Category: album reviews
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Every Mercury Prize 2025 nominee, ranked
The Mercury Prize is back, and a new album will be crowned as the UK and Ireland’s best in Newcastle on Thursday 16 October. To celebrate this year’s competition, Undertone listened to all 12 nominated albums. Which is the best, and which has the best shot at winning? The verdict is in…
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Parcels: LOVED review – playful pop from a band best served live
Existing fans of the renowned pop group will find a healthy offering of funky foot-tappers on Parcels’ light-hearted new album, which will no doubt be morphed into dazzling showstoppers for the band’s huge upcoming shows – it’s just a shame so little of their big-stage theatrics seeped through onto the record.
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Welly: Big In The Suburbs review – puts the fun back in British indie rock
Welly’s debut album is winningly silly, although its political satire feels a little too safe, and the comedy in Elliot Hall’s cartoonish vocals wears thin quickly.
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Courting: Lust for Life review – overwrought concept album pulls its punches
The Liverpool band’s drive for creative risk-taking is admirable, but the experiment doesn’t pay off on this messy, underwritten third album.
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Vulfpeck: Clarity of Cal review – at long last, a hit
After a string of increasingly unfunny joke albums, Jack Stratton and co get (a little) more serious on this latest collection of joyful funk-pop tunes. It ranks as one of Vulfpeck’s finest outings to date, even if they let it slip in the closing stages.
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Divorce: Drive to Goldenhammer review – endearing, open-hearted folk-rock
Framed around a quest to the fictional place of ‘Goldenhammer’, the Nottingham indie band’s impressive debut is packed with one gorgeous duet after another, plus a wealth of plaintive melodic earworms.
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Sam Fender: People Watching review – the Geordie Springsteen delivers a classic
Valorised Geordie hero Sam Fender paints a vivid picture of ordinary working-class life in this extraordinary third record. Never has Fender’s trademark brand of melancholic beauty sounded so potent.
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Ezra Collective: Dance, No One’s Watching review – jazz champions play to their strengths
The jazz group that set the Mercury Prize alight last year return with an album that goes all in on infectious dance grooves. Their knack for melody seems to have been forgotten in the party, but this bloated record does conclude with the most moving track of this band’s career.
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Cobra Spell: 666 review – kick-ass hair metal runs wild
An outrageously eye-catching album artwork marks the debut the of the brand new, all female lineup of Sonia Anubis’ Cobra Spell. Alex Walden checks out to their latest album to see if they could produce that rare magic: genuinely fresh-feeling music inspired by the 80s.
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SOFT PLAY: HEAVY JELLY review – redemptive riot delivers on all fronts
The Kent punk duo SOFT PLAY hold nothing back on their deafening fifth album. There are ample pulse-quickening riffs to whip up the mosh pit, but also plenty of nuance and introspection to reward repeat listens, not least a tender surprise at its climax.
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Fast Blood: Sunny Blunts review – a wallop of modern punk
After discovering that Fast Blood were the chosen opening act for Mannequin Pussy’s live show at The Grove in Newcastle, Alex Walden decided to give their latest album a deep dive to hear just what he missed out on. It’s safe to say that he was not disappointed.
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Shannon & the Clams: The Moon Is In The Wrong Place review – wildly entertaining dive into the abyss
Raucous 60s rockabilly might sound like an unlikely match for an album unequivocally about grief, but Shannon & the Clams pull it off miraculously in this deeply personal record, which shifts from joy to despair – and often a complex mix of the two – with astonishing ease.
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Charli xcx: BRAT review – queen of the club reveals her softer side
BRAT may offer some of the nastiest club floor-fillers of Charli xcx’s lauded career, but there’s also vulnerable reflections on loss and the daunting prospect of becoming a mother. The result is a rollercoaster of an album that makes a point of its dramatic shifts in tone.
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Home Counties: Exactly As It Seems review – a masterpiece in diverse post-punk
After the addition of a new member, upgrading Home Counties from a 5-piece to a 6-piece, the band has truly found their sound and developed it perfectly to cover and tackle many problems in a war against the mundane. Matthew Rowe explains all.
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Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft review – more soft than hard
A compelling tale of love and loss, Hit Me Hard and Soft sees Eilish embrace her sexuality on her own terms via knotty and unpredictable pop. The love songs are delectable and the showpiece moments titanic, although not every sonic experiment comes off.
Undertone 