Ones to Watch 2026

 

Every year since this blog started way back in 2008 I’ve published a ‘Ones to Watch’ list of new artists that I think are worth keeping an eye and ear on in the forthcoming year.

This time round I had decided that I wasn’t going to do such a list (which forms a series of posts) purely because the blog has been very inactive in 2025.

However, over the last few days I had a change of heart and so have decided to publish my Ones to Watch for 2026. There’s no long commentary on each artist though – I’m keeping this short and sweet. Just the list of 10 artists (below) and a Spotify playlist where you can hear their music.

Last year I had a strict criteria that each artist on the list must have only released one single or EP, hence being very early into their careers. By the end of the year some of the stand outs from that list were probably Jacob Alon (who received a Mercury prize nomination for his debut album), Luvcat (who released a well received debut album) and Chloe Qisha (who is on this year’s BBC Sound of list and a number of other high profile tip lists).

This year there is no criteria except a loose sense of newness about the 10 artists I have selected.

The Breaking More Waves Ones to Watch 2026 are:

Westside Cowboy

Erin LeCount

Ollie Dixon

Girl Group

Florence Road

Morn

Serena Clara

Sofia Isella

Sienna Spiro

Ellur

 

Find the playlist on this link:  CLICK HERE

Here's the first artist on the list...Westside Cowboy

Westside Cowboy · Don't Throw Rocks

Breaking More Waves Favourite Albums of 2025

 Whilst Breaking More Waves blog has slowed to the point of being defunct, I hope there’s still a space for yet another end of year album list amongst the multitude of end of year lists – this one only being finally decided at the end of the year.

As I’ve said with previous end of year list posts, by now if you’re a music fan you’re probably sick of these things by now and don’t want to read pages of descriptions of why they are my favourites. So instead I’ve just listed my top 25 of 2025 here. There's also a handy Spotify playlist you can find by clicking the link below which allows you to listen to 1 track from each of the albums. (Unfortunately there’s no track from KiF Productions brilliant ambient collage ‘Still Out’ as this is only available via Bandcamp).

The only comment I will make on this year’s list is that in the past I’ve often really struggled to determine my number 1. It’s often a toss up between 3 or 4 records which have shaped my year.

This year was different. LUX is such an incredible record it exceeds everything on this list by a long way. It deserves all the critical acclaim it is getting. I can say with a high degree of certainty that it will be in my top 5 at the end of the decade. It’s a truly astounding body of work from a truly exceptional artist (you may remember that her album Motomami - a totally different record from LUX - also topped my end of year list in 2022. If you haven't heard LUX yet you are missing out.

If you want to keep in touch with my musical recommendations whilst the blog is essentially dormant, don’t forget I still publish a new music weekly playlist updated every Friday or Saturday which you can find by clicking here and I am also on Instagram at breakingmorewavespics. I still do maintain a Twitter / X account but can see a point soon where I stop using this. That's at @BMWavesBlog

Here’s the link to the Breaking More Waves Top 25 albums of 2025 (CLICK HERE)

Happy New Year to anyone who finds this post.

1st Rosalía - LUX
2nd Ethel Cain - Willoboughy Tucker, I love you
3rd Marie Davidson - City of Clowns
4th Kif productions - Still Out
5th CMAT - Euro Country
6th Lorde - Virgin
7th The Cords - The Cords
8th NYX - NYX
9th The Waterboys - Life, Death and Dennis Hopper
10th The Last Dinner Party - From the Pyre
11th Jacob Alon - In Limerence
12th Suede - Anti Depressants 
13th Bon Iver - SABLE fABLE
14th Rianne Downey -The Consequence of Love
15th Max Richter - Hamnet (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
16th Ethel Cain - Perverts
17th Wet Leg – Moisturiser
18th Saint Etienne – International
19th Pulp - More
20th Ashnikko - Smoochies
21st Blood Orange - Essex Honey
22nd Viola Odette Harlow - Porn Star
23rd Joy Crookes - Juniper
24th Folk Bitch Trio - Now Would Be A Good Time
25th Warrington Runcorn New Town Development Plan - Public Works and Utilities

Rosalia - Berghain (From LUX)

Preview and Recommendations - Great Escape Festival 2025

 

It’s that time again when new music fans and the music industry in the UK descend to the south coast for the annual multi-venue music festival known as the Great Escape in Brighton.

