The Wishful Thinkers and the Know It All Cynics
Automatic, Billy Reeves, Club Magic, The Happy Somethings, Josh Rouse, Keane, Loris.S.Sarid, Optic Sink, The Perfect English Weather, Pôt-Pot, The Room
Settle down for post punk, indie pop, synth pop, garage pop, lounge pop, pop, ambient, suburban pop, alternative rock and 80s indie rock.
That's a lot of pop in the real world/
A Healthy Dose Of Hope : The Happy Somethings
Best for : Embryonic garage pop with great tunes.
The Happy Somethings write songs that are pigeon holed as indie as there is nowhere else to file them and because, more than any other band I've heard for some time, they live up to the DIY indie ethic. If they played the Edinburgh Festival they'd be locked in the corner of a run down church hall playing to a small number of people sheltering from the rain. They'd also be the act closest to the essence of the Festival, the act to celebrate Arts in the community.
They deserve better because they're as unexpected as a street urchin singing with the purity of a choirboy, a sumo wrestler with the grace of a top ballroom dancer or a breathtaking view that is only accessible from a concrete dominated trading estate.
It's a sparse, even harsh sound, limited to the basics of guitar, bass and drums with barely a nod to the effects pedal. There are times when it reminded me of the Argentinian football team, a group that's capable of playing ugly in the sure knowledge that what people will remember longest is the sublime magic of Lionel Messi. That magic comes from the core pop sensibility they share with acts such as The Magnetic Fields and The Flamin' Groovies but in a more raw form.
'Just Being With You' and 'Fragile The Heart' are simple, unadorned songs that contain earworm melodies at their core. 'Here And Now Becomes Then' grinds out its buzz saw guitar line with a propulsive force that takes you back to the time that new wave emerged from punk. 'Straddle The Moon' turns down the dial to allow a surprising but welcome Peter, Paul and Mary vibe to the record. 'Heaven Is Divine' and 'Figure It Out' both show how, if you try, you can achieve big pop with small resources. Both are wonderful.
The best and most important thing about this album is not how it sounds but that it has been made at all. Are you concerned about the presence of AI in music without fully understanding where it will take us? My fear is that it will squeeze out bands like The Happy Somethings because there will be no algorithm that can recognise the purity and integrity of what they provide as something special. Pop's heart is found here, not deep in some database. Sophie Hunger sings on 'Alpha Venom' "Don't forget who makes the music". It's these guys and everyone who's ever come up with a melody in their head or knocked out a tune on a dodgy Casio keyboard, not AI. Let's keep it alive.
Taster Track : Fragile The Heart
Warsaw 480KM : Pôt-Pot
Best for : A road trip with dangerous people
Sometimes music transports you to a world you would not normally visit. If you're lucky it takes you to a happy place. If your karma is bad you end up in the world occupied by Pôt-Pot.
'Warsaw 480KM' takes you on a detour into the dark side with a viscerally exciting record that stays the right side of disturbing. Just. Perhaps the most troubling thing about this album is that it sounds and feels so authentic. It's not a performance by show men. It is the sound of lives gone wrong that paid no attention to the rules. The closest thing here to a pop song is the louche glam blues stomp of 'Can't Handle It'. That glimmer of sunshine is quickly extinguished by the repeated refrain of :
"Tell me baby, do you feel alright?
Tell me baby, would you take my life?
Because I just can't handle it.
Even if that's a question about swapping lives rather than an incitement to murder, it's a pretty bleak way to start the day.
Despite this, the record has a transgressive appeal of Hunter S Thompson or 'Easy Rider'. Don't look here for happy endings, just the thrill of witnessing something you feel you really shouldn't see.
Musically this album is a tour de force, not a rough jam by people who can't hold it together, but the work of a band who know exactly what they are doing. It comes from a genre where, relatively speaking, the Velvet Underground would represent its most acceptable, commercial side. There are echoes of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club everywhere but they're still riding with 'L' plates compared to Pôt-Pot. Their venue of choice would be a dank, smoke filled cavern doused in the smell of stale alcohol and other substances.
480Km is a long way to drive, but the driving, propulsive rhythm of '22° Halo' will set you nicely on your way. 'Sextape' contains solid and adventurous guitar riffs that, from time to time, sound like an animal being ripped to shreds. It's not for the faint hearted but it makes for horribly compulsive listening. Across the album, songs are ripped apart by feedback and distortion. It sounds as if the world is crashing down around them on 'The Lights Are On', an impression not mitigated by the fog horn siren that brings it to an end.
Warsaw 480KM is strong stuff, admirably executed.
Taster Track : WRSW
Is It Now? - Automatic
Best for : Hitting the bullseye from the word go.
