs just 21:04, with ten tracks, none longer than 3:07, and it’s driven by drummer Sam Pickard’s use of a type of shell-less drum called a rototom, along with some complex meters and drum patterns. It’s like nothing I’ve heard before. I also don’t think they can just roll this sound out again on another album; this works once, otherwise you’re just black midi all over again.

5. Emma-Jean Thackray – Weirdo. Thackray’s second full-length album, written mostly by her (with assists on two songs), recorded and produced entirely by her, all in the wake of the sudden death of her partner of 12 years, is a sprawling nineteen-song record, a document of grief and anger at the world, showing no fear in the lyrics or the music. It’s modern jazz, with a strong funk influence and some pop notes, although she’s almost unable to finish a chord sequence in a typical pop pattern. Standout tracks include the title song, “Wanna Die,” and “Save Me.”

4. Heartworms – Glutton for Punishment. Jojo Orme’s debut album was a huge critical success, a real tour de force that blended electronic, post-punk, goth, and even classical elements across nine songs that pulse and throb and just scream their urgency. It sounds like the culmination of years of work, while also sounding like the product of a far more experienced artist. It calls upon some of the best music of my own youth – and I’m twice Orme’s age – without sounding at all derivative of any of it, or even too reliant on any particular genre. Standouts include “Just To Ask A Dance,” “Warplane,” and “Jacked.”

3. Little Simz – Lotus. This was the diss record of 2025, although I don’t think it was immediately obvious who or what it was about. Simz loaned her friend Inflo of SAULT over a million pounds to stage a concert, and he stiffed her, causing her to miss a huge tax payment to the British government and ending both their professional partnership and friendship. The first track, one of the many highlights of the record, is called “Thief,” with the couplet “You talk about God when you have a God complex/I think you’re the one that needs saving,” and it just goes from there. Other than “Young,” there isn’t a miss on the record; other standouts include “Lion,” “Flood” (both featuring Obongjayar), the title track, and closer “Blue,” featuring Sampha.

2. Sudan Archives – The BPM. Brittney Parks’ last album ended up at #2 on my year-end list in 2022 as well; she’s just wildly inventive, ignoring any restrictions of genre, and has an incredible ear for hooks. This is probably the closest I got to a no-skips album this year; “MS. PAC-MAN” is unlistenable, and a jarring departure from the rest of the record. Actual highlights include the title track, “Dead,” “A Bug’s Life,” and “My Type.”

1. Geese – Getting Killed. Obviously. Barely into their 20s, the boys in Geese have expanded beyond their very Gang of Four-ish roots from their debut album Projector, while continuing to eschew typical rock or alt-rock patterns and rhythms and even song structures. It’s post-something, and definitely experimental, but nowhere near as impenetrable as YHWH Nailgun or Yowie or Deerhoof, veering between screamed choruses with car-crash drums and 1970s-inflected vocal melodies that might trace their origins back to 10cc or Slik. Standouts include “Cobra,” “100 Horses,” “Trinidad,” the whole album, really. FWIW, I didn’t find Cameron Winter’s solo album nearly as compelling. (Also, his mother is Molly Roden Winter, author of More: A Memoir of Open Marriage, so that’s a thing.)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2025 in music, alternative, jazz, metal, Music, rankings

→ November 6, 2025
→ By keith

Music update, October 2025.

Three great albums and a whole host of other good releases in October, so this month’s playlist is overstuffed, clocking in at just over two hours. You can access the playlist on Spotify or, now, Apple Music.

Sudan Archives – A Bug’s Life. Brittney Denise Parks’s latest album The BPM is tremendous, easily one of the year’s best, with just one skip for me (“Ms. Pac Man”) and some absolute bangers like this track. The album is fundamentally a dance record, with influences from house music to techno to EDM to classic R&B. There’s even some string accompaniments on the album. It’s going to end up near the top of my year-end list.