I guess I’m part of the furniture at the festival now, having attended 17 of the 18 events since the very first one in 2006. Along the way I have witnessed a number of now high profile artists in their infancy, playing tiny venues. From Adele playing to about 100 people at the Red Roaster café in the early days of the festival to more recently the controversy courting Kneecap in 2024.

2024’s edition of the festival was an odd one, with many of the artists scheduled to play withdrawing in the days leading up to the event due to the festival’s partnership with Barclays bank, who hold financial ties to companies whose weapons, components and military technology are being used by Israel in its attacks on Palestinians. This led to a lot of frantic rescheduling of shows and updating of the timetable by the organisers, which to give the people doing the work credit, they did an excellent job at, with punters being kept informed of the changes by the constantly updating app.

The boycott by artists did achieve its aim and this year the festival is no longer sponsored by Barclays. However, the horrendous number of deaths in Palestine show no sign of abatement. On the ground at the festival last year, most punters I spoke to fully acknowledged the sincerity of those withdrawing, but questioned what the boycott would ultimately achieve, except for enabling artists to feel better about themselves if Barclays pulled out. 1 year on, the withdraw of the artists doesn’t appear to have resulted in even 1 life being saved to date as Barclays have not changed their business partnerships or ties.

2025’s edition of The Great Escape, minus the corporate sponsorship of Barclays, appears to be business as usual, with one change. This year’s event has now expanded to include live music on the Wednesday night as well as the normal full days on Thursday to Saturday.  Whilst traditionally there has always been a number of unofficial showcases on the Wednesday night this year the festival has added a number of official Great Escape gigs as part of the ticket offering.

Once again there are 100’s and 100’s of artists playing Great Escape. Not only at the official showcases but also at many of the free ‘Alt-Escape’ events that occur at the same time. If you are a first timer, the festival can feel almost overwhelming with the choice of artists, so as a way of help, Breaking More Waves is offering you a handful of recommendations of acts to see.

So let’s dive straight in with 10 recommendations for trying to catch (clashes and venue capacities permitting!)

Luvcat

Already named as one of Breaking More Waves Ones to Watch 2025 (here) and winner of the Northern Music Awards Breakthrough Act of the Year Award. Luvcat gives you murder ballads about poisoining your husband, being in love whilst making a sex tape and other twisted dark pop tunes that are way more interesting than the norm.

Luvcat · Lipstick

 

Sunday (1994)

Formed from members of Xylo and Viva Brother, Sunday (1994) make beautiful chiming guitar pop that pays reference to the likes of The Cranberries or The Sundays.

Sunday (1994) · Rain

Oreglo

Mixing jazz with rock influences they’ve signed to Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings and have been tipped as the next jazz band to do an ‘Ezra Collective’. If you want something away from all the indie guitar bands and something a bit more noodly at Great Escape Oreglo could be your thing.

oreglo · peck

Cliffords

Poetic and gritty, Cliffords are another band that were on the Breaking More Waves Ones to Watch list. Gearing up to release their 2nd EP this Irish band make big music and life affirming anthems belted out by the highly charismatic Iona Lynch.

The Cliffords · Bittersweet

Tara Nome Doyle

Tara Nome Doyle is a Norwegian-Irish singer songwriter based in Berlin. Her current album Ekko, released on the 11th April is a collection of gorgeous indie folk / chamber pop mixing violin and piano and clocks in at just 30 minutes long. This means if she ditches the first instrumental she could play almost all of it in her scheduled half hour at the Unitarian Church on Saturday night.

Tara Nome Doyle · The Overgrown Path

Zimmer 90

Around 10 years ago when music blogs like this were everywhere, Germany's Zimmer 90 would have undoubtedly been receiving plenty of ‘Blog Buzz’. They’d have been on a label like Kitsun and songs like What Love Is with its wholesome soft electronic dance feel would have no doubt been number 1 in the Hype Machine charts. However, it’s not 2015, but 2025. That doesn’t however mean that Zimmer 90 are not worth your attention. They are.

Zimmer90 · What Love Is

Westside Cowboy

This April Westside Cowboy beat 1000s of other entries to win the Glastonbury Festival Emerging Talent Competition and bag a £5,000 talent development prize and a slot on the Woodsies Stage at the festival. Surely enough of a recommendation on its own?

