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Favourite Albums 2025

The 2025 album landscape reveals a rich tapestry of introspection, experimentation, and emotional exploration. Across genres, artists are mining vulnerability, resilience, and identity, whether through the ethereal electropop of Alison Goldfrapp’s Flux, the intimate reflections of Blood Orange’s Essex Honey, or Cat Burns’ raw personal journey in How to Be Human.

Many works engage with themes of grief, loss, and self-discovery, as seen in Dijon’s Baby, Olivia Dean’s The Art of Loving, and Skunk Anansie’s The Painful Truth, often balancing emotional depth with creative sonic approaches. Others channel rebellion, empowerment, and catharsis, such as ALT BLK ERA’s genre-bending Rave Immortal, Heartworms’ Glutton for Punishment, and Wet Leg’s playful Moisturiser.

Several albums emphasise memory, nostalgia, and the passage of time, from Ludovico Einaudi’s reflective The Summer Portraits to Ichiko Aoba’s luminous folk textures in Luminescent Creatures, while conceptual works like Steven Wilson’s The Overview and Christian Fiesel’s Dusk at Dawn explore cosmic and cinematic narratives, connecting human experience to broader existential or fantastical frameworks. Also included in my favourites of 2025 are ambient albums by Cousin Silas collaborating with Kevin Buckland and Substak.

Live albums from Nick Cave, BEAT, David Gilmour, and Pink Floyd highlight performance, reinterpretation, and the enduring power of musical dialogue. Experimental, ambient, and avant-pop approaches, exemplified by Brian Eno & Beatie Wolfe, Stereolab, and FKA Twigs, demonstrate an ongoing fascination with sound, texture, and immersive atmospheres.

Overall, these favourite albums reveal a 2025 musical zeitgeist defined by introspection, emotional honesty, and sonic adventurousness, blending personal and universal narratives, celebrating human resilience, and pushing the boundaries of genre, form, and expression. The year’s music feels simultaneously intimate and expansive, reflective and experimental, offering both solace and provocation in equal measure.

Flux (Alison Goldfrapp) blends lush, ethereal electropop with some of her most vulnerable lyrical writing yet, featuring shimmering production from collaborators like Richard X and Stefan Storm on this, her second solo album.

Rave Immortal (ALT BLK ERA) is a fierce, genre-bending record fusing punk, rave, and hip-hop energy to confront themes of identity, rage, and resilience, channelling raw emotion into anthemic, rebellious tracks that celebrate empowerment and defiance.

Live (BEAT – Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, Steve Vai & Danny Carey) is a live document of their reinterpretation of King Crimson’s 1980s-era material, conveying both devotion to the originals and the energy & spontaneity of a modern performance. It features extended versions of songs from Discipline, Beat, and Three of a Perfect Pair, weaving in improvisational moments and dynamic interplay.

Metalhorse (Billy Nomates) combines elements of synth-pop, punk, blues, folk, and electro around a concept of a crumbling funfair, exploring loss, insecurity, resilience, and life’s unpredictable ups and downs.

Essex Honey (Blood Orange) is a reflective and intimate record by Devonté Hynes exploring grief, memory, and home. It’s grounded in his Essex upbringing and stitched together with his signature genre-blur. It blends dreamy sonic textures, subtle guest appearances, and a deeply personal emotional core.

Lateral, Liminal, and Luminal (Brian Eno & Beatie Wolfe) unfold as a triptych of sound and thought, blending ambient experimentation with poetic reflection on human consciousness and the planet’s fragility, weaving a meditative dialogue between technology, ecology, and empathy.

How to Be Human (Cat Burns) finds her peeling back layers of grief, self-doubt and resilience. It’s a deeply personal journey of navigating loss and identity, yet ultimately offering comfort in our shared existence of being human.

We Are Love (The Charlatans) is a warm, reflective album that explores tenderness, resilience, and the ways love quietly holds a life together. Its songs move through nostalgia, hope, struggle, and renewal, offering a gentle affirmation that connection remains the one thing that endures.

Dusk at Dawn (Christian Fiesel) offers a musical retelling of the themes of 2001: A Space Odyssey, drawing inspiration from Kubrick’s film and Arthur C. Clarke’s screenplay. Find it on Bandcamp.

Waiting for Winter (Cousin Silas & Kevin Buckland) is a collaborative ambient album released on Bandcamp, featuring atmospheric soundscapes and minimal classical textures evocative of cinematic winter landscapes. Find it on Bandcamp.

