Review: It's hard to believe ABBA's third album is 50 years old this year and S.O.S. was one of the slef titled LP's most successful and distinctive moments. The song helped solidify the Swedish quartet's exciting blend of catchy pop and disco, as well as - absolutely true - providing the Sex Pistols with the intro for punk classic 'Pretty Vacant'. This period correct picture disc 7" celebrates one of their most iconic singles, backed with beloved album cut Man In 'The Middle' here.
Review: Dead Or Alive's famously infectious 1985 single 'Lover Come Back To Me' is still a dancefloor favourite, especially at fun all-family gatherings. 40 years on from its first release, it gets a dazzling revival with this limited edition picture disc, which drops as part of the anniversary celebrations for their Youthquake album. A high-energy follow-up to their breakout hit 'You Spin Me Round,' the track stormed the UK Singles Chart, peaking at #11 and spending six weeks in the Top 40. Globally, it lit up clubs and charts alike, landing Top 30 placements in nine countries and breaking the U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play Top 20. Packed with glam, drama and synth-pop flair, it's a classic worth spinning again.
Review: Recorded during the final year of her life, this posthumous release finds Marianne Faithfull looking both backwards and forwards - reconciling the weight of legacy with the intimacy of reflection. Across these four new tracks, she honours the dual foundations of her 60-year career: chamber pop and traditional British folk. 'Burning Moonlight', co-produced with long-time collaborator Head, echoes the melancholic grandeur of 'As Tears Go By', while 'Love Is (Head version)', written with her grandson Oscar Dunbar, floats with tender defiance. The flip side turns to lineage and tradition: 'Three Kinsmen Bold' is stark and ancestral, passed down from her father and 'She Moved Thru' The Fair' is sparse, aching, and spectral. Faithfull was born in Hampstead and came of age in 60s London, and here, on what is now her final release, she returns to the very start - not out of nostalgia, but with grace and resolve. It's the completion of a circle, yes, but it still leaves a faint line trailing off into the air.
Review: Emma Noble, the emerging soul singer from London, delivers a powerful performance on the girl group soul anthem 'Unstoppable'. Her second single, it's poised to become a next-gen floor-filler; catch us playing it on repeat, *in flagranti*, after it premiered on Craig Charles' BBC6 Soul Show in early 2025. 'Going Going Gone' backs it up on the B-side, as the first single from FPE's upcoming album Waves. Hearing rising Australian singer-songwriter and pop genius J Mahon on vocal duties, the track's catchy brass sections combine with J's androgynous soul vocals, and evokes the sounds of young Motown artists in the style's 60s adolescence.
Review: Over three decades since it first landed like a glitter-covered brick on 90s dancefloors, Haddaway's 'What Is Love' returns in a newly remastered edition i and it still hits like heartbreak in a club bathroom at 2am. Originally released by the Trinidad-born, Germany-based singer in 1993, the track remains an unmatched high watermark of eurodance: emotionally grand, melodically undeniable and rhythmically bulletproof. The remaster elevates the sound without overcooking it, keeping the bass taut and the synths sharper than ever. This new 10" release pairs the remastered 7" and 12" mixes with three more Haddaway essentials. 'Rock My Heart' is all turbocharged joy, while 'I Miss You' slows things down into something softer, almost wistful. 'Sing About Love', a lesser-known cut, benefits most from the fresh polish i suddenly blooming into full pop spectacle. It's a brand new release with one foot in club history and the other in now, reintroducing Haddaway's iconic anthem to a new generation while giving long-time fans the sonic upgrade they didn't know they needed. There's sincerity here that still feels bracing i love hurts, sure, but it also bangs. Put simply: if this is what nostalgia sounds like, we're fully on board.
Review: New-gen pop goddess Chappell Roan revels new and acquired popular tastes in country music with a new fiddle-laced foray, 'The Giver', a track having been first unveiled during her SNL debut in late 2024. The track playfully riffs on Nashville tropes while delivering candid lesbian storytelling, a contrast shaped by Roan's closeted upbringing in Missouri. Rather than baiting genre purists, she frames it as reclaiming a space that was once off-limits. Its campy lyric video sees Roan in full drag mode, cycling through fantasy professions with hotline energy. Billboard teasers and a live rollout helped frame the single as the next step in a new phase after The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess.
