The Fat Angel Sings

“The Human Fear” is Franz Ferdinand‘s sixth album and their first in seven years (the seventh album if we include their collaboration as FFS with Sparks back in 2015). The line-up has changed, and yet the band sounds as alive and firing on all cylinders as they ever have. It is an album that doesn’t hang about, feeling as fresh as anything they have ever recorded (yes, I am perfectly serious). It’s 11 songs and 35 minutes in length, and it’s very much a case of quality and quantity (I mean, yes, there was a time when people thought an album should fill up an entire CD of approximately 78 minutes and look where that got us).

I’ve tried to work out what the standout tracks are, but over the course of half a dozen listens (and there will be more, believe me) it keeps changing. Which is a pretty commendable state of affairs.

Produced with Mark Ralph, who previously worked with them on their 2013 album “Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action“, the album showcases Franz at their most immediate, upbeat and life-affirming, unashamedly going for the pop-jugular in classic Franz style. Recorded at AYR studios in Scotland, the 11 songs on “The Human Fear” all allude to some deep-set human fears and how overcoming and accepting these fears drives and defines our lives.

Ever since their beginnings, throwing illegal parties in condemned Glasgow buildings, Franz Ferdinand have been defined by a fresh, unfading, forward-facing outlook, a transgressive art-school perspective, but with a love of a big song and “The Human Fear” undoubtedly continues in this tradition; distinct yet new, musically, and creatively it’s a record eager to push forward.

Pretty much all written before they hit the studio, the idea was to have a songbook ready before they started recording and once in the studio it was all quickly executed – a lot of it recorded live with the band in the room and many of the vocals on the album being the original takes.

The first studio album to feature members Audrey Tait and Dino Bardot, the record also sees Julian Corrie step forward to collaborate with Alex Kapranos and Bob Hardy on songwriting and creative duties. A band for whom the aesthetic and style is almost as important as the sound, as ever the importance of this is reflected in the cover artwork which was inspired by Hungarian artist Dóra Maurer’s self-portrait 7 Twists – Maurer’s work appealed because it does exactly what they want from their music: a striking immediacy that is impossible to ignore, but with a depth and vulnerability that bears many returns and satisfactory repetition.

Maybe this is a set of songs about fear, maybe this is a set of bangers from an era-defining band continuing their unquestionably living legacy. Is that something to be afraid of?

Can it really be almost 30 years since Ash thundered into our lives with their single-laden debut Number One album “1977?” Well that’s what my calendar is telling me so it must be true after all this time, does the world need a 9th proper Ash long player? Well it seems that Ash have decided that they do, and they have chosen to rip up their current playbook and go back to basics, to the formula that made them everyone’s third favourite band (seriously, do you know anyone who doesn’t like Ash?)

On ‘Which One Do You Want?‘, it turns out that Ash do jangle marvellously, it’s quite the delight, and the pop doesn’t stop there, as it rolls straight into another guitar masterclass, this time from their actual real-life Britpop-era chum Graham Coxon, on ‘Fun People’, which he sings on and shreds throughout.

Containing eleven brand new tracks, including their raucous take on surprise single and ‘Beetlejuice’ staple ‘Jump In The Line’, “Ad Astra” sees Blur guitarist Graham Coxon appear on two particularly sassy songs and catches the perennial power-pop kings in especially rocket-fuelled form.

“Ad Astra” follows hot on the heels of 2023’s “Race The Night” (the band’s highest charting album for 20 years), being released two years and one month later, and this is no coincidence. Ever the band who live for live music, Ash vowed that the fierce pandemic-induced five year chasm between [2018 album] “Islands” and “Race The Night” would never happen again.  

Ash release their ninth studio album Ad Astra via Fierce Panda Records.

Stereolab is back with their first album in 15 years, titled “Instant Holograms On Metal Film“. This new album features 13 new studio recordings and is played by Laetitia Sadier, Tim Gane, Andy Ramsay, Joe Watson, and Xavi Muñoz.

