Pillow Queens new album ‘Name Your Sorrow’ is more exposed than ever before. Taking influence from the Irish poet Eavan Boland – alongside the likes of Tool, Barbara Streisand and Frank Ocean – it’s a raw account of life, love and self-worth as the band consider a question posed in Boland’s poem ‘Love’: ‘Will we ever live so intensely again?’ ‘February 8th’ opens the album with an experimental stop-start feel and drum machine sounds as the band plead with someone: ‘If you’re leaving, come back again’. ‘Suffer’ reminded us of latter-day Sharon Van Etten with its brooding and powerful opening a ..read more

Cloud Nothings’ latest album, ‘Final Summer’ (out on 19 April via Pure Noise Records) finds Dylan Baldi and co in fine form, powering through 10 songs in just 29 minutes that celebrate the sheer joy of playing music loud and proud. The title track opens proceedings with a futuristic, space-age sound that gently builds – complete with a synth-laden edge – into a mix of atmospheric feedback and distortion. As the drums pummel away, Dylan sings about trying to find happiness and how this remains so elusive: ‘Oh, I have some thoughts. Oh, I have some dreams’. ‘Daggers of Light’ follows with talk ..read more

Photo credit: Katie Allen Alcopop! Records’ London-based collective have shared new single ‘Michael Phelps’, an ode to the most decorated Olympian of all time… Opening with stop-start wonky guitar riffs that come across like David Byrne fronting Squid, the experimental art pop track demands you ‘Teach your children to swim, because one day Michael Phelps will be king’ – and it’s hard to argue. Later on in the song – after a few delightful diversions into completely different genres – there’s another request to ‘Wear your Grade 7 badges with pride’ before the melodic hooks come back with the ba ..read more

Personal Trainer have shared ‘Star Jelly’, the first single to be taken from debut EP ‘What Was There Before?’. The trio formed over a shared love of Alanis Morissette back in 2017 and her influence shines through in both the gorgeous guitar tones and raw lyrics: ‘Pull my hair, fuck me on a second date. I only stick around for chances to repeat my mistakes’. There’s also a touch of The Sundays in the yearning yet brutal atmospherics: ‘You’ll feel small when you reach the bottom of your world’. Although the song has a swaying, almost folky sound at times – complete with grand harmonies – there ..read more

BEX follows up 2023’s ‘Scum’ EP with new song ‘sunDae’, a track that takes aim at how so many of us are in awe of the perfect ‘influencer’ lifestyle: ‘sunDae is about the expectation of having to be and look perfect all the time even when the world isn’t. The irony of the constant British drizzly days compared to the expectation of perfection that social media has put on us as a generation. We are requesting only the same from the weather as what the world expects of us.’ Brutal yet tender – especially when BEX sings ‘rain, rain go away, come again another day’ – this is a real force of natur ..read more

With influences ranging from Leonard Cohen to The Last Shadow Puppets and the film Casablanca, Nottingham’s Victory Lap have quickly established themselves as ones to watch and now they’re releasing their debut single ‘Jealousy’. Described as ‘new noir’ in the press release, ‘Jealousy’ has elements of Richard Hawley’s yearning majesty but also baroque moments and a self-pitying awareness as the band put fears about falling in love right at the forefront – all over some M. Ward-esque guitar lines: ‘Let’s be done with solitude and settle down in a panic room ..read more

A sold-out crowd descended upon Gloucester for the Easter Saturday extravaganza that was Underground Festival – a three-venue pay-what-you-want event that celebrates and showcases the best in new music from the worlds of rock, pop, punk, indie, emo and beyond. We made a beeline for the Blackfriars venue as soon as the doors opened – a 12th century church complete with ‘crumbling’ aesthetic, cobwebs and even a tomb just in front of the stage (which we didn’t dare step on…). Singer-songwriters Bex Kite and Felicity Mitchell opened this most impressive of venues, each providing a mix of singalon ..read more

Credit: Jon Del Real Rosie Tucker’s fourth album, ‘Utopia Now!’, finds the talented singer-songwriter asking what an artist’s life looks like in 2024 – a time where people’s (especially trans) rights are being taken away because they’re deemed ‘different’ and capitalism rules over (almost) all. The album opener ‘Lightbulb’ is full of synths stabs and Rosie’s trademark stream-of-consciousness thoughts: ‘How many songwriters does it take to screw a tune?’ Blending wonky art pop with the sad soul of Sparklehorse (‘If I’m doing it right, I won’t feel a thing’), it perfectly complements the recent ..read more

Photo credit: Martyna Bannister Pillow Queens have shared new single ‘Like a Lesson’ ahead of the release of their third album ‘Name Your Sorrow’ via Royal Mountain Records on 19 April. With the band claiming the track was sonically influenced by Blur, R.E.M., Semisonic and New Radicals (all of whom we also love), it’s a breezy sound underpinning lyrics about looking for intimacy and companionship- and how it can sometimes be found in the wrong place: ‘I don’t wanna ruin my life but I wanna go home with you’ being followed by the heartbreaking line ‘You said you’re sorry, it’s not enough to ke ..read more

Winona Fighter celebrate signing to Rise Records with the release of new single ‘I’m in the Market to Please No One’. Completely defiant throughout its two minutes and 40 seconds, the vibrant pop-punk song is a call-to-arms to not accept toxicity in relationships (‘The more you fuck around, the more you find out’) and how to look forward as you grow as a person – while not letting others get away with abusive behaviour: ‘I hope you suffer ..read more