Review: Chappell Roan's new single 'The Giver embraces her Midwest roots with real country flair. Unlike her theatrical hit 'Pink Pony Club' this track features rollicking fiddle, banjo and bar-room sing-alongs that tap into influences from Shania Twain to Alan Jackson. Roan's playful yet confident lyrics celebrate knowing how to satisfy a lover and blend classic country tropes with fresh storytelling. Produced by Dan Nigro, the song's driving rhythm feels like a roaring truck and proves Roan's ability to nail genre boundaries without needing to be called a crossover.
Review: Chappell Roan is back and this time she's saddling up with some serious country swagger on hew new single 'The Giver'. It's a fun, foot-stomping romp filled with banjos and fiddles and "na-na-na" sing-alongs that'll have you hollerin' along in no time. Channeling the great country-pop queen Shania Twain, Roan owns her Midwest roots with this big ol' love song produced by Dan Nigro. The track chugs along nicely and Roan's knack for mixing camp theatrics with homely charm really shines through. On the flip is an all-too-brief demo version of 'Fix It In The Mornin'.
Review: Human of the moment Chappell Roan's latest single, 'The Giver,' sees her embracing country influences with a playful twist. Drawing inspiration from artists like Shania Twain, Roan infuses the track with traditional country elements i banjo, fiddle, and spirited "na-na-na" choruses i while delivering the trademark subversive lyrics that have helped set her work apart from the merely generic. This bold approach, coupled with Dan Nigro's dynamic production, creates a daliance into country music that feels authentic enough, infectious and somewhat boundary-pushing.
Review: Abba's self-titled third album marked a creative and commercial turning point for the group; released in 1975, it was their first full-length following the breakthrough historic romance hit 'Waterloo', and the moment they cemented a sound that would dominate pop for years. Packed with high-drama hooks and refulgent production, the album of course also includes 'Mamma Mia' and 'SOS', both early experiments in the theatrical, harmony-rich style that would define the long-form productions of Benny Anderson and Bjorn Ulvaeus. With newly remastered audio cut at half-speed by Miles Showell at Abbey Road, we've two new inclusions: kitsch singalong gem 'I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do' and glam-leaning opener 'So Long'.
Review: Released in 1992, Grrr! It's Betty Boo marked a stylistic and personal evolution for Betty Boo, arriving two years after her platinum-selling debut (also reissued now through the Betty Boo estate). While it didn't replicate the commercial heights of Boomania, it still delivered a memorable top 20 single with 'Let Me Take You There' and offered a flurry of follow-ups including 'I'm on My Way', 'Catch Me', 'Thing Goin' On' and 'Hangover'. With its bold visual identity referencing Tigra cigarette packaging and a dedication to her late father, the album hinted at more introspective themes beneath the tongue-in-cheek flair. Critics noted its playful absurdity and inventive rhyming, while Madonna later lamented its lack of recognition, calling it "horribly ignored". Sad to say, this would be Boo's last album before stepping away from music some years.
Review: After a standout Coachella headliner alongside Queen's Brian May, Benson Boone returns with his sophomore LP American Heart, hearing the Seattle singer-songwriter break another brick after after his debut Fireworks & Rollerblades saw its lead single 'Beautiful Things' go triple platinum in 2024. Now early 2025 stands sanguine and poised, with American Heart further elevating his global onstage position: lead single 'Sorry I'm Here For Someone Else' spans an up-and-down A-ha style instrumental and a West Side Story street elegy in the lyrics, where Boone muses on a two-minded relationship bind: a sticky situ of historic proportions.
Review: A live concert recording of the penultimate date on Kate Bush's first and only ever tour: The Tour of Life. As part of this run, Bush performed three nights on the trot at the Hammersmith Odeon in West London and the middle date was broadcast, thus immortalising one of the most innovative shows of that era or any era since. Hot off the heels of the release of her debut album The Kick Inside and the follow up Lionheart - both released in 1978 - the setlist draws heavily from said albums and she turned the songs from those albums into a visual spectacle. The full-blown theatrical appearance came at a time when Bush was the most photographed woman in Britain and had a megahit in the shape of her debut single 'Wuthering Heights' and soAit's a truly defining era that's on record. Kate Bush's mystique and a goddess-like aura may have been nurtured through her emphasis on visual art and theatre but delving into the music alone and drawing your own pictures to go with it, aided by her mesmerizing voice, is equally enthralling.
