TOPNOTE’s Monthly Picks: May
TOPNOTE’s Monthly Picks: May 2026. Image credit: TOPNOTE
May seems to be calling forward some introspection.
Whether it’s Sonny’s letter to his past self, the not-so-healthy reminiscing from Lola Young, or the directionless Matilda Mann, there seems to be a theme of inward-looking lyricism.
But this collection of Monthly Picks also sees a stock-take of life where it is right now, particularly from new and emerging artists crafting and carving out their own spaces — plus a load of album announcements!
Exciting times to be a music fan… let’s get into the best new releases of the month below.
Sonny Tennet, ‘Call Her Home’. Image credit: Sonny Socials
Sonny Tennet - Call Her Home
‘The girl who broke your heart, you know she’s married now?’ There’s a striking poignancy to the line which summarises the bittersweet essence of ‘Call Her Home’ – a letter to a past self from a future one. Sonny Tennet’s signature riffs fill out an uplifting chorus, while he catches himself up on the good, the bad, and the heartbreaking across the track’s verses. The young Geordie reflects on the life he’s lived so far, and ties it up as a journal entry we’re lucky to be given access to in song form.
Florentenes - Breaking News
‘Sex, drugs, and rock and roll / It’s the boring-est story that I’ve ever been told’. Florentenes are a rock band, but they’re not impressed by the undulating stereotype, nor inspired to uphold it. The Bolton band’s debut EP is a confident impression of a swiftly emerging sound. The EP plunges straight into fizzy ‘Madeline’, melding the joy of Circa Waves with the gravel of The Snuts. Elsewhere, we find the fantastic ‘Undiscovered Colours’ nestled, perhaps the EP’s best example of a vocalist just beginning to tame his powers. ‘Breaking News’ ends with ‘Can I Look Up To You?’ – the final persuasion, if you needed it, that this band are onto something.
Lola Young, ‘From Down Here’. Image credit: Chuff Media
Lola Young - From Down HEre
The return of Lola Young with her first release since last year’s album ‘I’m Only F**king Myself’ is a welcome one, though far from sugarcoated. In ‘From Down Here’, her belts soar with ease, neither restrained nor overdone, even if she refers to herself as someone who ‘used to fly’. In contrast, Young’s voice sounds healthy and freshly commanding, across lyrics that portray the guilt of yearning for unhealthy lifestyles, not yet fully removed from them: ‘Acting my age, turning the page’ / ‘But what a boring book it would have been anyway’ she concludes, in a track that brings validation for those who’ve walked the non-linear pathway of healing.
James Smith - Golden Age
James Smith wants people to put his album on in the car (more on that soon…). Compiling recent singles with brand new tracks, the singer-songwriter’s second studio album is a sweeping statement on the universality of mid-twenties life; from exploration of the profound to the repetition of the mundane. ‘Golden Age’ flicks between a vision of hedonistic youth and the murky realities of social media, costs of living, and the restless dissatisfaction involved in the process of finding your feet. Smith’s album is a harmony of dreamlike nostalgia and tongue-in-cheek lyricism – equal parts romanticised and satirical.
James Smith, ‘Golden Age’. Image credit: James Smith
Westside Cowboy – Kick Stones (The Boys)
There’s an urgency from ‘Kick Stones (The Boys)’ teased in the opening bars of the restless guitar, mirrored in the band’s visual transition to bold reds, and delivered fully in the song’s final chorus. The track is full of charge and ready to spring, from an equally exciting band, with debut album ‘It Goes On’ announced for release in August. Fresh off tour supporting Geese, Westside Cowboy have places to go, and the first single from their next chapter intends to get them moving at speed.
Matilda Mann – The Fig Tree
It’s the metaphor all young women are familiar with. Matilda Mann takes a leaf from Sylvia Plath’s book with ‘The Fig Tree’, dishing a single with much more spring in its step than the doubt that comes with decision-making. The track is a hands-to-the-sky shrug at life’s uncertainties and complexities, folding flutes and violin into a gently skipping chorus. It’s the single that encapsulates the themes of her recently announced album ‘Kismet’, which Mann says explores the ideas of fate and destiny when ‘deciding what to do with your life’.
Die Twice, ‘Accept Me Like A Lie’. Image credit: Jannat Choudhury Publicity'
Die Twice – Accept Me Like A Lie
‘Accept Me Like A Lie’ marks a new phase for Die Twice as the Exeter band’s first EP. At points, Olly Bayton’s voice is the echo between the walls of a cave; fragile, delicate… barely there. At others, a thick swell of drums and guitar crashes these walls to the ground, swooping in to seize the surrounding silences. The EP comes with new single ‘Jalapeño’, alongside previous releases ‘Wishbone’ and ‘Jakobo’. Although it’s ‘Easy On The Blow’ which leaves the largest impact, fading into a troubled instrumental heavy with grief and anxiety, and hinting at a band’s storytelling ability that traverses words and touches something more innate.
Martin Luke Brown – dream state
Released today, Martin Luke Brown’s new single also drops with an album announcement, with ‘life & death etc.’ slated for release in September. ‘I wanted freedom / but it’s only escape’ delivers MLB… alongside four minutes of a bit more escapism. ‘dream state’ is a woozy evening walk in the balmy heat of a Californian summer, that might just tipple over into spontaneous dance. ‘It has like 7 key changes in it’, MLB says, though the result is a song that leaps and bounds to ever-higher planes of optimism – fitting for a song about eternally running away from your problems.
Underrated Gem:
Rex Orange County — Alexander
Rex Orange County might be better known for his whimsical tunes and happy-go-lucky hooks, but ‘Alexander’ is where we meet the man behind the musician. The first track from 2024 album ‘The Alexander Technique’ is one of Alex O’Connor’s best written (and most surprising) songs. At first, it’s nothing more than a vivid description of a journey to the doctor’s for back pain. ROC uses his voice and piano pauses to shift from comedy to sincerity — slowly revealing the song’s surrendering of a deeper vulnerability, at first to the doctor, and then to us, the audience.
Listen when:
You fancy trying something a little different (or you have back pain)