There are a select number bands within the UK alternative scene that seem to have a distinct buzz that follows all of their releases, and Big Special are one of those bands.

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After the cult success of the band’s 2024 debut album, ‘POSTINDUSTRIAL HOMETOWN BLUES’, Big Special have wasted no time in following up with their next offering.

Maintaining their signature spoken word style, whilst also flirting with a more progressive direction, ‘National Average’ has been received well, with Clunk magazine awarding it a five star review. 

FULL TRACKLIST:

1. THE MESS.

2. GOD SAVE THE PONY.

3. HUG A BASTARD.

4. SHOP MUSIC.

5. PIGS PUDDIN.

6. PROFESSIONALS.

7. GET BACK SAFE.

8. YESBOSS.

9. DOMESTIC BLISS.

10. JUDAS SONG.

11. THE BEAST.

12. I ONCE HAD A KESTREL.

13. THIN HORSES.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, the band stated, “It’s about coming face to face with yourself, learning who you are when everything changes,” when talking about the themes of self-reflection in the song ‘Hug A Bastard’.

To many Big Special fans, the new record came as somewhat of a surprise, as it was released only a week after its announcement. Nevertheless, the band were able to stir up a fair amount of anticipation for its release.

The release was soon followed up by the announcement of a European tour, spanning the entire month of October, with a subsequent UK and Ireland tour early next year. Another Birmingham based duo, GANS, will be joining them on both the EU and UK tour dates. 

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‘National Average’ has also seen support from BBC 6 Music and the band sat in with Steve Lamacq for a live session at the infamous Maida Vale Studios. The session is available to listen to here.

The new record is available on vinyl, CD and cassette, and is available for purchase here. Tickets are also on sale for all of the band’s upcoming tour dates, here.

Frontman Tim Burgess describes the new song as being “like an open top car ride in the credits of your favourite movie, driving along the coast to somewhere amazing”, an anthemic prefix to the 11-track record.

It’s been eight years since the Manchester band released their 13th studio album, ‘Different Days‘ and the band are back with a new album, ‘We Are Love’. 

Speaking to NME, Burgess said “I think it’s the best record we’ve done”, describing the new album, which was recorded at the iconic Rockfield Studios. Rockfield Studios represents a solemn time in The Charlatans’ history, as it is where former keyboard player, Rob Collins, was killed in a car crash. Burgess told NME, “There’s a lot of memories there. And in some ways, it was a reason why we didn’t go back for a long time. In fact, it was quite a big reason.”

The Charlatans’ last records featured collaborators Paul Weller, Johnny Marr and New Order, but the new record, produced by Dev Hynes (Florence & The Machine, Caroline Polachek, Chemical Brothers), entertains a much more intimate circle of contributors.

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FULL TRACKLIST:

‘Kingdom of Ours’
‘We Are Love’
‘Many A Day A Heartache’
‘For The Girls’
‘You Can’t Push The River’
‘Deeper and Deeper’
‘Appetite’
‘Salt Water’
‘Out On Our Own’
‘Glad You Grabbed Me’
‘Now Everything’

‘We Are Love’ is set for release on October 31 of this year ahead of a short UK tour in December. Tickets and more information are available here.

The new record is available for pre-order on a number of different formats, including a white-label test pressing, signed by all band members. All copies are available for pre-order here.

The new single was released on Tuesday June 24, but by no means did the latest offering from the raucous group get lost in the in the midst of all of the Glastonbury chaos. Furiously fuzzy guitars and a bullish vocal from singer Karla Chubb grabbed the attention of critics around the UK (CLUNK) and earned the song a place on Spotify’s New Music Friday UK playlist – a hallmark for any up and coming UK artist.

‘Descartes’ is the first offering from the band’s second album, ‘All That Is Over‘, which is set for release on September 26. Speaking to The Guardian, Chubb remarked that the new record flirts with somewhat Orwellian themes, speaking to Rachel Aroesti she said, “A lot of it is escapism – even though we’re escaping from one dystopian world to another.”

