W/e 08/08/25 - The New Eves, Hard Chiller, Freezing Cold, Sofia Kourtesis, Pet Shop Boys

One of our lower scoring weeks this year, all 4 albums in the 2025 bottom half. Congrats to the Brookyn trio Freezing Cold regardless.

Sofia’s follow up is 100+ places down on her 2023 offering , but she can console herself with our TOTW.

Justin had his first 😀 since Jan 3rd. Matt his first ☹️ since March.

Pet Shop Boys brought back good memories for most, and sit in the top half with Talking Heads and PWEI on the classics.

Andy

Freezing Cold - Very nice power indie type stuff 7

Hard Chiller - All a bit Deftones lite, which isn’t such a bad thing 6.5

Sofia Kourtesis - Pretty tedious stuff, even when listening to it en España 4

The New Eves - I wasn’t overly keen on this. All a bit too renaissance fair for me 5

TotW - Eclipse by Freezing Cold

Pet Shop Boys - Enjoyable debut with 2 of my PSB all time top 3 on it 7.5

Sam

Freezing cold : I Like slacker rock but the vocals are lazy and it didn’t float my boat like I expected it to. 6

Hard Chiller : this is more like It ! Proper metal . 7.5

Sofia Kourtesis : parts would sound nice in Ibiza but some of it reminded me of Gloria Estefan, which isn’t great: 5.5

The New Eves : what a journey they are on from Bjork to Elizabethan hey nonny nonny . Some of this was jarring . No ta . Sorry Phil . 5

TOTW : Flowers by Hard Chiller

Pet Shop Boys: in their heyday I was much more a metal fan but this is a very impressive debut. Beautifully crafted pop songs . 8.5

Phil

Freezing Cold 6.75

Another bunch of indie hopefuls. Best thing I can say about this one is : promising start, but need to do better. The final track offers a glimpse of what they may be capable of.

Hard Chiller 6.25

Decentish grungey guitar rock but it’s only a dumpster or two short of indie landfill territory. Or does grunge have its own site?

Sofia Kourtesis 5

The occasional chanted vocal breaks the monotony but otherwise this is half an hour of my life that I’m not going to get back.

The New Eves 8.5

This was going to be my first ever 9 but I’m docking them half a point for the album not being as uplifting as their live show. It’s still pretty impressive though. I’m not in the least surprised that the Eves have divided opinion but, for me, I haven’t heard as inventive a take on folk since Richard Dawson’s 2017 album Peasant. And they’re going to get better.

TOTW – The New Eves – Volcano

Classic

Pet Shop Boys 6.5

The Pet Shop Boys are pretty much pop royalty and, as such, I feel awkward criticising them but, the singles apart, this is fairly bland stuff. It doesn’t help that this was the time when synths sounded most like what they were/are – machines. Love comes quickly is glorious though, and I’ve always enjoyed West End girls.

Guy

Freezing Cold – The tunes are half decent although not massively memorable but I have a problem with the vocalist. He’s not very melodic and sounds a bit Weezery for my liking – 6.5

Hard Chiller – It’s not the worst metal band we’ve listened too but it’s too heavy for me – 5.5

Sofia Kourtesis – I do like a dancey album sung in Spanish but this lacks the music to go with it. Certainly, no equivalent to Madres which was a tune – 6

The New Eves – Props for doing something a bit different and there are one or two tunes here that are OK. But overall it’s too weird for me - 5

TotW - Backlight by Freezing Cold

Pet Shop Boys – High quality pop with a number of top bangers on the album - 8

Simon

Freezing Cold: preferred this to Hard Chiller although it's fairly mundane US rock, the only track that caught my attention was The Day, which was a decent closer. 5.8

Hard Chiller: couldn't find anything to enjoy here - not a fan of this genre at the best of times but the biggest problem with this is that it just isn't very good. 5.5

Sofia Kourtesis: smooth, Balearic house, the kind of thing you might hear whilst supping an afternoon beer in an Ibizan bar before a big night out. Pleasant enough but there's plenty of this already out there which is better. 6.5