Nice Swan Records · Westside Cowboy - I've Never Met Anyone I Thought I Could Really Love (until I met you)

Goodbye

Goodbye are playing 5 shows at this year’s Great Escape including some Alt-Escape ones so there really is no excuse for not catching them at some point. They haven’t released any music yet save for a live ‘bootleg’ cassette of one of their gigs via Bandcamp (which they state ‘None of us own a cassette player so don’t even know if it’s any good’). However, I saw them last year at Mutations Festival and they were certainly a band that showed some promise. So, if you want to check out one local Brighton band, Goodbye are my recommendation.

Ruby Duff

If you like your pop a little bit quirky, a bit experimental and a bit cartoonish, Ruby Duff might just be the one for you. Her exuberant sounding tune Belong Here sounds like it belongs on radio.

Ruby Duff · Belong Here

Chloe Qisha

Yet another Breaking More Waves One to Watch for 2025, Chloe Qisha does knowing, sassy, cool as f*ck pop.

Chloe Qisha · Sex, Drugs & Existential Dread

Preview and Recommendations - Are You Listening? Festival 2025

 Are You Listening? Reading’s annual multi-venue music festival returns to the Berkshire town this weekend. Breaking More Waves has been a regular attendee to the event; our records show us first visiting in 2013 which appears to have been the first. Since then, except for 2024, we’ve been every year.

Despite being a firmly established event Are You Listening? doesn’t always get the praise or recognition in the media it deserves. Perhaps it’s because the likes of similar but larger multi events such as Great Escape, Dot to Dot and Sound City have a greater corporate involvement and can garner more publicity because of it. Having said that, this backfired for Great Escape last year with its sponsorship from Barclays leading to many artists pulling out as they didn’t want to be associated with an event where the main sponsor and partner had ties to Israeli companies, particularly those involved in the arms industry. 

Are You Listening? really does deserve more acclaim than it gets. Not only for its music (a mix of national touring acts and more local Berkshire / Oxfordshire artists), but the way its curated (each venue has a slightly different tone – if you hit up Sub 89 you’ll probably get a good does of sweaty, visceral indie rock (memories of the huge queues to witness Idles there in 2018 are still vivid in the memory) whereas if you choose St Laurence’s Church you’ll probably get something a little more unorthodox – from vocal acapella groups to synth punk to jazz.

Also, between 2013-2023 it’s worth noting that Are You Listening? raised £79,576 for Reading Mencap. Sadly after 10 years Reading Mencap had to take a step back from the partnership, bidding a fond farewell as the post-pandemic fundraising landscape has changed considerably. You can read more about this on Reading Mencap’s website here.

Now to the music. This year’s big hitters at Are You Listening? include the likes of previous Breaking More Waves Ones to Watch Big Special, Coach Party and Album of the Year top 10 band Sprints. However, here are a few selections of artists a little further down the bill who also deserve your attention.

Joshua Idehen

Formerly of Benin City, Joshua Idehen has collaborated with the likes of Kojey Radical, The Comet Is Coming and Sons of Kemet. A poet and a musician, he already has a significant back catalogue, but if you’ve not heard of him before, why not start with the track Mum Does the Washing, Joshua’s explanation of the world the way works, which will both make you laugh and think. Then follow on to a variety of smooth grooves that have found favour on BBC 6 Music.

 

Joshua Idehen · Mum Does the Washing

AK / DK

Drums. Synths. Textures. Rhythms. Motorik. Punk. Psychedelic. Dance. Experimental. These are some of the words that we’ve used in the past to describe AK/ DK, who produced one of our favourite albums of 2017 with Patterns / Harmonics (their 2024 release Strange Loops was also a lot of fun).  

 

Man / Woman / Chainsaw

One of the artists that featured on Breaking More Waves Ones to Watch list for 2025, Man / Woman / Chainsaw have hints of early Black Country New Road with leftfield rock songs that veer wildly from raucous guitars to soaring violins with enough breakdowns and tempo changes to keep you guessing throughout the set.

Man/Woman/Chainsaw · The Boss

Ziyad Al-Samman

According the Are You Listening website Ziyad Al-Samman is inspired by hours of listening to Prince, Pulp, Gorillaz and Egyptian singer Amr Diab. That on its own should be enough of a recommendation, but it turns out that after watching his video for his song Ya Habibi, he looks like a lot of fun as well.

 

Honeyglaze

With two albums under their belt, 3-piece Honeyglaze produce the sort of introspective bedroom indie that has a strong sense of conscious honesty and rawness. They have a certain languid unapologetic charm that impressed us back in 20021 (here), so they are on our list of possibles for Are You Listening 2025.