In alignment with a lot of other Irish bands of today, (Fontaines D.C, Kneecap, Chalk), Sprints take a no-holds-barred approach to songwriting, commenting on social concerns and community challenges, touching a lot on her own experiences as a woman within the music industry. Last year Chubb hit out at a gig-goer for sexually assaulting her on stage (NME), and her story was met by an abundance of support from other artists and fans alike. The exasperation from these experiences has certainly translated into the fantastically aggressive ‘Descartes’.

Five days after the release of their new single, Sprints took to the Woodsies stage at the Glastonbury Festival, playing to a packed tent in Sunday’s blistering heat. What fans maybe didn’t expect was the surprise appearance of singer Kate Nash, who joined the band on stage to perform her 2007 hit ‘Foundations’, whilst incorporating the famous ‘That’s Not My Name’ by The Ting Tings into the chorus. 

Nash also appeared on Sunday at Glastonbury, using her time to bash the likes of J.K Rowling, Denise Welch and Rod Stewart for various discrepancies. But the singer was not the only act of the weekend to lash out at Rod Stewart, Minehead duo Getdown Services stated, “Rod Stewart looks like an old sofa”, in response to Stewart’s support of reform UK leader Nigel Farage.

Nash was not the only artist to take on political issues whilst on stage, Kneecap and Bob Dylan also used their time to make a statement. Read more, here.

The playful, punky spirit of the release leans into a more comical side of Simz’s artistry, from an artist who’s commonly remembered for her heavily thoughtful, thematic works. Over a sharp bassline, Simz drops some catchily simplistic flows about everyday English living: “A bottle of Rio and some chicken and chips/In my fuck-me-up pumps and my Winehouse quiff”

The energetic music video comes from director Dave Myers, who previously worked with Simz on her video for ‘Gorilla’ from her 2022 album ‘NO THANK YOU’. The video sees Simz dressed as a boisterous old lady, causing trouble from her window and on the streets, before performing with a band at a punk party.

Simz said she was happy to share a less serious side of herself with this new single: “I was able to tap into a character. That was fun for me. It’s just a moment of light heartedness.”

The single is the third offering from her upcoming ‘Lotus’ album, after the Mercury Prize-winning rapper shared ‘Free’ and ‘Flood’ earlier in the year. ‘Flood’ features a similar bass-led, drum-heavy sound to her latest single, while ‘Free’ gives a soulful, tender production with lyrics about loving others and yourself.

In a press release for the highly anticipated record, the LP was described as an embodiment of “renewal and growth, mirroring her evolving artistry and the album’s thematic voyage through life’s intricate phases.”

In an interview with Jack Saunders of BBC Radio One, Simz explained her fascination with lotuses, being one of the only plants to bloom in muddy waters – she felt that this is a fitting metaphor for “anything” to become something “extraordinary” no matter the conditions.

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The rapper recently shared the tracklist for the upcoming album, containing 13 tracks with a roster of collaborators including Michael Kiwanuka, Moses Sumney, Sampha, Obongjayar, Wretch 32, Moonchild Sanelly, Yussef Dayes and more. The record, which has had its release date delayed before, is now expected to drop on June 6. You can pre-order/pre-save it here.

Simz is also ready for the 2025 edition of Meltdown Festival at London’s Southbank Centre, where she will be performing an orchestral set alongside a stellar lineup featuring The Streets, Lola Young, Ghetts and more. You can read our MXDWN coverage on that here.

The group just released the new single this evening. With a heavy, funky piano-doubled bassline, and an ethereally layered chorus, singer Ellie Rosswell shows off her incredible, dynamic vocal range. The song has been released with a music video, full of dramatic dance choreography that compliments the ambitious sound of the song.

In a press release, Roswell explained some of the influence behind the song: “I wanted a rock song, to focus on the performance element of a rock song and sing like Axl Rose, but to be singing a song about being a woman. I’ve used the guitar as a shield in the past, playing it has perhaps been some way to reject the ‘girl singer in band’ trope, but I wanted to focus on my voice as a rock instrument so it’s been freeing to put the guitar down and reach a point where I don’t feel like I need to prove that I’m a musician.”

