January/February
As you might have read in the 2025 Tunes article, the painful way writing it turned out made me consider changing tack for 2026. I was initially going to do a monthly thing, and it may well be that from March on, we shall see. For now, you’ll have the first two months at once.
I was originally planning to write on February 1st, or shortly before, or after, but I didn’t feel quite ready, so the 28th will do. In the style of the end of year things, I will first write this as a kind of reflection on a fairly tough couple of months. To be fair, there wasn’t much music to enjoy, and it was not all down to mood, it’s just because no new release really excited, and so once more, the more ‘enjoyable’ stuff was mostly electronic, or old, and wasn’t even that enjoyable possibly. Just now, I am starting to look back a bit at the past two months and, maybe it’s still too early to have the required distance, I’m still recovering from that tough start, but I have flashes of feeling like myself, a little more lucid again. [I think this progressed also as I wrote on, I felt like, yeah, it was fine and I didn’t really need to refer to notes, I have added/edited later if I felt there was something I wanted to express and that was missing, but that was extremely minimal in the end]
Anyway, if I were to summarise, I’d say January was depressing and depressed, while February was just mostly shit. Though I think it’s being tough on February, it improved a bit more than that at times.
[The Ramblings]
January though, I started very down as I did finish the last few days of 2025. So I dropped any idea that I’d restart on making music straight away, tried to work on slowly going out of depression again. There were times I felt I wasn’t part of this planet, also I remember a particularly bad nightmare involving war and torture. I tried to set myself some kind of timed targets (this is not about running, just about doing things/progress by a certain date) on a path to a better feeling, but it was a struggle. Things seem to possibly improve a bit gradually (I was glad there was no gig planned in the early weeks), but, while doing dry January, the defeat against Man U while watching the match just next to the away fans was a painful experience, I didn’t even go back to the pub after the match, and fell back into a very bad week to finish the month. To top it all (though maybe in the end it helped refocus), I fell ill on the Tuesday late at night (after a run in terrible weather in particular), puked all of Wednesday morning (and a bit on Thursday) and so was floored for a couple of days more or less, leading me to miss out on the only two gigs that I had planned for January (I wasn’t in the mood to write reports though, and both were kind of late additions, not ‘must go’, so perhaps it wasn’t such a bad thing). Erase and reset (nearly a Cardigans song there). To give you a gory detail, on that Wednesday morning I ended up puking in the sink in the loo to avoid shitting myself. And no amount of product seemed to unblock the sink, so I had to let this fester for a bit while laid low before thinking of a solution. And so the last but one morning of the month, as I was starting to feel better and get a grip, I managed to pull the trick by using a long bread knife, while wearing a FFP2 mask leftover from Covid days. Honestly, over 48h of brewing this shit, it was literally getting toxic and dangerous and took a few more days (even with spraying air freshener about) to completely get rid of the odour (conclusion: better shit yourself while puking that vomit in the sink, short term is unpleasant but longer term is healthier). All very unpleasant, but that Saturday felt like a possible turning point, with some other weird but pleasant thing happening (that probably led to nothing but helped me focus differently and better).
The music? As I said, not much, and since I’m grouping both months, I’ll finish writing about February before sharing some music.
The first week of February promised to be very busy, with three gigs (including one in London, I decided I wouldn’t add a second), a Comedy show and a football match to attend. I wasn’t entirely sure I’d be able to do it all well, so considered extending Dry January to Februadry after the travails of that first month. In the end, I compromised and decided to just be reasonable and pick my battles, so waited until the second gig on the Thursday to have a pint (just one that night). I have to say that, managing the recovery from the illness and the depression was handled OK. I had limited energy, but all those gigs, very different, were good, one on my own, all the other stuff with different company each time (including, once more, a magical meeting of someone not seen in ages (see the Mew gig review)), and so, especially with a brilliant time in London again, that helped me. There were a few difficult days after, and all was not linear, but that was a good reminder that good times could still be had going forward. I forgot to mention the work situation above, but yeah, work was another major factor in feeding depression. Thankfully, during the course of this month of February, there were a few good signs that I wasn’t done, and there were some activities happening and coming back. I didn’t go out that much during the rest of the month for various reasons, but I could feel that while I was still feeling shit a lot and not always so happy, it wasn’t ‘depression’ anymore. Not sure I can explain, but it’s something you can feel, it’s different. I got really fed up with all that rain though, but longer days might have helped at times, and here I am on the last day of February, when the weather has been a little better. I even managed to vaguely start recording the idea of a new song, from simple not very original chords, but putting a bass line and extra guitar on it. We’ll see what shape it takes, when I manage to get back to it more seriously. Hell, I even bought some effects pedals in the January sales. The last eight days of the month have just seen two more excellent gigs with again different company, so that’s been good. Fairly importantly to me too, while my left knee has been bugging me since the start of December and there seemed to be very little improvement, the last week or two seemed to have shown proper progress, leading me to hope, once more, that I could play football again soon-ish. I certainly can sprint again without much pain at all, and the following days seem to be recovering better now (so I can more or less negotiate stairs). All of this gives me hope that, maybe, March and the upcoming Spring will bring some joy and happiness again. Hell, perhaps Arsenal will once more follow my mood again and bring trophies home. Hope springs eternal. Is that what kills you? Or the reason to fight on and survive (ignoring the way the world at large seems to still be going to pot, with no sign of the fall into the abyss slowing down, really).