Creeper – Mistress of Death. The sort-of title track from their latest album, Sanguivore II: Mistress of Death, is one of the best songs on it, although “Prey for the Night” is the easy leader. They’re such an anachronism: in the 1980s, they would have been lumped in with American hair metal bands, but now they stand out because almost no one is making music like this at all.

Just Mustard – Endless Deathless. This Irish shoegaze band just put out their latest album We Were Just Here – they capitalize everything, I’m too tired for all that yelling – and it’s excellent, although I’m undecided if it’s better than 2022’s Heart Under, which was one of the best shoegaze albums of this current revival period. They’ve got a lot of Slowdive to them, especially with a female vocalist whose voice softens the harshness of the walls of distorted guitars.

Courtney Barnett – Stay in Your Lane. Barnett hasn’t released a proper album of her own since 2021, although in 2023 she did an instrumental soundtrack for a film called Anonymous Club, and she hadn’t released any original music at all in the last two years. Then this lands, and it’s … almost a pop song? It’s really upbeat, catchy, more guitar-driven and a little less powered by Barnett’s idiosyncratic vocals and brilliant lyrics. Perhaps this is a new phase, and I’m into it.

Momma – Cross Your Heart. Momma is the Veruca Salt of the 2020s, and I’m fine with that. They’re not breaking any ground here, but they have a good ear for melodies, and the sound is so similar to Veruca Salt – who had a couple of absolute bangers, even though they burned out quick – that they strike a familiar chord in my brain.

Rocket – Crazy. Speaking of which, Rocket is named for the Smashing Pumpkins song, and they do sound quite a bit like their idols, although it’s not as overt, more like a similar vibe, and their vocalist is miles better than Billy Corgan anyway.

World News – Everything’s Coming Up Roses. The second great track this year from this British jangle-pop band, with a very U2-like guitar sound (including the use of a digital delay, more evident on their last single “Don’t Want to Know”). They’ve put out a few EPs, but there’s no album yet. They did tease an album in progress in an interview in July.

Automatic – Black Box. This LA-based trio does a very post-modern sort of synthesizer-driven rock, unusual in that it doesn’t call back much to the heyday of synthpop in the early 1980s. Their third album, Is It Now?, dropped in September, and it’s a strong listen that doesn’t truly have a standout single. It’s dark and moody, more of a vibe than a collection of hits.

Thrice – Gnash. One of the best songs off Thrice’s Horizons/West. I saw their live show at TLA in Philly on Sunday, and they sounded incredible, even though there are a lot of mixed feelings about that venue. I think the last time I saw them was at the Franklin Music Hall and I remember it being louder but less clear. Anyway, I’m a fan, not just because their drummer is half of Productive Outs.

Doves – Spirit of Your Friend. This track will appear on the upcoming best-of compilation So, Here We Are, but the song apparently is about twenty years old, and the band ‘unearthed’ it and pared it from seven minutes to 3:39. It’s quite good but I have a hard time placing it somewhere in their sound chronology; it’s definitely post-The Last Broadcast, but I guess before Kingdom of Rust?

Weird Nightmare – Forever Elsewhere. This is METZ guitarist Alex Edkins indulging his poppier inclinations – I actually like his solo work here more than I like METZ’s harder sound. If you like Cloud Nothings, you’ll love Weird Nightmare.

dust – Drawbacks. Wikipedia tells me there was a band called Dust in the 1970s that released two albums; this is not that band. The new dust is an Australian post-punk band that sounds a lot like early Fontaines D.C. with a little darker edge. This is the lead track from their latest album Sky is Falling.

Dear Boy – After All. It’s the chorus. I was lukewarm on the song, but that line, “are you close enough to change me,” absolutely stuck in my head for days. I’ve read some reviews that try to place them with Britpop or new wave, but none of that fits for me; it’s California indie-pop, with strong harmonies and a great hook in that chorus.

Massage – Daffy Duck. I can’t help but say this band’s name like that scene from one of The Pink Panther movies, where Clouseau asks if they have a message for him but says it like “massage.” Anyway, Massage is a five-piece indie-pop band from LA who just released their first LP, Coaster, and I found this on some playlist somewhere, after which I couldn’t get it out of my head. They have a clear pop inclination, with a guitar sound that’s much more college radio than OMGHITZ!