Their new music follows on from their third studio album, ‘Blue Weekend’, released in 2021. The record reached No. 1 on the UK Album Charts, and picked up a nomination for that year’s Mercury Prize.

The London alt-rock stars recently announced three shows in Ireland next week, in the build-up to their long-awaited comeback.

The band are set to perform in Kilkenny’s Set Theatre on Monday (May 19), Cyprus Avenue in Cork on Tuesday (May 20) and Dolan’s Warehouse in Limerick on Wednesday (May 21).

The shows will be Wolf Alice’s first gigs after almost two years. They last stepped to the stage for an intimate pub gig at The Sebright Arms in East London in September 2023. These Irish stops will serve as a warm-up to their scheduled summer appearances at BBC Radio One’s Big Weekend later this month and Glastonbury in June.

The group have been teasing their new era since last month, when they changed their official logo on social media, while teasing content related to their forthcoming single.

One post contained a lyric sheet, beginning with the lines: “Do I have to make you, sit on your hands/ Fucking baby, baby man/ Do you want me to show you, who I am/ See this fire in my eyes boy/ That’s your flash in the pan.” Now, we can hear these same lyrics in ‘Bloom Baby Bloom’.

Fans can sign up for access to the ticket sales for their Irish shows by registering their email address on the groups website here.

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The album features the previously released single ‘Grime Scene Saviours’, a high-powered posse cut that harkens back to the days of Lethal Bizzle’s ‘Pow! (Forward Riddim)’. The song holds a lineup that’ll hit big with grime fans, including D Double E, Frisco, Flirta D, Skepta, Bruza, JME, Jendor, Novelist, Jamakabi & Flowdan.

Also on the record are second single ‘Davinche Code’, an old-school, glitchy track with classic grime-riddim synth sounds, and third single, ‘Function Riddim’, a smooth, floaty song where Chip delivers a long verse reflecting on his status and career, with lyrics like “I’m from London, I moved to London at 21, got me feeling like 21”.

In the run-up to the album, Chip staged a sold-out show at Outernet London in February. The show saw countless classic grime heads and new-school names locked into a cypher, including Jme, Skepta, Frisco, D Double E, Jendor, Flirta D, Novelist, Jamakabi, Bruza, P Money, Riko Dan, Kruz Leone, Desperado, Jammer, SoLarge, RB, More Fire Crew, Duppy, Logan, Double S, Big Narstie, Ruff Squad, and DJs Mak 10, Maximum and Sir Spyro.

London-based music publication Trench had high praise for the show: “One after the other, a plethora of MCs enter the stage and at this point, it’s largely a who’s who of grime. The energy in the room is electric as Chip passed the mic to Jme, who passed it to P Money, who then passed it to ad-lib king D Double E. As you can imagine: it’s straight-up reload central, with every MC spitting their iconic one-liners and whipping the crowd into a frenzy.”

Chip has certainly carried this energy onto his new album, with a full tracklist of 130-140bpm bangers and long-form verses. While earlier releases in his career catered to more poppy, radio-friendly audiences, in recent years he’s pivoted to pure grime, with albums like ‘Snakes & Ladders’ and freestyles for Link Up TV and GRM Daily putting his high-tempo, punchline-heavy style on full display.

Other tunes on the album feature Scorcher and Jastin Martin, and a roster of renowned beatmakers including Teddy Music, Dexplicit, Ace Beats, Sir Spyro and Jammer handled production for the record.

Chip is set to appear at Skepta’s Big Smoke Festival 2025, alongside JME, Frisco, Chy Cartier, Jordss and others at Crystal Palace Park later this year. You can read our writeup on that here.

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The new album will play host to an exciting selection of features, including Mike Brainchild, Toddla T, Tre-Jean Marie, Wretch 32, Jojo, Tiwa Savage and Louisa Johnson. The first taste of the album has been given in the smooth breakbeat banger ‘Wake Up’. The track draws influence from the silky 2-step sounds of the 2000’s, with David singing and rapping over those staple string stabs and rumbling bass. “Roll pon a riddim, roll pon a riddim — know/I know you’ve been hurt before, gotta let it go”, says the singer, with lyrics summing up his duality as a soulful love-singer and garage icon.

