New releases for 11 July 2025

The first of this week’s crackers comes from Barry Can’t Swim, whose rise has been nothing short of meteoric. Following the success of his debut album, When Will We Land?, Barry has continued to solidify himself as one of the most exciting names in electronic music today. His hotly anticipated second album, Loner, is the sound of the summer 2025: uplifting, joyous and addictive.

Is This What You’ve Been Waiting For? is the new album from Amy Macdonald, who has achieved huge international success while resolutely doing things her own way. World tours in front of 5 million people, over a billion streams, two #1 albums in the UK, six million album sales and the landmark hit ‘This Is The Life’, which topped the charts in ten countries and had a TikTok viral resurgence in 2023 with hundreds of thousands of creations bringing her to a new audience. She has cemented her reputation as a female Springsteen with cross-generational and international appeal.

Before they became Black Sabbath, the Birmingham quartet were known as Earth – a blues-driven powerhouse already making a name for themselves in the late ’60s. The Legendary Lost Tapes 1969 presents rare recordings from that era, remastered from long-lost tapes and acetates. Featuring previously unheard tracks, demos and alternative takes, the collection captures Earth’s evolution as they pushed toward the heavy metal sound that would soon change rock music forever.

Utopia, the first album that Gwenno has sung predominantly in English after three albums in Welsh and Cornish, presents a very different side to her life and songwriting. On the new album, she focuses on the now, capturing a time of self-determination and experimentation. The songs range from floor-fillers to piano ballads, with contributions from Cate Le Bon and H. Hawkline, and encompass William Blake, a favourite Edrica Huws poem and the Number 73 bus. Utopia is Gwenno’s finest work to date.

Poor Creature is Ruth Clinton, Cormac MacDiarmada and John Dermody, (members of Landless and Lankum, respectively), who have built a large following by re-interpreting songs from the past. But Poor Creature’s sound offers something unique: on All Smiles Tonight there’s the gauzy, underwater, almost psychedelic seams of ‘Bury Me Not’ and ‘Adieu Lovely Erin’, while ‘All Smiles Tonight’ and ‘Hicks’ Farewell’ nod to the influence of American folk/bluegrass acts like Doc Watson and the Louvin Brothers.

Our release of the week is moisturizer, the bold second album from Wet Leg. The band has spent the past few years on the road, evolving into a feral, electrifying live force, and this record captures that energy, delivering a sound that’s tighter, bolder and more self-assured, yet still brimming with the same quick wit and raw, unrefined energy. While their 2022 debut topped charts and earned Grammy wins, moisturizer brings the bite: brash guitars, heavy beats and a fearless devotion to feeling everything – all at once.

Wet Leg - moisturizerBarry Can’t Swim - LonerAmy Macdonald - Is This What You’ve Been Waiting For?Earth - The Legendary Lost Tapes 1969Gwenno - UtopiaPoor Creature - All Smiles Tonight

Click on an image to order your copy.

There are also reissues from the following:
Billy Joel7 of his later albums
Jethro TullLiving in the Past on 2-LP or 5-CD + Blu-ray
George HarrisonLet It Roll: Songs of George Harrison
The White StripesGet Behind Me Satan

Last but not least, the long-awaited Oasis shows start on Friday, and we have their albums in stock, plus a 4-LP box set and 2-CD best-of.

 

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