Last week, the shortlist for this year’s Mercury Prize was announced. Although it is a solid list, with some deserving albums, many pointed out significant omissions from the list, including albums from Self Esteem, Geordie Greep, Little Simz, Heartworms and others. It also highlighted the fact that so many brilliant records don’t have a chance to get on the list due to the prohibitive cost of even entering.
This brings us to our alternative; the Neutron Prize shortlist for 2025. This is our alternative selection of records released between July 2024 and August 2025. It’s a diverse selection of albums that we feel deserve a platform. Twelve records chosen by our editors and writers. You may have your own favourites, and we are always interested in hearing them too. It shows the sheer depth of music released in this country every year.
As always, we urge you to support your favourite artists. Whatever way you can!
Adwaith – Solas
Solas is the latest chapter in the Adwaith story, their most adventurous, vivid, forward-looking, connected work yet. The 23-track double album is a document to literal and creative growth, taking in different moods and textures that enchant and intrigue at every turn. It exudes an air of supernatural confidence and defiance of young women who have nurtured their craft over years, plugged in, finding the spark of joy, free to experiment, pushing their songwriting past historical boundaries.
If there is a glass ceiling for Welsh music, Adwaith smash through it. Solas is an awe-inspiring document to a band that continually travels onwards, the bold forward-looking sound of a new Wales. (Bill Cummings)
The Allergies – Freak The Speaker
Listening to this record by Bristol DJ/Production duo The Allergies brings a real feeling of blissful nostalgia. It’s very retro but in a kind of futuristic way. There are two elements to Freak The Speaker – there’s the rap side of the coin, which is truly old school, evoking memories of NWA, Naughty By Nature and Ice-T, and then there’s the truly uplifting Northern Soul leanings of tracks like ‘Knock Me Off My Feet‘ – which is a beefed up and utterly joyful take on Clarence Murray‘s 1969 recording ‘Dancing To The Beat‘ – and the ultra-smooth soul of ‘I Feel It‘. Hell, they even mix genres on the irresistible ‘One Time‘.
The Allergies have created an album of infinitely listenable tunes that never outstay their welcome, with most of them clocking in around the ‘perfect pop song’ length of three and a half minutes. (Loz Etheridge)
DIVORCE – Drive to Goldenhammer
Divorce’s debut album blends indie-rock, folk, chamber pop, and even touches of country and electronic experimentation, all while maintaining an unmistakable sense of identity that feels both distinctly modern and deeply rooted in their Midlands origins. This sonic intimacy is enhanced by the album’s production, helmed by Catherine Marks (known for her work with boygenius, Wolf Alice, and Foals). At the heart of Drive to Goldenhammer lies the theme of transformation. Divorce’s journey as a band has been one of constant change, both personally and musically, and the record grapples with the disorienting nature of this evolution. ‘Antarctica‘, the opening track, sets the stage for the album’s themes of movement and upheaval.
It’s a sharp commentary on the contradictions of the artist’s journey – simultaneously self-aware and self-deprecating, yet ultimately confident in its refusal to take itself too seriously. Despite the album’s sometimes playful tone, there are moments of real emotional weight. ‘Hangman‘ is a deeply personal reflection on Felix’s time working in the care sector, balancing the exhaustion of the job with a profound sense of purpose. (Gemma Cockrell)
The Eggmen Whoooooo! – Fuzzy Eggs, Please
Welsh outfit’s Eggmen Whoooooo!’s rather tremendous debut album Fuzzy Eggs, Please. The Eggmen Whoooooo! are quite the ensemble, comprising as they do of members of EL Goodo, Los Blancos and Trecco Beis. Monikers Benedict E Frye, Gregg Boyle, Sheldon Advocaat, Thom Lett, Gwyn Ŵy and Sue Flay might be ouef-themed metaphors – albeit clever ones – but make no mistake this is an incredibly accomplished album of simply great songwriting and inventive musicianship.