There's nothing to beat the feeling of finding an album that has lain hidden in your 'must listen to this sometime' pile for eleven months and realising that you may have discovered something special.
Automatic are the complete package. Don't confuse them with the Welsh rockers who once saw a monster coming over the hill. This Automatic are from LA and describe themselves as post punk. That tells a mere chapter of their story, the full works contain so much more. Any post punk sound descends more from dance friendly acts such as A Certain Ratio rather than the despair of Joy Division. There's electropop in the mix too. Imagine what it could sound like if Talking Heads had written for Kraftwerk or vice versa. You're getting closer to their feel.
This is music that appeals to both the head and the feet. The slinky sounds of album opener 'Black Box' prompt immediate movement. Their sound unfurls like a new rose, and is ably demonstrated by 'mq9'. Bass riffs carry the groove. Beats, variously shuffling, skittering and fun, provide the interest. Unexpected flute stimulates the imagination while synths and vocals bring pure pleasure. What comes through clearly is that Automatic will write the songs they like because they write them very well.
'Is It Now?' is music as a pointillist painting. It's bright and straightforward on the surface, but when you look closer you find all kinds of individual elements there. These songs are a marriage of the simple and the intricate. Their magic is not found in what they do, but in how they do it. It's in the production which is excellently conceived by the band with drummer Loren Humphrey.
A song such as 'Mercury' sounds as you would expect bubbles of quicksilver to sound as they float in perfect balance with their surroundings. 'Lazy' demonstrates how an insidious melody leading to an infectious chorus can become totally addictive. The slower vibe to 'Don't Wanna Dance' brings a dub reggae feel. Showing how they can cross genres fluidly and with ease. Even when they descend into the chaos of 'Terminl' the sound remains clean and satisfyingly beefy.
You may not know it yet, but Automatic are about to become your new favourite band.
Taster Track : mq9
Lucky Number : Optic Sink
Best for : Post punk for 2026
In 1978, pop stood less at a crossroads and more at a multi lane six exit motorway. Punk threw everything into the air and didn't care how it fell or if it broke. As a pop loving teenager, you had a choice to make. You could take the poppier route that led to new wave and on to synth pop. Or you could pick up the first iteration of post punk and move on to industrial dance and John Peel. If, like me, you played it safe for a few years you took the first, more easily enjoyable route. If I had a much cooler, older sibling our paths would not have crossed musically.
The reason for that lengthy preamble is that Optic Sink may have arrived at that roundabout nearly 50 years later. That is not a criticism. That is a recognition that they come as close to the original spirit of post punk as it's possible to get, building on the alienation and demand for change introduced by punk. They've not latched onto a style and thought "Hey, we can do something with this." They fully believe in it.
Natalie Hoffman's vocals are from the Siouxsie Sue / Lene Lovich / school of singing. On 'Laughing Backwards' they pierce you like barbed wire, and they don't let up across the album. The band'surgent, insistent synth and guitar work provides energy to fuel the songs. The twisted guitars and abrasive tunings of 'How Can I Help You?' drag you towards somewhere dark, bleak and oppressive.
You never quite arrive there because the band can find accessible hooks and riffs in the darkest places. 'Construction' shows you can find something oddly alienating yet fully accessible at the same time.
Optic Sink offer you time travel back to a world where nothing felt comfortable but everything was possible.
Taster Track : Construction
Just Beyond The Lights : The Perfect English Weather
Best for : Book club pop
Pop is for everyone. It's for the heartbroken and the people in the ghettoes and inner cities. It's for the young and the old, the well and the infirm and everyone who wants to sing, dance or perform. It's also for the respectable middle classes who live life behind net curtains on aspirational estates. It's a bit of a cliche that if you can remember the sixties, or punk, or rave culture you weren't there. Most people weren't. The Perfect English Weather make gorgeous indie pop for everyone who wasn't there.
Don't sneer. This isn't safe, easy listening. You could call this book club pop. For every Irvine Welsh and Cormac McCarthy, there's a Virginia Woolfe and Penelope Lively, and 'Just Beyond The Lights' caters for the latter. It's a birds eye view of country villages and Cotswold Towns.