Honeyglaze · TV

Tickets for the festival (Friday warm up party in St Laurence Church featuring Sprints and the main Saturday multi venue event) can be found by clicking this link: Tickets.

Coming Back Soon...

 

As you may have noticed Breaking More Waves is on a break at the moment. But it’s going to return fairly soon.

In the meantime you can still find plenty on new music weekly on the Breaking More Waves Spotify playlist, which is called New Music Weekly. You can find it by clicking here.

You’ll find plenty of cracking new tunes there and it’s updated almost every Friday.

Here’s one from this week. It’s Ashnikko!

Ashnikko - Itty Bitty

Ashnikko · Itty Bitty

Favourite Albums of 2024 - The Top 10

 

It’s the end of the year and that means it’s the appropriate time to post an end of the year list. Not November. Not even the middle of December. But at the end of the year.

So here is the Breaking More Waves Favourite Albums of 2024 list.

There’s no big commentary or no real explanation of the records here. This is because if you are the sort of person that pays any interest in end of year lists, you probably can’t stand any more essays on why such and such a record is so good.

There are just 3 short points to be made about this list:

1. I only post my Top 10 records here, because as I’ve said in previous years, who really wants to listen to an album that someone says is their 89^th favourite release of 2024?

2. However, if you do want more than 10, you can find the Breaking More Waves Top 30 on a Spotify playlist here. 1 track from each record.

3. Having first appeared on the blog in 2009 after releasing the song Do It Well, Charli XCX is no stranger to the Breaking More Waves end of year list. She previously featured in 6^th (True Romance 2013), 10^th (Sucker 2014), 14^th (Charli 2019), 6^th again (How I’m Feeling Now 2020) and 28^th places (Crash 2022). But this time she goes higher. Brat is number 1. The album topped a lot of end of year polls. This one is no different. It’s the most forward thinking, modern, exciting, honest, danceable pop record I’ve heard all year and is packed full of good songs.

Brat is also unusual in that it’s an album that has made album artwork important / talked about again. Streaming has to a large extent destroyed interest in album artwork which relies generally on a bigger canvas than a small square on someone's phone. With Brat, Charli has made it important again. It’s influence has gone way beyond pop music.

Here’s the top 10. The playlist of the top 30 can be found on this link here.

Top 10 Albums of 2024

 1st Charli XCX – Brat

2nd The Last Dinner Party – Prelude To Ecstasy

3rd The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World

4th Fabiana Palladino  - Fabiana Palladino

5th English Teacher – This Could Be Texas

6th Kneecap – Fine Art

7th Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard And Soft

8th Ezra Collective – Dance, No One’s Watching

9th Sprints – Letter To Self

10th Lady Blackbird - Slang Spirituals

Charli XCX - 360 (From Brat)

charlixcx · 360

Ones to Watch 2025 #10 Man / Woman / Chainsaw

 Man/ Woman/ Chainsaw is Billy Ward (vocals, guitars), Emmie-Mae Avery (vocals,keys/synths), Vera Leppänen (vocals, bass), Clio Harwood (violin) and Lola Cherry (drums). The final choice on this year’s Breaking More Waves Ones to Watch list they are arguably the least ‘new’ of the 10 acts on the list, having released their first song Any Given Sunday late in 2022. Two further songs followed in 2023 and it was one of these that first caught our attention – the ambitious What Lucy Found There. It wasn’t until November 2024 though that the band released their debut EP and established themselves as a true force to be reckoned with.

If you are a fan of early Black Country New Road, The Delgados and what is often known as the ‘Windmill Scene’ bands but think that Black Country New Road are becoming a little too twee recently then Man / Woman/  Chainsaw may well be your cup of musical tea. Taking indie guitars and both male and female vocals as a base, the band create a bigger widescreen sound through the addition of violin and piano that gives them a broader folk-orchestral scope than many of their indie rock contemporaries. Man / Woman / Chainsaw have moments in their songs where they sound genuinely pretty but it’s often then cut with aggressive punkish outbursts. It's this contrast and not knowing what is going to come next that is part of their appeal.

Man / Woman / Chainsaw still sound like a band that are growing and developing, but that development is fascinating; where their potential takes them only time will tell.

