Still playing catch up with reviews of my favourite albums from 2026 so far, having had an extended absence from the blog and social media in general, and I know The Twilight Sad album was officially a March release…
Broken Chanter – This Could Be Us, You, Or Anybody Else
David McGregor’s latest masterpiece, This Could Be Us, You, Or Anybody Else is a protest album for the 21st Century, perfectly capturing a moment in time that highlights just how dystopian the days we are living in are with his astute observations of what it means to live on this spinning sphere where world leaders seem intent on hitting the self-destruct button and steering us on a crash course to oblivion. In delivering a scathing political commentary and explications on what is wrong with society he looks to the past, on (wsayo) he has created his own take on the often covered 1931 protest song Which Side Are You On? written by political activist Florence Reece, demonstrating just how divided our society has become. He also borrows from further musical genres of the past.
In listening to this album, I was drawn to make comparisons to two books I’ve recently read, When the Clyde Ran Red by Maggie Craig, a socialist history of Glasgow and the Clyde, and Hungry Beat (Douglas MacIntyre/Grant McPhee and Neil Cooper) a history of Scottish underground Music 1977 – 1984. The former, due to the social conscience at the core of these songs, his polemic delivered with a measured and passionate vitriol. The second book came to mind due to the post-punk nature of many of the songs on the album, it feels like they have a synergy with the bands on Fast Product back in the day, both due to the politics and to the angular, jagged sounds David has produced on this album resonating with the style of bands like Scars and Gang of Four, especially on songs like Atrocity/Adverts/Idiocy and punk/funk of To The Victims They Call Citizens.
This album is agit-pop at its finest, and despite the serious socio-political topics covered throughout these ten songs, there is nothing po-faced about the music. Each song is as deep and meaningful as the next, but this doesn’t mean they can’t be laden with hooks and memorable choruses. I know there are groups of people who are adamant that they want to keep politics out of music, an illogical argument in my mind, as everything is political and the album’s title pretty much sums it up, the themes David explores in these songs touch us all and we all have a responsibility to make the world a better, safer place for everyone. The way David deals with these lyrically is considered and sympathetic and musically is entertaining, while creating a deep connection and a resonance that inspires and motivates.
Many others may try to tackle these subjects, and miss the mark time and again, whereas David nails it every single time. right from the off with This Future is Bright And I Don’t Want It he deals with the insidious creep of the digital world into everything we do and the spectre of capitalism. Elsewhere he deals with toxic masculinity on single Shake it to Bits and the dulling of people’s moral compass and compassion on Atrocity/Advert/Idiocy as we scroll through social media. Ghosts of the Gaps has a melancholic sadness to it as the lyrics mourn the death of kindness and a “disappearing word” while Piazzale Loreto further explores the breakdown of society and the Machiavellian desire for power by some, the opening lines tackle some meaty topics “spiking your keys in your dominant hand as you nervously walk through the subway, taking your time to read the hateful signs held by the followers of Christ who say they love you” as the song goes on to list a series of scenarios that feed into societal malaise. Perhaps, from a personal perspective, as I feel as if I’ve had 2 years without summer, my favourite song on the album is single A Year without Summer, with entirely relatable lyrics that reveal the vulnerability of the human condition and deals with it with a compassionate empathy and with an assonance that is utterly uplifting.
This is an undeniably essential listen for the society we live in in 2026, where power hungry tyrants seek to get richer and more powerful, while the gaps in society widen and people live in poverty and fear. certainly one of the albums of the year.
Brontës – Brontës
There must be something about bands that start with the three letters “Bro” as Brontës self-titled debut will most certainly also be up there with my albums of the year alongside Broken Chanter. The album was officially released in April, but I was fortunate to manage to get my hands on one of the limited pre-release CDs mocked up like a Penguin Classic novel and as such the CD was a permanent feature in my car CD player (yes my car is that old) for a few months before the album dropped so the songs on the album already feel like welcoming warm hugs from well kent old friends. I’ve been a fan of the band since Ian at LNFG recommended their debut 7″ single to me on a visit to Big Blue. Since then it feels like fans of the bands music have been on a journey with the band as they tweaked and honed their sound to where they are now with their now settled line up, the quartet of Eva on vocals/guitar, Erin on guitar/vocals, Katie on bass/vocals and Amelia on drums/vocals. As an aside, I have to mention Amelia also plays as part of the mighty electronic duo Roller Disco Death Party who I highly recommend you go and see if you get the chance, it’s a bit of a mindfuck.
The result of all the band’s hard work is this delightfully bright and breezy eponymous debut album featuring ten blissed-out harmony heavy all killer no filler melodic indie-pop gems. The theme running through all the tracks focusses on the highs and lows, the peaks and troughs and the joys and pitfalls of relationships from a series of different perspectives. Kicking off with the first single to be released from the album, Cognitive Dissonance, drawing you in with it’s laidback groove with a solid backbeat and subtlety nuanced harmonies, you are drawn in and immediately succumb to the exquisite charm of the music. The four songs which open the album are the four singles that preceded it’s release, with Asking for a Friend following the albums opener with it’s low-key verses and elevated chorus, before the high energy romp of Wouldn’t Be Me, with it’s looking in from the outside advice on a one-sided relationship. My personal favourite of the four is the utterly alluring and heart-rending reflections of San Francisco, understated and mesmerisingly prepossessing, the song really captures the imagination and paints glorious pictures in my mind, with such emotion attached that it brings a lump to the throat.
