W/e 17/10/25 - HAAi, Long Fling, Pop Will Eat Itself, Nightbus, The Smashing Pumpkins

Congrats to Nightbus – just missing out on the top 10 this year, but an impressive spot nonetheless in our overall top 100. Plus they are the highest placed debut this year (which I think deserves an annual award) and have a popular TOTW to top it all off.

The Poppies failed to really impress and look up enviously at a trio of newbies.

Sam and Andy have a bit of a stranglehold on the emotions.

Sam has his 6th 😀 in 10.

Andy his 4th ☹️ in 7.

(and they are both on track for keeping them this week)

The Smashing Pumpkins were a first listen for many with mixed results and say hi to Elvis Costello and The Hold Steady on the classics.

Guy

HAAi – Some lovely dreamy electronica – perfect for an cool bar. Satellite with Jon Hopkins is a particularly beautiful tune with its haunting vocals, bleeps and squelchy keys. Second half is perhaps a bit weaker – 7.6

Long Fling – Decent enough soft indie and her voice is really nice but the album wafted a bit for me. There were one or two that ramped up and these were the better tunes. Shoes was a great tune with a lovely riff and fuzzy guitars running through it – 6.8

Nightbus – Dark, ethereal tunes, cleverly mixing atmospheric guitars with drum machines in an XX style. Hints of early New Order too in there. Another interesting act out of God’s city – 7.9

Pop Will Eat Itself – This doesn’t really have the bangers or energy of Box Frenzy but still exudes plenty of attitude. Disco Misfits and Vive Le Rok were pick of the bunch imho - 7

Smashing Pumpkins – Solid grungey rock. I wouldn’t say it’s my sweet spot as a genre but these guys do it pretty well – 7.5

TOTW – Ascension by Nightbus

Andy

HAAi - I found this mind numbingly tedious. I was in a bad mood already walking home after the Jets game in Sunday but this really was the icing on the cake 2

Long Fling - When Pip (I was today old when I found out her name is Pip Blom, not just the band name) sings it’s like one of their regular tracks and pretty great. When her other half joins in, not so much. Why can’t we just have a new Pip Blom album? 6

Nightbus - Another band who’ve listens to Joy Division, New Order and The Cure, this pretty much went past me without leaving any real impression 4

Pop Will Eat Itself - There will always be a place in my heart for the Poppies even post Clint but there current sound has a lot of indistinguishable techno racket. Not awful but no This is the Day 6.5

TotW - Their Law (Ain’t Our Law) by PWEI

Smashing Pumpkins - I’ve somehow never listened to this whole album but the tracks I’m familiar with are all winners and the stuff that’s new to me is pretty good too 7

Phil

HAAi 5.5

Ambient electronica with occasionally wafty, sometimes autotuned vocals. Not really my thing though, to be fair, it includes a handful of pleasantly woozy tracks but they don’t really turn this into a riveting listening experience.

Long Fling 6.8

A lot of the early tracks are annoyingly quirky but things improve as the album progresses. Waste line is pretty good and Tossed is ace.

Nightbus 6.5

Creepy, atmospheric music with a strong flavour of early Cure and yes, the XX. An easy enough listen but I won’t be going back.

Pop Will Eat Itself 6.2

Missed them the first time around but I’m not sure that I missed much. Sort of agit-pop, with thrashing percussion, unruly guitars and shouty vocals. I wasn’t blown away.

TOTW – Long Fling - Tossed

Classic

Smashing Pumpkins 6.4

I really did find the sheer volume of music here a problem. It’s like a massively bloated version of the Beatles' White Album. I’m not sure that a single album from this would have great but it would have been easier to digest.

Matt

HAAi - 6.2

Long Fling - 7.2

Nightbus - 7.8

Pop Will Eat Itself - 6.9

TOTW, Ascension, Nightbus

Erol

HAAi – enjoyably chilled electronic beats overlaid with ethereal vocals.

There is definitely a hint of Billie Eilish about a number of the tracks and Hey! is a cracker. One to go back to. 7.5

Long Fling – there is one good track on this album (Shoes). The rest unfortunately is a rather raw and ramshackle production with poor vocals and tracks that just don’t quite hang together. 4

Nightbus - atmospheric and sometimes moody, with a haunting sound that goes all techno every now and again. As others have noted there’s definitely more than an influence of The Cure and New Order here. All in, not bad at all. 6.8

Pop Will Eat Itself – this sounds like a mutated version of the Prodigy. It’s bursting with wild and often poorly focused energy that just didn’t flick my switch. Shame. 5

TOTW - Hey! by HAAi.