Man / Woman / Chainsaw - Ode To Clio

Man/Woman/Chainsaw · Ode To Clio

Ones to Watch 2025 #9 Disgusting Sisters

The ninth Ones to Watch 2025 is Disgusting Sisters; a duo that featured on the blog in September prior to releasing any music.

Since then they’ve released they’re debut single Killing It and Breaking More Waves has managed to catch them live.

From that live show I can confirm that they are the new queens of dancing in front of the bedroom mirror pop. They’re cool, sassy and fun. They describe themselves as “Gucci Beavis and Butthead.” They probably spent their youths listening to Girls Aloud and Shampoo. They may get you grooving like a wolf. (Honestly). Killing It is probably their weakest song – there is better to come. The single was released by the forever on the case record label Speedy Wunderground.

They are the penultimate Ones to Watch 2025 on Breaking More Waves.

Disgusting Sisters - Killing It

 

Ones to Watch 2025 #8 The Itch

 

The next selection on the Breaking More Waves Ones to Watch 2025 list is a bit of a stab in the dark. To date The Itch have released just 1 song – the mighty Ursula. Released last April it was immediately featured as the Breaking More Waves song of the week. 

This is how it was described on the blog at that time: ‘For Georgia Hardy and Simon Tyrie (who are The Itch) have created something rather magnificent. An ambitious meandering piece of electronic retro-pop that hints at the likes of Depeche Mode circa Violator and Your Love by Frankie Knuckles, it’s in no rush to finish as it tells us that pain is stronger than love and builds to an early proclamation that: “We can bring down the government, we could put their heads on spikes.”’

The song ended up being one of my top 10 most streamed tracks of the year. Of course I fully expected something else to follow. It hasn’t. 

So was that it? Or are The Itch just scratching the surface and then making us wait at the opening for a very long time?

It’s hard to tell, but there are clues that there will be more to come. In October there was some proof they hadn’t jacked it in already when I witnessed the band play at Swn Festival in Cardiff. Expanded beyond a two piece they looked like a going concern. The shock was that the other songs in their set didn’t sound anything like the Ursula. A number of tunes burst with funkiness, there was a hint of Talking Heads and an element of danceable drama to their performance. Unexpected but unexpectedly good.

So that stab in the dark assumes that some of those tunes they played will surface at some point and that in 2025 The Itch will come marching forwards with some brilliant recordings. Let’s just hope they don’t do the same as Priestgate in 2023 or Pink Kink in 2018 and having seemingly just got going split just a few months after I’ve tipped them.

The Itch - Ursula

Ones to Watch 2025 #7 Chloe Qisha

 

Do you like pop music? Then the chances are you’ll like the seventh artist on Breaking More Waves Ones to Watch list for 2025. Chloe Qisha is a Malaysian born and UK based singer and songwriter who released her debut single VCR Home Video this July. Since then she’s released a number of other tracks including two really catchy tunes; Sexy Goodbye and I Lied, I’m Sorry. These songs straddle that thin line between out and out commercial pop (think Dua Lipa as an example) and slightly edgier alternative pop (think Chvrches). Either way in the ongoing battle between good pop and bad pop there is no doubt good pop wins here. Give I Lied, I’m Sorry one listen and I guarantee you’ll be humming the “Your hands on my body,” hook down the street.

Like all of the artists on this Ones to Watch list, it’s very early days for Chloe, but with her debut EP showcasing a neon lit world of fun pop with a slightly nostalgic 80s sound, Breaking More Waves is looking forward to hearing more from Chloe in 2025.

Chloe Qisha - I Lied, I'm Sorry

Chloe Qisha · I Lied, I'm Sorry

Ones to Watch 2025 #6 Cliffords

The sixth artist on this year’s Breaking More Waves Ones to Watch list hail from Cork in Ireland and are a five piece called Cliffords. They are an indie rock band with the sort of weighty sound that takes you to a higher plane. Songs like the powerful Second Skin showcase Iona Lynch’s commanding vocal delivery whilst Harry Menton’s guitars go from creating moments of tender beauty to waves of powerful noise.

The band have one EP Strawberry Scented out in the big wide world, which was released last spring and are already lining up quite a few live dates for 2025 including supporting Pompey band Crystal Tides at Oslo Venue in Hackney, London, SXSW in Texas in March and the Great Escape Festival in Brighton in May.

Whilst they haven’t rushed to deluge us with further new tunes since this EP, 2025 should hopefully bring more of their swooning guitar anthems.