Portugal. the Man – Angoon. So far I’ve liked the singles from their upcoming album Shish, due out on Friday, more than most of their last album Chris Black Changed My Life, which felt very much like a reaction to the huge commercial success of Woodstock. This sounds much more like their true sound, based on their pre-Woodstock output.

Orchestra Gold – Baye Ass N’Diaye. Orchestra Gold is based in Oakland, while their sound draws heavily on Malian music – not too dissimilar to the Touareg music of Mdou Moctar – while combining it with psychedelic rock and a dash of early funk. I bet they give a hell of a live show.

Danger Mouse & Black Thought feat. Rag’n’Bone Man – UP. For now, it’s a one-off single, but after the outstanding collaboration Cheat Codes in 2022 I’ll take anything Danger Mouse and Black Thought do together.

Noname feat. Devin Morrison – Hundred Acres. This is the first single from an upcoming album from Noname, whose last album Sundial was one of my favorites of 2023, called Cartoon Radio; it’s spare, mostly just Noname spitting rhymes over a synthetic piano loop. She’s one of the best MCs going.

keiyaA – k.i.s.s. Did I put this jazzy, gritty R&B song on my list because the album is called Hooke’s Law? You’re damn right I did.

Cœur de Pirate – Les enfants des temps derniers. One of the most upbeat tracks from Cœur de Pirate’s latest album Cavale, “Les enfants” sounds like a celebration throughout, even though it’s about being “a child of these last times,” facing the possible end of the world.

Weakened Friends – Weightless. I loved their track “Awkward” from 2023, which this Portland, Maine-based trio chose not to include on their new album Feels Like Hell, which does however include a cover of Ednaswap’s “Torn” (the same one Natalie Imbruglia covered). Sonia Sturino’s wobbly vocals work in small doses, but the more she invokes that trait the worse it gets; it’s only there in spurts on this track, so it gets the seal of approval.

Mourn – Dormir Tarde. I’ve been a fan of Mourn’s for probably a decade now, boosting them when fellow Spaniards Hinds were getting all the love from the indie music press. This indie-rock trio put out an album last year, but this is their second new single of 2025, so perhaps there’s another album or EP in the offing.

The Twilight Sad – Waiting for the Phone Call. The Twilight Sad were a five-piece but are now just a duo, featuring singer James Graham and guitarist Andy MacFarlane; The Cure’s Robert Smith joins them here on guitar. They haven’t released an album since 2019, so I’m assuming this is the lead track from something due out next year. It’s a little more energetic than what I typically expect from this band (whose name is, as it turns out, accurate).

Miles Kane – Sunlight in the Shadows. Kane, who is also half of The Last Shadow Puppets with Alex Turner, comes up with some serious guitar earworms, although he doesn’t have Turner’s voice or charisma.

Sports Team – Medium Machine. This is one of the seven bonus tracks from the deluxe edition of Sports Team’s latest album Boys These Days, which is out now. I didn’t love the album, at least not as much as their previous record, the more raucous Gulp!

Yowie – Skrimshander. I don’t even know what to call this beyond “experimental,” but it grabbed me anyway, probably because of the inventive guitarwork at the forefront. They’re a trio from St. Louis whose drummer is the only original member still in the band. It’s weird, don’t be fooled, but I dig it.

Glass Tides – Failure. Glass Tides are a post-hardcore band from Adelaide, Australia, who’ve toured with Thrice, which gives you some idea of their sound, although their vocalist doesn’t have the power of Thrice’s Dustin Kensrue.

Litania – Ghunghru. Psychedelic doom from Italy and Serbia. I found this track buried on the Spotify All New Metal list and it stood out immediately, not least because the vocals aren’t screamed or growled. There’s a real groove to this track that I dig.

