The latest single from Merseyside’s @dreammachinehq.bsky.social sees them take on the wall of sound, with the bittersweet beauty of a 60’s girl group. Frontman, Zak McDonnell, tells us about his essential Phil Spector productions. Read here 👉 nofrillsreviews.com/2026/01/25/a...

The latest single from Merseyside’s @dreammachinehq.bsky.social sees them take on the wall of sound, with the bittersweet beauty of a 60’s girl group. Frontman, Zak McDonnell, tells us about his essential Phil Spector productions. Read here 👉 nofrillsreviews.com/2026/01/25/a...

Released OTD in 2024: Bruiser Wolf - My Story Got Stories A step forward from one of rap’s most unique voices. Revisit our review👇 🔗 nofrillsreviews.com/2024/01/23/a...

2025 in Review - Our top 50 albums, top 20 EPs, and most overrated picks. Plus 8 hours+ of the year’s best tunes selected in our Big 2025 playlist. 👇 nofrillsreviews.com/2026/01/02/2...

No.26 in our top albums of 2025 was Let Me Out by hip-hop experimentalists Fatboi Sharif & Driveby. “A disconcerting but utterly compelling album” Read our full review 🔗 nofrillsreviews.com/2025/04/27/a...

No.34 in our albums of the year was the latest from The Walkmen frontman, Hamilton Leithauser. “An enjoyably ragged collection that compliments the untamed charm of one of this century’s great rock voices” Read our full review🔗 nofrillsreviews.com/2025/06/09/a...

Bon Iver’s latest album clocked in at no.24 in our top albums of 2025. SABLE, fABLE is both a paean to the transformative power of love, and a caution against such over-romanticised cliché. Read more in our full review👇 nofrillsreviews.com/2025/06/16/a...

From breakout rap stars to the next big things in indie rock. Check out our top 20 EPs/short projects of 2025👇 nofrillsreviews.com/2025/12/05/2...

Surprised to see the latest Self Esteem album pop in a couple of EOY lists. Felt like a fairly obvious jumping the shark moment. Here was our take👇 nofrillsreviews.com/2025/04/29/a...

The big reunion of 2025 saw Oasis conveniently ignore their later catalogue. While unlikely to fuel the same nostalgia, there is the odd gem to uncover from that period. Revisit our look at a psychedelic oddity unlike anything else in their catalogue. 👇 nofrillsreviews.com/2025/07/31/t...

One of 2025’s most slept on albums. Our no.3 for the year. Pale Black Negative by Rhys Langston. The genre-abolitionist delivers a boundary-blurring opus that is as accessible as it is inventive. Read our review to find out more: nofrillsreviews.com/2025/07/03/a...

Benjamin’s Booker’s LOWER was our top album of 2025. Revisit our review to find out why: nofrillsreviews.com/2025/04/04/a...

🎧 2025 gave us plenty of great music… and plenty of hype. Not all of it earned. 🔥 Time for some hot takes with our pick of 2025’s most overrated albums👇 nofrillsreviews.com/2025/11/30/2...

3 months too late, the vid for "Psychic Rhyming Like Kings Shining" feat. Andrew Mbaruk is out now no fake entelechy utilized in this handcrafted reel music movie: I frame-by-frame animated these lyric cut outs, and sorted through hours of archival footage to collage so youtu.be/OhzAxk3vm9c?...

🎧Our Top 50 Albums of 2025🎧 Some obvious, some hidden gems. What did we miss? 👇

Hey, you gotta take your wins where you get them! HUGE thank you to @nofrillsreviews.com for putting MY VERSION OF DESIRE as their #32 best records of 2025. Big fan of their work and it’s truly humbling to be included amongst such great company. ❤️ nofrillsreviews.com/2025/12/21/2...

No Frills Reviews Top 50 Albums of 2025 Out full top 50 countdown is up on the blog now. Check if your favourites made it and discover some hidden gems along the way. Read Here: nofrillsreviews.com/2025/12/21/2...

Watched the new Chapelle special. Not funny BTW, but also absolutely all over the place ideologically. Like he so badly wants to be an “important” voice, but it’s so messy that it ends up completely lacking in substance.

The debut from enigmatic scouse rapper, EsDeeKid (not Timothée Chalamet) features in our top EPs of 2025. Full top 20 here: nofrillsreviews.com/2025/12/05/2...

Part 2 of our albums of the year is up now, with numbers 30-11. Featuring some familiar names and some hidden gems. Check it out👇 nofrillsreviews.com/2025/12/19/2...

No Frills Reviews’ Albums of the Year I’m still fleshing out a top 50, but because I’m disorganised let’s do a count-up rather than the logical count-down. Our top 10 is up now on the link👇 nofrillsreviews.com/2025/12/16/2...

My ninth annual Xmas song is up on my bandcamp now faithfuljohannes.bandcamp.com/track/when-i... It's called When It Snows. It's got lots of seventh chords. Video soon. Streams on Friday. Gateshead xmas songs set on the 20th

Wrote a bit on our top EPs/short projects of 2025. From breakout rap stars to the next big things in indie rock. Check out the full top 20👇 nofrillsreviews.com/2025/12/05/2...

Already sick of the end-of-year list hype. We have an antidote with … another list. It’s our most overrated albums of 2025. Did your favourite make it? nofrillsreviews.com/2025/11/30/2...

