New album: A very strong second album by Bristol’s Tor Maries moves from her alt-punk debut to a darker, ironic, caustic anti-love set of songs bringing in more rock and pop styles
Read moreBilly Nomates: CACTI
Billy Nomates’s second album Cacti
The Nightingales: The Last Laugh
The Nightingales: The Last Laugh
New album: The very best ‘til last for 2022? Quite possibly, with this absolute belter from Robert Lloyd, Fliss Kitson and co, this October release packed with superbly Beefheart-esque, stompy, infinite wit, riff and rhythm change
Read moreThe Cool Greenhouse: Sod's Toastie
Vivid, droll absurdity: The Cool Greenhouse second album, Sod’s Toastie
New album: An excellent second LP by the wittily droll wordsmith Tom Greenhouse and band, bringing oodles of hilarious, oddball short stories and killer lines about the absurdity of life, backed by strangely wonderful post-punk and electronica
Read moreBig Joanie: Back Home
Big Joanie’s new album Back Home
New album: The London trio of vocalist and guitarist Stephanie Phillips, bassist Estella Adeyeri, and drummer Chardine Taylor-Stone return with an electronic extension to their catchy DIY post-punk with an LP based around the theme of different forms of home
Read moreSpecial Interest: Endure
Special Interest’s third album, Endure
New album: A third LP of unstoppably energetic fierce, camp, queer, intelligent glam and post-punk by the New Orleans band fronted by Alli Logout following 2018’s Spiralling and 2020’s The Passion Of, a hot potent cauldron of art, sex, drugs and politics
Read moreHorse Lords: Comradely Objects
Horse Lords: Comradely Objects
New album: Mesmeric fifth album by the Baltimore-formed quartet of polyrhythmic avant-garde rock, jazz, prog, also drawing on Appalachian, bluegrass, krautrock, African, post-punk and alternative tuning systems that pull you into their brilliant and beguiling world
Read moreDry Cleaning: Stumpwork
Perfect marriage of the banal and the inspiring: Stumpwork by Dry Cleaning
New album: The London post-punk band continue where they left off from last year’s debut, New Long Leg, with Florence Shaw’s beguiling, droll, laconic, surreal, stream-of-consciousness, darkly humorous spoken delivery over clever, off-kilter music.
Read moreGilla Band: Most Normal
Gilla Band’s (former Girl Band) ironically titled extraordinary new album
New album: Groundbreaking, and at times ear-splitting noise experimentation by the Dublin band formerly known as Girl Band with a new album with a deeply ironic title and work that truly challenges the senses via a post-punk, distorted guitar and electronic platform
Read moreSorry: Anywhere But Here
Sorry’s second LP
New album: This second LP by the London indie band is again inventively inspired by city life, but feels edgier, more melancholy and mercurial, dotted with great melodies, but also lyrics from snatched speech, texts, capturing fragmented thoughts of an underground, young, seething, frustrated, isolated generation
Read moreMamalarky: Pocket Fantasy
Mamalarky’s full debut LP Pocket Fantasy
New album: Their recent single Shining Armor was recently a Song of The Day, but the new LP by the Atlanta and LA indie band is rich in inventive, playful, post-punk, psych-rock and shoegaze, with parallels at times to the excellent Deerhoof
Read morePixies: Doggerel
Pixies’s eighth album
New album: Meaty, strong new LP by the legendary Black Francis and co, a mischievous, punchy ode to absurdism, with a sound that harks to earlier material than the more polished more recent LPs, with some tracks sitting more in line with their classic 1987-91 era
Read moreCourting: Guitar Music
Courting: Guitar Music
New album: Short, snappy, sharp and caustically ironic, the Liverpool indie post-punk band’s 30-minute, eight-track LP follows their excellent 2021 EP Grand National with biting lyrics, catchy melodies and ferocious energy
Read moreCrack Cloud: Tough Baby
Crack Cloud: Tough Baby
New album: Eclectic, original, energised and experimental, this is an enthralling third post-punk, pop, rock and thunderous concoction release by the Vancouver collective led by drummer and lead vocalist Zach Choy filled with the passionate and oddball
Read moreThe Lounge Society: Tired of Liberty
The Lounge Society: Tired of Liberty
Debut album: Restless sparking, energy, seething anger and ironic lyrics, intricate, swirling, interwoven guitars, bass and drums, and produced by Dan Carey on the ever vibrant Speedy Wunderground label, this full debut LP by young Hebden Bridge band is more than a breath of fresh indie
Read moreLIFE: North East Coastal Town
LIFE: North East Coastal Town
New album: A celebration of their home city of Hull by the quick-witted, passionate indie post-punk band in a set of songs filled with humour, anguish and anger, but also a love letter to the area, and even all instruments played were locally bought
Read moreGemma Rogers: No Place Like Home
Gemma Rogers’ debut album No Place Like Home
Debut album: Variously compared to Kirsty MacColl, Ian Dury, Lily Allen and more, the London post-punk indie artist’s debut LP is a packed with own authentic style of witty, talky, mischievous lyrics and catchy melodies from the perky to wistfully emotional.
Read moreViagra Boys: Cave World
Spot the shrimp: Cave World by Viagra Boys
New album: The third and perhaps best yet album by the Swedish post-punk mischief makers fronted by the charismatic Sebastian Murphy, with a fusion of rock, punk, electronica and funk and packed with punchy, ironic, humorous lyrics, clever guitar riffs and keyboard sounds
Read moreCola: Deep In View
Cola: Deep In View
New album: Thrumming, knotty, catchy, clever, crafty, stop-start indie post-punk with an occasional glimmer of glam-rock by the trio of former Ought members Tim Darcy (vocals, guitar) and Ben Stidworthy (bass) alongside Evan Cartwright (drums) with this debut album
Read moreHercules & Love Affair: In Amber
Hercules & Love Affair: In Amber
New album: Andy Butler and friends return with a dark, powerful new LP that in comparison to previously is less dance music, more contemplation of serious issues, featuring again the distinctive countertenor of Anohni, but also percussion by Budgie of Siouxsie & The Banshees
Read moreGentle Sinners: These Actions Cannot Be Undone
Gentle Sinners: These Actions Cannot Be Undone
New album: An intriguing, innovative new collaborative project by James Graham of The Twilight Sad and Aidan Moffat of Arab Strap culminates in this mysterious, genre-defying, experimental album of oddly poetic numbers
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