It also includes contributions from Cooper Crain and Rob Frye of Bitchin Bajas, Ben LaMar Gay (composer and jazz multi-instrumentalist), Holger Zapf (Cavern of Anti Matter), Marie Merlet (Monade), and Molly Read, among others.

On “Holograms On Metal Film“, Stereolab have distilled their sound and made a dazzling return. One of the album’s most striking moments is when Laetitia sings, “I’m the creator of this reality” on ‘Vermona F Transistor’. Stereolab has influenced some of today’s best artists (Jane Weaver, Melody’s Echo Chamber, Dummy, Gwenno etc), and the reality she sings of is one only these people together could make. Getting lost in their technicolour world will always be such a pleasure. If they come back soon or if it’s another 15 years, it seems unlikely they’ll ever be taken for granted again. 

Stereolab took an even longer break than Chicago Underground Duo, although there has been some touring since they last released an album, “Not Music“, in 2010. There’s not a trace of rust to be found on this album as it unwinds as a total treat. Compositionally and instrumentally, everything falls into place, and Laetitia Sadier’s voice remains one of the treasures of modern music. Overall, this album compares very well to Stereolab’s earlier work.

New Threats From the Soul is not so much new sounds from the old west as it is a record that completely stretches the boundaries of alternative country music. Along with its predecessor, Dancing on the Edge – 2023’s debut album from Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band – this record is also populated by dazzling storytelling, imaginative characters, and a series of songs where the melodies extend outwards before twisting and turning in such unexpected and wonderful ways.

“New Threats From the Soul” Tough Love Records Released on: 2025-07-25

Written by a band on the edge of breaking up (founders Asha Lorenz and Louis O’Bryen fell out during its conception) and mixing scuzzy nursery rhyme melodies with lyrics that lean into self abandonment, “Cosplay” conjures up songs which gnaw at the listeners deepest fears. The title “Cosplay“ and the visual (the band posing in grotty looking masks, hiding their identity) leans into the fourth trauma response fawning  (after fight, flight, freeze) where people blend in, Zelig-like, in order to survive. On the lurching, building-to-breaking-point ‘Candle‘, the protagonist is broken  (“I’m just a candle fitting in/ I don’t get fat, I don’t eat anything“), while the moody ‘Life In This Body’ (“I have loved every version of you“) speaks to the splintering of the self.

Throughout the album, the band repurpose phrases from fizzy, quasi-novelty pop songs and it feels like a juddering wi-fi signal or a radio going in and out of reception. The call and response of Toni Basil‘s ‘Mickey‘ (‘”Hey! Mickey! You’re So Fine! You Blow My Mind! Hey Mickey!“) becomes a lurching, lonely come-on on ‘Waxwing‘; Shaggy‘s ‘Boombastic‘ reads as another line of self abasement for the desperate characters in ‘Jetplane‘. It plays as meta-commentary around the idea of costume and mask wearing, underlining the emptiness of ‘performance without context’. They are also sonic band aids, where words have failed and real connection is oblique and fragmented. “Cosplay” leaves you feeling unsettled but it’s a brilliant, unforgettable gasp from the forgotten. 

Filled with fiery politics at its forefront, and opening track ‘Bad Apple’ dives in at the deep end. Initiating the listener with blaring sirens and distorted bass, before splintering into a raging breakbeat as vocalist Phoebe Lunny proceeds to tear down the British police force, ensuring that no issue or problem with the institution is left undiscussed. To accompany the scathing lyricism that Lunny lays down throughout the album, the instrumentals of each track can be equally as ferocious. It certainly seems as though bassist Lilly Macieira has grown increasingly more confident, with a willingness to explore a breadth of styles that helps to diversify each track from the others.