Makin' It Last All Night (What It Do) (feat Jermaine Dupri) (3:49)
We Belong Together (feat Jadakiss & Styles P - remix) (4:20)
Secret Love (3:07)
Sprung (3:24)
We Belong Together (Mimi Late Night Valentine's mix) (3:14)
Review: Mariah Carey's tenth studio album stages a triumphant reclamation, not just of her voice but her autonomyicreatively, emotionally, and professionally. Rooted in Atlanta's crunk renaissance and steeped in New York r&b melodrama, it cuts through the excess of early-2000s pop with a steely sense of control. 'It's Like That' sets the tone: sharp, percussive, almost defiant. But it's 'We Belong Together' that cements the comeback, all tightly-wound longing and near-whispered devastation, sounding like midnight heartbreak on Hot 97. Neptunes collaborations 'Say Somethin'' and 'To the Floor' stretch her sound into slicker, clubbier territory, but never lose grip. Even on the gospel closer 'Fly Like a Bird', she dials back the melisma, letting space and breath do the work. From the brushed-off dismissal of 'Shake It Off' to the midnight crawl of 'Mine Again', there's a considered minimalism throughoutirestraint not as limitation but as liberation. Freed from industry baggage and tabloid distortion, Carey reasserts herself with quiet mastery, sounding not just back but unbothered, undefeated and utterly in control.
Review: The third album by this Scottish 80s guitarpop band - famously produced by Walter Becker from Steely Dan - is one of the most beloved by fans of the band, not to mention being one of the slickest sounding albums of the 80s. The band did an amazing job blending styles like synth pop, new wave, lounge, jazz and even reggae on hits like 'King In A Catholic Style' and 'Blue Sea', although some of the most enjoyable cuts are the deeper ones like 'You Did Cut Me' and 'Bigger The Punch I'm Feeling'. This 40th anniversary reissue - arriving not long after the band were invited to reach a new, younger audience through supporting Vampire Weekend in the Uk last year - honours this fabulous recording to the fullest.
Review: Formed in Kirby in Liverpool in 1979, China Crisis are a band with some of the most devoted fans, with even long time admirers Vampire Weekend taking them on the road for support spots as late as last year. This album brings together a reworked selection of their greatest hits and fan-favourite deep cuts, and the the tracklist reads like a love letter to the band's legacy. 'Animals In Jungles' is a cult favourite from one of their most cherished albums, 1983's wonderfully titled Working with Fire and Steel - Possible Pop Songs Volume Two. 'Wishful Thinking' i a top ten UK hit no less i remains an enduring classic too. Other highlights include the atmospheric 'Arizona Sky' and the smooth, heartfelt ballad 'You Did Cut Me', a gem from their 1985 catalogue. 'Black Man Ray' and 'King In A Catholic Style' show the band's ability to balance pop sensibilities with lyrical depth. Arranged by Jack Hymers and mixed by Grammy-winning engineer Mark Phythian, the reworking of these tracks breathes new life into familiar songs with lush arrangements and warm production.
Review: Cicciolina. Now there's a character. Disco-pop singer, porn star, politician, and ex-wife/muse of legendary shiny balloon artist Jeff Koons i it's fair to say the Italo-Hungarian icon has worn a few hats over the years. Perversion features a selection of reissued tracks from her 80s heyday, including the magnificently titled 'Sexy Porno Shop', which in itself renders the record worthy of consideration. If you hadn't already guessed from the preamble, the music is kitsch, to say the least, with bubblegum vocals, earworm synth lines and generally pulsing tempos. But there are hidden gems: the (ahem) innocent vocals and twinkling melodies of 'Goccioline', the rousing congas and inspired 'no drugs, I love sex, much more sex' vocal of 'No Drugs', and the brilliant cover of the Rolling Stones' 'Satisfaction'. Echoing far, far simpler times, it's either politically incorrect nostalgia or pioneering, sexually liberated abandon. Either way, it's bags of fun.
We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you've provided to them or that they've collected from your use of their services.