This album isn’t just about these singles though, every song on the album is a hook laden ear-worm, with soaring melodies and beatific harmonies that could bring the sunshine to the most dismal of days, and highly infectious choruses that will stay with you bringing you a much needed dopamine boost just when you need it as the words and music swirl around in your head and you find yourself absent-mindedly humming to yourself or bursting into song. Mixed Signals bounces along with a insistent chorus and a tenacious beat, as Eva works through her confusion, while Thelma and Louise has a suitably dynamic driving rhythm giving you the feeling that you could drive off into the sunset and leave your troubles behind. Bad Manners has a countrified Americana feel to it, with a weightless melody that floats into the ether, before the assertiveness of I Think I Love You packed with handclaps and a cheekily brusque chorus.
The penultimate song Wake Up and It’s Gone has a similar feel to San Francisco in is reflective nature before the album closes in style with the sprightly toe-tapping beat of Jigsaw, with a refrain that looks back on a relationship that had its flaws, “we were never picture perfect” but sung with an assertive element of closure and freedom from the shackles as Eva’s vocals demonstrate a sense of spirited satisfaction, with the closing line bringing things to a suitable conclusion “…that’s all I’ve got to say.”
If you’ve not heard the album yet, I guarantee one spin won’t be enough, the infectious spirit and joyful energy of these songs will have you playing the songs time and again. Destined to be the sound of the summer.
Sports Frock – Hot Wash
The first thing that comes across about Hot Wash, the debut album from Glasgow 4-piece Sports Frock is that it is the sound a a band thoroughly enjoying themselves, and not being constrained by trying too hard to fit into one musical norm or genre or another, but instead just letting loose and having fun. I mean how many other bands have songs like The Curling that feels like a winter sport commentary put to music, with a weightless unburdened feel of just enjoying the small things in life, or maybe curling is an analogy for life?
The album opener, the bands debut single Pollen, has an altogether different feel, with an agitated urgent frisson, but no less playful lyrics, with distractions caused by Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw blended along the way with some astute and ardent lyrical assertions . And so the pattern of the album reveals itself, moving back and forwards between frenetic discordant energy on songs like Petty Little Grievances to laidback mischievous whimsy, or a blend of the two, like they demonstrate on the edgy intensity of Safari and there is also time to include some personal reflections of life, like on the understatedly affecting and emotionally impactful Pollenated.
The band have probably kept their best to last in the albums divinely inspired album closer, Big City Made Small, which feels a bit like Velvet Underground meets The Hold Steady, with some savvy observational lyrics painting pictures of a microcosm of life in a modern day city.
A delightfully enjoyable debut.
Twilight Sad – The Long Goodbye
Robert Smith favourites The Twilight Sad return with their sixth studio album, It’s The Long Goodbye, and it’s not enough for him just to be a champion for the band or a fan of their music, with him contributing this time around to three tracks on this remarkable album, Waiting for the Phone Call, Dead Flowers and Back to Fourteen. Before this album, The Twilight Sad were already known for their fervently passionate, emotionally wrought songs, but on this, the most personal of albums for frontman James Graham, these emotions are more highly charged with more ardent vehemence and tender sensitivity than ever before. In my humble opinion this is the album The Twilight Sad have always been destined to make, with Graham pulling on his experiences of dealing with the most tragic of circumstances after his mother’s dementia diagnosis and her subsequent death, juxtaposed with become a father while trying to remain strong despite his own mental health struggles. I can only imagine how difficult it must have been for James to write these songs, but at the same time I can empathise with how cathartic writing can be.
The singles preceding the album may have been a crucial indicator of what to expect but it is only when you hear the whole album that the true impact of these songs hits you. This is not an album to dip in and out of, you only hear the true significance and full emotional clout when you listen to the journey of James through these songs back to back in chronological order. I’m not embarrassed to say that his album has often moved me to tears, sometimes this is purely due to the nature of the lyrics, James vocal delivery and the sympathetic musical arrangement, but at other times, and I’m sure I’m not alone here, listeners will personally relate to what James is singing about. The series of songs display a wide range of emotions from incredulity, through sadness, guilt, anger and everything in between. The raw nature of the lyrics and vocal delivery is matched with Andy McFarlane’s formidable and profoundly powerful guitar playing.
I can’t possibly pick one song over another on this most exceptional of records, every song is an essential piece to the jigsaw, every word hits hard, every note is thoughtfully played matching the energy and raw emotion displayed through the lyrics making it an emotional rollercoaster of a journey. From the opening initial restrained lines on Get Away From It All “And we slowly watch you go, come back home..” through the intense burst of guitars and thumping rhythm section to the imploring chorus “Why you leaving me? Why you slowly leaving me?” and its close with the pleading lines “And I’m the son you know…You’re my mother,” the scene is set. You need to strap yourself in for what is to come as we walk hand in hand with James on his journey, through songs like Waiting for the Phone Call, “I’m sitting in the front seat, head in my hands, waiting for the phone call, telling me, are you gone?” and the questioning and explorations of his feelings on the likes of The Ceiling Underground. Perhaps two of the most affecting songs on the album are the reflections made in Chest Wound to the Chest and the penultimate song Back to Fourteen with its supplicating lyrics “Mother may I lay down and cry” paired with the beseeching “don’t take her away from me.” The journey ends with the heartbreaking TV People Still Throwing TVs at People, and I have tears in my eyes right now writing this, with the lyrics articulating the confused feelings “is it Ok to feel this way? I don’t want to feel this way” while accepting the inevitable ending, “don’t hesitate to leave me, it’s OK ‘cause I love you” before the songs builds to an potent cacophonous melee.
This is undeniably often a difficult listen but despite that, it has me coming back to it time and again, such is the arresting beauty of the music and the sensitive manner in which James deals with such personal and harrowing subject matter. Exceptional stuff.