The anger on display in the opener doesn’t dissipate soon either, ‘Company Culture’ discusses the gross actions of men in professional environments, while ‘Big Dick Energy’ tackles men that pose as caring about women’s issues, but as a ruse to try and make themselves more attractive.. While the album on its surface is so outwardly aggressive, there are layers of introspection that show a new level of depth to the duo’s writing, from the battle to express queerness in such a volatile, queerphobic society on ‘No Homo’, the narration of a battle with an eating disorder on ‘Nothing Tastes As Good As It Feels’, or the experiences of trying to fit in with an undiagnosed condition on “Special, Different.’ Who Let The Dogs Out” is a serious punk album that does well to remain witty and smart even when faced with the world’s biggest issues. It should and hopefully will put the duo right at the forefront of modern punk trailblazers.

Lambrini Girls are a buzzy Brighton punk duo leading the fight for change

The world is on fire, and on their debut album, the Brighton punk-heroes respond by bringing an Exocet missile to a gunfight. Ferocious and funny, their endlessly quotable lyrics skewer police brutality, misogyny and nepo babies over exhilarating barbed-wire riffs, while the riotous party-starting electroclash of ‘Cuntology 101’ provides an empowering (and joyously sweary) manifesto. 

With in-your-face and bombastic by design, you can expect Lambrini Girls‘ Phoebe Lunny to spend most of the gig in the crowd. Their loose, jagged brand of punk continues to call out the abuse, transphobia and misogyny that’s plagued their local scene and beyond for far too long. Their fight for safer, inclusive spaces is one worth rallying behind.

It would be natural to view “Perverts”, the daring follow-up to Ethel Cain’s 2022 breakout “Preacher’s Daughter“, as a response to, and rejection of, everything about success that might register as noise, not least because it was accompanied by a Tumblr post entitled ‘The Consequence of Audience’. Preacher’s Daughter” amassed a fervent following, and “Perverts” no doubt poses a challenge to the segment of Cain’s audience that has trouble engaging with the artist’s persona in the absence of unambiguous lore and soaring melodies. Yet the 90-minute project – released at the start of the year but hardly overshadowed by the proper album that succeeded it – doesn’t feel like a departure so much as an opportunity for Hayden Anhedönia to home in on the esoteric darkness she holds a deep reverence for, the eerie dissonance and muffled silences that were seen tangential rather than core to her song writing. 

Though its nine tracks are almost 90 minutes long, “Perverts” isn’t an actual album, according to its creator. Rather, this drone-inspired record that scared, confused, and put off a lot of Ethel Cain’s fans upon its release in January is an experimental sideshow that has nothing to do with her 2022 debut, “Preacher’s Daughter”, nor the two forthcoming records that will complete that narrative trilogy. Except, of course, for the fact that Cain is behind it. The project is a starkly haunting, harrowing, and challenging piece of music that transports the listener into a wholly unrecognizable world from that of “Preacher’s Daughter” (as well as from the singles we’ve heard so far from next month’s “Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You” LP). Especially early on during the eerie, old-timey introduction of the opening title track and the periods of near-but-not-quite silence that follow over the song’s 12 minute run-time, it feels like you’re in the pitch black of a horror film or video game, such is the visceral sense of dread and unease that underlines this record. Yet there are (very necessary) moments of sublime and poignant beauty, too. It all makes for a demanding but immensely rewarding listen that marks Cain out as a truly incredible, iconoclastic talent.

 If her new year’s resolution was to up her game in terms of productivity then Hayden Anhedonia, known professionally as Flordia’s Ethel Cain, has certainly achieved that. At the time of writing, we’ve not even reached summer solstice 2025, and we’re gearing up for her second record this year, following on from the ambient/noise/drone release, “Perverts“. This latest album is, however, a bigger deal in Ethel Cain folklore as it’s billed as a prequel to the record that made her a household name in indie: “Preacher’s Daughter“. If you’re into rare merch, this copy has something worth framing on your wall included with it in the shape of a limited edition art print. And given the stature of the album to come, it’ll be merch worth hanging onto. Of the highlights on the tracklist, ‘Nettles’ is stunning, with the instrumentals an aural hug: comforting yet tear jerking and her voice knockout Americana of the highest order.