The Southampton-born singer gave a press statement on the new single and its meaning to him:

“‘Wake Up’ for me is my way of not only respecting my garage roots, but also keeping alive the cultural foundation of the sound from where it all started.  The lyric reinforces literally & metaphorically the essence of making sure we don’t fall asleep on the importance of nurturing something we care about. Especially if we don’t want to end up losing it by taking it for granted. This echoes how I feel about the unique sound of UK Garage and the importance of nurturing it for generations to come around the world. I felt super inspired mixing in the vibes of ‘Indo – R U Sleeping’ on this one, just like me playing out a TS5 garage set. The whole vibe ignited some core memories for me that not only had me in my feels, but inspired me to grab the mic & spit bars again. Just like when I was on pirate radio MC’ing back in the days.”

‘Wake Up’ was released as a single featuring three other tracks that may appear on the upcoming album – a soft dancehall collab with Tiwa Savage titled ‘Commitment’, a tropical-house tune called ‘SOS’ and a song called ‘In Your Hands’ which has an almost Avicii-like whistle-pop quality. 

Craig recently joined Usher onstage at London’s O2 Arena on Saturday, April 5, duetting his classics ‘Fill Me In’ and ‘7 Days’ with the American star. David stepped out to a roaring crowd, who excitedly sung back the words to his iconic tunes.

Feeling truly blessed to share the stage with the legend @Usher This is a real full-circle moment for me Growing up, I had ‘I Think of You’ and ‘U Make Me Wanna’ on repeat He’s always been an artist I deeply respect and one of the greatest to ever do it Thank you… pic.twitter.com/LeMnpTbmux

— Craig David (@CraigDavid) April 5, 2025

‘Commitment’ is available for pre-order here.

In his trademark low voice and stone-cold delivery, he raps over a tender piano-led beat provided by Levi & Side Real and Desro. He flexes his status and how for he’s come and also ponder his relationships: “hardly got no friends left, but you know the play/Nine times out of ten it’s gonna go that way.” The ambient instrumental and pensive lyrics might remind fans of tracks like “The Essence” and “Slow Songs”.

He also confidently speaks on his undeniable influence in UK rap, referring to himself as the “biggest goat/You know how much London man I’ve given hope?”

A statement describes the song and its contemplative nature: “No gloss, no gimmicks – just grown-man truths, laid bare in that unmistakable baritone. It’s a slow burn of a track, where reflection hits heavier than the beat…this is Giggs holding a mirror up to himself and daring us to look too.”

Giggs is seen by many as a legend of the UK rap scene, and one of the spearheads of the road rap movement that took Britain by storm in the 2000’s. He’s had numerous high-charting releases, such as his fourth album ‘Landlord‘ and commercial mixtape ‘Wamp 2 Dem‘ peaking at no. 2 on the UK album chart.

Giggs has been steadily dropping some new songs over the past few months. His last full-length release was in 2023, with the well-received mixtape ‘Zero Tolerance’. In October last year, he teamed up with Quavo and US fashion brand Kid Super to drop a new single, ‘Big In Da Game’.

More recently, he released a new song in February called ‘The Entry’ via a unique format – a live video performance with DJ AG on the decks. In March he dropped ‘Big On Change’, a menacing trap banger with an imaginative music video.

In a recent feature with Something About Rocks magazine, the Peckham Landlord shared his admiration for the newer generation of British rappers, naming some that he’s particularly fond of: “Everyone influences me and I get influenced to this day by the new kids. Dave, Strandz, they inspire me.

“[The UK rap scene] is always evolving. From the beginning to now: it’s gone crazy.

“Look at the likes of Central Cee, Stormzy – they’ve taken it to the highest of heights. All of them.”

Giggs currently has a couple of gigs scheduled for 2025, one of them being “Giggs & Friends” at Somerset House. He will be joined by guests Potter Payper, P Money and Tiny Boost for an outdoor performance at the London venue. More details can be found here.

He shared two close-up selfies of himself in a room where you can faintly see a recording engineer at work in the glass reflection. He gave a simple caption: “In’t studio.” You can see the images below.

