A new generation takes the stage.
2016 began with a goodbye. Released on his 69th birthday, David Bowie’s 26th studio album arrived just two days before his death from cancer, transforming almost instantly from a thrilling new work into a remarkable final statement. Blackstar was a reminder that even after five decades of restless reinvention, the Starman was still looking forward.
In London, some of the decade’s most exciting music was taking shape in and around Brixton’s Windmill. Bands including Goat Girl, Shame, black midi, Squid, Jockstrap and Black Country, New Road emerged from a fertile grassroots community where experimentation, collaboration and the live experience mattered. Sometimes bundled together as 'post-Brexit new wave', artists shared an appetite for pulling guitar music somewhere stranger. Sprechgesang increasingly entered the indie vocabulary too, heard across the brilliantly dry observations of Yard Act and Dry Cleaning, while Wet Leg found their own rapid route from the Isle of Wight to international acclaim.
But it wasn't only a British conversation. Bodega brought wiry New York art-punk, Viagra Boys channelled Stockholm absurdity and Amyl and the Sniffers delivered Melbourne pub rock at full velocity (who was at their second ever London show, at Rough Trade East in 2018?) Records from this loose international community filled our racks, while Rough Trade Exclusive pressings and live in-stores brought many of its protagonists even closer. Rough Trade East became something of a melting pot for London's new indie contingent: bands, labels, fans and records passing through the doors while a grassroots scene rapidly grew beyond them.
Alongside all this came one of British music's great modern ascents. Little Simz spent the decade steadily expanding the possibilities of independent rap, culminating in the extraordinary run of GREY Area, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, NO THANK YOU and Lotus. Her 2021 appearance at Rough Trade East remains an undoubted highlight of the last ten years. We witnessed an artist reaching remarkable creative heights, performing at close quarters at a moment when many were still catching up.
"There are few better pleasures in running a record store than seeing something genuinely exciting flourish"
Michael Kiwanuka enjoyed an equally impressive run, from the expansive soul of 2016's Love & Hate, through the Mercury Prize-winning KIWANUKA and into the beautifully considered Small Changes in 2024. Elsewhere, we welcomed awesome debuts from Brooklyn newcomers Big Thief, Bristol's IDLES and the mysterious collective SAULT, while the bright and brilliant Ezra Collective steadily rose from London's jazz community to become one of the country's great live propositions. New Zealand's Aldous Harding continued to make wonderfully singular records, alongside standout releases from Weyes Blood, Tyler, The Creator, Angel Olsen, Solange, Mitski, Young Fathers, Caroline Polachek, Kae Tempest and Billy Woods. All of these artists made different sounds and built different worlds, but together they evidenced just how broad independent music had become.
Some artist's journeys became particularly intertwined with our own. We watched Phoebe Bridgers, Fontaines D.C., CMAT and Geese travel from intimate beginnings towards increasingly enormous audiences, championing their records and welcoming them into Rough Trade along the way. There are few better pleasures in running a record store than seeing something genuinely exciting flourish. The venues get bigger, the crowds wilder and the records more ambitious, but that first spark of discovery remains much the same.
It's near-impossible to look back at the mid-2020s through anything but an acid-lime lens. Charli xcx demonstrated the incredible power of world-building, with BRAT bringing music, fashion, language, community and attitude together to create something instantly recognisable and endlessly adaptable. Charli had already spent years helping push pop towards stranger territory, part of a lineage inseparable from the pioneering work of SOPHIE. Her tragic death in 2021 robbed music of one of its most visionary figures, but the possibilities she opened remain everywhere. That fearless approach to sound continues to echo through artists as different as Arca and Vince Staples, and across a generation increasingly uninterested in the borders between pop, electronic music, rap and the avant-garde.
So what about the big returns? Slowdive completed one of modern music's great second acts, returning after more than two decades with a self-titled album that introduced their music to another generation. The Cure finally delivered Songs of a Lost World, while Britpop heavyweights Blur and Pulp returned to both stages and record collections. Then came a reunion few believed they would actually see. Nostalgia was certainly part of Oasis' reunion story, giving OG fans a chance to hear old music differently, and newer fans the experience they had only fantasised about.
In the last ten years, we've expanded our footprint at home and abroad, opening stores in Bristol, Liverpool, London and Berlin, establishing ourselves in Nottingham, and moving Rough Trade NYC from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Our mission remains the same: create a place where artists and audiences can meet, where curiosity is rewarded and where a recommendation across a counter can still send somebody home with a record they didn't know they needed.
Today, while TikTok can pull a decades-old song back into the charts or turn a bedroom recording into a global concern, physical music continues its own remarkable ascent. An album can exist everywhere online and still feel different once it sits in your hands. Fifty years after Rough Trade first opened its doors, there's never been more to discover.
50 Records for 50 Years - Drop Five: 2016-2025
Revealing our Rough Trade 50th Anniversary Editions, one for each year Rough Trade has been open. Featuring an exclusive vinyl pressing*, with special bonus material: unique liner notes, stories, and fresh interviews.
*press quantities are final
What is the greatest album of the last 50 years? Tell us, for a chance to win.