Cliffords - Sleeping With Ghosts

Ones to Watch 2025 #5 Mudi Sama

 

The next artist on the Breaking More Waves Ones to Watch 2025 list released his debut single just over a month ago – so this selection is probably somewhat ahead of the curve.

Mudi Sama is a British-born, Nigerian-raised artist who, based on that one song (Jealous Type) is clearly in debt to the 00’s guitar sound – something you don’t see from many black artists given the scene at the time was predominantly white. I'd even suggest the guitars sound a little bit like Weezer. Kele from Bloc Party was probably one of the few exceptions to the 'white lads with guitars' standard. Now Mudi is following that route just as a previous One to Watch in 2020 Master Peace has done. 

What else do we know about Mudi? He’s already been booked for a handful of new music festivals in the UK for 2025 such as Liverpool Sound City, Brighton’s Great Escape and is also playing Abbie McCarthy's Future Karma Ones To Watch Show at The Lower Third in London at the end of January. For those of you who remember tastemaker pop blog / boutique label Neon Gold (responsible for the likes of debut singles by Ellie Goulding, Marina & The Diamonds and Passion Pit ) you may also be interested to know that the credits for Jealous Type give a nod to them and the production was by Jamie Rendle of Will And The People.

There’s definitely more to come from Mudi, so let’s keep an ear out for him?

Mudi Sama is the final artist on this Ones to Watch list to be published today, but there will be five more tomorrow to complete the ten, so check back then to see who the final tips are.

Mudi Sama - Jealous Type

Mudi Sama · Jealous Type

Ones to Watch 2025 #4 Jacob Alon

The fourth artist on the Breaking More Waves Ones to Watch list is Jacob Alon. Jacob hails from the Fife area of Scotland and makes utterly bewitching and tender acoustic music that is already finding a fan base, with their 2025 tour of small venues in January already a sell out.

Interestingly for an acoustic artist the two songs Jacob has released so far have both been produced with Dan Carey – a producer usually more known for working with noisier artists.

Due to Alon’s introspective and gentle sound comparisons have already been made with Jeff Buckley, Nick Drake and Rufus Wainwright. Hopefully soon the comparisons will stop and we’ll just be talking about Jacob Alon on their own right though– for certainly their exquisite songs are extraordinary and stand strong on their own.

Jacob Alon - Fairy In A Bottle

Jacob Alon · Fairy in a Bottle

Ones to Watch 2025 #3 The Pill

 

The Pill are the first of this year’s One to Watch artists that have featured previously on Breaking More Waves, from back in April when they introduced themselves to us with their debut single Bale of Hay.

Since then the Isle of Wight pop punksters have added a couple more frantically hilarious satirical songs to go with their ode to being blonde. Next there was Scaffolding Man, a song about being spotted in the bath by a scaffolder through the window and Woman Driver, which somehow manages to get away with the lines “we just kissed, touched tips, bumped hips,” and “please be nice, I’m just a girl with big tits.” It’s like the shouty indie version of Pull Up To The Bumper by Grace Jones, which surely is the sauciest song about driving ever.

Whilst the two previous artists named on this list could genuinely be considered commercial propositions, The Pill are probably never going to be winning the Mercury Prize or having big hits. However, they are all the better for it. They’re a band that are a blast when they play live. Clearly having loads of fun on stage they make a wonderful shouty racket with some great banter on top.

Who knows, maybe one day they’ll get all glossy and slick and release a Taylor Swift challenging tune, but for now they’re full of a rawness and energy that will leave you grinning from ear to ear. 

They’re Ones to Watch because that’s exactly what you should do – go and watch them.

The Pill - Woman Driver

Ones to Watch 2025 #2 Nia Smith

 

If you’re a fan of the likes of Jorja Smith or Olivia Dean you may well want to add another Smith to your collection. It’s the second artist on the Breaking More Waves Ones to Watch list for 2025 and her name is Nia Smith.

A graduate of the Brit school, Nia’s releases so far are contained on her Give Up The Fear EP released just last month. Each song sounds distinctively and gorgeously effortless in its soulful delivery. Whether she’s channeling her inner Alicia Keys on Little Red Car or the aforementioned Jorja on the dubby reggae tinged Personal (one version of which also features Popcaan), Nia Smith sounds like pure class.

Having supported the likes of Mahalia and Tems live and already performed on Later with Jools Holland, Nia clearly has some decent music industry support (she’s signed to Polydor records) and its easy to understand why – there’s masses of talent here.

