If you have been knee-deep in revision this term, or listening to Addison Rae’s debut on loop (I certainly have been doing the latter), you might have missed a few gems that were released this year. Perhaps you are in that stage where you feel that all of your music sucks, and you want something completely different to listen to. These five projects have offered me a new kind of listening, and I hope maybe one of them will do the same for you.

Big City Life – Smerz

Over the past year, I have come across a lot of amazing music made by Scandinavian artists, and Big City Life, the second full length album from Norwegian pop duo Smerz, has quickly entered my list of strong Album of the Year contenders. This record sees Smerz capture the essence of urban disconnection, romantic curiosity, and youthful restlessness – filtering it through the lens of city nights and personal evolution. The production is minimalist, but evocative, built with drum machines, soft synths, and sampled strings that shimmer like passing streetlights.

I come from a big city, but university life has compressed my world into something smaller. So, the record has become a soundtrack for that in between, where I still crave urban chaos, as I sit in its quieter outskirts. If you are familiar with the direct train to King’s Cross, or the slightly longer one to Liverpool Street (with the nice red plush seats, so you get the full traveller experience), Big City Life is the perfect soundtrack for when you are not quite in the city, but close enough to feel its pull.

“If you have been knee-deep in revision this term, you might have missed a few gems that were released this year”

We Live in a Society – Flume & Jpegmafia

Carrying on the theme of looking out of the window, I am taken back to being twelve years old listening to Flume’s ‘Never Be Like You’ while on long coach journeys, convinced I understood the fear of not being good enough in a relationship.

Fast forward a decade, Flume has teamed up with JPEGMAFIA (one of the most goated artists of all time, and I will die on that hill) for an EP which is glitchy and proudly unserious.

The EP opens with a skit, with Peggy complaining about not being able to rap on any of the beats that Flume had provided, which is all the more amusing, given the chaotic nature of Peggy’s own production. We get some fantastic vocals from Ravyn Lenae, and some singy-songy lines from Peggy himself.

We Live in a Society is not the best project in either artist’s discography, but that feels beside the point. It is playful and chaotic in a way that reminds us that music can still be weird and fun, blending Peggy’s abrasive humour and Flume’s maximalist production.

Like A Ribbon – John Glacier

For me, it has been so refreshing to see a slightly awkward, black, Hackney-born woman making her mark in the UK rap scene on her own terms. After her standout feature on Vegyn’s 2024 record and previous brilliant work, I was buzzing for her 2025 release, Like A Ribbon.

“These projects soundtrack the messy bits of life, and the noise in between genres and states”

Her delivery is slightly deadpan, but it’s deeply felt. She raps about the fatigue of career life and about how one’s emotions can change in a world that doesn’t seem to shift alongside them. The lyrics trace the contours of a mind in flux, and nature appears everywhere in her metaphors, not only as scenery, but almost as a survival language. The beats are quietly experimental, and the muted textures make space for her voice and thoughts to settle in.

I saw her live last year and was struck by the quiet power of her presence. She is also one of the rare voices who openly discuss her experience with a disability, which can impact her ability to perform. She is an authentic and understated voice, and I cannot wait to hear more from her.

Pinball II – MIKE & Tony Seltzer

Pinball II is the more energetic sequel to the duo’s earlier collaboration, Pinball I. It merges MIKE’s usual laid back flow with Tony Seltzer’s sharp and bass heavy production, a sound that keeps things moving, without overshadowing MIKE’s reflective tone.

MIKE retains his keenness for introspection, but leaves us with a lot more room to bounce our heads furiously. The transitions between the tracks are seamless, almost giving the record a dreamlike momentum, as you forget that the tracks are changing. Tony Seltzer’s production is constantly shifting, without feeling rushed. It is emotionally rich, but equally groovy.

Bunky Becky Birthday Boy – Sleigh Bells

Sleigh Bells were one of the first bands to show me that music could be obnoxious in a good way. Their 2010 debut Treats sounds like being run over by a cheerleader with a distortion pedal, and I love every second of it.

On Bunky Becky Birthday Boy, they return with the same maximalist energy, with their pounding drums, electric guitars, and sharp hooks. They have shown, once again, that they make some of the best noisy music. The record does not reinvent their sound, but it refines it. The chaos is still there, sounding like driving 90 mph through a cartoon cityscape. Sleigh Bells sit at a crossroads between metal and pop, a sound that I believe has quietly shaped modern pop music for years, even if they are rarely credited for it.

These projects soundtrack the messy bits of life, and the noise in between genres and states. They are some of the releases that have defined my year, and I hope some can be added to your regular rotation.