Mandy, Indiana: Urgh review – grimy, thrashing, purgative attack on injustice is the year’s first great album

The Manchester/Berlin band’s second album refines their industrial-club sound, as physical and hyper-detailed as being dragged under by a wave and admiring the flotsam

Yumi Zouma: No Love Lost to Kindness review – New Zealand dream-poppers’ reinvention doesn’t go far enough

The quartet edge away from their trademark sound with louder guitars and bolder intentions – but their reinvention is more gradual than radical

‘Some artists thought it was too political’: can Jarvis, Damon, Olivia Rodrigo and Arctic Monkeys reboot the biggest charity album of the 90s?

Oasis, Macca and Radiohead made Help a smash for War Child in 1995. A new reboot packs comparable star power – and was partially produced from a hospital bed

Olivia Dean and Lola Young lead 2026 Brit award nominations

Singer-songwriters each receive five nominations at British music industry’s flagship awards – where Jarvis Cocker will return 30 years after Michael Jackson incident

Between the bars: theatrical gig about life after prison reveals hard truths of homecoming

A Giant on the Bridge, performed by a ‘Scottish indie folk supergroup’, draws on dozens of interviews about the confines former prisoners experience on the outside

Sleaford Mods: The Demise of Planet X review – vulnerability and versatility widen potty-mouthed appeal

The duo’s 13th album finds Jason Williamson as baffled and infuriated as ever at the state of the world, with help from some unexpected collaborators

The Cribs: Selling a Vibe review – songs of lost innocence and bitter experience strike a perfect, punchy balance

The Jarman brothers’ ninth album adds a little 80s pop sheen to their distorted guitars and confident songwriting, while always sounding exactly like the indie stalwarts

Songs about new beginnings – ranked!

From CMAT and the Carpenters’ fresh starts to the Beatles’ Here Comes the Sun and Nina Simone’s Feeling Good, starting again is a rich theme in pop. Here are some of the best examples

Dry Cleaning: Secret Love review – the south London band double down on their haunting, peculiar brilliance

The standout act in the sprechgesang wave, the four-piece’s newly expansive sound carries singer Florence Shaw’s distinctive tales of mundane lives spiralling out of control

‘Being annoying is worse than being evil’: the high-octane, low-culture genius of indie duo Getdown Services

Scatological lyrics, social conscience and a shoutout from Walton Goggins – 2026 is going to be the laptop garage band’s year

Lily Allen’s live return, Charli xcx’s Wuthering Heights and Simon Rattle’s Janáček: music to listen out for in 2026

Raye, Deftones and Yungblud do UK tours, Jill Scott returns for more neo-soul, and classical world gears up to celebrate György Kurtág at 100

‘Seeing all the work that goes into DIY scenes changed my life’: the bitterly optimistic indie-rock of Prewn

Like her forebears Fiona Apple and Giant Drag, Izzy Hagerup puts a distinctly twisty take on indie-rock, and is unafraid of dark emotional truths

The best songs of 2025 … you may not have heard

From a folk murder ballad to an impassioned call for peace, Guardian writers pick their favourite lesser-heard tracks of the year

‘We bonded over losing very good friends in our mid-20s’: the candid, shoegazey dream-pop of Snuggle

Heartbreak and humour combine in the Danish duo’s appealing blend of balladry, shoegaze and miminalist pop

Paranoia, pop-dubstep and perfectly odd gems: the best old music we discovered this year

Strange folk, lost pop, disco oddities and, um, Dido – here are the forgotten tracks that became this year’s most replayed revelations