The New Eves: ambitious and intense, this is certainly one of the more distinctive offerings we've had recently (particularly for a debut). It's not going to have widespread appeal although I was quite engrossed - parts of it reminded me of P J Harvey and Julia Holter amongst others, but could easily imagine some of it on the soundtrack to a '70s pagan horror film. Would be interesting to see them live. 7.5

Pet Shop Boys: they may be fine purveyors of pristine synth pop but I could never get that excited about PSB, it's all a bit too clean and measured for me. 7

TotW: The New Eves - Rivers Run Red

Mark

Freezing Cold - Quite liked this, nice grunge lite mix of Wunderhorse and early REM, strong songwriting, classic American slacker guitar sound, not bad at all - 7

Hard Chiller - this was a hard one to pin down, seeme to be a schizophrenic cross between loads of different bands without really having its own identity on any way. Not terrible, but found it hard to warm to - 5.5

Sofia Kourtesis - enjoyed listening to this up a hillside in Italy at sundown, smooth percussive Latin infused house, although not as good as the one we did last year - 6.5

The New Eves - Mmmm, not sure about this, all a bit strident and joyless, difficult to say it's 'enjoyable' as such, and lyrically just put me in mind of Millie Tant from Viz. They're kind of like Last Dinner Party without the tunes - 4

TOTW - The Day, by Freezing Cold

Erol

Freezing Cold - decent, sometimes introspective, American indie guitar music. Very enjoyable. 7

Hard Chiller - grungy rock. Not the best example of the genre but it was alright for a single listen. 5.9

Sofia Kourtesis - entertaining summer beats but occasionally this veers too close to euro house. 6.3

The New Eves - hippy folk music with lots of scraping and droning meets the Wicker Man. I can’t say I enjoyed this but it was moderately intriguing nonetheless. 5

TOTW - Nitzan and Aminaa by Sofia K

Pet Shop Boys - basic sounding synths and drum machines. Hardly surprising seeing as this was released nearly 40 years ago, but these guys certainly made the best of the music tech that was available at the time. For me, Opportunities and Suburbia are still the stand out tracks. 7.5

Jim

Freezing Cold 7.5

Really enjoyed this. Agree with the Wunderhorse and especially the REM comparisons Mark. Plenty going on compared to some of the indie/rock we’ve had recently and there are a few TOTW contenders. Wonder what they’ve been doing since the debut in 2019.

Hard Chiller 6.5

Decent harder rock debut, extra 0.5 for pretty much avoiding the temptation to growl or scream.

Sofia Kourtesis 6

Some quality down-tempo tracks perfect for a beach bar, and Unidos was a big choon. but I’m turned off whenever the house music goes all a bit Latino/salsa which this did on a few tracks.

The New Eves 6.5

There’s some off piste silliness plus some interesting moments that kept me somewhat intrigued, so I think I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt for now and place in the ‘tbd’ drawer

TOTW: Freezing Cold - You Already Know

Pet Shop Boys 8

Top choice. Was a fan at the time and it’s defo one of the sounds of the 80’s. A game of 2 halves though - up to Suburbia it’s terrific, each song a classic and I thought I might be on for a 9+, but the 2nd half is more routine.

Annette

Freezing Cold: 6

Hard Chiller: 5.5

Sofia Kourtesis: 6.5

The New Eves: 5

TOTW: Unidos by Sofia Kourtesis

Classic: Pet Shop Boys - 7.5

Matt

Freezing Cold: 5

Hard Chiller: 5

Sofia Kourtesis: 7

The New Eves: 4

TOTW: Unidos, Sofia Kourtesis

Classic: Pet Shop Boys 9

Adam

Freezing Cold: 6

Hard Chiller: 6

Sofia Kourtesis: 7

The New Eves: 5

TOTW: Corazon - Sofia Kourtesis

Classic: Pet Shop Boys - 8

Justin

Freezing Cold - bit too MOR for me. Fine for background indie. 6.5

Hard Chiller - decent harder rock 6.8

Sofia Kourtesis - classic 90s European House. Definitely a summer album 7.5

The New Eves - started off with a lot of wailing and looked like it was heading for a 4 but improves right up the end 6

TOTW Corazon- Sofia Kourtesis

Pet Shop Boys - timeless synth pop. Still sounds fresh and still a go to album. 9