Essential Listening: The best new releases as chosen by Skiddle

The Skiddle team have taken their pick of the best new releases of the past two weeks, whittling down a long list of suggestions and refining it into one easy-to-digest, top-ten selection. Containing high-octane techno, industrial electronica, anthemic indie and much more, this week's playlist offers another all-encompassing sample of the superabundant music industry we all adore. 

Check out some of the tracks which made the final cut in the latest edition of our biweekly Essential Listening playlist, and scroll to the very bottom of the page to listen to the playlist in full (including the previous top-ten selections from our last feature, earlier this month). 

Stormzy 

Stormzy sent the music world into a frenzy last week, announcing details of his third studio album, This Is What I Mean via a surprise Instagram post. The lead single from which, 'Hide & seek', signals a significant change in the 29-year-old's approach to writing music. Gone seem the days when we could expect to hear huge bops, the likes of 'Big For Your Boots', kicking off his latest and no doubt multiple award-winning album. Instead, we're witnessing a much more vulnerable and intimate side to the giant-sized wordsmith, breaking down the intricacies of a relationship in his usual artistic fashion on this, his latest single.

Thoroughly intriguing and worth a listen.

The 1975

Matty Healy and the gang have also recently returned to the fore issuing what is their fifth long-playing record, Being Funny In A Foreign Language, the follow-up to 2020s rather lacklustre release, Notes On A Conditional Form. From this new album comes mid-record single, 'I'm In Love With You'. Again with references to love and relationships (there must be something in the autumnal air?), the group have created a delicate and upbeat jam which sonically reflects the feeling of butterflies one might get when falling in love (ew).

Unoffensive, easy-listening pop music, done well. 

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Find tickets for The 1975 - here

Red Hot Chili Peppers

A reinvigorated Red Hot Chili Peppers complete with the original lineup, back making music together in 2022 for the first time in sixteen years... let's face it, we were all guaranteed something special and so far, the results have been as expected. Ultimate Love, released earlier in the year, saw off-again, on-again guitarist, John Frusciante return to lend a hand in creating the 17-track masterpiece, speckled with that special blend of funky, laidback Cali-rock they do so well. And their second, back-to-back album of the year, 'Return Of The Dream Canteen', offers more of the same.

Lead single, 'Tippa My Tongue' has a 'Can't Stop' sort of swagger to it, with intermittent guitars, big-hitting beats, the tastiest of bass licks, courtesy of our man Flea, and those eccentrically delivered lines from frontman, Anthony Keidis. If this is a marker for things to come from The Chili's in 2023, we're most certainly very excited. 

PVA

As far as debut albums go, BLUSH from South London electronic trio, PVA has to be up there as one of the best of the year. Released just four days ago, it's a blistering 11-track document teeming with punk attitude, contorted by discordant synths and industrial beats almost purpose-made for the dark and dingy dancefloors of late-night clubs. It's as though the band have travelled back in time from some dystopian future to inform us all of how music might sound in the years to come. And yet, nods to the forefathers of their unrelenting industrial sound can still be heard throughout their work - from Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode and Kraftwerk - with reference also given to the modern sounds of leftfield producers, the likes of Shy Girl. 

Check out the group's latest single above, 'Untethered', to get a better understanding of what we're trying to convey.

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Find tickets for PVA - here 

Got a Spotify account? Follow and like our Essential Listening playlist below, to stay up to date with the best new releases. 

Check out our What's On Guide to discover even more rowdy raves and sweaty gigs taking place over the coming weeks and months. For festivals, lifestyle events and more, head on over to our Things To Do page or be inspired by the event selections on our Inspire Me page.

Header image credit: Stormzy / Facebook.com