Like it or not – I very much do – this is not an artist playing it safe. As on the last album, RAYE is unequivocally at her best when she leans contemporary, in production and subject matter.

In ‘Honora’, Flea has found a way to redefine his humble musical roots, far from a vanity project, it’s a deeply considered, richly textured body of work.

An thrilling new chapter for old fans and an engaging entry point for new ones. Just don’t make us wait another four years next time.

A powerful and truly wonderful return from The Twilight Sad.

It’s a scintillating experience, perhaps the moment where underscores fully out-strips her peers, and comes into her own.

Meshing 80s pop revival, conscious club classics that could slide into her diverse DJ sets, moodier and more alternative, experimental sonic paths, Avalon Emerson is embracing more of what she loves, more of the unknown and the joys of collaboration in the & the Charm project with ‘Written into Changes’.

A fun pop record that doesn’t skirt from difficult questions, ‘Girlfriend’ is a stellar return.

A project that feels current without sounding derivative. The fourteen tracks make for a more mature body of work – one that trades the glossy, slightly on-the-nose singles of ‘Butter’ or ‘Dynamite’ for something more layered.

Represents some of Jack’s most entrancing to date. A complete 180 from ‘Jackman.’, it feels like a true passion project, while never being indulgent.

With downtempo, melodic and deep felt emotion coursing through it, this is an accomplished Late Night Tales debut that showcases music that, put simply, makes the soul feel good.

The result is electrifying, a thrilling homage to the city of their birth. Live it will be unforgettable.

‘Goldstar’ has all the ingredients needed to propel the six-piece outfit into the mainstream, whether they like it or not. Thrillingly weird and wonderful.

On ‘Irreversible,’ Brigitte Calls Me Baby has emerged with a maturity that encapsulates the timelessness they have been honing all along.

‘Only You Left’ is another fine record from the Manchester-based trio. It is worth the four-year wait, showing their evolution as a group in that time, building on existing sounds and incorporating an array of different genres while still feeling familiar.

For a 2026 experimental capitalist-critique, dedicate half an hour of your time to this album. You won’t regret it.

Blake’s lyrics often circle ideas rather than landing on them, leaving some songs feeling like emotional sketches. But that ambiguity is part of the album’s appeal. These songs feel lived-in and unresolved, the way real relationships often are.

Its deliberate rough edges give the album an intimate and resonant glimpse into Mackenzie-Barrow’s solo vision, and in trusting first takes and fragile moments, he reveals a voice that is not retreating from the noise but refining itself within it.

The electronic palette moves him in a fresh direction, and although some of the mid-section does congeal into one, the album’s overall arc is a successful embrace of personal, and above all sensual, evolution.

By reshaping the packaging of her thoughts and anxieties, West hasn’t swapped her lyrics for carefree, blissed-out pop anthems about a wonderful life. ‘Heaven 2’ and its outlier single ‘Arrow’, along with its music video, show that even under high-energy pop rhythms, you can still find yourself dancing alone in a parking lot at night.

The group tread the perfect line between evolution and honouring their trademark style.

Having made the record about themselves, surviving under external and internal pressure and marathoning against the grain, Maria BC has spoken for all of us.

Throughout, she retains this knack for delivering lethal lines with classic Mitski concision.

Grief, cross-cultural exploration, and musical experimentation coexist effortlessly, grounding the record and giving it both emotional resonance and sonic adventure. This is an album which proves Gorillaz can stretch their sound even further while remaining entirely in control.

It’s a staunchly creative gesture, defying the pressure of the outside world for a project which thrives on internal desires, and the power of autobiography at any cost.

Once again, by mixing pounding dance beats with a feminist essence through a punk lens, Peaches continues the legacy of her image as the antithesis of conservatism.

Collaborations with vocalists Serpentwithfeet, Elise Serenelle and India Carney bring elevated moments to an album of ambient piano which will have you drifting in thought.

It’s a smile-inducing, healing experience, one which reminds you of all the good-weird in the world, rather than the bad-weird, which so often seems to be winning in these strange, discombobulated days.

The solemnness of the title track reverberates throughout most of the other tracks on the ‘Prizefighter’ album. It easily wins the ‘prize’ as the best song on an especially spectacular album.