Music For The Shouters, The Doubters And The What's It All Abouters

We're back to full strength this week, with a selection of great albums that fall firmly in the category marked 'Great Listening', irrespective of genre :

Etella, Fergus McCreadie, Fischer-Z, Jim Noir, Lande Hekt, The Midnight Aisle, Paul McCartney, The Real Tuesday Weld, Sour Ops

Pop In The Real World Taster Tracks 2026 (Spotify)

Pop In The Real World Taster Tracks 2026 (YouTube)

Programmes For Cools : Jim Noir

Best for : De-stressing and for the passengers on the 05:28 Maidenhead to Paddington commute.

I love this album, and I love Jim Noir too. It helps that it's been a little stressed at Pop In The Real World recently, and the songs here provide the perfect antidote to that.

These songs will caress you before melting away and dissolving your worries.There's a quiet, almost hallucinogenic feel to the music and unhurried vocals, with a sensation of weightlessness in the songs.

Jim's often been hailed for his gentle psychedelia. He's in the mould of Donovan or the woozier side of the Super Furry Animals. The spirit of the 60s is everywhere, wrapped up in the technology of the 2020s. On this album it makes for a friendly ambience full of songs that bleep, whoosh and gurgle away comfortably. He's perfect for a free festival in the warm evening sun or, conversely, for that early morning commute where your body refuses to accept that it has left the bed.

I like the production a lot, particularly the sudden foregrounding of what has been in the background. Too many artists use interlude fragments that disrupt the momentum of the album. Not Noir. He uses them to create a single whole, a seamless trip into a refreshing daydream.

The opening track, appropriately named 'Start', is the most ambient track, leading into the trademark gentle and gorgeous pop of 'Out Of Sight'. The equally suitably named final track, called 'Close', is the first time I've heard something that could be named indie classical. 'The Fountain' is a slice of bouncy, good time pop, not concerned with being cool but with raising a smile of delight. Just once, on 'One More Hand', the music sways towards library music. More often, as on 'I Think I Found It', this is what Air might have sounded like if they had grown up in an English country village. The only disturbance can be felt in 'Morning Light'. It shakes you awake with a scuzzy guitar before softening to allow you to stretch gently into full wakefulness.

It's 'Motorbike' that captures his essence best. He's the Ted Lasso of pop. Thank you Jim.

Taster Track : Out Of Sight

Late Flowering Reveries : The Real Tuesday Weld

Best for : Calm and reflective nostalgia

In the past The Real Tuesday Weld has addressed everything from baby's bathtime in Clerkenwell to being Lucifer in the manner of an East End gangster. It's been a disorienting, even tricky, listen at times.

On Late Flowering Reveries, he's calmed down. He's often operated in the world of dreams and often nightmares but this is the stuff at the intersection of chamber synth pop and bedroom indie with echoes of the Jazz Age. He's reined in past excesses, content to observe some fantastic alternative rather than being at its centre.

Late Flowering Reveries is the perfect title for the album. They sound like songs composed in his head while at rest, and they look a long way back. This is music for sad but sweet early morning remembrances.coated in sweet melodies and gently haunting atmospheres.

Before, you sense that Stephen Coates may have thrown everything at a song, building a sonic world that, at times felt over the top. Where he used to add to a song, now he takes away, polishing grubby stones to reveal a shining pearl. The result is one of the loveliest sets of songs I've heard for some time.

'Don't Go Back' is ethereal pop for the world of The Magic Faraway Tree. Its quiet, operatic backing is a nod to previous extravagances and a welcome to his new power of restraint. 'Blackbird Day' allows itself to dream of being carried away, and its music will give you the same feeling. 'Lost Endeavour (Easy Mix)' locates the sweet spot where pop meets easy listening. 'Up In Smoke' is a gorgeous instrumental reminiscent of Olafur Arnalds most accessible moments. 'Your Version Of Me' has strings arranged by angels in the clouds.'When You Showed Up' has the innocence and charm of an ingenue. Oriane Curls, whose style spans jazz, French chanson and cabaret, is the perfect collaborator for this song.

The Real Tuesday Weld is truly individual, but if you wanted to imagine the Peter Skellern who sang 'Hold On To Love' covering Groove Armada's 'At The River' you'd come close to the style of this record.

Late Flowering Reveries demonstrates that sometimes the most unexpected surprises are the best ones.

Taster Track : Don't Go Back

The Shieling : Fergus McCreadie

Best for : Jazz piano and highland flings

Fergus McCreadie is one of the brightest names in jazz at the moment. He's been winning big awards since he was at school despite starting on an old £20 piano and weathering the complaints from neighbours when he practised. He's building a global reputation, but remains deeply Scottish at heart.

That may be why this feels like an album divided in two. There are the pieces to impress the jazz world, and bursts of Scottish joy to attract everyone else. He avoids bagpipe accompaniment although, on 'Wayfinder' and 'The Orange Skyline', drones stand in for them.