Fuzzy Eggs, Please is one for music nerds, basically. And we suspect the egg men and woman involved together with producer Thighpaulsandra (Spiritualized, Tim Burgess), make no apologies for this. The moment the stylus needle settles in the white, pink and purple splattered record we’re surrounded by shelves of classic psychedelia, garage, surf rock and 60s pop records lovingly played and soaked up. And yet, we have here an album suited for contemporary times in its own right. Fuzzy Eggs, Please subtly raises issues and mindsets perhaps not voiced so readily back in its inspirations’ heydays. Take ‘Eggman Vs Hellboy’ and its lyrical contemplation and acceptance of life’s limits. What an absolute stomper in the Nuggets garage rock tradition, with fuzzy guitar and collaborative “whooo!” sealing the bonding and understanding. A proper pysch album how it should be made. (Cath Holland)
ESKA – The Ordinary Life of a Magic Woman
Whilst her self-titled 2015 record might have been nominated for the Mercury Prize, ESKA has spent time collaborating and experimenting with the boundaries of noise and her voice. She sounds fully in her power and as happy in her skin, freewheeling, embracing her whole self, and pushing her art form as far as she can.
ESKA has sculpted her sound, pushing the boundaries of Afrofuturism, industrial pop, alternative rock, soul, R&B, and jazz. Its narrative examines dual lives, of women as mothers and providers, and the delicate dance between daily rhythms and creative transcendence. She has shaped a sonic tapestry that’s abrasive, challenging and arresting all at once. ESKA’s most diverse, experimental, thrilling and best work yet! (Bill Cummings)
The Gentle Good – Elan
The Gentle Good’s psychedelia-glazed new album Elan, is the creative conclusion of Gareth Bonello living in an off-grid cottage in the Cambrian Mountains for a year. Cwm Elan (the Elan Valley) was flooded to provide water for Birmingham at the beginning of 20th Century. The new record is a contemplation and reflection of the landscape, history and politics of this remote area.
‘Stunning Location’ leaves no room for ambiguity. Holiday and second homes and every Airbnb in areas of Wales are problematic, with local youth struggling to get on the housing ladder as a result, forcing them to settle in urban areas and not return. The record is a wide palette, a remote and in the flesh collaborative work with fellow musicians Rajasthani folk pioneers SAZ, Laura J Martin on flute, and Radnorshire guitar virtuoso Toby Hay. ‘Fleet’ is a tribute to a sheep dog. Gareth did a 20 mile walk to the next valley during his stay, mirroring the journey taken by a shepherd in a book he read about the place. The shepherd went to a wedding and for some reason, left the festivities in the middle of the night to go back to his farm. And got lost in a snowstorm, ended up on The Monk’s Trod, which is one of the most isolated parts of the valley. (Cath Holland)
Kathryn Joseph – WE WERE MADE PREY
Just the most beautiful, haunting record. It was released on my birthday and what a birthday present.
I said in my review “It’s an immersive experience, one you can’t take for granted and play at any time. An album is a precious thing, it’s taken time and effort and pain and experience and their whole being to produce. FIRE. creates a full stop. Something that punctuates every song on this piece of art. It’s basically just her, completing the circle. The human condition. The horror, the primal urge, the evil, the destruction, the revival, the return“.
“I am a wolf now, so I have to go” (Jim Auton)
Melin Melyn – Mill On The Hill
If there was a baton of Welsh Indie music to be passed between bands over the past thirty years, if it started with Super Furry Animals, then it’s currently with Melin Melyn. Debut LP Mill On The Hill comes several years into their creative output including several excellent EPs, and superb stand alone singles like ‘I Paint Dogs ‘.
Proving that you can do hilarious and brilliant indie pop that can be taken seriously, The Yellow Mill (the English for Melin Melyn) are uplifting, catchy, but most of all great songwriters and tunesmiths. If you get the chance to see them live, or if you have already, it’s a community experience. You remember community, it’s what we used to have years ago when everyone helped each other and gave a shit about each other. Yeah i can’t remember either.