Welcome to your new favourite UK R&B artist.

Nia Smith - Little Red Car

Nia Smith · Little Red Car

Ones to Watch 2025 #1 Luvcat

 

The first artist on the Breaking More Waves Ones to Watch list for 2025 is Luvcat.

Luvcat (yes apparently the name is taken as a reference to The Cure) is one Liverpool born Sophie Morgan Howarth, who released her debut single under the Luvcat monicker in May 2024. With three songs now under her belt (Matador, He’s My Man and the originally named Dinner @ Brasserie Zedel) her smokey dramatic tunes that mix cinematic indie singer-songwriter drama with elements of country and vaudeville are already gaining traction online but in real life as well (her 2025 February tour of small UK venues which includes 3 nights at Hoxton Hall in London is already sold out). Support slots with The Last Dinner Party and Paris Paloma have furthered her growing fanbase who are being wowed by her performances which includes elements of storytelling and theatricality. Even at this early stage her songs sound like classics to devour the words to.

Dork magazine have already called Luvcat “Britain’s most intriguing new artist,” and Breaking More Waves would like to endorse that statement.

Undoubtedly one to watch in 2025.

Luvcat - He's My Man

Luvcat · He's My Man

Ones to Watch 2025 - Introduction

 

We’re nearly at the end of the year which means it’s time for the 2 annual lists that Breaking More Waves has published ever since its birth in 2008.

First up is the Ones To Watch list. 10 artists that it may be worth keeping an eye out on for in 2025. As always this is not a tip list of who will be big (although previous years have included artists that have gone on to do very well indeed; from Lana Del Rey to The Last Dinner Party, from Florence and the Machine to Fontaines DC who stream below) but just a list of relatively new artists that are getting the Breaking More Waves thumbs up / seal of approval and I hope will have great futures, be that commercially, critically, for me personally or becoming even more awesome live.

This list was originally inspired by some of the other tip lists that get published in late November or December – especially the BBC Sound of list - which I was once a 'pundit' for (my 3 votes at the time were for Ellie Goulding, Stornoway and Unicorn Kid, two of whom made the final cut. In the past the BBC list was always an exciting list of new acts that provoked much debate amongst new music fans about the merits of such lists, the artists on them, major label influence and the power of London in terms of UK music, amongst many other things. For a few years a bunch of music blogs, including this one, created a poll that followed the exact same format of the voting of the BBC list to complement that list; arguably the Blog Sound of poll chose artists that were a little less established / newer in their careers, although there was some crossover with the BBC list.

However, unfortunately this year’s BBC list was very disappointing and has been pretty much universally panned. It feels here at Breaking More Waves towers like it's time to either abandon the thing or give it a complete revamp with a bunch of voters who follow new music avidly. Although there were a handful of artists that you’d probably expect to see on it (Myles Smith, Good Neighbours) a lot of the list consisted of artists that are already very well known / not new, their inclusion defeating the original purpose of the list. Chappell Roan being nominated for the list seemed very bizarre. Anyone who hasn’t heard of her has surely been living under a rock the last 18 months. Likewise Confidence Man- I included them on my Ones to Watch list 7 years ago when they were starting out! English Teacher was another odd one – having already won the Mercury Prize they're beyond new now. The BBC list seems to be a long way behind the curve this year. 

Unfortunately, with such a list forthcoming from the BBC it perhaps says something about an underlying trend for new artists – that it’s getting harder and harder to break through. Is the music industry losing interest in new music completely? Would it rather just re-release Dark Side of the Moon for the millionth time? Maybe next year Abba will feature on the BBC Sound of?

So with all that being said, welcome to the Breaking More Waves Ones to Watch 2025. 10 artists posted over the next 2 days on the blog in 10 posts through the 48 hours. All the artists chosen I hope you would consider as still relatively new. Everyone featured here has just released a small handful of songs, some only 1, others have got up to releasing a debut EP. Certainly none of them have released an album or had anything near a hit. This meant there were a couple of artists that I really wanted to include but decided were a bit too far off my criteria of newness for this year, namely MRCY (their 8 track EP is just a bit too long - its virtually an album) and Good Neighbours because their song Home spent 15 weeks in the UK Top 40. I'm sure those two bands will be on lots of other tip lists though and having seen them both live I can confirm they are worthy of any list. I'm just sticking to some fairly tight criteria on newness this year to contrast with the BBC list.