On the tunes aimed at his jazz peers, you can't help but be impressed by his virtuosity. He plays as if there is more than one piano under his control, interweaving melodies and using different tempos simultaneously. He's a conjurer and you can be sure that the left hand knows exactly what the right hand is doing all the time. If you're not a natural jazz fan, these pieces may feel quite full on. They almost work better if you let them pass you by initially, without listening too carefully. That way, key phrases and melodies float off the score and through your speakers, pointing the way to the tunes you want to revisit.

You have to admire how he explores the different moods that he can conjure from a piano. To take one example, while the percussion conjures the idea of rumbling far off thunder, McCreadie is creating 'Lily Bay', a contemplative piece that suggests sitting on a cliff, alone with the sea and the birds in the Autumn sunshine. You also have to admire how the trio plays together in perfect support and harmony.

The pure jazz tracks are impressive technically, but they neither take my breath away nor make my spine tingle. They offer less in the way of simple entertainment. That all changes with the songs that delve into the sound of Scottish reels and Highland flings. Melody is a given, as is the promise of good times ahead. 'Ptarmigon' is a good place to start as it suddenly bursts from the jazz stage into a community dance. 'Wayfinder' paves the way, holding out the promise of music that will leave you smiling. 'Climb Through The Pinewood' builds on that, recapturing the dance feel of jigs and reels after a couple of more serious numbers. It's as if your silent attention is rewarded with permission to let your hair down once again. As Simon Callow memorably exclaims in Four Weddings and a Funeral, "It's bloody Brigadoon!"

Dare I say that this manages to be an album both for the classroom and the playground? I'll see you after break.

Taster Track : Ptarmigan

Adagio : Etella

Best for : Including a track or two on your Summer playlists

The first blast of Spring warmth turns minds to making Summer playlists, and Etella is here to help populate them. She's a Greek singer with a substantial Spotify following and she makes pop with sunny, summery vibes.

This is music for half hearing on a pool splashed sun lounger. It's for more sophisticated tastes than the tastes of those engaged in ouzo based drinking competitions. It's slight, but pleasant and enjoyable. Etella is an accompaniment not a destination. While it's playing you'll be chatting to friends around the barbecue. You won't be inviting them to stay a while specifically to listen to it.

The Mediterranean vibe is always a treat and, at 26 minutes. It won't outstay its welcome. Much longer and it could start to sound bland, like the house band at a holiday complex night club.

A couple of these songs are in Greek. They stand out from the rest because she sings and plays them differently. In English, her vocals are deeper and the music is synthetic. In Greek she sounds more natural.

'Corfu', the one instrumental here, is the sound of a thousand YouTube travelogues. 'Too Poor', and 'Adagio' are best for the lazy holiday vibe. Gloria Estafen would be proud. 'Can I Say' is the sweetest track here. Weirdly, although it sounds like a song for a lost love, AI tells me it's a song about her stolen bike. Are you sure AI? Or has something been lost in translation?

Listen to this, and then head for your travel site of choice to start dreaming of holidays.

Taster Track : Can I Say

And while we're on the subject of AI, if you listen to music on Spotify, you'll know that many songs now have an AI generated explanation of what the song is about. Avoid this if you can. It's like listening to music with a know-all acquaintance who won't stop talking, and it destroys any romance, mystery and magic in the song.

Lucky Now : Lande Hekt

Best for : Bringing real life and real emotions into pop.

Lande Hekt gives centre stage to the ordinary, the understated feelings that raise their heads when you're tired and vulnerable. At times you'll want to reach out and support her with an unexpected smile, a reassuring moment of contact, appreciating the value of small gestures to acknowledge deep feelings. And that's more than OK.

The album traces a downward spiral. 'Kitchen ll' celebrates the ordinary things with the simplest and sweetest melodies. It's a trait that gives meaning to ordinary lives, whether it's rabbits running in the field, unfurling a yoga mat, having a favourite pair of shoes, home maintenance or playing games to while away a long car journey. In 'Lucky Now' she finds the perfect imagery to describe the central character.

" Crisp packet in the storm. That was you since you were born."

We've had bedroom pop. This is kitchen pop for when you're trying to get on with life

Later these become things to cling to, to remind us of a life to hold on to. This isn't an album of strong passions, but of real life's mixed emotions and needlessly catastrophising thoughts. 'Middles of the Night' isn't unusual with its undercurrents of uncertainty, doubt and sadness.

She adopts a mix of musical styles, from the sweet but perceptive indie pop of 'Kitchen ll' and 'Lucky Now' through the full indie rock of songs such as 'Circular' and 'My Imaginary Friend' to the more haunting and dreamlike sounds that seep into the closing songs 'Submarine' and 'Coming Home'. My preference is for the former songs which bulge with personality. The sweet songs are timeless, the fuller band songs are indie from the recent past. The effect is of 'Allo Darlin meeting The Lemonheads to make exactly the kind of music you'd like to hear on drivetime Radio 6.

