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MIKE – Showbiz! (31 January 2025)

Among one of abstract hip hop’s sharpest practitioners, MIKE aims to come out swinging with his latest album Showbiz! It tackles the relationship between greed and authenticity through how he feels about being raised up in the hood. The beats, either faded in its drum pattern like the late Ka or dreamlike from its reverbs as is the case with Clams Casino, add some bit of hypnagogic stasis from all the bits of nostalgia it ebbs. Nonetheless, the cryptic nature of the album does lead to bouts where its emotional significance gets softened up however fluid the rapping itself is. This is one that hip hop aficionados would be happy to enjoy although it takes its sweet time for its full potential to flourish due to its seeming kind of normalcy in its style. 3.7/5

Highlight Pick: ‘man in the mirror’

Richard Sallis – Felix (3 January 2025)

Richard Sallis rose to notability as the frontman of Australia’s the Cameramen who hovers around the cult-following end of the country’s indie rock scene. His track record at making progressive pop music shines through on his latest solo album which deals with his griefing of his stillborn child along with his confrontation of abusive family dynamics. Felix is a very personal record which clearly does not shy away from its cinematic production to highlight the process of his feelings from despair to closure. At times, it evokes the more cynical side of the orchestral kind of spy music a la James Bond while in other songs it mimics the glamorous melancholia of David Bowie. Nonetheless, in spite of some hiccups over some lyrical wording or enunciation, the album is one that is bound to leave you breathless in its tearful beauty. 4.1/5

Highlight Pick: ‘Bouncing Masquerade Ball’

Rosalía – Lux (7 November 2025)

Rosalía Tobella is among one of Spain’s trailblazing popstars whose love for pushing the boundary of what is deemed accessible music could be mirrored with the United States’ Fiona Apple. Lux marks her most recent adventure as she turned towards a more classical music composition after previously working with flamenco, reggaeton, and some electronica. Her themes are unified under the relationship between women and spirituality to which she expresses it through singing in 14 different languages and structuring the whole tracklist in four movements. It is funny in a way that as artistically in tuned the album is, there are times where its vision struggles to reach high up to its ceiling as it’s so weighed in on its visionary songwriting. I can’t help but even compare it to featured artist Silvia Peréz Cruz whose similarly grand style of making music is measured more by careful timing on when to switch the main kind of instrumentation or knowing how to handle the tempo to manage the mood. Lux’s scope is a hallmark for a clear masterpiece, but it’s also its greatest weakness that would at best take months before you could truly get into it. 3.9/5

Ninajirachi – I Love My Computer (8 August 2025)

Ninajirachi is the stage name (or perhaps username given the album’s theme) of Nina Wilson, a 26 years old electronic artist from Australia’s urban region of Central Coast. I Love My Computer is the debut album that reeks of chronically online from the beginning to the end with its Complextro and Bubblegum Bass influences to aid its house music foundation. The result mostly is that of many hit-or-miss moments where some tracks might not always land as well as it could have. At worst, it even feels like an unnecessary addition that pads out the runtime due to its dulled sense of energy. If the hits do come, it’s the nostalgia shit that runs like a tsunami. It’s not everyday that you get something that’s reminiscent of the Living Tombstone that also carries with it Porter Robinson’s emotional sincerity. This is one for the Discord chat. 3/5

Highlight Pick: ‘iPod Touch’

Cheap Trick – All Washed Up (14 November 2025)

Cheap Trick is, at one point, one of the leading pioneers of power pop in the 1970s which soon brought us the likes of Weezer and the Replacements. Their 1977 self-titled debut album stands now as one of the founding cornerstones of the genre itself. Nearing 50 years since its release, All Washed Up at the very least serves as a nice piece of fanservice. For one, everything about the album feels dated to the point where the title feels like a self-deprecating joke. The instrumental playing, the singling inflection, the general tempo, all the aspects sit in an uncanny limbo where the production gives them a clean sheen while they did not modernise one tiny bit. It thus works only for the older fans who are adamantly loyal to the good ol’ days. The newer generations are sure to find plenty of fishes in the ocean. 1/5

Hayden Pedigo – I’ll Be Waving as You Drive Away (6 June 2025)

Hayden Pedigo is an American guitarist from Texas who is honing his craft for more than a decade at the time of writing. He has never sung in his works and instead turns to gentle fingerpicking to win over the interest of many who are hoping for a chill kind of background music as one of the most notable examples of American Primitivism. I’ll Be Waving as You Drive Away is one such example as it plays with a more airy kind of production that allows the acoustic guitar to have a kind of shine that makes for a relaxing listen. Expect any more and it will come at no surprise that this is simply just a person who is good at playing a stringed instrument in a fancy way. The album is best enjoyed by those who only want a kind of slice-of-life soundtrack as they go on with their day quite like Cicada. 2.8/5

Highlight Picks: ‘Hermes’

Wednesday – Bleeds (19 September 2025)