Anyway, yes, music.
[End of the ramblings, start of The Music]
As usual I started with just a few leftovers (maybe less than usual, I truly am getting more selective) from 2025. Nothing truly remarkable though, but if you want a couple of decent tracks (none that would have made my Ultimate list), I’ll give them to you.
I realise that doing a monthly or bi-monthly post means the quality threshold will probably be lower, so maybe at the end of the year, I will still have to come up with a list of the truly essential tracks, it may be ten, it may be twenty, who knows yet? Anyway, yeah, given the nature of these first two months, there won’t be much emotional association either, just doing some relistens today I am enjoying music a little more though (one track I won’t include though as it was there last year is better joy’s Steamroller, definitely a top tune, one of those that makes me feel alive, unfortunately, no gig in Paris, and I’ve just found out they are playing in London on a night I have another gig there, oh well I hope they come here later in the year – but I digress even further). So yeah, lower quality, less emotional content, might be more akin to the music reviews I was doing by e-mail/on the old site to some extent.
Let’s start with something from a decent album from the end of 2025, The Hellp’s Riviera, indie with a little electronic twinge among the guitars. The song is called Country Road. There were a couple of other half-decent or even decent songs there, like Meridian and Here I Am.
A little bit of shoegaze now, again something that wouldn’t have troubled any top of 2025 lists, and can be occasionally a bit too boring or up itself like most shoegaze, the Subtext EP from Lemondaze. Most of it if very listenable, and in fact pleasant, but perhaps the best track here is Gravemind. It’s the kind of music I could occasionally listen to in a haze at the confusing/down start of this year. I listened to not a lot of music, it had very little effect, meant practically nothing, so in a way it worked, and now I can listen to it again and appreciate it a little more. C=Bain from that EP is pretty good too.
Is the start of the year always a little more electronic for me? Not sure. But still on the leftovers from 2025, Sofia Kourtesis (can’t remember if I posted something from her a year or two ago, or maybe even three, the past year was so odd, but I remember she had some decent music out then already) released the Volver EP, that has a couple of excellent tracks to my taste. Corazon is the one I will put here, but Canela Pura is pretty good too.
After all this, Doves’ Lean Into The Wind may sound too ‘classic’, but it’s a pretty good one-off single released on the occasion of a new Best Of from them last year, and as it was pointed out to me and others by Benoît, I listened and thought I quite liked it. It might have even made some emotional sense if didn’t have such a dismal January. It’s a very good tune, to be honest, that could be tempting for a best of at the end of the year. 2026, but 2025. So I don’t know.
The last catch-up album from 2025, selected a little randomly, as it appeared in maybe one best of list at the end of the year, and I remembered the previous album had some very good reviews, was yeule’s Evangelic Girl is a Gun. It’s uneven but there are some pretty good songs in it (mostly the ones that are titled after names, oddly): Eko, Dudo and Saiko, but on relisten, they don’t really get me, oddly, as initially I thought this was a good album, but then I guess I was all over the place. The title track is good too, maybe it’s the one worth posting.