Friendship Commanders – FOUND. Sludge metal with vocal harmonies? Sign me up. They’re duo, with incredible vocals from Buick Audra, and just released their fourth album, BEAR. This is the first track I’ve heard from them; I like that combination of heavy, perhaps drop-tuned guitars and beautiful vocals.

Coroner – Consequence. Dissonance Theory, this Swiss thrash trio’s first album in 32 years, did not disappoint; it is as good as their final two records, 1991’s Mental Vortex and 1993’s more experimental Grin. The lyrics are a little trite, as on this song’s refrain “at least you’re having fun,” but man can these guys churn out some powerful riffs. I’ve always preferred them to Celtic Frost, who are generally regarded as the pioneers of the Swiss thrash sound and progenitors of European death metal (and for whom Coroner started out as roadies), and this album is a good example of why – it’s more accessible without sacrificing the power of the thrash riffs.

Testament – Shadow People. Para Bellum, the fourteenth album from these Bay Area thrash stalwarts, dropped last month, and it includes straight-on thrash tracks like this one as well as more death metal-inclined songs like “For the Love of Pain,” which has an outstanding riff but wears out its welcome between the vocals and the blast beats. Alex Skolnick can still shred, even at age 57. I guess there’s hope for me yet.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2025 in music, alternative, hip-hop, indie, metal, Music, thrash

→ September 5, 2025
→ By keith

Music update, August 2025.

Solid month for new music, but there’s a lot more coming now that we’re into fall, with Suede’s latest dropping today to kick things off. As always, if you can’t see the widget below, you can access the playlist here.

Wolf Alice – White Horses. It’s crazy that my favorite track from Wolf Alice’s latest album, The Clearing, doesn’t feature Ellie Rowsell on lead vocals. She’s on the chorus, but that’s one of the boys doing the verses, and my god does this thing hum. I have such mixed feelings on the record; they’re one of the most interesting bands going now, so the album is all over the place, and I respect the ambition and daring. I just wish there were more bangers here. This song is awesome, so are “Bloom Baby Bloom” and “Bread Butter Tea Sugar.” There are some other highlights. I think closer “The Sofa” – not a tribute to JD Vance – is kind of a snoozer. I’m going to wrestle with this one through the end of the year.

Coroner – Renewal. I don’t usually push metal tracks to the start of the playlist, since I know some of you are here for pretty much everything but the metal stuff, but this is Coroner’s first new song in over 30 years. They never got their due while they were active, commercially at least, but their last two albums were landmarks in the thrash genre, sliding towards progressive thrash and also heralding some of what was about to come on the death metal side of things. It’s incredible that they sound almost exactly as they did on Grin, their final release before their breakup in 1993, which saw them shift hard towards proggier stuff. Their sixth album and first in 32 years, Dissonance Theory, is due out on October 17^th.

IDLES – Rabbit Run. IDLES did the soundtrack to the new Darren Aronovsky movie Caught Stealing, and to their credit they mixed things up a bit rather than just writing a bunch of new IDLES tracks. This sounds like a song from a tense, violent action film.

Geese – 100 Horses. I had both this and “Trinidad” on the original playlist, settling on this one because it’s a little more of a conventional rock track, while “Trinidad” sounds almost like a meteor hit the studio mid-song.

Wisp – Serpentine. Wisp is Natalie Liu, a 20- or 21-year-old singer/songwriter who sounds a lot like beabadoobee but with a harder guitar sound. This track, which combines breathy vocals with some crunchy hard-rock music behind it, is from her debut album If Not Winter, which came out last month.

Pynch – Post-Punk/New-Wave. I feel like this song’s title is making fun of me.

Richard Ashcroft – Lovin’ You. Yes, that’s the intro to “Classical Gas,” which is one of the two songs I typically use to warm up when I practice guitar. I can’t decide if I think this track from the former lead singer of The Verve is a clever interpolation of a classic guitar line or just weird derivative stuff from a guy who’s done this to better effect on other tracks.

