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Hello Sadness (2011), No Blues (2013), Sick Scenes (2017), Los Campesinos! 

After the band’s blistering first three, one could forgive Los Campesinos! for coasting a little. The tunes on both Hello Sadness and Sick Scenes were flatter, the themes of love and sex and mess a little predictable. But that isn’t to say the band coasted through the entirety of the 2010s, oh no. In fact, the Campesinos release between those two, No Blues, is to-date one of the project’s best records, bold in hooks and general forthrightness, innovative and fresh in its themes and instrumentation and general Arcade Firey-ness.

Pick(s): ‘Every Defeat a Divorce (Three Lions)’, ‘What Death Leaves Behind’, ‘Got Stendhal’s’

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Deftones, Deftones (2003)

At the time and in the years since, Deftones’ self-titled 2003 record has been largely dismissed for its lack of ambition and dynamism, for being a decisive step back from the experiments of White Pony and Around the Fur. Which is all fair criticism, but Deftones isn’t all bad. ‘Minerva’, ‘Hexagram’ and ‘Deathblow’ remain among the band’s more solid tunes and, in hindsight, the release laid down much of the shoegazing groundwork that Deftones has more thoroughly explored in the years since. 

Pick: ‘Minerva’

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Big Hard Tennis, Lil Soft Tennis (2024)

Despite barely having ten minutes (but just more, I suppose) and utilising the tinniest sort of production, Lil Soft Tennis audibly crams huge amounts of energy and invention into Big Hard Tennis. 

Pick: ‘Won’t be long’

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Cowards, Squid (2025)

I like to think that the Windmill Scene’s finest bands weren’t just tied to place and time and style but also to a particularly explorative sort of mentality. And Squid, like Geordie Greep and PVA and HMLTD, continue to do the scene proud on Cowards – not the band’s best, but an admirable exhibition of new directions. 

Pick: ‘Crispy Skin’

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Hideout (2017), Parcels (2018), Day/Night (2021), Parcels

Just when the Jungle wave had passed, crashing over the 2010s in a wash of blinding synths, chirpy basslines and falsetto croons, along came Parcels with a similar but much, much better thing. Parcels were – perhaps still are – more substantial, the hooks bigger but less chintzy, the tracks constantly shifting, better structured and generally bolder. In the group’s early years few did nu-disco better, tighter, as slick or irresistible, swaggering with indietronic flashes and shimmering electronics. EP Hideout is a more succinct packaging of this than full-length debut Parcels, latter work Day / Night then even less trim but a far grander and more cinematic artistic statement, a dazed and really rather beautiful comedown from nu-disco debauchery. 

Pick(s): ‘Gamesofluck’, ‘Lightenup’, ‘LordHenry’

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Young Liars (2003), Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes (2004), Return to Cookie Mountain (2006), Dear Science (2008), TV on the Radio

Noughties TV on the Radio, peak era TV on the Radio. Emerging from the grot of post-9/11 New York with sputtering high hats, crunching lows, great and weighty noise and soaring, soulful vocals, more than anything Dave Sitek and Tunde Adebimpe pitched with a real sense of adventure. What if one really could embrace all manner of sounds and influences, funnelling it into a sound beyond it all?

As impressive is the lack of pace drop between these four releases. Young Liars and Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes arrived with the energy of a band doing something new; Cookie Mountain added loops and more overt electronics, a cast of admirable extras proving TVOTR’s rep; Dear Science crisped things up but also amped the scale and drama, perhaps to-date the project’s best. There are few better runs in rock music this side of the millennium. 

Pick(s): ‘Staring at the Sun’, ‘Dreams’, ‘I Was a Lover’, ‘DLZ’

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Louder, Please (2025), Rose Gray 

Rose Gray’s Louder, Please delivers fairly standard dance-pop for this era, of near-exact ilk to Dua Lipa, Confidence Man and that lot. Similar in style and energy levels, true, but also in (in)consistency and airheadedness. 

Pick: ‘Free’

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Paradise EP, ANOHNI (2017)

ANOHNI’s follow up EP to Hopelessness listens, as one might expect, as a series of leftovers unfitting for the original record. On close listen, indeed the tunes of Paradise wouldn’t have worked on Hopelessness; not only do they forsake the planet and geopolitics for a more personal angle but the songs aren’t as well-written, as impactful or resonant. 

