Britpop royalty, new rap pioneers, indie sleaze titans and punk's hottest new duo. We round up the biggest releases of the past year and cast an eye to some of the artists we predict will be the sound of 2025.
From celebrating the life and legacy of trailblazing producer SOPHIE to the triumphant return of the powerhouse Fontaines D.C., from grassroots champions English Teacher clinching the Mercury Prize to Charli XCX's 'Brat Summer' evolving into a cultural phenomenon, this year has been marked by standout successes and the discovery of exceptional new music.
As we close the books on 2024, we reflect on the highlights at Rough Trade and revisit the LPs that flew out the racks before taking a look at the calendar ahead. With 2025's schedule already promising a number of awaited debuts, anticipated returns and shock comebacks, a slew of future anthems are on the cards and we are all ears.
2024 Bestsellers:
The most popular LPs at Rough Trade in 2024
Fontaines D.C. delivered our best-selling album of 2024 with their fourth full-length Romance, partly driven by set of wonderful out-stores, at Electric Ballroom and Content Liverpool, facilitated by our new Rough Trade Liverpool store.
We produced around 350 individual Rough Trade Exclusive vinyl titles in 2024, the best-selling of which were:
English Teacher's stellar debut This Could Be Texas arriving on exclusive galaxy gold vinyl in April, our Album of the Month! The Leeds band continued their ascent to rank not only number two in our Albums of the Year campaign, but also take home the Mercury Prize - a deserved accolade for their impressive rise.
The late and legendary avant-pop pioneer SOPHIE's posthumous project was our Album of the Year 2024, releasing alongside the Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-insides Non-Stop Remix Album on Rough Trade Exclusive red vinyl. On LP for the first time after its initial release as a 3CD clutch bag, it was thrilling to see this rare and revered remix album become available to SOPHIE's committed community, further celebrating her legacy.
Our Album of the Year 2024 list also featured hotly sought-after LPS from Father John Misty, Clairo, The Smile, St Vincent and Charli XCX. A huge year for future-facing pop music with Chappel Roan also soaring out of the racks.
Camera Obscura, The Last Dinner Party, SPRINTS and Cassandra Jenkins all released albums in 2024 that were Album of the Month, heading up our Rough Trade Club subscription, inclusive of a Rough Trade Exclusive vinyl pressing.
Sold-out out-store and in-store shows with FLO, Ezra Collective, Michael Kiwunaka and IDLES drove their albums to all be top sellers, some legendary live performances from these established acts and a definitive debut for FLO as the highest-charting British R&B girl group in 23 years.
2025 Hot Tips: Debuts
An opening statement for a new generation just getting started.
Lambrini Girls - Who Let The Dogs Out
A fun and fearless noise-punk duo making anarchic waves. Lambrini Girls, vocalist-guitarist Phoebe Lunny and bassist Lilly Macieira will undoubtedly capture you with their undeniable chemistry, as displayed from their sparky EPs so far, and their ferocious sets of 2024 (Scala, support for IDLES sold-out shows at Alexandra Palace and Glastonbury). This is set to be a take-no-prisoners debut, addressing important societal ills over a live drum breakbeat.
Oklou - Choke Enough
French singer, producer and DJ Oklou is a refreshing voice in art-pop. The classically trained multi-hyphenate has collaborated with A. G. Cook, Flume, Sega Bodega and masters dreamy futuristic electronic soundscapes full of warm ambient emotion and melody. The album singles out so far have been on heavy rotation in the Rough Trade office, songs which stick with you for their intimacy, leaving us very excited for her sold-out debut in-store at Rough Trade in March 2025!
HotWax - Hot Shock
Hastings-via-Brighton trio comprising of Tallulah Sim-Savage (vocals/guitar), Lola Sam (bass) and Alfie Sayers (drums), making adrenaline-jolted rock anthems. Following their double EP in 2023, celebrated in our Rough Trade On The Rise curation, we can't wait for a striking debut album that has power, passion, tunes and brings the same joy into the room like Hole or Elastica.
Doechii - ?