Wednesday is an American alt-country band from North Carolina whom some might take note of for having MJ Lenderman as their lead guitarist. Their style is akin in a way to Wilco although the direction is more “traditional” in the sense that it lacks the clear left-field interest in dynamic influences. Bleeds is the latest album which covers the gradual withering of youthful drive to make way for casually bored adulthood. Here, the distortion from Lenderman would heartily remind many of Pavement, Archers of Loaf, and almost any kind of iconic slacker rock band from the 1990s. This time, it’s been painfully recontextualised in the framework of younger Millennials or older Gen-Zs over the debacle of smoking weed or growing out of long highway drives. Its specificity will hit at first listen, but further listen might find that once the relatability stands out as a key selling point that there isn’t quite as much depth as you would have liked. It would be fine for the band if that is their focus, but there’s a certain missing out of opportunity for a stronger standout with some previous shoegaze experience. 3/5

Highlight Pick: ‘Reality TV Argument Bleeds’

Mateus Aleluia – Mateus Aleluia (9 May 2025)

Mateus Aleluia is an ageing Brazilian singer-songwriter and ethnomusicologist who has been around ever since before the advent of the MPB genre in the 1960s. Having worked as an art teacher in Angola for around 20 years, he returned to his country of birth in 2002 where he pivots his priority towards music with occasional records released since then. His self-titled album is the most recent among one of them and it’s a deeply introspective piece which sums up his deep love for all the experiences that happened in his life. It’s no late-career masterpiece at least in my opinion as respectfully as I could be. However, it is one that is very much rooted in his relationship with Brazil in its entirety and how he came to be who he is right now. Its richly subdued instrumentations and pronounced production ensures that those who are truly curious about the album’s autobiographical subtext will be rewarded even if it’s in the abstract. 4.3/5

caroline – caroline 2 (30 May 2025)

caroline is back with their second self-titled album and all the whimsical avant-folk approach gets pushed to the forefront. The British post-rock band sought to carry on their divergence from their contemporaries like Black Country, New Road through their titillating acoustic instrumentation and while it might not always work out, it does provide an hypnotic quality to it. The layering of the vocals that happen to be chopped up, the twinkly guitar notes, and the humble horns all help to add up to provide it a uniquely psychedelic impression. This does require an aside that there are moments that might not feel relevant or impactful as it otherwise detract from the substantive energy that came either between or before it. One of the examples being the outro by Caroline Polachek in the otherwise beautiful lead single ‘Tell me I never knew that’ as the repetition, in trying to snap out of the sense of derealisation, disrupts the euphoria of living from the last few minutes. 3.4/5

Highlight Pick: ‘When I get home’

Cocléa / Canut de Bon – No esperan por nadie (

Cocléa and Canut de Bon are both Chilean bands (although the latter had disbanded this year) who, one random day, had gone together to make a collaborative album. No esperan por nadie is a sludgy exercise in noisy post-hardcore piece of angst that loves to play with unconventional time signatures. It doesn’t always bite as hard as it could have with its neutered kind of mixing, but it’s been made up for in its screeching vocals and a clear disdain for any sort of cleanliness in its sound. Those who are looking for excessive noise might be disappointed in it, but those who want some example of punk being pushed to its limit would consider this to be a treat. Even more so that some of the band members in Cocléa and Canut de Bon happen to also perform together under Hesse Kassel! 3.3/5

Highlight Pick: ‘zugzwag (Cocléa)’

We Lost the Sea – A Single Flower (23 May 2025)

We Lost the Sea is an Australian post-rock band who rose to notability for their 2009 album Departure Songs which was made in honour of their late vocalist Chris Torpy. They know how to construct and time their crescendos well to maximise the emotional reactions surrounding the intent of each record. A Single Flower sees itself be out in an unfortunate kind of condition where the band is low on their creative juice. With the post-metal influence shining out from the guitar distortions, this hits a lot of the typical points from the typical artist in the genre with little distinctive feature to give it a unique kind of character. This isn’t going to shed fans who stuck with them for a while, but it will most certainly not acquire new ones as they find themselves latched onto older names like Tortoise or even deep cuts such as Things Falling Apart. 2/5

Highlight Pick: ‘Bloom (Mumurations at First Sight)’

Little Simz – Lotus (6 June 2025)

One of the United Kingdom’s headlining rappers in Little Simz is back with her latest album. If you know who she is, then you are guaranteed to enjoy some sharp bars as she muses on family dynamics, religion, and impoverished background. The beats are also nice and flexible with some Afrobeat influences thanks in part to the typical featured artist in Obongjayar although it verges more towards R&B compared to others. If there is one caveat that is worth taking away, it is that the ambition and scope feels much more scoped down compared to her seeming magnum opus in Sometimes I Might Be Introvert as the lushness and diversity in influence feels more subdued. This is still the work of a maestro who is hungry for lyrical prowess and it’s one that fans from all stripes should keep their ears out for. 4/5

Highlight Pick: ‘Free’