The Coral – Let The Music Play
It is always a welcome return when The Coral announce new music and their latest album ‘388’ was officially released last week, following a low‑key, physical‑only rollout through independent record shops across the UK. It is the band’s thirteenth studio album, led by this single ‘Let The Music Play.’ The record draws heavily on the sound and spirit of vintage reggae and dub cassette tapes, while still carrying the group’s familiar blend of psychedelic rock, melody, and wistful escapism. Frontman James Skelly describes the single as an ode to the battered Wailers and Lee “Scratch” Perry tapes they used to pick up in second‑hand shops, music that made sense when the world did not. You can buy the album via this link: https://amzn.to/4wY12jF
Trashcan Sinatras (featuring Tracyanne Campbell) – Bad Husband
This bittersweet ballad brilliantly pairs the vocal of Camera Obscura’s Tracyanne with Francis Reader’s tender phrasing on a lead single from the band’s first album in a decade entitled ‘Ever The Optimist,’ due on the 31st July. The song finds Trashcan Sinatras in wry, melodic form illuminating a relationship wobbling between regret and reluctant hope. Their voices intertwine with a lightness that belies the song’s catalogue of missteps, turning self‑reproach into something unexpectedly buoyant. As bright guitars and primary‑coloured pop flourishes lift the mood, the track reveals its true charm: a heavy hearted duet that treats emotional weather systems with humour and grace, not to mention a defiant sense of joy. You can order yourself a copy of the album here: https://amzn.to/4u7yZfh
Lime Garden – All Bad Parts
This is a live clip from last year but the song has very much been making its mark this year, especially with strong radio airplay, especially on 6Music. It was a standout track on the bands second album ‘Maybe Not Tonight’ and found them distilling a turbulent stretch of life into a sharp, hook‑bright pop song that masks its bruises beneath a restless bounce. The track moves with the jittery energy of someone trying to outrun their own worst impulses, its melodies tugging between exhilaration and unease. As the band lean into the tension between surface gloss and inner turmoil, the song becomes a portrait of coping through motion; dancing through the mess, even when every step threatens to give something away. You can order the album via this link: https://amzn.to/4wRjc6F
Mclusky – As A Dad
Mclusky released the mini‑album ‘I Sure Am Getting Sick Of This Bowling Alley’ digitally on the 20th March via Ipecac Recordings, with vinyl editions arriving this month. This song barrels forward with the kind of crooked swagger only Mclusky can muster, turning domestic absurdity into something loud but also oddly triumphant. The track lurches between sardonic self‑assessment and full‑throttle riffing, as if trying to make sense of the roles we inherit and the ones we blunder into. Beneath the noise and the grin, there is a flicker of recognition, an acknowledgement that growing older does not necessarily mean growing wiser, but it does give you better material to shout about. The physical (or digital) version of this release is available to buy here: https://amzn.to/4uz69oZ
Lambrini Girls – Cult Of Celebrity
More high energy and crunching guitar work is to be found in this next track, which the Lambrini Girls recently released as a stand alone, download only release. It finds them sharpening their already feral punk instincts into something even more caustic and theatrical. ‘Cult Of Celebrity’ tears into the grotesque spectacle of fame with the band’s trademark mix of humour, fury, and razor‑edged social commentary. Its two‑minute blast of noise‑punk feels like a pressure valve snapping or an attack on the hollow rituals of modern notoriety delivered with the Brighton trio’s unfiltered bite. There is a sense that they are pushing their sound into even bolder, more confrontational territory. You can get the download right now via this link: https://amzn.to/4xeTQ35
Chloé Antoniotti – Mangata
We close with a sharp change of pace and turn to some pastoral, melodic beauty in the shape of this ice cool instrumental serenity. Antoniotti is a French composer and pianist who released the EP ‘Mana’ on Cinq 7 / Wagram Music earlier this year. The piano lines in this piece seem to shimmer and recede like moonlit water. Antoniotti’s compositional clarity is front and centre: she favours restraint over flourish, letting harmonic shifts and subtle textural details carry the emotional weight. The result is a work that contains both intimacy and expansiveness, a small, self‑contained world shaped with precision and a painter’s sense of light. You can download the EP via this link: https://amzn.to/4a3vjnp