Silent Hour (Cousin Silas & Substak) creates a spacious ambient journey where gentle drones and subtle rhythms evoke stillness and nocturnal calm, drawing the listener into a meditative, dreamlike state. Find it on Bandcamp.

The Luck and Strange Concerts (David Gilmour) is a live album capturing performances from his Luck and Strange tour, blending tracks from his recent solo work with iconic Pink Floyd songs into a sweeping live retrospective of his career. It showcases Gilmour’s emotive guitar work and vocals across 23 live tracks, drawing on concerts from 2024 and released in multiple formats with rich audio and video options.

Baby (Dijon) is a deeply personal, experimental R&B album that explores the chaos, ecstasy, and anxiety of new fatherhood and the messy emotional landscape of domestic life through fractured, genre-bending production and deeply felt vocals. It’s an often raw, sometimes unsettling journey that uses glitchy electronics, warped rhythms, and intimate songwriting to reflect on love, fear, lineage, and the overwhelming experience of becoming a parent.

Play (Ed Sheeran) captures his instinct for storytelling through melody, moving between carefree joy and quieter confession, with songs that centre on connection and everyday emotion wrapped in instantly familiar hooks.

EUSEXUA (FKA Twigs) delves into sensuality, self-discovery, and the complexities of desire, blending intimate vulnerability with empowered expression through experimental, immersive music that weaves ethereal textures with bold, confrontational moments.

Everybody Scream (Florence + the Machine) explores the fierce alchemy of physical vulnerability, emotional upheaval and spiritual reclamation, wrapped in mythic imagery and ritualistic sound. With echoes of witchcraft, survival and rebirth, it’s a bold statement of power and fragility entwined.

The Human Fear (Franz Ferdinand) wrestles with anxiety, vulnerability, and the strange beauty of collective experience, turning personal unease into something communal and cathartic, where sharp riffs and wry lyricism coalesce into a powerful whole.

Glutton for Punishment (Heartworms) is a debut studio album that delves into the psychology of self-inflicted pain and emotional resilience, blending dark, gothic energy with danceable post-punk and alternative rhythms to explore conflict, obsession, and catharsis. The record juxtaposes raw introspection and narrative storytelling across a blend of propulsive beats and atmospheric textures, presenting a bold artistic identity that balances vulnerability with fierce sonic ambition.

Luminescent Creatures (Ichiko Aoba) drifts like a half-remembered dream, bathing the listener in softly glowing folk textures that explore fragility, memory, and the quiet holiness of the natural world. Aoba moves with her usual tenderness, letting voice and guitar shimmer at the edges of silence, creating an atmosphere where vulnerability feels luminous rather than exposed.

Son of Glen (Jakko M. Jakszyk) is a deeply personal and reflective album exploring family, memory, and identity through prog-rock sophistication and lyrical intimacy, balancing intricate musicianship with emotional storytelling.

Curious Ruminant (Jethro Tull) spans nine tracks from intimate folk-rock to a 16-minute suite, showcasing Ian Anderson’s flute and leadership alongside long-time members and new guitarist Jack Clark in a mix of reflective lyricism and expansive instrumentals.

From the Pyre (The Last Dinner Party) is a character‑driven, myth‑steeped baroque pop and art‑rock album that explores mythic emotional extremes and elemental storytelling through vivid imagery and dramatic narratives. It binds a suite of personal yet allegorical tales around the symbolic concept of the pyre (a place of destruction, regeneration, passion, and fire) with a darker, earthier tone than their debut, blending theatricality with raw emotional depth.

The Summer Portraits (Ludovico Einaudi) captures fleeting warmth and gentle nostalgia through delicate piano and orchestral textures, each piece feeling like a memory preserved in sunlight, reflecting on time, transience, and quiet beauty.

Critical Thinking (Manic Street Preachers) channels the band’s trademark intensity into reflections on truth, ideology, and the noise of modern discourse, balancing intellectual bite with emotional depth while questioning conviction and compassion in a fractured world.

Tall Tales (Mark Pritchard & Thom Yorke) emerged during the COVID-19 lockdowns through remote collaboration, using vintage synths, experimental textures, and Yorke’s haunting vocals to explore dystopian themes of alienation, disconnection, and the uneasy effects of progress.

The Bad Fire (Mogwai) confronts recent personal challenges, including Barry Burns’ daughter’s illness, while delivering the band’s signature mix of brooding atmospherics, expansive crescendos, and moments of luminous melody.