The first post will go up at 10am, so keep watching (and listening!) throughout the day for 5 artists today and 5 tomorrow. I'll also provide a playlist at the end of the list reveal so that you can dive into each act again.

Fontaines DC - Starburster

Fontaines D.C. · Starburster

NEW #81 - Disgusting Sisters

 

When this blog was in its prime it was a reasonably common occurrence to feature artists that had yet to release any ‘official’ recorded music, instead relying on shaky live You Tube clips or dodgy Soundcloud demos.

The last band that featured here in that way was The Dinner Party, who a few months on had changed their name (for the better) to The Last Dinner Party and became a so-called overnight success with Nothing Matters. When a band seemingly appears from nowhere and already has full label and management support behind them, the cynics will always criticize. “Industry plant!” you’ll no doubt remember was pointlessly shouted on line at The Last Dinner Party by those who seem to get a weird kick out of doing down others in public.

Which brings us to Disgusting Sisters. Now, there aren’t any detractors (yet) with Disgusting Sisters, although it would be easy to write the headlines now: "Disgusting Sisters are Revolting!" "Foul tunes from Disgusting Sisters!" etc. All there is is a very small thread on Reddit where someone questions how Disgusting Sisters managed to get a slot on the BBC Introducing Stage at Reading / Leeds Festivals this year with no recorded music out and only a handful of live shows which included supporting Two Door Cinema Club.

The answer probably has something to do with the fact that they have already been signed to Prolifica Management (who manage the above mentioned Two Door Cinema Club), have a live booking agent and they are not entirely new to the world of music; Julianna Hopkins of the band is also the drummer in Pynch. Her sister meanwhile has been off working as a director and screenwriter. It also probably has quite a lot to do with the fact that someone thinks they could be onto something and that’s worth supporting.

But let’s not get too into the how come they get the opportunities when others don’t debate - your weary distrust and jaded cynicism can be left at the door when you enter Breaking More Waves. It’s time to start dancing with Disgusting Sisters. Just make sure the dancing is a bit silly and quirky. And yes, just like Haim, The Staves and The Nolans they are actually siblings.

Disgusting Sisters are the sort of band that you can imagine have practiced with a hairbrush microphone dancing in their bedrooms infront of the mirror. From the bits of live footage you can find on line you’ll see a certain sort of engaging d-i-y amateurishness to what they do. They come across as a hybrid of Shampoo, Panic Shack and Las Bistecs rather than anything too slick - they have described themselves as a ‘cunty pop rock band’. 

They also look like they’re going to be a lot of fun. 

They have moves, but not like Britney or Beyonce; more the sort of dancing you can copy after one watch. I’m predicting mass audience participation of the cat choreography during TGIF (see below). Other tracks that there are live or rehearsal clips of on line include Sorry Mister which the duo say is ‘a song about the arseholes you meet on a night out’ and Not Cool is one they have dedicated to their cringey ex-boyfriends

Now we wait for some recorded music, passing time practicing those dance moves.

Disgusting Sisters - TGIF Live at Reading Festival (BBC Introducing)

Song of the Week - Geordie Greep - Holy, Holy

 

Is Steely Dan cool these days? Or is it the case that they’re deeply unfashionable? Either way, every person should make it their mission in life to listen to The Nightfly by Donald Fagen (the lead singer of Steely Dan). If I was writing one of those ‘100 Albums You Must Listened To Before You Die’ lists it would definitely feature.

The reason I mention this record is that there is definitely a Donald Fagen reference to Holy, Holy the debut single from Geordie Greep, who was previously a member of a band (Black Midi) but has now gone solo. A second reference point would be Thomas Dolby and his bonkers album Aliens Ate My Buick. Now there's a title.

It’s a pervily-odd bendy blend of disco-funk-rock that finds its creepy womanising narrator suggesting to whoever he is singing to that they should ‘take it further’ than just dancing – but there’s a twist, as he asks “How much does that cost?” Maybe he’s not quite god’s gift to women that was first made out, but a rather sadder more desperate character.

Sounding totally different to everything else around, Geordie Greep bags this week’s song of the week, which you can find on the Breaking More Waves New Music Weekly playlist (here), together with some other strong contenders including Ugly Ozo (posted earlier this week), Floating Points and Good Neighbours.

Geordie Greep - Holy, Holy