Automatic – Mercury. The third album, Is It Now?, from this American synth-rock trio is due out on September 26^th. Their dark, almost gothic sound definitely hits the nostalgia vibe for me, but it’s more a hint of that early ‘80s sound I love rather than a complete throwback.

Creeper – Blood Magick (It’s a Ritual). I’ve loved most of Creeper’s work since their acclaimed 2020 album Sex, Death & the Infinite Void, but this track, from the forthcoming Sanguivore II: Mistress of Death, might be the campiest thing they’ve done yet. It’s giving hair metal in the wrong way. It’s still catchy, but I’m not sure this is the direction I want them to go in.

Courting – the twins (1969). These prolific British art-punks just put out their second album in fourteen months back in March, and they’re back again with a brand-new single, a very pre-Arctic Monkeys-sounding hard-edged bit of controlled chaos.

HAERTS – The Lie. This is the second single from HAERTS this year after they went dark in the wake of 2021’s Dream Nation; both are slow, piano-driven tunes that highlight Nini Fabi’s vocals, but neither has the incredible energy of their first album, 2014’s HAERTS. I don’t know if that sound just isn’t coming back, but I refuse to give up.

Color Green – Ball and Key (Free). This California quartet sounds like the next descendant in the line that runs from the Grateful Dead through Phish, and while I know there are a lot of pretenders to that throne, at least Color Green sounds great on record, which is more than I can say for a lot of so-called jam bands.

Just Mustard – We Were Just Here. Everyone is shoegaze now. Just Mustard actually does shoegaze, though, at least in terms of the musical style, with waves of sound that create as much of a sensation as they impart any sort of melody. It’s harsh and sometimes dissonant, but that’s what shoegaze originally entailed. This Irish band is more true to the subgenre than some of the original artists still going, like Slowdive and Ride, are in their contemporary music (which, to be clear, I’ve liked very much).

Black Honey – Soak. I’d call this song mid as Black Honey goes; they’ve had better, but I’m grading them against their own previous output there. It’s the title track from their fourth album, which came out while I was on vacation, so I still haven’t listened to it beyond the singles.

Cast feat. P.P. Arnold – Way It’s Gotta Be (Oh Yeah). That is indeed the Britpop band Cast, founded by The La’s bassist John Power, who racked up ten straight top 20 hits in the UK in the 1990s, including the bangers “Sandstorm,” “Alright,” and “Beat Mama.” They put out an album last year that didn’t have the same kind of edge or funk to this track, one of two singles featuring former Ikette (as in Turner) P.P. Arnold. Cast’s next album Yeah Yeah Yeah is due out in January.

The Hives – The Hives Forever Forever the Hives. Never let it be said that Howlin’ Pelle lacked for confidence. This is the title track from the band’s seventh album and second since they re-formed, coming out just a week ago.

clipping. – Forever War. This new track appears on Dead Channel Sky Plus, an expanded version of the trio’s second album that rearranges the existing songs and includes four new ones. “If you ain’t dead yet/you gon be there soon” should a rallying cry.

Bleak Squad – Strange Love. This is the title track from the debut album by this Australian supergroup, which includes Mick Harvey, who played in the Birthday Party, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, and PJ Harvey’s band, as well as three musicians from groups I don’t know. Their sound is atmospheric and dark – I saw one review call them “noir,” and that fits – but I’d best describe it as what I think or hope the upcoming Blondie album would sound like.

Drink the Sea – Rose Crested Sky. Speaking of supergroups, this one has Peter Buck (REM), Barrett Martin (Screaming Trees), Alain Johannes (Eleven, Them Crooked Vultures), and solo artist Duke Garwood. The band plans to release two albums this fall and to tour to support them. A post on REM’s Instagram quoted Martin as saying that this band’s sound will incorporate a lot of world music sounds; I hear some of that here, but this track is more dominated by the off-beat rhythm and what I think are varied time signatures.

Silver Gore – All the Good Men. This British duo formed in 2021 but just released their first music this year with three songs, including this jagged alt-pop number that got stuck in my head for days after I first heard it.