Live God (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds) is a live double‑album capturing the intense, transcendent energy of their Wild God Tour across Europe, the UK, and North America, blending powerful performances of new material with reimagined classics. The album stands as a testament to the band’s emotional and spiritual breadth onstage, showcasing both the gravity and joy of Cave’s towering catalogue in a visceral live setting.

The Art of Loving (Olivia Dean) moves through the complexities of intimacy, heartbreak, and self-discovery with warmth and clarity, balancing soulful vulnerability with confident joy in songs that feel both deeply personal and universally resonant.

Live at Pompeii MCMLXXII (Pink Floyd 2025 Mix) offers a freshly remixed and remastered take on the band’s iconic 1971 live performance in Pompeii, mixed by Steven Wilson with 11 tracks, alternate takes, and bonus material presented in spatial audio and vinyl.

Wish You Were Here 50 (Pink Floyd) revisits the band’s classic album Wish You Were Here with a deluxe 50th Anniversary box set that honours the original themes of absence, alienation and creative struggle while uncovering rare studio demos, alternate versions and live recordings. This edition re‑contextualises the 1975 music with restored audio, a new Dolby Atmos mix and previously unreleased material, offering fans both nostalgia and fresh insights into one of rock’s most beloved albums.

More (Pulp) marks the band’s first album in 24 years, bringing together core members Jarvis Cocker, Candida Doyle, Nick Banks, and Mark Webber for a lush art-pop sound rich with reflective, witty lyricism and sophisticated arrangements.

Saving Grace (Robert Plant with Suzi Dian) is steeped in quiet reflection, weaving themes of longing, resilience, and weathered spirituality into a folk-rooted sound that feels both earthy and ethereal, carrying a sense of intimacy and pilgrimage.

The Painful Truth (Skunk Anansie) is a bold, emotionally raw comeback album that confronts personal struggles, mortality, and creative identity with fearless honesty.

MAD! (Sparks) showcases the Mael brothers’ inventive blend of art rock and synth-pop, filled with sharp songwriting, energetic experimentation, and characteristic wit, accompanied by an EP aptly titled MADDER!

Instant Holograms on Metal Film (Stereolab) feels like a dreamy, retro-futuristic return. Weaving together their classic motorik grooves, warm synth textures, and political lyrical reflections, while also sounding freshly alive. It’s an album about memory, utopia, and the strange currents of the present, rendered in their timeless avant-pop style.

The Overview (Steven Wilson) is a sprawling, cosmic concept album that explores the transformative “overview effect” astronauts experience when seeing Earth from space, blending progressive, space, and psychedelic rock into two long, evolving musical suites. The record weaves existential reflection with narratives of humanity’s beauty and fragility, returning Wilson to expansive prog‑rock territory while pushing his sound forward in richly detailed compositions.

Moisturiser (Wet Leg) revels in playful irreverence, mixing cheeky humour, catchy hooks, and witty observations on modern life into a carefree, mischievous celebration of fun and youthful rebellion.

The Clearing (Wolf Alice) explores introspection, transformation, and emotional turbulence through a sound that shifts between delicate vulnerability and cathartic intensity, balancing personal reflection with broader social resonance.

So, there you are, 40 great albums. Unfortunately, I can’t bring myself to choose an overall favourite, they’re all good. Enjoy!

Another Green World (Brian Eno)

Another Green World was released fifty years ago today (14 November 1975), and it remains one of Brian Eno’s most influential records. Made during a period of transition in his career, it marks the moment when his interest in structured songs and his experiments with ambient sound began to blend. Sitting between Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) and the fully ambient Music for Airports, it captures that shift happening in real time. About half the tracks feature vocals, while the rest are instrumentals shaped from tape treatments, early synthesisers, and Eno’s emerging Oblique Strategies approach to creative problem-solving.

Many pieces grew out of studio exploration, with musicians like Phil Collins, Percy Jones, and Robert Fripp improvising ideas that Eno later edited, repitched, or rebuilt. This process produced a collection of concise, carefully sculpted tracks, even when their origins were loose. St. Elmo’s Fire, with Fripp’s brilliantly serrated guitar line, sits comfortably beside quiet sketches like Becalmed and In Dark Trees, showing how easily the album moves between songcraft, texture, and atmosphere.