Highly entertaining spin on the imminent end of year list

Been out of action on the blog for a while, but making a return for list season. Throwing this one out early partly as a prediction piece. Here’s our most overrated albums of 2025. Don’t believe the hype. nofrillsreviews.com/2025/11/30/2...

As Oasis fever spreads to the US, revisit our look at a psychedelic oddity unlike anything else in their catalogue. 👇 nofrillsreviews.com/2025/07/31/t...

🌙 Moonchild Sanelly’s Full Moon is bold, cheeky & heartfelt - amapiano grooves, body-positive bravado, and raw vulnerability shape her future ghetto funk. Full Review👇 nofrillsreviews.com/2025/06/02/a...

This Side of the Island finds The Walkmen frontman, Hamilton Leithauser, at his most ragged & radiant - shrill yet soulful, playful yet profound. Imperfectly perfect. Full Review👇 nofrillsreviews.com/2025/06/09/a...

Photocomfort’s Patron Saint is a gorgeous debut - blending vintage jazz vibes, glitchy twists & moments of indie-pop gold. Full review 👇 nofrillsreviews.com/2024/08/15/a...

Track of the Day is a wild, three-act psychedelic rap epic, blazing its scorched earth trail in under three minutes. nofrillsreviews.com/2025/08/18/t...

🎧Track of the Day🎧 A hard-edged West-Coast rap banger, featuring Kendrick collaborator, Lefty Gunplay. More here👇 nofrillsreviews.com/2025/08/17/t...

🍑Peachy by The Rhythm Method is a record full of character: wry storytelling, sly grooves, and quietly ambitious songwriting. Find out why it was one of our favourites of 2024👇 nofrillsreviews.com/2024/04/13/a...

💎 Best albums of 2025 you probably haven’t heard yet 💎 From coastal-folk heartbreak to playful existentialist rap, our pick of 5 hidden gems from the year to date. nofrillsreviews.com/2025/07/09/2...

Automatic isn’t stripped-back, it’s hollow. The Lumineers’ latest does little to dispel the notion that they’re stomp-clap relics. Full review: nofrillsreviews.com/2025/02/25/a...

SABLE, fABLE is Bon Iver stripped bare and rebuilt—dark introspection meets euphoric romance, with Justin’s voice carrying both ache and light. Full review: nofrillsreviews.com/2025/06/16/a...

Oasis like you’ve never heard them. Amorphous Androgynous turned a middling latter day single into a 22-minute psychedelic odyssey; filled with sitars, strings, and warped vocals. The sound of a cosmic rebirth. More👇 nofrillsreviews.com/2025/07/31/t...

Small Time Monsters is a blend of gothic imagery and classic pop that masks haunting tales of heartbreak and desire. From Western-disco to dreamy jangles, The Dream Machine are upstart eccentrics with the skill of old masters. Review👇 nofrillsreviews.com/2025/01/18/a...

Including us, Perennial!

From Aussie punk snark to Black Country poetry. Revisit our top 50 albums of 2024. 👇 nofrillsreviews.com/2024/12/10/2...

“Contrasts and contradictions drive a thought-provoking study of growing up poor in Britain” Revisit our review of the best UK rap album of last year, the Mobo Award winning Being Poor Is Expensive by Bashy. 🔗 nofrillsreviews.com/2024/09/26/a...

Our track of the day is a (relatively) accessible offering from one of underground rap’s great experimentalists. nofrillsreviews.com/2025/08/06/t...

Our track of the day is the standout from The Toxic Crusaders’ debut of warped and woozy boom bap throwbacks. nofrillsreviews.com/2025/08/05/t...

Album Review: The Courettes - The Soul Of…The Fabulous Courettes The wide-eyed sweetness of Phil Spector girl-groups meets the wild-eyed garage rock psychedelia you’d uncover on a Nuggets compilation. nofrillsreviews.com/2024/10/14/a...

Despite the diminishing returns, Oasis’ later years were still peppered with occasional gems. This psych epic is quite unlike anything else in their catalogue. Albeit, the real credit doesn’t go to Oasis themselves. nofrillsreviews.com/2025/07/31/t...

EP Review: Westside Gunn - HEELS HAVE EYES Tied to his latest venture as a wrestling promoter, it was only appropriate to look at this through the lens of wrestling. - “This is Ric Flair as the touring NWA champ of the 80’s.” Full Review👇 nofrillsreviews.com/2025/04/24/e...

Rhys Langston’s “rapper’s singer-songwriter record” is a boundary blurring opus as his lyrical flair is met with an emotive immediacy, amidst inventive, convention-defying compositions. Album Review: Rhys Langston - Pale Black Negative nofrillsreviews.com/2025/07/03/a...

A forgotten piece in the jigsaw of rock history, and one of the earliest entries in the metal canon. From the archives, a review of the obscure proto-metal classic, Randy Holden’s Population II. 🔗 nofrillsreviews.com/2023/02/14/m...

As a Oasis fever grips the UK, our track of the day looks back at an oddity unlike anything else in their catalogue. nofrillsreviews.com/2025/07/31/t...

Album Review: Miles Kane - One Man Band Kane never comes off as more than the sum of his influences, and it’s unclear what he actually adds to the equation; he struggles to establish himself as more than a competent revivalist. nofrillsreviews.com/2025/01/03/a...