No Joy – Garbage Dream House. No Joy is now a solo project by Canadian guitarist/songwriter Jasamine White-Gluz, whose younger sister Alicia is now the lead singer of Swedish melodic death metal icons Arch Enemy. It’s shoegazey, but with ethereal vocals that push it towards dreampop. Apparently No Joy is playing tonight in Philly at a place I don’t know called Kung Fu Necktie.

Arcadea – Exodus of Gravity. Arcadea is a synth-metal side project of Mastodon drummer Brann Dailor, and far more accessible than almost all of his main act’s output (which I tend to like quite a bit). I had this on the playlist before the news about former Mastodon guitarist Brent Hinds’s sudden death,

Deftones – milk of the Madonna. I’ve never been a huge Deftones fan, although I’m sure I’m also biased by their first few albums as a nu-metal band, including that horrible “Shove It” song that was inescapable when it came out. With the caveat that I haven’t heard a ton of their stuff, this is the catchiest song of theirs I’ve heard.

Cloudkicker – Things You Can’t Change. Cloudkicker is the side project of Ben Sharp, a commercial airline pilot (according to Wikipedia) who releases music on Bandcamp etc. for fun; I’d never heard of him/them until Riley from Thrice posted about the new stuff on Bluesky. This track is instrumental, very post-hardcore (like Thrice) but a little heavier.

Asymmetric Universe – Feather on a Glass. This is some seriously progressive metal, like Animals as Leaders type stuff, from a pair of Italian brothers who handle guitar and bass, combining some very heavy djent-ish metal grooves with melody lines from – I can’t believe I’m saying this – smooth jazz. It’s crazy.

Crypt Sermon – Only Ash and Dust. This Philly-based doom metal band returns with a four-song EP that they describe as an extension of last year’s album The Stygian Rose, with three new tracks and a cover of the title from black metal pioneers Mayhem’s first album, retitled to change the word “Dom” to “Doom.” (Mayhem sucks, as a band and especially as people, to be clear, but they were highly influential on their genre.) The EP’s overall sound is more doom-plus, with some more energy and passages with quicker tempos compared to the LP.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2025 in music, alternative, hip hop, indie, metal, Music, thrash

→ August 10, 2025
→ By keith

Music update, July 2025.

July may have been the weakest month of the year for new music … or it might be that I was busier than ever between the day job and Gen Con, so I didn’t find as many new tracks or artists as I would in a typical month. Regardless of the reason, my playlist is shorter than usual, but August’s is already about to surpass this one in number of tracks. As usual, if you can’t see the widget below, you can access the playlist here.

Cerrone & Christine and the Queens – Catching Feelings. Cerrone was an Italo-French disco pioneer in the late 1970s; this new track is from a four-song EP with Rahim Redcar, who resurrected his Christine and the Queens moniker for this project after releasing two albums last year under other names. If you’re looking for a “song of the summer” that’s worthy of the title, this is it.

Jay Som feat. Jim Adkins – Float. Som’s new album Belong comes out on October 10^th; Adkins is the lead vocalist and guitarist for Jimmy Eat World, and you can definitely hear his influence on the rhythm lines in this pulsating indie rock track.

SENSES – call me out. This Britpop revival band put out their latest album all the heavens last month, one of the few bright spots among July albums.

Geese – Taxes. This inventive post-punk band from Brooklyn is set to release its fourth album, Getting Killed, in September, and I don’t think any of the members is older than about 22.

Rocket – Wide Awake. Named for the Smashing Pumpkins song, this LA-based band sounds a lot like their idols, but with better vocals that also serve as a softer contrast to the darker riffs on this track. Their debut album, R is for Rocket, comes out on October 3^rd.

Black Honey – Shallow. This Brighton band’s shiny take on indie-rock hooked me from the start almost ten years ago, and they’re still churning out catchy tracks that highlight singer Izzy Phillips’s sultry voice. Their fourth album, Soak, comes out on the 15^th.