Another Green World made little commercial impact on release, but its importance has only increased. Its blend of ambient colour, inventive production, and understated melodic clarity shaped the development of electronic music, post-rock, art-pop, and film scoring. It’s now widely recognised as a landmark, not just in Eno’s catalogue, but in modern music as a whole.

Fifty years on, it hasn’t aged so much as matured into its own quiet authority. Each listen nudges me towards stillness, wonder, and a way of paying attention that feels almost like contemplation. It remains one of my favourite records because it never stops opening, and because it keeps teaching me how to breathe.

Not Evil, Just Honest

Many consider the lyrics of Black Sabbath to be dark and sinister. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Beneath the heavy riffs and haunting vocals lies a band deeply concerned with the world’s injustices, the fragility of the human soul, and the dangers of unchecked power. Rather than glorifying evil, Black Sabbath often turned a critical eye on it: warning, questioning, and mourning rather than celebrating destruction.

Take War Pigs for example, often mistaken for a violent anthem, when in reality it’s a scathing critique of warmongers who send others to die in their place. The band pulls no punches in exposing the hypocrisy and cruelty of those in charge. Similarly, Children of the Grave isn’t a doom-laden chant, it’s a passionate plea for peace, calling on the younger generation to stand against hatred and build a better future. That doesn’t sound like a celebration of darkness; it sounds like a cry for light.

Even songs that touch on the supernatural or the occult often do so to explore fear, manipulation, and the unseen battles of the mind. Black Sabbath, the self-titled track, plays like a horror story, but it’s rooted in bassist Geezer Butler’s real experience of spiritual terror and questioning. These weren’t just theatrics; they were ways of giving shape to the anxieties and moral questions that many people wrestle with in a turbulent world.

Ozzy Osbourne’s delivery, haunting, plaintive, and raw, did more to convey human vulnerability than menace. His voice wasn’t that of a villain, but of someone looking around at a broken world and asking why it had to be that way.

Of course, the band’s image and sound were deliberately provocative. They wanted to grab attention, to jolt people out of complacency. But the heart of Black Sabbath wasn’t found in evil, it was in the warning, the lament, and the hope that maybe things didn’t have to stay this way. For all the thunder and gloom, their message was surprisingly human. And deeply compassionate.

Unknown Pleasures (1979)

Unknown Pleasures is the debut album by English post-punk band Joy Division, released on 15 June 1979 by Factory Records. Recorded over three weekends at Strawberry Studios in Stockport with producer Martin Hannett, the album’s sound was shaped by Hannett’s experimental techniques, lending it a haunting, atmospheric quality that set it apart from the raw energy of punk.

The stark black-and-white cover, designed by Peter Saville, features a pulsar signal graph and has since become an iconic image in music and fashion. Musically, the album is steeped in post-punk’s brooding textures, driven by Peter Hook’s melodic basslines, Bernard Sumner’s sharp guitar work, Stephen Morris’s mechanical drumming, and Ian Curtis’s deep, anguished vocals. Curtis’s lyrics, dark, poetic, and introspective, grapple with themes of isolation, disintegration, and despair, mirroring the gritty atmosphere of late ’70s Manchester.

Opening with the urgent pulse of Disorder, the album unfolds into a sequence of emotionally intense tracks. She’s Lost Control, influenced by Curtis’s struggles with epilepsy, delivers a cold, hypnotic groove, while Shadowplay and New Dawn Fades highlight the band’s ability to fuse relentless rhythm with emotional weight.

Though no singles were released from it, Unknown Pleasures gained acclaim for its innovation and mood, gradually growing in stature to become one of the most influential albums in modern music. It helped define the post-punk movement and inspired generations of artists with its bleak beauty.

Joy Division formed in 1976 in Salford after seeing the Sex Pistols perform. Originally called Warsaw, the band changed its name to Joy Division in 1977. Their first release, An Ideal for Living, led to their signing with Factory Records and the recording of Unknown Pleasures.

Tragically, this would be the only Joy Division album released during Ian Curtis’s lifetime. He died by suicide on 18 May 1980, just before their first American tour. The surviving members later formed New Order, continuing the legacy. Unknown Pleasures endures as a powerful, emotionally resonant work that continues to captivate listeners.

I Advance Masked (2024 Remix)

The 2024 remix of I Advance Masked, the seminal 1982 collaboration between Andy Summers (The Police) and Robert Fripp (King Crimson), offers a revitalized listening experience that both honours and expands upon the original. Remixed by David Singleton, this edition is part of the comprehensive box set The Complete Recordings 1981–1984, released on March 28, 2025, by Panegyric.