2016: Charles Bradley - Changes
Nicknamed the ‘The screaming eagle of soul, ’ Charles Bradley was a once-in-a-generation talent, every rasp, howl and vocal break carrying the emotional weight of his extraordinary life story. Growing up homeless for stretches of time, losing his first band after its members were drafted into the Vietnam War and the murder of his brother, Bradley overcame adversity to pursue music, long inspired by the passion of James Brown. Gabriel Roth (co-founder of funk/soul revivalist label Daptone Records) discovered Bradley, aged 62, performing as James Brown impersonator, and the rest is history. Released in 2016, Changes is a powerful showcase for the late soul singer’s raw, lived-in voice. Drawing heavily on classic soul, funk and gospel, the famed title track, a cover of Black Sabbath’s Changes is without doubt one of Bradley’s signature songs, transforming the already great original into something stirring and deeply personal. This album cemented Bradley as one of modern soul’s most compelling voices, arriving late but leaving an indelible mark.
Georgia, Rough Trade Office
2017: IDLES - Brutalism
The debut album from the Bristol five-piece arrived into the racks like a clenched fist. Songs about grief, masculinity, class and frustration delivered with uncommon directness, announcing IDLES as a band with plenty to say and absolutely no intention of saying it quietly.
Emily, Rough Trade East
2018: Confidence Man - Confident Music For Confident People
Confidence Man know how to party. A fun fusion of ‘90s ibiza danceability, camp lyricism, electro-punk synths and disco beats, this record is a lesson in how to get silly. Hilariously tongue-in-cheek, listeners have no choice but to greet the sardonicism with a ‘just get up and dance’ lightheartedness. With this debut, the Brisbane-formed band confidently established themselves as the ultimate dancefloor-fillers.
Cammy, Rough Trade Office
2019: Fontaines D.C. - Dogrel
We’d heard whispers, we’d hung onto every single that came before it, but the arrival of Dogrel sparked something special, not least the beginning of a lasting connection with the Rough Trade community. From Notting Hill pavements, to topping our Albums of the Year list at the close of 2019, the fandom was immediately fervent.
An urgent, insistent and powerful debut album. A poetic brawl, a slick-witted masterpiece. A self-assured, perfectly structured set of songs from five guys who knew exactly when to pull you close and when to let you loose.
Emily, Rough Trade Office
2020: Rina Sawayama - SAWAYAMA
In a landscape where maximalist hyperpop was increasingly emerging, exaggerating 2000s dance pop and bubblegum sounds, SAWAYAMA exploded the existing templates: a hugely ambitious collision of pop, nu-metal, R&B, rock and electronic music, with bursts of electrifying guitar and an ultra-synthetic sound. Sawayama is a true self-titled in every sense of the word, exploring identity, family, capitalism and the immigrant experience which has shaped Rina's life as a Japanese-British popstar. XS still sounds just as sensational as in 2020, capturing an early 2000s aesthetic with one of the slickest, hard-to-forget guitar feature we've heard in modern rock-pop.
Georgia, Rough Trade Office
2021: Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders, The London Symphony Orchestra - Promises
Created during the 2019 pandemic, Promises remains one of the 2020’s most unpredictable offerings. A pioneer of mid-century free jazz, a producer/DJ, equally known for his experiments as his electronic offerings, and the world-renowned London Symphony Orchestra. An intergenerational collaboration landing within a thriving contemporary jazz revival, spearheaded by the UK jazz and improvised scene (the likes of Shabaka Hutchings and Yussef Dayes).
Promises presents nine connected movements demonstrating patience, focus and commitment to minimalism, matching an era better suited for slow, meditative soundscapes over high-energy electronics. The unification of Pharoah Sanders saxophone with the humming ambience of Ben Shepherd’s production still feels like pure magic, a final career masterpiece for the late and great Pharoah Sanders, and a deserving Top 10 placing in our Albums of the Year 2021 list.
Georgia, Rough Trade Office
2022: Black Country, New Road - Ants From Up There
Undoubtedly the pinnacle of 2022. Isaac Wood’s vulnerable vocals paired with the band’s grandeur make for one of the most powerful and bitterly beautiful break-up records of a generation, and a gut-wrenching farewell from Wood who departed the band just days before this record was released. An exploration of perspective, vulnerability, and human emotion; the band’s magnum opus and the Windmill scene’s finest offering.
Cammy, Rough Trade Office
2023: Lankum - False Lankum
Released via Rough Trade Records, Irish folk experimentalists Lankum’s False Lankum is the perfect example of creating something singular, whilst remaining rooted in centuries of tradition. The quartet mark each track with their signature sound; heavy drones and distortion whirr across twelve darkly beautiful tracks. Radie Peat’s haunting vocals feel ancestral, and the record as a whole imparts a feeling of addictive unease as it pulls between moments of dark and light.
Cammy, Rough Trade Office
2024: MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks
Mark Jacob Lenderman has become one of alt-country’s most cherished acts. Assessing the mundanity of life with wry humour, the lyricism across this record secured Lendermen as a generational songwriting talent. He addresses materialism, catholicism, heartbreak and isolation and packages it all up into a beautifully crafted, nine-track Americana masterpiece.
Cammy, Rough Trade Office
2025: Pulp - More
A remarkable return for one of Britain’s most distinctive bands, their first album of new material in almost 24 years. Jarvis Cocker’s observational songwriting remains as sharp, strange and characterful as ever, embracing Pulp’s more mature perspective, alongside the signature Britpop mix of melancholy, romance and everyday absurdity. More showed the band still have plenty more to say.
Georgia, Rough Trade Office
Discover More
- Rough Trade: 2006-2015
- Rough Trade: 1996-2005
- Rough Trade: 1986-1995
- Rough Trade: 1976-1985
- Rough Trade 50 anniversary overview
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