And before we move on to actual 2026 music, one last one, not from 2025, but all the way back from 2020. While I wasn’t entirely convinced by Kelly Lee Owens’ latest EP, and so her last album to date may be the only release of hers I truly like, her 2020 album, Inner Song, was available for a decent price, so I tried it. It’s a mixed bag, doesn’t hit the euphoric highs of Dreamstate from 2024, but again, has a couple of decent tracks. And this one particularly hit home when I was feeling so shit, it sounded like the kind of gentle wake-up call I needed. Because I need gentle when I feel shit. So here is, quite naturally, ‘Wake-Up’. Other lovely tunes include On (would be worth the list too on musicality, beautiful, the first half of it anyway…), Jeanette (a longer one that holds over the duration) and to a lesser extent, L.I.N.E.
And now we can really move on to 2026, though still in January. The first noticeable (rather than notable) album for me was Sleaford Mods’ The Demise of Planet X. But is there really anything new about Sleaford Mods these days, rather than the tried and tested formula? Turns out there kind of is. I still passed on the gig, but while I tried to convince myself that the previous album offered more modernity and richer sounds, I think this one truly is it in terms of sound evolution. It’s probably their most ‘listenable’ album. Unfortunately, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s enough to get me back about caring about their sounds when the voice is the same. So the message is what it is, all right, and very pertinent, but the only track I felt I liked was…Gina Was. It has a decent (bass) sound, is nearly melodic, you feel Jason could nearly be tempted to actually sing.
I haven’t even really filtered out anything so far, that’s the danger of these intermediate lists, but maybe I will next. Whitelands’ new album. People say it’s great, shoegaze, etc., though maybe a bit of sunny shoegaze at times. I was slightly on the fence with their first album, but this one leaves me completely cold. It’s not unpleasant, but for some reason, while I can understand the appeal, I absolutely cannot connect with it. It’s only 33 minutes long, yet it bores me pretty much from start to end. There are a couple of tracks that might rescue it, but just about. Not enough for inclusion, though maybe it’s because I’m getting tired, Sleaford Mods didn’t necessarily warrant a YT either….
Softcult? It is a little more varied with a few ‘harder’ tracks and therefore more interesting than Whitelands (16/25 might be worth your ears but doesn’t quite clear the bar), but overall, not really remarkable or enjoyable (it’s just an odd mix of styles, as it starts with a few shoegazy numbers, then we have a few angry ones that are probably the better bit of the album, before it reverts to boring shoegaze, only interrupted by a short 1 min-ish angry burst). Sure I am more selective with my buys these days, but I still sometimes go on a limb and get things wrong. So no dice, no youtube for this lot from me.
No, the first properly ‘good’ album from 2026 was again mostly off the normal rock or indie path, some more electronic stuff from Craven Faults. I first heard of this artist through his remix of The Cure last year, not the best remix, but intriguing all the same. And the atmospheric instrumentals that constitute the album, Sidings, are mostly very good. The opener, Ganger, is the choice cut. Be prepared, as it is over 16 minutes long… Note also that the second track there, Stoneyman, has something of a more synthetic Carnage Visors vibe to it, so you can definitely sense a Cure filiation. The rather good closer, Far Closes, ends proceedings in a similar vein.
And that’s about it for January.
February wasn’t that much better in terms of new releases, but as it started with a few gigs, the opportunity was there to revisit some old favourites, and a new artist. I’ll take these in the order of the gigs. I didn’t listen to very much music either, even these, but it’s nice that gigs get you back to some music you love.
And so, first of all, Kelly Moran. I posted from the 2024 album in 2025, and here I am, in 2026, posting from the 2025 album. But apart from one or two new numbers, that’s what she played, and so I got to appreciate that while Sodalis (II) was still probably superior, the Sans Sodalis version more than holds its own and sounded very excellent live.
That evening was also the chance to discover another artist, Rosa Anschütz, who opened the proceedings. I found her interesting and so got her latest album, Sabbatical, also from 2025 (so far, I have posted far far more tunes from 2025 than 2026, whatever that says about the music released so far this year, or my approach, though this is one is really circumstancial). It really is a very good, fairly hypnotic album, packed with splendid songs. Here’s the truly excellent Plaster Copy for your ears, one of the very best songs I have heard so far this year, but there’s plenty more where it comes from, Fire Lily, Not A Myth, Watch Me Disappear,… an excellent find.
Next gig: Mew. Lots of stuff, obviously Frengers is one of the best albums ever released by anyone, so I could pick any of the usual Comforting Sounds (but I posted it a few years ago), Snow Brigade or the ever fabulous 156, but while I will still pick something from that album, She Spider, for some reason, while not the song that struck me most on the day, followed me around in my head for a while. It is, quite obviously, still an amazing song. A mention too for I Should Have Been a Tsin-Tsi for You, which I didn’t know for some reason but was their first ever single (though never released beyond promo), that elicited mental reaction from a girl or two behind me.