The remix presents a fresh stereo mix of the original album, enhancing its intricate textures and ambient nuances. Singleton’s meticulous approach brings clarity to the duo’s experimental guitar interplay, emphasizing the album’s atmospheric qualities. This edition also includes two previously unreleased tracks, Skyline and Entropy Pulse, which were constructed from incomplete solos found on the original multitrack tapes. Singleton skilfully assembled these fragments into cohesive pieces, creating new ‘duets’ that seamlessly integrate with the album’s aesthetic.

The 2024 remix is available on 200-gram audiophile vinyl, mastered by Jason Mitchell at Loud Mastering, ensuring high-fidelity sound reproduction. For those seeking a more immersive experience, the box set includes a Blu-ray disc featuring the album in high-resolution stereo and DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround sound. This disc also contains the original mixes, and an audio documentary titled Can We Record Tony? Offering insights into the duo’s creative process through archival improvisations and conversations.

In addition to I Advance Masked, the box set features the duo’s second album, Bewitched (1984), and a newly compiled third album, Mother Hold the Candle Steady, consisting of previously unreleased material. Accompanied by a 16-page booklet with photos and interviews, this collection provides a comprehensive overview of Summers and Fripp’s collaborative work during the early 1980s.

The 2024 remix of I Advance Masked not only rejuvenates the original recordings but also enriches the listening experience with additional content and context, making it a valuable release for both long-time fans and new listeners.

Red (Elemental Mixes 2024)

The 2024 Elemental Mixes of King Crimson’s Red, released as part of the album’s 50th Anniversary Edition, offer a bold reimagining of the 1974 progressive rock classic, one of my all-time favourite albums.

Crafted by longtime producer and manager David Singleton, these mixes delve into the original multi-track recordings, unveiling alternate takes, previously unused elements, and enhanced instrument separation. This approach provides listeners with a fresh perspective on the album, highlighting nuances that were subdued in the original mix.

Notably, the track Providence is absent from the Elemental Mixes, replaced by percussive overdubs in Starless, showcasing Bill Bruford’s intricate drumming. This substitution, along with extended intros and isolated instrumentals, offers a deeper exploration into the band’s creative process. As King Crimson biographer Sid Smith notes, Singleton’s mixes “pull the veil aside on the original sessions,” presenting an alternative version of Red that could have been.

The release has garnered a mixed reception. Some fans appreciate the clarity and new insights these mixes provide, with one user stating, “Everything sounds a lot clearer now. Good job.” Others, however, feel that the changes detract from the original’s impact, describing the new mix as “weird” and expressing disappointment over alterations to beloved tracks like Starless.

Overall, the 2024 Elemental Mixes serve as both a tribute to and a re-examination of Red, offering fans and newcomers alike an opportunity to experience the album through a different lens. For me, this can only be good – after all, the original 1974 release is still available!

Hey Hey Rise Up (Pink Floyd)

‘Hey Hey Rise Up’, released in support of the people of Ukraine, sees David Gilmour and Nick Mason joined by long time Pink Floyd bass player Guy Pratt and Nitin Sawhney on keyboards, all accompanying an extraordinary vocal by Andriy Khlyvnyuk of Ukrainian band Boombox. All proceeds go to Ukrainian Humanitarian Relief.

Favourite Albums 2024

My twenty favourite albums of 2024 are largely connected by being works of maturity (including Billie Eilish) with the remaining albums showing great originality. I’ll let you discover which is which as all these albums demand careful and repeated listens. As with most albums, they should be listened to in their entirety as presented (not shuffled).

The twenty albums are listed and described below. My top five (in alphabetical order of artist and marked with an asterisk) are The Cure, David Gilmore, Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, and Stuckfish. All five are worthy of the top spot, but I couldn’t decide. If pushed, I’d say The Cure is my number one album of the year.

Lives Outgrown (Beth Gibbons) – This is the debut solo studio album by Beth Gibbons, the singer of the group Portishead. She wrote the album over a decade, with topics specific to nearing the age of 60, including motherhood, anxiety, menopause, and mortality. The album reflects on the deaths of family and friends over several years.

Hit Me Hard and Soft (Billie Eilish) – Billie Eilish hasn’t always hit the musical spot for me, apart from some notable exceptions. But, at an incredibly early age, she has produced a masterpiece with this album, it speaks to both the mind and heart. A true work of maturity.

