To kick off 2026 we’ve been sharing some of our favourite music and culture of the previous twelve months. Yesterday it was Neil Laurenson & Attila Peter whose choices included Great Grandpa, Stranger Things, The New Eves, Quinton Barnes and much more – see their article here. Today it’s the turn of Deputy Editor Paul F Cook.
Albums: As with every year picking a single album as my favourite of the year is too cruel an exercise. So, I have gathered up the albums that not only meant the most to me this year but there were the ones I kept coming back to.
Cerys Hafana – Angel
Home is where the harp is. Angel is a sublime album that ‘guides you to a place of exceptional beauty and intrigue’. It modernises traditional folk and mixes Hafana’s incredible dexterity on the Welsh Triple Harp with their beguiling vocals on an album that uses as its inspiration the story of “an old man who goes for a walk in the forest and hears an angel singing so beautifully it makes him fall asleep for three hundred and fifty years”. My review here / Cerys Hafana: Website | Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram | YouTube
You can also check out / download the exclusive track ‘Y Delyn’ which was featured on day #10 of the Joyzine Advent Calendar.
Death Machine – Dawning Eyes
With the album Dawning Eyes Death Machine remain one of my favourite bands as they continue to defy their name with their of blend of electronics, folk and pop. Despite having 19 tracks they managed to maintain music that is ‘deeply layered, moving and contemplative, meditative and rousing’.
My review here / Death Machine: Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram | YouTube
Ghostwoman – Welcome to the Civilised World
Along with Black Mekon, Ghostwoman are a band that bring out the hyperbole in me: “middle-of-nowhere gas station weirdness”, “sandpaper and honey”, “the kinds of ghosts you want to be haunted by”. Welcome to the Civilised World is an album “inspired by the absurdity of human behaviour and the circus that is life” and delivers killer riffs and tectonic drums.
My review here and Ghostwoman gave us a stellar My Life In 10 Songs read it here.
Ghostwoman: Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
Felbm – winterspring-summerfall
Winterspring-summerfall is an exemplar ambient album drawing inspiration from the four seasons (environmental not Vivaldi). Every instrument is perfectly placed and there is exceptional sensitivity in the use of field recordings to highlight each season. This is ‘music to slow time and foster contemplation’.
My review here / Website | Bandcamp | Instagram | YouTube | Bluesky
Public Enemy – Black Sky Over The Projects: Apartment 2025
“We wanna THANK the fans, this album is the GIVE BACK!” and what a thank you it was. Simply put, Black Sky Over The Projects: Apartment 2025 (BSOTP) is hold-your-breath, lump-in-the-throat, good. It took me right back to the goosebumps I got hearing ‘Bring The Noise’ for the first time (from It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back). 40 years and 16 albums and they can still bring something that is still of righteous fury and from the opening track the force of Public Enemy is in the red and the album is brilliantly constructed like an old school hip-hop mix tape or late-night pirate DJ set. Public Enemy: Facebook | Instagram
Dead Pioneers – Post American
Their star is on the rise and PO$T AMERICAN builds on the righteous vitriol of their self-titled debut, delivering more pyroclastic energy from the band as they underpin the spoken word fire of activist and lyricist Gregg Deal.
My review here / Dead Pioneers: Website | Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram
Pip Blom & Willem Smit – Long Fling
Long Fling is the product of musicians and life partners Pip Blom and Willem Smit. It’s ‘the wonderful collage of a relationship which may be built on love but also come packed with lust, bickering, boredom, break-ups and make-ups, and shopping lists.’ The album is a unique combination of their musical talents with the minutiae of their lives, it’s conversational, full of hooks and, if it’s the only thing they make together (which I hope is not the case), then it’s already an indie classic. Pip and Willem also gave us Our Life in 10 Songs which you can read here.
My review here / Pip Blom: Website | Instagram | Facebook Willem Smit: Instagram
Single/EP
Adam Ross ft. C Duncan – ‘Drink The First Light’
‘Drink The First Light’ is a joyous track that was released in November as a sunny antidote to the days and nights getting darker and colder. A fuzzed riff and ultra-catchy chorus make this song repeat-button-catnip. My review here / Adam Ross: Instagram | Facebook | Bluesky | YouTube | TikTok
Gigs:
Cerys Hafana at St. George’s Bristol, 2 October 2025
As I said in my review of this show ‘Cerys Hafana’s melding of the traditional and modern creates exceptional music that is as enthralling live as it is on record.’ As much as I have returned to the album Angel again and again since it was released, so my mind often drifts back to the beauty and calm of that evening at the beginning of October. Read my review here.
Death Machine, Dexter, Odense, 9 May 2025
Gig tourism? Yes please. Hanging a trip to a new place off seeing great music is huge fun. Odense is a beautiful town just outside Copenhagen (Death Machine’s hometown), and the venue Dexter was a warm and friendly place to see Death Machine promote their new album. “Denmark is a long way to travel to see if a band can deliver live what you have loved on record for years and it’s simple to say that they exceeded my hopes and unlocked a new level of appreciation for the music in me.” My review here.
Book:
Remain In Love, Chris Frantz. Published in July 2020
An autobiography that doesn’t pull any punches but sticks to Queensberry Rules as drummer, producer, songwriter, and Southern gentleman, Chris Frantz writes about his idyllic upbringing in the late 1950s, art school in the late 60s, forming Talking Heads’ in the 70s. Frantz writes about their early CBGB days in New York through to their global popularity, split and the success of Tom Tom Club. There is an endless supply of great stories including touring with The Ramones and XTC and their life in Jamaica which included living next door to Robert Palmer and hanging out with Big Audio Dynamite, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and Dennis Hopper. But at the core of everything is Frantz’s deep love for Tina Weymouth which shines throughout the book making it more ‘tell and kiss’ than ‘kiss and tell’. Available through good book stores and via Rough Trade.
Tom Tom Club: Website | Facebook
Music-related moment of the year
2025 saw the loss of post-punk force of nature Girls in Synthesis. I first saw them in 2017 supporting Yassassin (the year after they formed), and they were powerful enough in a small venue to give structural engineers a sleepless night. Their arc was an example of the epithet ‘the candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long’. R.I.P. GiS and thank you for your service. Read ‘Mission Complete’, my tribute to GiS, here.
It’s a sad state of affairs that so many grassroots venues are either closing or struggling to stay afloat in the current economy. So, the groundswell of support for a £1 levy on big concert ticket sales does offer some much-needed optimism to an often bleak picture. As has often been cited you don’t get to play the O2, Royal Albert Hall or Glastonbury if you haven’t done your time at the coalface of small venues such as The Lexington in London, The Cavern in Exeter, Prince Albert in Stroud, or King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow. You can read more about this and on the Music Venue Trust website and consider joining their mailing list.
On a personal note, I want to thank everyone involved in Joyzine and all the readers who have made this the best year on record for our site. The dedication of writers and photographers who contribute to Joyzine is amazing and, whether you’re reading about artists you already know or discovering for the first time, we will aim to bring you amazing reviews in 2026. If you are a writer, photographer or designer you can get involved by visiting our ‘Contact Us’ page.
Article by Paul F Cook
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