And the last gig-related one, with A.A. Williams. But this time, yes, something from 2026. She did release a single already in 2025, Just A Shadow, that I had liked a lot but didn’t get then, thinking I’d wait for a future album, but this new single is even better I think and certainly made a great impression live. So saving myself from posting the magnificent Pristine or Evaporate (but you can check them again or any of the powerful live versions floating about), here’s Wolves, from hopefully a new album coming up this year, that would likely be one of the excellent albums of the year.
And now we’re reaching the new stuff from February, scarce as it was. Although to be fair, it may be partly because I’m keeping a release or two from 27/2 for the next edition as obviously it is a little short to actually include any of these in this month’s write-up.
A new Howling Bells album? I thought that could be exciting but no. It’s OK but pretty standard, nothing bad, but nothing to really get me going and no real stand-out track either.
A little discovery on the other hand was Ninush and her EP, The Flowers I See You In. Mostly gentle folk stuff with some classical instrumentation (harpsichord anyone?). Pretty much everything is very nice here, but the top track has to be I Don’t Mind (well I hesitate with Lady In Waiting, but very few things above have a video, so maybe it’s nice to post something with an actual video clip this time!).
After two months, you can say there’s really been a dearth of excellent new tracks or albums.
However, a new artist with a debut album that I quite liked on first listen, released in February, was Ellur and with At Home In My Mind. Not sure it’s enough or reaches an incredible level, but it’s quite enjoyable and has a little something. Again, it’s pleasant, but I’m not convinced it will stay with me for anything. In fact as I listen again, now I remember who that reminds me of: Sam Fender. So yeah, heard it before, some of it, and I’m unlikely to not get bored with it, we’ll see. I’m pretty sure it won’t make any ‘ultimate tracks 2026’ list of mine, or we might have to call it quits, but you can have the opening track to make your own opinion. In fact, as I go further through the album, I think it’s just one of those that caught me at a good moment and I might have initially overrated. A bit like the new Boo Radleys a few years ago, although here I was not even in as good a moment, nowhere near, but maybe just ‘up’. Anyway, here is God Help Me Now.
And so to the actual last new album I listened to in February, IST IST’s new offering, DAGGER. And now, that one I really like, my first ‘very good proper album’ of 2026. Plenty of excellent tunes there. Sure, I feel that it is slightly hindered by the singer’s rather non-variable voice, that, on some songs, or maybe on being there all the time, stops some of the tunes to reach a further level. But he’s part of the sound, so what can you say? Have the opener I am The Fear to get you going, it’s a stomping tune. Lots of New Orderish/Joy Division there, they can really never deny their inspirations. I mean, take the second song, the equally excellent Makes No Difference (seriously, I could have picked any of several songs for you to listen to, it is by far the best thing so far this year, for my tastes), it basically has the Hooky bass sound. I Remember Everything (heh, they even aped the title of a Joy Division song there (I Remember Nothing) is another excellent one too, but quite frankly, I am at track 7 now, and while some songs are better than others, there is not one so far that I don’t like or even close. Even the voice doesn’t grate after all (and on this latter song it is even better), so this is an example unlike above where second listen is even better than first (I am fine today, and so the initial impression is not always JUST down to mood –just being more stable and knowing what I really like/feel makes a difference). This is definitely the first very probable candidate for a best of list at the end of the year.
Actually, I forgot because it was a bandcamp only download, but The Others’ new album, When In Doubt, was the actual last one for the month. They re-formed some time ago, though obviously for me it will always be about those first two albums, but there’s some decent tracks on all of the (three) new ones, and this one has some, with added brass and stuff. The opening track is quite good, and even if the last third of the album is a bit poor, it’s a decent release overall. So here’s something that does a great job in the middle of the album: Met You In A Bar.
One last one for the road, back to gigs. No, not Nurse Depression from Coach Party. It could qualify and has the merit of being an actual 2026 release, but while it works very well live, I’m not sure I’d want to listen to it that much on record. So instead, from the gig just before, one of the early singles from Nightbus that I had missed at the time. Average Boy could do, but you can have Mirrors from 2023 instead, and understand exactly the Joy Divison comparisons and Shadowplay influence there, it’s not even hidden.
See you in a month. Or two.