Songs of a Lost World (The Cure)* – A mind-blowing album from Robert Smith and The Cure. It both laments the lost of loved ones and uplifts the spirit, there’s light in the darkness. It’s arguably the most personal album of Smith’s career. Let the entire album flood your heart and soul.

Down the Hill (Cousin Silas) – This is a really excellent ambient album from my friend David Hughes, it’s relaxing and reflective. You can find this album on Bandcamp.

The Derelict (Cousin Silas) – Another favourite from Cousin Silas, this time some dark ambient inspired by the original Alien movie and scenes of the alien ship, both external and internal, the corridors, and the alien pilot room. As before, this album can be found on Bandcamp.

Luck and Strange (David Gilmour)* – The legendary guitarist of Pink Floyd needs no introduction, and this is an album of both maturity and creativity. His daughter Romany features on the album as does the keyboard playing of the late Richard Wright from 2007. David Gilmour said that his producer (Charlie Andrew) challenged him musically and was not intimidated by his past work with Pink Floyd. He also considers it to be some of his best work.

This Could Be Texas (English Teacher) – The debut studio album by the English Teacher. It drew acclaim from critics and won the 2024 Mercury Prize. It’s been described as a truly original effort from start to finish, an adventure in sound and words, and a landmark statement.

Mountainhead (Everything Everything) – This concept album takes place in a fictional world wherein all of society is consumed with the building of a giant mountain. However, the twist in the story is that the people would have to dig a deep hole and live in it in order to build the mountain. Furthermore, at the bottom of the pit lives a giant golden snake that they have to escape. It represents an alternate society where those at the bottom have to work relentlessly to keep the elite elevated.

Romance (Fontaines D.C.) – This is the fourth studio album from this Irish rock band, one in which they have moved on from their previous work. Inspired by Japanese manga and Italian cinema, they search for truth in a world gone wrong.

True (Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks)* – What can I say? Jon Anderson is the voice of Yes, and this is like getting a new Yes album. Fantastic progressive rock.

Ritual (Jon Hopkins) -This is an album to feel or (equally) one to listen carefully and deeply. It works on both levels. An ambient album from a master of electronic music.

In a Landscape (Max Richter) – Another album of reflective music, this time from a master of classical minimalism.

Wild God (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds)* – This is a magnificent album by the wonderful Nick Cave, released to universal acclaim.

A Matter of Time (Shed Seven) – Shed Seven passed me by first time around, but I decided to give this album a listen. There’s nothing original here, except an album full of good songs created by a group that clearly enjoy making music. It’s a case of the whole being greater than the sum of the individual parts.

Wall of Eyes (The Smile) – This is the first of two albums released this year by the Radiohead spin-off group. As a Radiohead fan it’s unsurprising that both albums feature in my favourites. Having said that, both were released to universal acclaim.

Cutouts (The Smile) – The second of the two albums is more challenging and prioritises atmosphere over conventional song writing. The lyrics address capitalism, climate change denial, and socio-political dread.

All Born Screaming (St. Vincent) – Anne Clark, known professionally as St. Vincent, has made the album whose title she’s had in her head for nearly twenty years. She wasn’t ready then, but felt the time was right now. It’s a uniquely personal album and is self-produced, to truly render the sounds in her head and maintain a greater control over her own work.

Ensoulment (The The) – A late night listening album (long in the making) from the wonderful Matt Johnson and The The.

Confidenza Soundtrack (Thom Yorke) – I’m not a great fan of soundtrack albums, but this one by Thom Yorke of Radiohead stands tall on its own. One for everyone, but especially Radiohead fans.

Stuckfish IV (Stuckfish)* – This is the fourth album (obviously) from a melodic progressive rock group based in Northumberland. Philip Stuckey is a friend, although I haven’t had the chance to hear them live. They deserve wider recognition. Find them on Bandcamp.

Favourite Albums 2023

Here are my favourite albums of the year in alphabetical order of artist. I haven’t been able to choose an overall favourite as I like them all in their own unique way.

The Love Invention (Alison Goldfrapp)

CACTI (Billy Nomates)

The Ballad of Darren (Blur)

Still Silver River (Cousin Silas)

Cracker Island (Gorillaz)

EVERY LOSER (Iggy Pop)

RökFlöte (Jethro Tull)

Fantasy (M83)

72 Seasons (Metallica)

Ambient 23 (Moby)

Council Skies (Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds)

i/o (Peter Gabriel)