Following a breakthrough year with her third mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal, the Tampa rapper and Top Dawg Entertainment protege has proved her metal, a formidable lyricist and creative storyteller reminiscent of the true hip-hop greats. Alligator Bites Never Heal has been receiving album-like love bringing Doechii Grammy nominations for Best New Artist, Best Rap Performance Nissan Altima and Best Rap Album, but Doechii has promised the true debut lands in 2025. Expect big things.
2025 Hot Tips: Returns
The end of extended hiatuses, surprise comebacks, and new material well worth the wait.
Lana Del Rey - The Right Person Will Stay
Originally rumoured to be titled Lasso, Hollywood queen Lana Del Rey announced on Instagram that the newly titled tenth album The Right Person Will Stay is set to arrive May 21st. Made in collaboration with Jack Antonoff, Drew Erickson, Luke Laird and Zach Dawes. Could this album title be a reference to her newly married life? What we do know about the forthcoming album is that this tenth album marks a new era for LDR, a self-professed departure from her current sound of "classic country, American, or Southern Gothic production".
LCD Soundsystem - ?
LCD Soundsystem confirmed their fifth album was in progress in November, releasing album single x-ray eyes alongside the news. Bubbling synths and mysterious minimal lyrics, if the single is anything to go by we expect a true return to form from the indie sleaze titans.
Horsegirl - Phonetics On and On
Horsegirl - the New York-via-Chicago trio of best friends Nora Cheng, Penelope Lowenstein, and Gigi Reece - release their anticipated second album (their debut being crowed an Album of the Month in 2022). Produced by Cate Le Bon and recorded at The Loft in Chicago, the band’s original and sonic home, Phonetics On and On is an exploration of the lines between pop, minimalism, and playful experimentation. The songs are a testament to experimenting with space and texture while maintaining a pop song at the core.
Everything Is Recorded - Temporary
2025 will see the return of the XL Recordings label boss' multi-artist project Everything Is Recorded. Temporary brings together another colourful cast of collaborators including Sampha, Bill Callahan, Noah Cyrus, Florence Welch, Maddy Prior, Berwyn, Alabaster Deplume, Jah Wobble, Yazz Ahmed, Laura Groves, Kamasi Washington, Rickey Washington, Roses Gabor, Jack Peňate, Samantha Morton, Clari Freeman-Taylor and Nourished By Time. If it's anything like the last two projects this will be nothing short of spell-binding.
Jeshi - Airbag Woke Me Up
A statement of evolution from the East London rapper, Jeshi returns with a fully realised version of himself, exploring the versatility of his voice and a further candidness to his lyrics. Jeshi's live energy is commanding and the subject matter vital, confronting class and the cost of living crisis, and this time, what to take away from emerging from the tough times. Jeshi is very much a frontrunner of UK rap right now so this is not one to be missed.
Squid - Cowards
The Brighton post-punk jazz-rock outfit are back and more dynamic than ever, building on the success and growth made with second album O Monolith. Leaning into the surrealist imagery they have come to be known for, Cowards will be starkly conceptual, lyrically inspired by dystopian literature to build a cast of characters, nine stories where the protagonists reckon with cults, charisma and apathy. On additional production is longtime shifu and collaborator Dan Carey, who recorded the band’s first two albums.
Nourished By Time - The Passionate Ones.
Baltimore post-R&B artist Nourished By Time aka Marcus Brown has been on a steady ascent since his acclaimed 2023 debut Erotic Probiotic 2. His boundless creative vision and affinity with the UK have taken him to signing with the reputable XL Recordings, releasing the Catching Chickens EP in 2024 (which dominated various end-of-year lists) and soon inbound, his debut full-length for the label. The philosophical performer has shared with Crack Magazine that he's currently finishing up The Passionate Ones, an album dedicated to the “dreamers” toiling in the “fields” he invoked on Erotic Probiotic 2. We've been a huge fan of NBT's output so far so we are more than excited for this next chapter.
2025 Hot Tips: Predictions
Our hot take on who's been teasing new music for 2024.