Lande Hekt - remember the name. She could be the next big thing.

Taster Track : Kitchen ll

PUNKT! : Fischer-Z

Best for : Showcasing an unsung pop hero and for Martin from Bristol

How do certain, surprising artists attain longevity when other more commercially successful artists fall by the wayside? In the case of John Watts / Fischer-Z it may be because they don't chase fashion. For nearly 50 years, he's written consistently interesting, listenable and great songs. You can dip into any point in his career and find something to love. 'PUNKT!' doesn't disappoint

This album is part of a three part art project, consisting of painting, film and this album. If you think that means it's inaccessible, a set of different fragments connected to images you may never see, think again. It's a fully realised album and a very good one.

Watts' vocals have come a long way from the choirboy purity of 'The Worker'. It's a lot more gravelly and worn but it still delivers the goods. It's well suited to the vein of defeated sadness that underpins his songs, and an appealing contrast to offset his gift for an enduring pop melody.

You'll come to see that beneath the gruff exterior, John Watts has a twinkle in his eye that comes from the confidence of knowing that he will inevitably produce something you will love. He's a master of his craft. You'll hear it in the celebratory swing of 'Too Much', its discontented lyrics falling into a song that is full of the melodies that should have ruled the charts in the 80s and 90s. The ramshackle, singalong chorus of '100 Wised Up Monkeys' is what you'd hope to hear from the riverside band to accompany the ferry on its way to the Underworld.

There's a cinematic quality to songs like 'Wonder' and in the sweeping strings of 'Moonlight On A Lake Of Diamonds'. 'Can't Undo' is the great ballad Peter Gabriel might grab if he wanted a poppier sound. 'Conclusion' is undeniably stirring. Fischer -Z's manifesto spoken over a light funk beat and sounding like an academic's The The. 'PUNKT!' shares its free flowing, slightly manic wordplay.

'PUNKT' is a lot more complex than the guitar driven power pop and radio friendly singles of their commercial peak, but the charm and appeal that made them so enjoyable are still there. Fischer -Z have made an album that is as ambitious as The Clash's 'Sandinista'.

Here, everything's a winner.

Taster Track : Too Much

Blue Crusade : The Midnight Aisle

Best for : Those that want to savour the under acknowledged indie class.

The Midnight Aisle are part of the hidden 90% of the indie iceberg. It's unclear how much of that is personal choice and how much is the force of circumstances.

Let's be clear. The Midnight Aisle deserves to be much better known. 'She's So Certain' is a promising rush of heady pop in the mould of James or Llloyd Cole and the Commotions. 'Tinseltown Again' is for those that want to hear a hit single. 'Hanging On History' has a formal dance rhythm that sticks in the memory, and the literacy - singing about phantom epiphanies, retconning pages, Lot's wife - that is more than satisfying if you follow the lyrics carefully. 'Fly How You Might' has the kind of winning melody that has you reaching for Shazam to identify it before it disappears forever.

The trouble is that it doesn't quite attain lift off. It calls to mind those images of intrepid aviators who try to fly off Brighton Pier under their own steam. The splash they make is not the stuff that pop dreams are made of.

You may wonder, as I did, if this is his choice. He has a low social media presence. There are no interviews on line to help you get to know and understand him. Normally I'd caution against corporate engagement but in The Midnight Aisle's case , perhaps a few PR thermal waves would help the breakthrough. Without it, they may be destined to be the musical equivalent of a self-published novel.

The album has a strong 80s feel, but it's the feel of indie gems that never got their lucky break. He delivers a strong hand in the choppy, funky lite guitars, the vocals switching into falsetto where it helps and the eager synths pleading with you to like them. They'd be a gift to a C26 compilation if anyone wants to curate one.

This is an album that deserves to be heard by a wide audience. Its destiny may be to remain lost in the crowd, unable to make itself heard.

Taster Track : She's So Certain

EPs and Songs

Sour Ops have a history of producing solidly enjoyable 21st century rock. On 'Opting Out', they've brought in an unexpected electro introduction. It signals a bigger, brighter and more confident sound, reminiscent of bands such as Royal Republic. Its fuzzy guitar is suitable for festival stages in front of a deep red setting sun with a wind machine blowing across the stage. It's a big step up.

Paul McCartney has reached the stage of life where misty eyed sentimentality is allowed. He has a new album out in May - 'The Boys of Dungeon Road' - and he released 'Days We Left Behind' as a taster of it last year. Yes, it's a little indulgent. Quietly moving? Definitely. It's a simple tune of the kind he knocked out plenty of times for The Beatles. The good news is that his voice holds up well, and he's written exactly the kind of song that serves it well, attractively croaky and still carrying the tune.