The show features The Pastels, Howling Bells, LaLa Lala, Gifthorse, Bloodworm, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Modern Woman, Bleach Lab, Roller Derby, Miss Grit, Bedelia, Florence Road, and more.

All selected by human ears rather than the output of artless, soulless tech-bro algorithms.

VPME – The Intro 00:00
The Pastels – Nothing To Be Done 01:07
Gifthorse – 13 Going on 30 06:16
Lala Lala – Even Mountains Erode 10:11
Bedila – Tightrope 14:46
Wet Leg – Mangetout 17:25
Howling Bells – Sweet Relief 22:19
Bloodworm – Bloodlust 25:00
The Jesus And Mary Chain – The Hardest Walk 28:08
Bleach Lab – My Favourite Game 31:18
The Last Dinner Party – Let’s Do It Again 34:40
Modern Woman – Dashboard Mary 39:45
Sunflower Bean – Take Out Your Insides 44:37
Roller Derby – Last Night 48:45
Sandhouse – Circus 51:56
Miss Grit – Tourist Mind 55:49
Florence Road – Miss 01:01:05
VPME – Xmas Outro 01:04:40

It felt relentless and endless. Maybe I should have called this playlist The Music That Kept Me Sane. Album of the Month goes to Blackwater Holylight. Review HERE and here are some of my favourite releases originally featured on the rolling weekly playlist.

Florence Road
Florence Road may have spent their teenage years honing their sound in lead singer Lily Aron’s garden shed in Wicklow, Ireland, but they’ve already crafted a sound that feels stadium-ready. With The Cranberries, Wolf Alice, and Phoebe Bridgers as clear reference points rather than templates, the quartet, Aron on vocals, Emma Brandon on guitar, Ailbhe Barry on bass, and Hannah Kelly on drums, have been building serious momentum throughout 2025. Razor-sharp songwriting and an unerring ear for melody suggest a band edging towards something bigger in 2026, with a run of cracking releases already behind them. “Miss” is possibly the standout track, and there’s clearly much more to come. If they aren’t huge in the next few years, I’ll change my name to Ian McNobbser and start posting conspiracy theories online.

Gifthorse

North London-based outfit GIFTHORSE, led by songwriting duo Naomi Mann (lead vocals) and Charlie Butler (guitar, backing vocals), craft what they describe as “frazzled English pop” – songs that capture the romance and inevitable letdowns of being twenty-something in the big city. Mann’s Harriet Wheeler–esque vocals ring out against Butler’s chiming, fuzzed-up guitar lines, producing a sound that feels immediate yet wistful. They have released two singles so far, Please Love Me and 13 Going on 30, both of which demonstrate their knack for creating evocative, anthemic Britpop with a thoroughly modern twist.

Sofia Isella

Sofia Isella is a Los Angeles-born singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist whose music blends indie, alt-pop, and introspective lyricism with a mesmerising stage presence. Starting with the violin at age three and songwriting by eight, she has spent her teenage years crafting a sound that’s both intimate and cinematic. At just 20, she’s already producing music with the kind of depth and intelligence that some artists can’t muster over an entire career. Her work leans into avant-pop, incorporating industrial textures that pair whispered tension with dramatic, frayed edges. There’s a palpable menace in her music, yet she punctures the darkness with sharp, acerbic wit, creating soundscapes that are both challenging and strangely uplifting.

Y

London collective Y, a band so ungoogleable you’ll either remember them forever or give up entirely, cut their teeth at The Windmill and have supported the likes of Fat Dog, KEG, and Warmduscher. Their sound is restless and sharp, blending psychedelic grooves, jagged post-punk energy, and a dark, mischievous edge that’s entirely their own. Sold-out shows, festival appearances from The Great Escape to Manchester Psych Festival, and a string of standout tracks hint at the force they’re becoming, a band as exhilarating to watch as they are impossible to search online.

Arthur Black

Raised off-grid, Arthur Black, a Scottish alt-folk singer-songwriter, learned every part of music by ear, growing up without internet access and largely isolated from the wider musical world. Following a family tragedy, she turned to songwriting and guitar for solace, later honing her craft at Access Creative College, where she formed her band. With festival appearances at Reading & Leeds, Latitude, and Beyond The Music under her belt, Arthur’s self-styled “Gothic Psychedelic Folk” is tinged with late ’90s and early ’00s alternative vibes. Over the last few years, she has amassed a dedicated fan base, and 2026 could well be the year her star ascends to new heights.

Still Blank

They may have already released a stunning debut album, but it feels like there is much more to come from this duo, who seemed to arrive out of nowhere last year. The album came with little fanfare and may have slipped under some people’s radar, but there is a confident, compelling energy running throughout the record. Still Blank are Jordy a singer and multi-instrumentalist from Hawaii, and Ben a guitarist from Manchester. The duo stumbled into collaboration after a chance meeting in Liverpool and quickly found a shared voice. Their music blends jagged guitars, ambient textures, and intimate, poetic lyrics, drawing on everything from Hawaiian tradition to Manchester’s experimental edge. They craft songs that feel both unhurried and alive, moving from hazy, psychedelic reflections on love to sharply observed meditations on identity

Opal Mag

Opal Mag is a Brighton-based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist whose music blends dream-fuzz rock with confessional lyricism and atmospheric, shoegaze-inspired guitar textures. After emerging from a long-term music project, she began writing without feeling artistically constrained, exploring themes of freedom, new beginnings, and the bittersweet nature of endings. Her sound draws on a wide range of influences, from Mazzy Star, The Sundays, and Wolf Alice to Hole, Sharon Van Etten, and Julia Jacklin, balancing nostalgic haze with emotional heft to craft songs that feel both timeless and deeply personal.