Pulp
In May 2023 the Britpop legends kicked off the "This Is What We Do for an Encore Tour”, a reunion dedicated to the memory of the band's former bassist, Steve Mackey, who died in March 2023. The band have debuted several new songs during the tour and a few months after finishing the US tour leg in September the band announced they had signed a new record deal with our good friends at Rough Trade Records, who although despite being managed by the label for 30 years had never signed a record deal. It was also reported that the group were “back in the studio” after frontman Jarvis Cocker was spotted in Walthamstow, London, pictured carrying an orange Rough Trade tote bag. Smells like something must be cooking!
The xx
These guys have been busy with solo projects since the release of their last official The xx release in 2017. Oliver Sim's 2022 solo debut Hideous Bastard and Romy's 2023 solo debut Mid Air. DJ-producer and dance music icon Jamie xx released his anticipated second solo album In Waves in 2024 to much acclaim, with the trio taking the stage together once again during Jamie's set at Glastonbury. Surely a reunion is fiercely due.
Romy alluded to NME that this time apart will contribute to the trio reuniting with a fresh approach:
"I think Oliver [Sim] and Jamie [xx] and I have all tried new things and learned a lot from different projects and I think that’s quite healthy to be like, ‘What have you learned? What should we do now?"
Romy, NME September 2023
Mary in the Junkyard
This experimental rock trio have firmly been on our radar since the release of debut EP This Old House (which was also available on Rough Trade Exclusive vinyl with a hand-made zine). The London-based group have been really making a name for themselves, So Young Magazine cover stars, known for a rowdy live reputation, with over 20 of those being at Brixton’s Windmill, as well as Green Man and End of the Road festivals under their belt. Their EP's lead track Ghost was produced by XL's Richard Russell, delicate and spidery music with big breezy key changes which would sit perfectly in your collection next to Life Without Buildings and Blonde Redhead. We expect a debut full-length to arrive in 2025 and we're excited for the spontaneity we expect to come with it.
Wolf Alice
Things have been quiet for Wolf Alice since Blue Weekend in 2021 but new beginnings appear to be on the horizon as the band announced they were leaving their Dirty Hit label home in 2024 for Columbia, after completing their three-album deal. Fans anticipate this move will take their career to new heights and whispers that they have been writing and in the studio have cropped up on social media.
Ears to the ground
Outside of our highlights of anticipated pre-releases, there has been a number of new music murmurings setting our tongues wagging...
Caroline Polachek has a small share of the limelight in 2024, collaborating with Charli XCX on the Brat remixes and performing their Welcome To My Island remix on the London leg of the Brat world tour. The genius producer has been in the studio with A.G. Cook working on a track for A24's I Saw The TV Glow this year. It might just be wishful thinking but we feel fairly certain if these two are working together, some further magic is being cooked up.
In May 2024 the Miki Berenyi Trio released their first single and embarked on a US tour. Fronted by Miki Berenyi (Lush) the trio includes her most recent band Piroshka collaborators Kevin ‘Moose’ McKillop on guitar and Oliver Cherer on bass. Tickets are on sale for their EU 2025 tour, which we imagine means there is a body of new music to be revealed.
If country music hadn't been popular enough of late, here is another band to push forward its ongoing resurgence, but with the very unique twist of folkloric themes and dance. A mash-up of folk, punk and ’60s garage Brighton's The New Eves describe their sound as 'hagstone rock', bewitching crowds at Green Man and leading us to wonder if a debut full-length project will be on the cards.
Japanese singer, songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist Ichiko Aoba is set to continue her orchestral world-building with anticipated follow-up, Luminescent Creatures, announcing a 2025 world tour which includes an exclusive London performance of the full album at The Barbican. A hot ticket indeed.
We are also keeping a hopeful ear out for new music from Ezra Furman, Self Esteem, Snail Mail, Car Seat Headrest, QOTSA, Lady Gaga, Shygirl, Yeule, Barry Can't Swim, Glass Beams, Fcukers, Perfume Genius, Circuit Des Yeux, Caroline, Bar Italia, and will Oasis finally fuel the fire with a reunion and new music after two-decades in feud? 2025 will tell.
Keep up to date with the best new music we are following in 2023 with our Counter Culture playlist, kicking off afresh in January. Updated weekly, these are the tracks we are loving right here, right now.