Allo Darlin’ 
Bright Nights
(Fika)
★★★

WITH Oasis and Pulp touring this summer, 2025 is starting to feel like the year of big reunions.

In contrast, Allo Darlin’ getting back together will probably only have been noticed by their small, dedicated fan base.

Formed in 2008 the Australian-UK four-piece released three albums of infectious indie pop, with frontwoman Elizabeth Morris Innset writing some marvellously literate and romantic lyrics, before calling it quits in 2016.

Bright Nights heralds a more mature, subdued version of the band. My Love Will Bring You Home, a love song to Morris Innset’s daughters, sounds the most Allo Darlin’ track, while the melancholic altcountryish You Don’t Think Of Me At All is the first time bassist Bill Botting has contributed a track to one of their records.

A welcome return, though it doesn’t feel like they are firing on all cylinders.

Loyle Carner
hopefully !
(AMF)
★★★

LOYLE Carner’s last two records – 2019’s Not Waving, but Drowning and the Mercury Prize-shortlisted Hugo three years later – are never far from my stereo.

There is something about the 30-year old hip hop artist’s downbeat south London delivery, introspective lyrics, old school beats and emotionally vulnerable masculinity that rewards repeating listening.

And I’m far from alone in my admiration – Carner has played to huge crowds at Glastonbury and All Points East festivals, and received an honorary doctorate University of Arts London.

Playing with a full band, his new album feels much looser than his previous work. In My Mind finds him singing for the first time, while About Time concerns learning life lessons, with some guest vocals from his son. His mentor, the late writer Benjamin Zephaniah, appears on the title track, discussing the origins of riots in 1983.

Mike Polizze
Around Sound
(Paradise of Bachelors)
★★★

TIME to kick back and have a beer.

Mike Polizze may have fronted fuzzy Philadelphia indie rock group Purling Hiss since 2009 but on his own he trades in lackadaisical, slightly off-kilter acoustic guitar-led music.
Recorded between 2022 and 2024, on his second solo longplayer Around Sound, the singer-songwriter plays everything, including guitar, bass, drums, piano, Mellotron and vibraphone.

Apparently, Polizze has now moved out of the city, and recently became a father – the set is dedicated to his daughter and reflects on new parenthood.

Like with his first record, the most obvious touchstone is his friend Kurt Vile and albums like Vile’s Smoke Ring For My Halo. Though strangely, on It Goes Without Saying his yearning vocals bring to mind Liam Gallagher.

Blissed out and pensive, rarely has a musician ploughed their own furrow so thoroughly.