The blues has always been the music of hard truths, and Blues Corner's latest single "Piggy Bank Blues" arrives like a punch to the solar plexus of complacency. This is not the sanitised, tourist-board version of the blues that clutters so many modern releases, but rather a piece of work that bears its scars with unflinching honesty.

Joe McIntosh's latest manifestation as JeezJesus arrives with the blunt force trauma of economic anxiety made manifest. "Work to Die" is a brutalist anthem for the dispossessed, wrapped in the kind of synth-heavy industrial framework that would make Depeche Mode's darker moments seem positively buoyant.

Young British drummer Kai Craig announces himself with considerable authority on this confident debut, drawing together threads from post-bop's golden period with the poise of a musician twice his age. *A Time Once Forgotten* bears the hallmarks of serious jazz education—Craig studied under Martin France and the formidable Gregory Hutchinson—yet never feels overly academic or reverential.

Reading duo Lost Velvet have arrived at something genuinely arresting with 'Make It Alright,' a track that closes their debut EP trilogy with the kind of considered finality that marks bands destined for larger canvases. Robert Butcher and Melissa Morris have constructed a piece of music that breathes with the unhurried confidence of artists who understand that the most profound statements often emerge from restraint rather than volume.

Phil Woloch has crafted a remarkable piece of piano-driven pop that feels like discovering a lost gem from music's golden age. "Mind at Ease" emerges vibrant and upbeat, forged in a place where the mass appeal of pop blends with the attitude of rock Phil - Mind at Ease, yet carries the Vienna-based artist's distinctive fingerprints throughout its expertly constructed three-and-a-half minutes.

The resurrection of Giant Killers reads like a music industry fable – signed to MCA in the mid-90s, touring with Blur and gracing The Big Breakfast, only to watch their debut album vanish into corporate limbo. Three decades later, Jamie Wortley and Michael Brown have reclaimed their catalogue and emerged with renewed purpose, their 2024 comeback album *Songs for the Small Places* earning widespread critical acclaim.