Iron & Wine feat. I’m With Her – Robin’s Egg. It bothers me a little that Iron & Wine is one guy, not two, or a full band, but I’ll have to get over it. He’s put out two collaborations this summer, including this track with the trio I’m With Her, a supergroup that includes former members of Nickel Creek and Crooked Still.

Wet Leg – mangetout. Once again, everyone seems to be falling all over themselves to praise Wet Leg’s new album, Moisturizer, and I think it’s more style than substance with a couple of decent tracks, including this one. I don’t find their lyrics as humorous as the majority of critics do, so their appeal comes down to the quality of their hooks – and this is one of the best on the record, but not up to “Angelica” from their debut.

Kassa Overall – Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat). Jazz drummer and occasional rapper Overall is releasing an album of jazz covers of hip-hop classics called C.R.E.A.M. on September 12^th, featuring this Digable Planets cover and the titular one from the Wu-Tang Clan, along with Tribe’s “Check the Rhime” and Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg’s “Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang.”

Sudan Archives – My Type. I loved Sudan Archives’ 2022 album Natural Brown Prom Queen, naming it my #2 album of that year. This is her second single this year, more of a straight rap song with an electronic backing track, without quite the same experimentalist bent of NBPQ. Both are from her upcoming third album BPM.

Jorja Smith – With You. I’ll probably include every single Smith releases on my playlists, now and forever, but I do wish she leaned more into jazz and funk and less into this sort of EDM, which I just don’t think does her voice justice.

Luke Haines & Peter Buck – 56 Nervous Breakdowns. Haines was the leader of the Auteurs, a Britpop band who somehow get blamed for the downfall of the entire genre, and Buck was in some ‘80s alternative band before becoming best known as one of the guitarists in The Baseball Project. The two have collaborated here on an album called Going Down to the River to Blow My Mind; this song sounds much more like Haines’ prior work than Buck’s.

(The London) Suede – Dancing with the Europeans. I’d rank this third among the three singles Suede have released so far this year ahead of their upcoming album Antidepressants, just because I think it has the weakest hook of the troika. It’s still strong enough to make me more excited for the full-length record.

The Charlatans – We Are Love. One of my favorite bands of all time, The Charlatans came from the Madchester scene of the early 1990s and thrived right on through Britpop, even surviving the bizarre death of one of the founding members, but they ran out of steam around the turn of the millennium, and singer Tim Burgess’s voice, never the strongest, grew increasingly thin. That last part hasn’t improved any here, but this guitar riff is one of their best in 25 years. I saw them in concert in 2001, with Starsailor opening, and they were one of the most disappointing live bands I’ve ever seen because Burgess really can’t sing.

Wytch Hazel – The Citadel. Doom metal in the earliest sense – this song wouldn’t be out of place on a late ‘70s British hard-rock album. It’s from Lamentations, the fifth album from this relatively new band (they started up in 2011), released in July.

Blanco Teta – Perdida. This trio from Buenos Aires blends punk, noise, and experimental rock together in a frenetic blend that has some of the abrasiveness of extreme metal and the edge of early post-punk experimentalists like Art of Noise.

Forbidden – Divided by Zero. Thrash metal and math references – two great tastes that taste great together. Forbidden came up in the Bay Area along with some of their better-known contemporaries, never getting their due during their original run in the late 1980s, but I think they’re underrated. This is their first new song in 15 years, and first with new vocalist Norman Skinner, as their original vocalist Russ Anderson retired entirely from music.

Void – Apparition. This Lafayette, Louisiana, band is churning out old-school thrash in the Bay Area style, with crunchy guitars, abrupt tempo shifts, and vocals that you can still understand, mostly.

Sodom – Battle of Harvest Moon. Sodom are one of the pioneers of German thrash metal, and one fo the most prolific; this track comes from their 17^th album, The Arsonist, released in June. As with their compatriots Kreator, their sound has always included elements that would later become hallmarks of death metal, without the worst of the vocals or the blast beats.

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