Jane Remover’s “Revengeseekerz” has been cemented as one of the best albums of the year, with the artist’s Venturing record “Ghostholding” earning at least an honourable mention. But they couldn’t help but close out the year by unleashing the project with such pop potential that they were hesitant to flesh it out into a full-length. Still, “♡” (pronounced , per the artist) arrived to the delight of fans holding Jane Remover’s 2024 singles in high regard, giving them a home by slightly working them and adding two new songs to the mix. “I build a home from every vision,” they sing on the fantastic ‘Magic I Want U’, meaning they’re free to tweak and explode it at any moment. But more than anything, “♡” benefits from the blissful marriage of these songs, which are high on infatuation and playful irreverence: frying laughter and fireworks, pasting blink-and-you;ll-miss-it samples, splicing a reggae-ton beat to a shoegaze song for the hell of it.

Even reduced to an EP, it boasts hooks for days. “Said, ‘I wanna make it to Christmas’/ But I fall off the bone,” Jane sings of a relationship on ‘Dream Sequence’. At least when it comes to her music, emotional preservation appears effortless.

Grumpy from Queens district of New York make sure we remember their unnerving idiosyncrasies first. Their new EP “Piebald”, which doubles down on the contradictions of last year’s “Wolfed“, is bookended by its most eerie, glitchy songs, affirming the grotesque aesthetic of the band’s visuals. Released at the end of 2024, “Wolfed” earned Grumpy coverage in Stereogum, Paste, and the New York Times. The band crashed into 2025 with a series of collaborative singles, including “Lonesome Ride” with Sidney Gish and Precious Human, and “Harmony” with Claire Rousay and Pink Must.

“Piebald” follows these playful experiments with even more delectable grotesqueries. “It’s honesty in drag,” Schmitt says of the music: not covered up but accentuated, exaggerated, liberated, stalking the stage in chiffon and top hat.

Make no mistake, though: these songs are about love, though the kind that’s warped in unconventional, often uncomfortable shapes. Sandwiched between them, though, are tracks like the infectious and uncomplicated ‘Crush’, which delights at the thought of complete lack of supervision, and ‘Proud of You’, which soars like a surefire hit.

Grumpy’s EP “Piebald” is a lopsided grin with a knife behind it — a shimmery gut punch that turns the grotesque into glamour and heartbreak into theater. Anchored by a voice that wavers between charming villain and sad clown, “Piebald” invites the listener into a world where ugliness isn’t just embraced — it’s the source of Grumpy’s power.

But it still doesn’t get better than Grumpy at their absolute rawest, a vulnerability rooted in their dynamic as a band: Like a darker spin on a Katy Kirby song, ‘Knot’ finds Heaven Schmitt singing “Holding you last night was worse than holding no one” as if inside the belly of a beast. That’s where the horror spawns.

released September 26th, 2025

Written by Heaven Schmitt

It’s hard to believe that Moin’s debut LP Moot!, given the band’s evolution over the past four years, now almost seems like a conventional post-rock record. Three albums in and the London trio continues disassembling its rhythm-focused experiments, leaning further into jazz and mutating their approach as they bring in new collaborators. Or rather, on the gripping “Belly Up” EP, bring past collaborators deeper into their world: Qatari-American writer Sophia Al-Maria, who contributed to their previous album “You Never End“, appears on ‘See’, a killer of an opening track that also features the frantic saxophone of Ben Vince.

Moin is made of Joe Andrews and Tom Halstead (Raime / Blackest Ever Black) as well as long time collaborator and percussionist visionary Valentina Magaletti (Tomaga / Vanishing Twin).

“To obliterate the edge of my understanding in the way that things oughta be,” as Al-Maria puts it, seems to encapsulate Moin’s M.O.: interweaving the furious with the languid, the way impending doom masquerades as routine. Even when they create a mood of obvious disorientation on ‘I Don’t Know Where to Look’, they’re quick to supplant it with another one. Look at it a few years from now, they seem to suggest, and it’ll sound completely different.

Going belly up, guess it’s always a possibility.

released May 9th, 2025