Sandhouse

Sandhouse are a South London duo blending folk, grunge, dream pop, and electronic rhythms into a sound that refuses to be pinned down by genre. Caspar Holloway and Anna Sutherland met at university in 2018, quickly discovering a shared creative vision that combined Caspar’s background in DJ’ing and hip-hop with Anna’s guitar-driven, folk, and rock sensibilities. Their contrasting influences collide in music where overdriven guitars meet shimmering textures and sharp beats, creating tracks that feel both experimental and emotionally immediate. Interview here

So settle in, grab a mince pie, and enjoy a Christmas playlist that actually feels worth listening to.

Track List

VPME – Xmas Intro 00:00
Gabrielle Papillon – And Then It Snowed 01:32
Skylar Cocco – Snowglobe 05:28
The Pretty Reckless – Where Are You Christmas 11:30
Silver Biplanes – Christmastime In Outer Space 14:30
So Good – Give Me My Presents 20:13 22:10
Teen Mortgage – Below The Christmas Tree 21:51
Berenice – SANTA BROKE MY HEART IN 2 (Merry Christmas Harry) 22:22
Dean & Britta; Sonic Boom – Pretty Paper 29:06
Patience – Fire Baby 33:31
Home Counties – Better Last Year (Home Counties for Christmas) 37:42
Delacey – Christmas in California 42:01
Too Bad Eugene – Here It Is Christmastime 44:30
L.A. Exes – My Favorite Time Of Year 47:12
Sharon Van Etten – 2000 Miles (from ”Oh What Fun”) 51:00
Sohodolls – Dead by Xmas 53:59
Lisa Hannigan – Snow 57:09
Communist Daughter – I Was Thinking I Could Clean Up For Christmas 01:00:39
Samantha Crain – Breaking The Ice 01:04:00
Joyce Manor – Christmas Card 01:06:22
King Hüsky – December95 01:10:43
Everyone Says Hi – Walking In The Air 01:14:37
The Courettes – Christmas (I Can Hardly Wait) 2025 Mix 01:19:32
Silk Daisys – it’s just like xmas 01:22:28
Ash – Santa Claus Is Coming To Town 01:26:53
Fightmilk (feat. Sox) – We Only Kiss At Christmas 01:29:52
Boyracer – Festive Trip 01:31:10
Kristian Noel Pedersen – Bullshit & Gift Wrapping 01:35:49
Mountain Sons – Festivus! 01:42:07
VPME – Xmas Outro 01:45:37

Most of my previous Christmas shows are available to listen to here for a limited time too – Merry Pipmas !

This week, three songs really stood out. In no particular order, we have Y (try to Google that) with the pulsating ‘Skipper’ — more info [here]. The magnificent Howling Bells return with ‘Heavy Lifting’ — news of a new album [here]. And rounding things off, the fast-ascending Irish quartet Florence Road [here] If they aren’t huge in the next few years, I’ll change my name to Ian McNobb and start posting conspiracy theories online.

Enjoy!

Plus, the weekly playlist (which changes every week).

It’s been a strong week for single releases, but at the top of the pile is US artist Sofia Isella. At just 20, she’s already producing music with the kind of depth and intelligence that some artists can’t muster over an entire career. Her new single, “Out In The Garden,” blends dark, theatrical avant-pop with industrial textures, pairing whispered tension with a dramatic, confrontational chorus. Her work carries a quiet menace, there’s a tension there – yet she punctures the darkness with a sharp, acerbic wit, creating music and soundscapes that’s both challenging and strangely uplifting.

Co-written and co-produced with Mr Hudson, “Out In The Garden” combines dark poetry and biting commentary. Isella cuts through the cinematic soundscape with lines like: “How beautiful it must feel to be so sure, I don’t know anything, Hannah, I don’t know anything anymore. But how pretty to be praying to nothing. That gorgeous pill of sugar you swallow like it’s something.” Her previous work has been equally brilliant and I’d recommend for example, that you check out. “Cacao And Cocaine” and “All Human Knowledge Has Made Us Dumb”

There are moments in your life as a music fan when a record arrives, grabs you by the scruff of the neck, and reminds you why you fell in love with this glorious art form in the first place. For me, one of those moments was Howling Bells’ debut back in 2006 – a sultry, noir-soaked gem that blew me away at a time when I was feeling jaded and close to giving up on “new music.” It reignited the spark. Suddenly, I believed again.

