Monthly Picks – album special.

With so many records out, and both National Album Day and the Mercury Prize Awards (congrats RAYE) falling in October, this month seems the perfect opportunity to highlight new releases in longform.

Whether it’s a debut from World News or Nieve Ella, or artists like Blossoms and Ashe hitting their stride, the longer nights are a great time to discover your next favourite artist, or sink your teeth into the latest body of work from an old favourite.

TOPNOTE’s October Monthly Picks are listed below.

BLOSSOMS — Songs From The Wedding Cake

Recently pronounced Number 1 (for a fifth time!), Blossoms’ latest offering ‘Songs From The Wedding Cake’ is a candid reflection of marriage, amongst other life events – including a streetside argument over car insurance. Tom Ogden’s pen and wit has never been sharper, rhyming words with public figures in ‘The Kardashians’ and ‘Uma Thurman’ to create ultra-groovy and surprisingly sentimental love songs. Though it’s the languorous six-minute finale, ‘The Deep End’, in which Blossoms best demonstrate their maturity as a band, and prove to critics they are far from reliant on their sense of humour for fantastic songwriting.

Gotts Street Park — Somewhere Between

British trio Gotts Street Park’ second studio album is the perfect record for a sunny autumn walk. ‘Somewhere Between’ is laden with brilliant collaborations and vocalists from the best in British neo-soul and jazz, from the rawness of Celeste’s first-take lines in ‘Easy’ to the warmth of Olive Jones’ riffs in album opener, ‘Wake Me Up’. The trio are just as comfortable on their own, mixing instrumentals into the tracklist including the quietly thought-provoking ‘Slippy’ and ‘Going Home’, both seeing out the record with a nuanced softness.

Troye Sivan — She’s The Best

The best pop albums are both refreshing and timeless, and Troye Sivan has succeeded with ‘She’s The Best’. Sampling Madonna’s ‘Music’ alongside what might be the best music video of the year (directed by Gordon von Steiner), sensory-overload single ‘Party’ delivers a high-impact intro. The album’s tempo gradually slows, making space for Sivan’s introspection, without losing the instant appeal of a dance pop sound. ‘She’s The Best’ is as layered as the listener wants it to be, balancing extremes of euphoria and loneliness with ease, and is certainly an album with more to discover from each spin.

Nieve Ella — How Long Will It Take?

Nieve Ella knows that the most important perception of herself is her own. This debut album is an unromanticised, remarkably honest exploration of insecurity, self-sabotage, defiance and desire, in which she plays both the hero and the villain. ‘How Long Will It Take?’ is a slick, swaggering production steered by a beautifully toned voice that moves between a snarl, a growl, a whisper, and a purely held note; a mirror of the complexities of unfolding your identity. ‘Living is the answer / I don’t need it all figured out’ she declares toward the end of a record which claws its way out of despair from someone ‘barely holding on’.

Fontaines D.C. — Dopamine Chamber

Fontaines D.C. have put themselves into brighter spotlights with an album that does everything but hold back. ‘Dopamine Chamber’ is brimming with magical moments to light up a dark night, whether it’s the warped, industrial clangs of ‘Six Shot Morning’, the creepily romantic strings of ‘Marianne’, or Grian Chatten’s caramel vocals in the verses of ‘Happy For You’. Performed with Rosalía, ‘Where Is Gone?’ sounds like heaven with a line drawn through it, painting the theatrical tale of an ending its protagonists are not prepared to accept, as they create the effect of singing to each other in melancholic, ghostly harmonies.

World News — In Purgatory

‘In Purgatory’ is the middle of the Venn Diagram that plucks the rhythmic jangle of 80s indie, the creative freedom of psychedelic songwriting, and the ‘see-where-it-takes-you’ sensibility of a jazz jam. In their debut album, World News excel where they take an idea and truly dive into it. ‘Vinegar Swimming Pool’, ‘Classical Music’, and ‘Look Inside My Mind’ each feature their own mini-journey into the escapist soundscapes the four-piece curate so well. ‘In Purgatory’ contains about as many ideas as its cover art —painted by Teddy Hansen — and yet somehow manages to pull them all together.

Ashe — The Girl Of your Dreams

Ashe’s album begins with chart-topping single ‘Stop The Wedding!’ – a bold opener for an album titled ‘The Girl Of Your Dreams’. That partially ‘on-the-nose’ theme continues across a record which takes string-filled and aesthetic cues from Hollywood golden-era glamour without letting the rose-tinted view cloud its lyricism. Particularly sinister undercurrents rear in ‘Swan Lake’ and the beautifully haunting ‘Sunburn’. ‘The Girl of Your Dreams’ is full of key changes and ‘big sister energy’ from someone who’s finally reached their happy ending, taking note of the falls and lessons learned on the way.

Michael Kiwanuka — Fudge

The complete timeline of Michael Kiwanuka’s fifth studio album lasts six years, from its initial conception in lockdown to its final release this month. In ‘FUDGE’, Kiwanuka stretches what a soul album can be, mixing classical compositions with sideways synths. Created with the desire for a sense of play and freedom, the album remains able to weave in heavy themes from its creation largely in a humble studio resembling a ‘mediaeval hut’, before ending with ‘a final breath of hope’, making it an almost effortlessly well-rounded project.

TOPNOTE’s Monthly Picks: October 2026