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Bring Me The Horizon’s last album ‘Post Human: Nex Gen’ was released in May 2024. The album saw some more experimental genre-fusion from the band, combining their heavy sound with hyperpop, electronica and pop-punk. Most critics gave the project positive reviews, with The Guardian calling it “a defining album of our digitally overloaded era.”

In an interview with NME last December, Sykes said the Sheffield metal outfit have some new music ready for their headline sets at Reading & Leeds 2025. He also told Kerrang! that the band have a lot of material left over from their last album: “We wrote so much for NeX GEn, there’s so many cool songs that are kicking about, and I think the world would love to hear them.”

The hard rockers have a few performances planned for this year – they recently announced a North American arena tour starting in Autumn and will also appear at Kentucky’s Louder Than Life festival in September.

In Europe, they have a few festival slots scheduled – first, at Germany’s Rock am Ring and Rock im Park in June, before returning to the UK for the Reading and Leeds festivals in August. All their upcoming dates can be found on their website.

Sykes said in the same interview with NME that the band’s new songs were “not a new album or anything, but some new material for the set” at Reading and Leeds. He also said that these British shows will be an end to the band’s current era: “These will be our only shows in the UK next year, and our final shows before we go away for maybe quite some time. This is will be the conclusion of the ‘Nex Gen’ run for sure.”

Bring Me The Horizon have cemented their status and legacy as one of modern metal’s most important groups. While the music of their early days was firmly rooted in aggressive deathcore, their 2010 releases saw a refined sound with anthemic, accessible rock flavours and mixes of different genres. Their sixth album, ‘Amo’, grabbed Bring Me The Horizon their highest charting position, debuting at #1 on the UK Albums Chart.

Irish post-punk favourites Fontaines D.C. recently covered Bring Me The Horizon for Australia’s “triple j” radio station – combining the metal group’s hit ‘Can You Feel My Heart’ with elements of Nirvana’s ‘Heart Shaped Box’. You can see our write-up on that here.

In a new episode of their LPTV FROM ZERO series which released on March 5, the two rockers can be seen recording new material. Mike is at the mixing board, playing a dark instrumental, while Emily puts some vocals down in the recording booth – singing the words “Sometimes it feels like…”

we’re getting a new Linkin Park song soon THIS IS NOT A DRILL

GET READY FAMpic.twitter.com/mSEyd866Vf

— a.| fan accøunt (@BroodingAnanas) March 5, 2025

When the nu-metal/alt-rock royalty reunited, Armstrong was chosen to be Linkin Park’s new singer. She was previously known best as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of Dead Sara.

Linkin Park had been on hiatus since July 2017 after the tragic passing of beloved frontman Chester Bennington. In early 2024, the band announced their reunion, promising both new tours and music. In November, they dropped ‘From Zero’, their first release back as a reformed group.

The album was a commercial success, racing to the top of the charts in over ten countries, including in the UK and around Europe. It received mainly positive reviews from critics, with The Guardian saying: “They were always unafraid to take sonic risks, and another sonic risk is exactly what their comeback constitutes – one that has handsomely paid off.”

Before joining the California rockers, Emily Armstrong had long been an admirer of Linkin Park. In an interview with Billboard, she recalled her fandom upon hearing their iconic debut, ‘Hybrid Theory’.

“I was in a band when it came out,” she said. “One Step Closer was the song for me, and I was just like, ‘that’s what I want to do. As a singer, I want to be able to scream’.

“That album was everything – I’ve listened to it a trillion times. I would skate to it. I would mosh to it.”

The band will be travelling to the UK in 2025, performing at Wembley Stadium on Jun 28, with support from Spiritbox and JPEGMAFIA – you can find tickets and tour dates on the groups official site.

Linkin Park have a mammoth tour scheduled for 2025, starting in April and stretching through the US and Europe before closing out in South America in November.

Mike Shinoda expressed his excitement in a press release: “Getting back out on the road has been incredible. The fans’ support is overwhelming, and we’re ready to take this energy even further around the world. From Zero is a new chapter for us, and we’re so excited to share it with everyone on a bigger scale.”