We’ve not even escaped the clutches of January yet, but our award for best video of 2025 may as well be set in stone at this point. Such is the power of OK Go. Their creativity and determination when crafting enthralling, joyous, mind-boggling visuals is unmatched. They have this uncanny knack for taking an outside-the-box idea, one that seems simple at first glance, and then pushing it to an extreme that requires a level of patience and logistical effort that would drive most people mad. In the case of ‘A Stone Only Rolls Downhill’, the first single the band’s forthcoming fifth studio album And the Adjacent Possible, it takes the form of a mosaic of videos playing across multiple phone screens, each piece working in harmony toward the bigger picture. As it constantly builds in complexity, I’m left baffled as to how long it took them to even storyboard the whole affair, let alone recording the dozens of one-takes and ensuring they all lined up on time. When it comes to music videos, OK Go just operate on a higher plane of existence, and they deserve every accolade going for their boundless ingenuity.
Author: James Fenney
Album Review: Morganway – Kill The Silence
Top Tracks: Hannah Grace – I Grow Up All Over Again
It’s that time of year when many of us are making resolutions and aiming to become better versions of ourselves in the year ahead. Trying to get fit, have a better work/life balance, save money, and just generally get our lives together. It always feels like everyone else already has everything figured out, while you’re out of your depth and struggling to keep up. Still having those moments where you feel like you need an adult’s help, only to realise that you are the adult. It’s just a phase, it’ll pass, one day you’ll have it all figured out… right? The gorgeous new single from Belwood favourite Hannah Grace is the perfect balm for all the anxious thoughts that flow all too naturally this time of year. ‘I Grow Up All Over Again’ is a comforting reminder that you’ve overcome every obstacle on the road that lead to where you are now. Every daunting decision, every challenge you didn’t feel ready for, each period of change and upheaval, you have emerged out of a little older and wiser. Figuring your life out is something that happens day by day, piece by piece, not all at once, and every little victory you achieve along that journey is one worth celebrating.
Belwood Music Awards 2024
You join us for a very special 10th anniversary edition of our annual Belwood Music Awards. As of today the site has championing music for a whole decade, with 2024 being our most record breaking year yet! The most heartfelt of thanks to everyone that has supported the site over the years, from all the gifted artists creating the music we cover to our regular readers doing their bit to support up and coming talent. There’s much to raise a glass to today – to 10 years of Belwood, to the new year, and to the best musical moments of 2024. Continue reading
Top Ten Albums of 2024
It’s time for the grand finale of this year’s Listmas celebrations, and as ever we’ve saved the best for last. When we think back on 2024, it will be these records that will be forefront in our minds. These are the records that soundtracked all the ups and downs of the past twelve months. That provided companionship on quiet nights and offered a safe haven when the world got a bit too hectic. So let’s dive right in to the main event: Belwood’s best albums of 2024. Continue reading
Top Ten EPs of 2024
While our Listmas celebrations as a whole aim to reflect on what the past year has given us, our annual EP list is often more about looking forward into the years ahead. It’s about the promise heard in these collections, and the excitement they instil in us for what the road ahead may have in store from the acts which crafted them. Listening to a great EP often feels like a fateful first meeting, hearing your next favourite artist before you even realise it. Perhaps your next fav is just waiting to be discovered in this very list, so let’s dive right in to the best EPs that 2024 had to offer. Continue reading
Top Ten Songs of 2024
You join us now as we kick this year’s Listmas celebrations up a gear by delving into our favourite songs of 2024. Be they chart topping singles or overlooked deep cuts, these are the tracks that had me coming back time after time. The songs that have been on repeat in my head for months on end. The tracks with the most astonishing “wow” moments which left me speechless, as well as those that had me singing along the loudest. Without further ado, let’s look back on the best songs that soundtracked 2024. Continue reading
Top Ten Videos of 2024
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then imagine the kind of story you can tell with thousands of them in motion. With that philosophy in mind, a truly great music video can elevate a song to new heights, and sometimes even transcend beyond the song itself to become an iconic work of art in its own right. Whether echoing big budget cinema, or built from the ground up with nothing but ingenuity and elbow grease, there’s been no shortage of memorable visuals this year. So, before we delve into our favourite music of 2024, let’s take a moment to celebrate the best videos of the past twelve months. Continue reading
Top Ten Album Covers of 2024
Here’s wishing you all a belated Merry Christmas and a very warm welcome to this year’s Listmas celebrations! That’s right, it is time once again for us to look back at all the highest highs that the music world has brought us in the past twelve months. This latest edition of our end of year extravaganza begins as ever with a look at our favourite album artwork. It’s my favourite list to compile, and in an age of soulless AI abominations it feels more important that ever to celebrate the boundless creativity of hard working artists. Here are the covers that most caught our eyes, lingered in our minds, and ignited our imaginations in 2024. Continue reading
Top Tracks: Gabrielle Aplin – Go Be Free
Christmas is a time of togetherness. A time when we show our appreciation for those we love, a time to look back on all the twists and turns of the past year which led us here, and a chance to slow down, enjoy life in the moment, and simply be. That kind of celebration of connection is captured wonderfully in Gabrielle Aplin’s new track ‘Go Be Free’. Rekindling the bittersweet introspective folk of her English Rain era, this latest track ponders on the circles of life and our place in the natural world around us. “Starlings float upon the air we breathe” has to be one of the most affecting reflections I’ve ever heard on how we’re just one small piece of a far bigger picture. The whole track plays as a gorgeous musing on how the things we lose come back to us in the end, in some form or another. How we make peace with the leaves falling in autumn, as we have faith they’ll return in spring. ‘Go Be Free’ feels like Gabrielle at her absolute best; the most wonderful early Christmas present I could have asked for.
Belwood Music 