They were also very kind and wrote a song just for me in ‘The Pigeon and the Golden Egg‘ which has the line in the chorus “You’ve got this, you’ve got this, you’ve got this Jimbo”. My motivational pick me up. Welsh album of the year. I think so. (Jim Auton)
mclusky – The World Is Still Here, And So Are We
A raucous shot in the side for any post, pre or slap in the middle of hardcore. Or anyone who likes to stamp on a distortion pedal. Don’t rest on your laurels motherfuckers. Cos unless your laurels are as luscious and plump and comfy as Mclusky‘s are then you’ll be sleeping on really thorny, harsh shrubbery. It’s all if twenty years haven’t actually passed and the urgency, rage and hilarious non sequiturs are all present. Singles ‘unpopular parts of a pig‘, ‘people person’, ‘chekov’s guns’ and ‘autofocus on the prime directive’ have enough variety and thunderous riffs with the Mclusky trademark stamp right across it. Riotous stuff. (Jim Auton )
Rona Mac – Honeymilk & Heavy Weather
Rona Mac‘s fantastic second album Honeymilk & Heavy Weather deals with grief in vivid, intimate and moving detail, documenting a ” journey through grief, love and life’s grittiest peripheries.” as she puts it. It’s an album about and written for her dear friend Emily Victoria Hemingway, who tragically took her life a few years ago.
A touching tribute not just to her friend but a portrait of an artist whose talent burns brightly and is maturing wonderfully, she has the ability to capture emotions in a bottle and translate them into fantastic recordings from her home. Rona Mac is a formidable songwriter, these songs that are brimming with empathy and compassion for her friend, and using songwriting to try and process her trauma, and we are all lucky to be invited in to experience it too, far from gloomy, this record both recognises the injustice and tragedy of Emily’s life but also celebrates her. Rona is a human being who is like all of us, is dealing with the heaviness of loss in her own way. (Bill Cummings)
Tim Hickox – The Orchestra Of Stories
This is the third album by Tom Hickox, and with each release, it’s harder and harder not to mumble the word ‘genius’ at some point. He worked with Chineke! Orchestra, Europe’s first majority black and ethnically diverse orchestra, on this record, along with Onyx Brass, and both give it such an expansive sound that it becomes arguably his most accomplished work to date.
It begins with the dramatic horns of ‘The Clairvoyant‘ (apparently inspired by inspired by a news story about a bereaved man conned out of his savings by a bogus psychic), and we are enticed by a stabbing piano motif that briefly recalls ‘A Rush And A Push And The Land Is Ours‘ from The Smiths‘ final album Strangeways Here We Come. The second half of the record is somewhat more sombre in feeling, with ‘Lament For The Lamentable Elected‘ sounding like if Nick Cave did an orchestral number as the theme tune to a James Bond film, whereas The Waterboys‘ enduring classic ‘The Whole Of The Moon‘ is stripped down for a more solemn version, though still beautiful and no less relatable than the original. After the affecting ‘Man On The High Road‘ brings to mind the late great Scott Walker, we finish with ‘The Port Quin Fishing Disaster‘, which is quite possibly one of the most downbeat album closers in the history of the long player. Tom Hickox has really surpassed himself with The Orchestra Of Stories. It’s an outstanding record. (Loz Etheridge)
W.H. Lung – Every Inch Of Earth Pulsates
Every Inch Of Earth Pulsates might only contain nine songs, but oh my, what a set they make up. Every one of them is an absolute treat, starting with the driving, kind of ‘Dirty Vegas does shoegaze’ opener that is ‘Lilac Sky‘. It’s such an emotional sounding track with a lot of heart. It’s impossible not to fall in love with it, from its pulsating beginning to that dramatic, huge sounding culmination at the end. The fact that they follow this with ‘Bliss Bliss‘ – a song with one of the most euphoric choruses you’re ever likely to hear. A real warm-feeling blast of nostalgia. So good you want to cry.
‘I Can’t Lie‘ harks back to the 1980s and tips it hat, whether knowingly or not, to Bronski Beat, Joe singing falsetto here, and it’s one of my favourite tracks as a result, but picking a favourite track here is like trying to choose your favourite offspring. It can’t really be done without feeling guilty. So it won’t surprise you to know that the early Depeche Mode-like ‘The Painting Of The Bay‘ is also fabulous, with shades of New Order circa 1982 to boot, before the utterly staggering curtain closer, the easy to sway along to ‘I Will Set Fire To The House‘. Every Inch Of Earth Pulsates is beyond question one of the most glorious long players we’ve seen released. I firmly believe that, in years to come, this may even be looked upon as one of the classic albums of the 2020s. Perhaps even beyond. Just breathtaking. (Loz Etheridge)