You get a sense of that from the band name, which meets the concerns of the everyday Cotswold gent full on. This is about the Carolines, Margarets and Leonards in your life, but it's for anyone who values impeccable and pristine indie pop. It comes with a surprising pedigree. Simon and Wendy Pickles formed part of late 80s indie band The Popguns who registered in John Peel's Festive 50 for 1989. It's as observational and as good as the suburban pop of Saint Etienne, Belle and Sebastian, The Field Mice and The Gentle Spring
The songs here are less chamber pop and more parlour pop. 'Pilgrimage', by any reckoning, is a gorgeous slice of indie pop, rich and luxurious. There's a quiet half laugh in 'Paperback Reader' that comes from their delight in making a song so perfect. It is, literally, about a reader of paperbacks but, as with the best fiction, there's a lot repressed beneath the surface to give it depth and emotion. These are songs that couldn't be aimed at a less rock and roll audience if they tried. Because of that, the explicit directness of the opening to 'Leonard' is startling, cutting through its refined tone. Everywhere there are gentle melodies rolling softly around you.
The Perfect English Weather show that pop can be made for and about everyone.
Taster Track : Leonard
Ambient $ : Loris S Sarid
Best for : The whole ambient thing of creating different musical worlds.
Ambient music creates its own world. It usually invites you to share it, to bathe in its atmospheres and to immerse yourself fully in its patterns and moods. For reasons I'm not completely sure I understand, Loris S Sarid either doesn't do that, or doesn't achieve it. It's as if he invites you to observe it, but keeps you waiting at the door without letting you in.
It's hard to discover new words that can paint a convincing picture of what lies beyond. It's too easy to fall back on overused descriptions such as 'dream like', 'atmospheric', 'hypnotic' and ' travelling to you across space and time'.You end up with a picture of a Romantic poet scripting an episode of Star Trek. On this album Sarid has collaborated with Tony Morris on a couple of tracks. Morris describes his own recordings as 'a kind of music' and that's a description that may be the best fit for 'Ambient $' as a whole.
The album takes its first steps with 'All Together Quietly'. It's an ambient mix of disguised and distorted voices, a noticeable hook and atmospheric effects. It's well done and proficient in how it is put together. But it feels like a demonstration of how ambient music can sound rather than making a personal statement. 'Superbowl Half-Time Lounge' works better. It's a warm and relaxed treat, perfect for an early morning commute when your brain and body are pleading to go back to bed. The voices on 'Edgar's Dance' add a darker flavour of lost souls and 'One Million Streams' with Tony Morris shows how voices you can hear clearly, even without context, are always better than voices twisted into uninviting shapes. 'A Centaur On The Balcony' brings together the swoosh of static and interlocking melodies like the footwork of uncertain and unexpected dance partners. It's pretty and happy in a strange way.
This is Sarid's personal musical universe. You can hear something of Bibio's electronic travels through phantom brickworks at its core.
'Ambient $' is a personal album that will trigger personal responses even if that response may be confused and negative. Try it. You may find something different.
Taster Track : A Centaur On The Balcony
EPs and Songs
Billy Reeves, Club Magic, Josh Rouse, Keane, The Room
With 'Want In', Billy Reeves brings more swagger to his sound and exudes a confidence at odds with the vulnerability of his last couple of albums. This is literate and articulate rock and roll, moving with purpose and helped by a rousing chorus. The two part singer / chorus vocals feel like the essence of a good time, aided and abetted by a slice of boogie woogie piano.
On 'January Sky' Josh Rouse opts for a relaxed folky vibe that will be familiar to his fans. I know. Is an August heatwave the best time to release a song about January? It's the kind of song, that sounds as if it could be playing in a retail park, loosely heard above the hub-bub of Saturday afternoon shoppers in the January sales. It's lifted above that by the addition of a quality melody and a breezy, upbeat feel that's perfect for one of those TV shows where a cheerful lead character dispenses life advice to all around while seeking to fill the hole in their own soul.
The Room are from Liverpool and were a key part of the Liverpool indie scene in the mid 80s. 'Things Have Learned To Walk That Ought To Crawl' is all you could wish for to recreate that time. It has an energy that stops mercifully short of getting too much in your face. It combines 80s indie guitar with Merseybeat la la las and would have slotted right into Radio 1 between drivetime radio and John Peel. It's also a song to encourage you to seek them out live.
Keane are back with 'A Very Bad Dream' except that it doesn't sound like them. 11 contributors are credited with working on the song, including the electro-oriented Everything Everything. What you register as you listen is the proliferation of busy synth drums and vocoder vocals. It's a little sad, really, because beneath all the gimmickry is a good Keane song struggling to get out. As it is, it's Ok but in trying to reinvent themselves they may have lost what made them special in the first place.
If electronic pop that draws on the sounds of James, Fischer Z, Suicide and Ibiza sunsets sounds like your thing, you'll love Club Magic's 'Plenty of Fish (Big Heart). It combines weary, spacey vocals with a classic synth throb and melody, lots of melody. It has a lot of flavours, all of them good, that will ensnare you and leave you wanting a lot more.