So, when a band you hold close to your heart returns after a decade away, you inevitably feel a mixture of excitement and trepidation. Will they still have it? Will the magic still be there, or will it feel like a pale facsimile of former glories? Well, dear reader, I’m pleased to report that “Unbroken” doesn’t just recapture the flame –  it positively burns.

Released today via Nude Records and heralding their first new material since 2014’s Heartstrings, “Unbroken” is quintessential Howling Bells. Dark, brooding guitars coil and shimmer, the atmosphere heavy with tension before lifting skyward, driven by Juanita Stein’s spellbinding voice. “Always been lost in a big dream,” she sings, and it feels less like a lyric and more like a mission statement.

Juanita herself puts it down to the sheer stubbornness and irrational belief that has carried the band through twenty years of shifting sands: “You can either call it childlike or stupidity, but you have to have that in order to believe that something greater can happen. Surviving as a band for over two decades requires extraordinary grit and, to some degree, irrationality. None of it really makes sense, except for the will and the love of the music itself. ‘Unbroken’ is very much a testament to all of this.”

Produced by Ben Hillier (Blur, Depeche Mode, Elbow) at Agricultural Audio Studios, the track comes accompanied by a stripped-back performance video featuring Juanita, her brother Joel, and drummer Glenn Moule back together on stage – a reunion that feels more like destiny than a nostalgia trip.

Of course, they’ve hardly been idle in the intervening years. Juanita has carved out an impressive solo career with four albums, Joel explored new terrain with Glassmaps, and both he and Glenn lent their talents to Brandon Flowers’ touring band. Yet the musical pull of reuniting endured, the thought of new Howling Bells music never completely vanishing into the ether.

Born in Sydney before finding their spiritual home in London, Howling Bells have always existed in that twilight zone where atmosphere and melody collide. Their self-titled debut remains a touchstone, while Radio Wars, The Loudest Engine, and Heartstrings saw them evolve without ever losing their sense of mystery. Then, as Juanita puts it with typical candour, “life just happened.”

Now, with “Unbroken,” the band return not as a nostalgia act or a ghost of their past selves, but as a group who still have something urgent and vital to say. The title is apt, the band never broke up despite the slings and arrows of the music bizz, they remain, quite literally, unbroken.

www.howlingbells.co.uk

www.instagram.com/howlingbells

www.facebook.com/howlingbells

www.x.com/howling_bells

www.youtube.com/@howlingbellsmusic

Die Spitz – “Pop Punk Anthem”

Wolf Alice – “White Horses”

Big Thief – Los Angeles

New Dad – Pretty

Saint Etienne – “Take Me To The Pilot”

Laura Mary Carter – “June Gloom”

Elín Hall  – “Wolf Boy”

Sijya – “I Only Want To Crash”

Plus more new music on the always-changing weekly playlist

As for this site, I’m still not quite sure what it wants to be when it grows up. Are music blogs still a thing? Or have we all just handed over our curiosity to the almighty algorithm overlords?

Bands usually share the big-name publication posts anyway and honestly, I don’t blame them. Some blog posts are barely coherent word salads and others? Clearly written by robots.

Is the future AI-generated music reviewed by AI-generated writers? Yikes. Let’s hope not.

While I wrestle with that thrilling existential dilemma, here are a few photos I’ve taken this year. Some for agencies and publications some for venues, and some just because it’s still fun to point a camera at a stage and try to catch the magic.

Donald Trump’s Favorite Artist

ELLIE ROWSELL vocals, guitar of Wolf Alice performing live on stage at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend, held at Sefton Park in Liverpool.

 Use of these images in any form without permission is illegal and will result in THIS

Check them out below, along with the weekly playlist featuring a wider selection of tunes. You can also check out my interview with HotWax here, which went online this week.

From biting social commentary to men with a mullet going mad with a mallet in Millets, here’s what’s caught our ears this week:

HotWax – “One More Reason”

The ferocious grunge trio HotWax unleashed “One More Reason,” a fiery single that captures their raucous live energy. It’s a track they worked on with Warpaint’s Stella Mozgawa. and sets the stage for Hot Shock, their highly anticipated debut album, arriving March 7.

Pit Pony – “Vacancy”

The Newcastle quintet tackle the tangled web of social media in their latest single, “Vacancy.” With sharp lyricism, the track delves into the overwhelming tide of life hacks and fleeting trends, exposing the hollow aftermath they often leave behind.

Kills Birds – “Madison” + EP Announcement

Los Angeles art-rockers Kills Birds make a striking return with “Madison,” the lead single from their upcoming EP, Crave. The track, accompanied by a Sims-inspired visualiser, offers an intense glimpse into their first release since 2021’s Married and their debut with Lucky Number.

The Pill – “Money Mullet”

Isle of Wight duo The Pill return with their fourth single, Money Mullet, a scuzzy, high-octane anthem aimed squarely at the haircut that refuses to die of shame. Packed with biting humour and chaotic energy, the track cements the band’s knack for turning societal grievances into raucous bangers.

Miki Berenyi Trio – 8th Deadly Sin

Dirty Blonde – Polly

Sharon Van Etten – Trouble

Hotgirl – “On The Brink”