If your taste in music lives at the intersection of 1980s alternative, 1990s Britpop and 2000s indie- and if we know each other IRL, there’s a good chance it is- then this is your week for new music. Heavenly just dropped their first full-length album in 30 years! Plus, Voxtrot has released their first new album since the MySpace era. And, of course, you know Gorillaz are back. Reviews for all three albums , plus the latest album from Jupe Jupe, a Seattle band who really gets why people still love the new wave bangers, are below.
Gorillaz
The Mountain
Gorillaz have been climbing The Mountain for months, with anticipation growing as they dropped singles like “The Happy Dictator,” one of my picks for the best political songs of 2025, and “Damascus.” That said, you might already have an opinion on the album, but do yourself a favor and listen to The Mountain in full, from start to finish, now that it’s out. Clocking in at one hour and six minutes, The Mountain is an epic album by today’s standards. Its ambitious in scope as well. Though a number of the songs stand out on their own, the real magic lies in the album as the whole. It’s in how Gorillaz made an album inspired by Indian music, but also incorporate Latin American and Middle Eastern sounds into the mix. It’s a project that brings together a diverse range of artists, from Johnny Marr to Syrian dabke star Omar Souleyman to Argentine rapper Trueno to sitar player Anoushka Shankar. They incorporated outtakes from Gorillaz collaborators who have since passed, like Mark E Smith and Proof. It’s thematically concerned with death and spirituality, but it can also be read as a political album. There’s just a lot going on in here. I’m writing this in the middle of my third listen to the album since it was released on Thursday night and I still don’t think I’ve heard enough of it to really write about it. Tl;dr Listen to The Mountain for yourself.
Heavenly
Highway to Heavenly
Some thirty years have passed since Heavenly’s last full-length album, but the English indie pop band managed to pick up without losing a beat. Highway to Heavenly continues the group’s legacy of smart, feminist pop with Amelia Fletcher’s lyrics now exploring the personal and the political from a 21st century perspective. Previously released singles “Portland Town” and “Scene Stealing,” the latter of which was also released in Spanish as “Roba Escenas,” are certainly highlights, but my favorite is “Deflicted,” a ‘60s throwback with hints of psych and northern soul that includes the all-too-relevant line, “trust your eyes, not their lies.” Heavenly is touring Europe now and will be in the U.S. in the spring and early summer. They play The Regent here in LA on June 22. See the Skep Wax website for all tour dates.
Get Highway to Heavenly by Heavenly
Jupe Jupe
King of Sorrows
My New Wavers, you need to get Jupe Jupe’s latest album into your collection or playlist or whatever you rely on to listen to music today. King of Sorrows, sounds like it was made after a weeks-long Night Flight binge, with hints of Japan, Spandau Ballet, Ultravox and the Real Life song that’s in Voyage of the Rock Aliens. It’s retro, but legit retro. Jupe Jupe gets what makes ‘80s soundtracks so sticky 40 years later: the heart-racing rhythms, soaring vocals, massive amounts of drama and the occasional sax. All eight songs herein are top-tier, but, so far, “A Game of Wait and See” is my favorite.
Get King of Sorrows by Jupe Jupe
Voxtrot
Dreamers in Exile
On their first album since 2007, Voxtrot plays as if we’re still reading music blogs, listening to Indie 103.1 and adding new tunes to our MySpace pages. That’s no slight, terrestrial radio and Web 2.0 were objectively better than today’s shitstreams and we do need actual human gatekeepers to to weed out the slop. This might sound like a digression, but it isn’t. Voxtrot packed Dreamers in Exile with eleven songs that are made for humans, not an algorithm. These are songs with big choruses, the kind you’re supposed to sing alongside when you’re stuck in the car, and strong bridges. They’re songs that are produced with an ear for detail, where sweet strings and shimmering synths lurk in the background and horns will appear out of seemingly nowhere. There are layers of references, like “The Times,” a song with a vibe that’s ‘60s pop via Belle & Sebastian, or the ‘70s glam-meets-Britpop jam “Rock & Roll Jesus.” This is good stuff and definitely a worthwhile album, even if you have just a passing recollection of Voxtrot from back in the day.
Get Dreamers in Exile by Voxtrot
Liz O. is an L.A.-based writer and DJ. Follow on Instagram or sign up for the weekly, Beatique newsletter for updates on new stories and gigs.
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