Pick: ‘Paradise’

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Hurry Up Tomorrow (2025), The Weeknd

Hurry Up Tomorrow wraps up one of this century’s greatest pop eras (so far), an achievement that belongs just as much to Max Martin and Daniel Lopatin as it does Abel Tesfaye. Alas, the Weeknd doesn’t quite bow out in as much style; Tomorrow is the weakest of the three, mostly bloated, meandering and with Tesfaye medically reliant on glossy production and starry guests. True moments of elation ‘Wake Me Up’, ‘Open Hearts’ and ‘Take Me Back to LA’  mean it isn’t all a waste. 

Pick: ‘Open Hearts’

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God’s Trashmen Sent to Right the Mess (2021), Flaming Swords (2022), Rong Weicknes (2024), Fievel Is Glauque

From the off Fievel Is Glauque were Slapp Happy-esque, and in the years since the project has only become Slapp Happier. Arty, wistful and pretty jazz pop prone to ditties and twee meanderings, in higher fidelity (since Flaming Swords) the sense of Rock in Opposition has boldened. Occasionally the group forgets to have a pinpoint or focus, though that’s all part of the whimsy. 

 from a lack of consistent focus. 

Pick(s): ‘Decoy’, ‘Days of Pleasure’, ‘As Above So Below’

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White Pony, Deftones (2000)

Deftones’ White Pony gets a lot of praise for its variety, for how the band absorbed influence and channelled it into their own vast, broad definition of metal. But I’m most impressed by the band’s panache, and it’s that flair, the confidence with which Deftones attempted genre-redefinition, that marks White Pony out. 

Pick: ‘Change (In the House of Flies)’

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Burritos, Inspiration Point, Fork Balloon Sports, Cards in the Spokes, Automatic Biographies, Kites, Kung Fu, Trophies, Banana Peels We’ve Slipped On and Egg Shells We’ve Tippy Toed Over (1995), Analphabetapolothology (1998), Cap’n Jazz 

Cascading waves of feeling. That’s what emo was supposed to be about. Throwing it all out instrumentally, vocally, lyrically, in the hope that listeners feel your outbursts, maybe even relate to them. Cap’n Jazz often get held up as the genre’s prime by true emo-heads – and they deserve it, but there’s more to this band than Tim Kinsella’s power and sincerity. If Burritos, etc is emo credo, Analphabetapolothology persuades of the band’s technical majesty. 

Pick(s): ‘Messy Life’, ‘Take On Me’

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Showbiz!, MIKE (2025)

How could one ever bore of MIKE? Each release he somehow pushes beyond the last, finding new ways to lyrically engage, to instrumentally explore; this time, he melds his classic muffled beats of chirpy, slinky soul with old-school IDM among much more, all while tentatively but profoundly pricking the brains of what it means to be human. 

Pick: ‘Da Roc’

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Who Let the Dogs Out, Lambrini Girls (2025)

Lambrini Girls are in their element at a festival, with fans who’re already aligned with their beliefs, who don’t care so much about preaching or bluntness, and who aren’t so concerned with specifics or the real world. It’s in fields (and clubs) that I’ve loved the band most, getting into the mood, swept up in the energy and ethos. But Who Let the Dogs Out doesn’t capture that euphoria; muffled and flat, it sounds like it was recorded in the room next door.

Pick: ‘Company Culture’

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Soleil (1970), La question (1971), If You Listen (1972), Et si je m'en vais avant toi (1972), Message personnel (1973), Françoise Hardy

Why split my listening of Françoise Hardy into two decades? For no reason perhaps, other than pure digestibility. Her music in both decades follows a similar pattern, records not always essential in their entirety but nearly always containing a notable song or two. The full-length highlight, as is rightly well-documented, is La question, in which Hardy gorges on the bossa of Brazilian guitarist, songwriter and singer Tuca and fashions it into a soft, swooning, intricate and undeniably Hardy record with slow-burning might.

Pick(s): ‘Le crabe’, ‘Mer’, ‘Brûlure’, ‘Pardon’, ‘L'amour en privé’

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Goyard Ibn Said, Ghais Guevara (2025)

Ghais Guevara’s label debut doubles down on the slick, politically diluted rap of Goyard Comin’: Exordium, and once again seems a little lost, a little decentred. Guevara is unfocused and inconsistent, though there is brilliance. Beyond the throwaway bars and ruinous skits/spoken word are several tracks of real, bold, reverberant might, full of insight and impact.

Pick: ‘You Can Skip This Part’

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Eusexua, FKA Twigs (2025)

FKA Twigs pivots from ethereal atmo-pop to mechanical dance-pop, and the sounds are certainly big, bold and vibey – as before, however, the issue isn’t with the textures and beats so much as the songwriting. Again, Twigs’ hooks, lyrics, structures come up short.

Pick: ‘Eusexua’