Music Reviews
Albums, singles and live performances analysed beyond the hype. We explore artistry, authorship and the systems influencing what gets heard.
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Our Rating 8/10 Some songs arrive loudly. Others move quietly, like someone stepping into a room and simply standing there until everyone notices. “Grace”, the new single from Irish alt-pop artist Chubby Cat, belongs firmly in the second category. Built around a sparse electronic foundation, the track leans into atmosphere rather than immediacy. Soft synth…
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Our Rating 7/10 Bright, unapologetic and built for movement, Well, Damn!, the new EP from London-based artist The New Citizen Kane, arrives like a burst of colour just as we exit the winter months. Leaning confidently into glossy electronic pop and disco textures, the release pairs shimmering synth lines with the emotional storytelling that has…
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Our Rating 10/10 Music has long been described as a healing force. Not the clinical sort found in a pharmacy, but the quieter medicine that settles somewhere deep in the chest when the right song arrives at the right moment. When I pressed play on “Golden Thing,” the new single from West Cork songwriter Molly…
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At a certain point in life, time stops feeling abstract. It becomes physical. It lives in the body, in memory, in the quiet realisation that the person you once were is not the person you are becoming. For Ndidi O, that realisation sits at the centre of her new album It’s About Time, released March…
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Our Rating 6/10 When BLACKPINK release music, it is never just a drop. It is a recalibration of global pop temperature. Deadline arrives after a period where each member expanded her individual identity. That matters. You can feel it in the control here. This EP is not chaotic spectacle. It is sharpened, deliberate, aware of…
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Our Rating 10/10 flawless. Rosalía has spent years proving she can bend tradition and modernity into something uniquely hers. LUX is what happens when she stops proving and starts claiming. This is not a pop album chasing scale. It’s an album built for it. In interviews around the record, Rosalía said, “Llevo preparándome toda la…
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Our Rating 7/10 Lord Jah-Monte Ogbon doesn’t rap like he’s trying to impress you. He raps like he already knows he can. As of Now is long, loose, and deliberately personality-driven. It opens with humour. Not throwaway humour. Sharp, slightly absurd, meme-aware humour that immediately establishes tone. He understands the internet age of rap, but…
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Every year the industry declares a new wave. Most of it is noise. Real movement is quieter at first. It shows up in sold-out mid-size rooms, in longlists before the headlines, and in artists tightening their live sets while the wider market is still distracted. The ten names below are not algorithm accidents or overnight…
The Industry Review 