Smashing Pumpkins - full-on alternative US grunge rock. I only know Tonight, Tonight (a great track) but the rest of the album is pretty solid too. It could do with being far shorter though. 6

Mark

HAAi - I get that DJs and dance acts might not always want to be producing straight up dancefloor bangers, but some of this kind of atmospheric noodling is just a bit of a snoozefest, not really sure what it's for or who it's aimed at. When it gets going on a couple of tracks it's okay, but otherwise nothing to write home about - 5.5

Long Fling - some of it's decent ramshackle lo fi indie, but there are a couple of terrible tuneless dirges ('Flung' is awful) so conclusion is they should stick to the day job, Pip Blom is/are much better - 5.5

Nightbus - liked this, moody New Order / Paris Angels / The XX vibes, was reading an article describing this as "the type of music New Order might make if they were 21 today" which seems about right - 8

Pop Will Eat Itself - unmistakably them, even though Clint's not on vocals anymore, maybe a bit more industrial and ravey than I remember. Nits that a band of mid sixties blokes are still churning out this kind of stuff - 7

TOTW - Ascension by Nightbus

Simon

HAAi: not as dancefloor-orientated as some of her previous stuff but no worse for it, on the whole - does meander in places but Satellite, Can't Stand To Lose and New Euphoria are all pretty solid. 7

Long Fling: in the absence of a new Pip Blom album this will do very nicely indeed - takes a while to get going and Flung is a bit of a misfire, but For Someone is Blur-esque in a good way, Cool Bottle Water Park sounds like classic PB and Shoes rattles along on a fine scuzzy groove. 7.8

Nightbus: the early '80s Cure/New Order influences are more than obvious (early single Mirrors bears an uncanny resemblance to Joy Division's Shadowplay) but I rather enjoyed it - derivative perhaps, but the songs are all very solid and it has plenty of atmosphere. Good debut. 8

Pop Will Eat Itself: can't say I've listened to much PWEI since their Def Con One days but it doesn't sound like much has changed in the Poppies world and I don't think their particular style of frenzied pop mash-up holds the same appeal as it did back then. 6

Smashing Pumpkins: enjoyed some of this but it's all rather intense, not least in part due to Billy Corgan's vocal - a bit of levity at times wouldn't go amiss and an hour was plenty enough for me. 6

TotW: Nightbus - Renaissance

Paul

HAAi (7)

Yes nice chilled out ambient dance tunes to get lost in.

Long Fling (6)

Nice enough laid back indie. Like the male/female vocal combo, like Pip Bloms voice but overall not a huge amount to get excited about.

Nightbus (7.5)

Moody/dark/atmospheric tunes with a few gangly guitars thrown in, not bad.

Pop Will Eat Itself (7)

Fun punky combo of dance/rock/rap. Not heard any of their stuff in a long time but quite enjoyed it. Disco misfits was a favourite.

The Smashing Pumpkins (7.5)

Proper grunge album but a lot to get through. Not listen to much of them before beyond their singles. But not bad if a bit long!

TOTW - HAAi Satellite

Justin

Haai - a love a bit of bleep and squelch and this hit the spot. 7.1

Long Fling - enjoyable indie. I like the male and female vocalists and it works really well. 7

Nightbus - this was a great album of dark goth like synths with a bit of New Order 7.2

Pop Will Eat Itself - they were ahead of their time but aspects of this whilst still good do sound a bit dated. 6.9

TOTW Nightbus - Ascension

The Smashing Pumpkins - this band passed me by at the time. There are some great tunes on here but also quite a lot of dirge. 6.5

Sam

HAAI : started off badly but had some decent dance stuff in there by the end . 7

Long Fling : a mixed bag of jarring nonsense and some decent rocky bits . 6.5

Nightbus : fabulous dark synthy loveliness. One of the best albums this year . 8.7

PWEI : Not as good as Def Con 1 but not much is . Still banging out some angsty tunes . 7.2

TOTW : Ascension by Nightbus

Smashing Pumpkins: I own this superb album. Billy has a great voice and some of rocks greatest moments are on here . Zero is such a banger . Twas a pleasure listening. 8.8

Jim

HAAi 7

Nice beach bar vibes to start, if a little bland, but it gentle ramps up finishing with some crackers, New Euphoria the standout.

Long Fling 7.5

Pip Blom have been one of my finds of this adventure and whilst his inputs are not always so polished most of the time it works and occasionally it’s tip top – especially Cool Bottle and the tremendous Shoes that’s got a good shout for a place on the 25for25

Nightbus 8

A tasty dollop of slightly darker, moody synth pop and trance. I’m a sucker for a bit of acid house squelch and it turns Ascension into a cracker.

PWEI 5.5

mmm. They are legends obvs and were the sound of our teens and Sunday at the Maj, but this isn’t great and an odd change of direction for a bunch of 60 year olds. Not sure how it’s possible to muck up a classic like Their Law, and Play a Fast Un is dreadful.

TOTW: tough choice, but Shoes by Long Flung nicks it.

Smashing Pumpkins 7

First listen for me. The pure heavy rock tracks are great, but the ballads are not and there’s too many of the later.

Adam

Haai

Big fan of Haai singles and mixes. Some good tunes on here but was expecting something a little more full tour de force. Live shows should be a better representation of what she can offer. Maybe suffers a little from too many different collaborators. 7

Long Fling

Ramshackle, DIY indie. Has some good moments, others are jarring. 5

Nightbus

Clear nods to a certain debaucherous decade. Good moody stuff. 7

Pop will eat itself

Chaotic electro rock/pop. Will stick with my dance-punk from the 10’s ta. 4

TOTW - Haai - Hey!

Classic

Top melancholic rock. Some top tunes on this album and classic singles in their own rights. If I could swap some of the weaker tracks with some from Siamese Dream we’d have an almost 10. Happy 30th birthday MCATIS - it’s a 8

Annette

HAAi: 7.5

Long Fling: 7

Nightbus: 8

Pop Will Eat Itself: 6

TOTW: Renaissance by Nightbus

Classic: Smashing Pumpkins: 6.5