The Horrors - Night Life (2025)

Starting with the dark, ethereal and pulsing Ariel (see the video below), Night Life is another great addition to The Horrors' discography. Beautiful and emotive soundscapes with dark and brooding beats, gothic rock and brooding atmospheres fill the album. Twenty years on, The Horrors continues to produce excellent music. 

Twin Tribes - Pendulum (2024)

The third Twin Tribes album continues their excellent streak of releases. This album combines all the elements that make them such a special band. The darkwave, post-punk and gothic rock influences are all there, perfectly meshed together. A perfect album for fans for The Cure, Depeche Mode and Apoptygma Berzerk. 

The Birthday Massacre - Superstition (2014)

Another excellent album from this always consistent band. This album has more growls and more of an edge than their previous outing and it’s awesome to have them back.

The Exploding Boy - Four (2013)

Originating from Sweden The Exploding Boy plays a mix goth pop, new wave and post punk that sounds straight from the 1980s but Four is not pure nostalgia, it actually presents a great collection of tracks. 

It's actually hard to pick highlights as the every song is memorable in its way. The album opener Cracked/Reasons is an excellent  post punk song that has nothing to envy to the greatest tracks and is followed by another assured effort entitled Street Cliche with a more synth oriented sound. From then on the album is quite diverse from The Cure-esque moments to a touch of Killing Joke here and there and a little dose of The Chameleons (one of my favourite all time bands).  

Other highlights include, the catchy and up tempo Dark City (Pt. II), the more straight forward and rockier Shadows, the synth heavy post punk Always and the utterly beautiful Get It Out.  

Overall, Four is a great album that sounds like it was made in the early 1980s and what a joy it is to listen to it now!

Rating: Heavy Rotation