the belair lip bombs

Forgotten Gems 2025

/ James Fenney

We live in the golden age of new music. More new albums are released now than at any other point in history. We are quite literally spoiled for choice. Even with the best will in the world, we can only listen to a small fraction of all the albums released in a given year. Fewer still can be given the time and attention necessary for a proper review. Free time is in short supply, but that doesn’t mean that these records which fall by the wayside aren’t worthy of note. Brand new for this year, we’ll be kicking off our Listmas celebrations with a look at the “best of the rest”. The overlooked albums that didn’t get a proper feature on the site, but nonetheless left an impact on me, soundtracked my year, and left me longing to share them with people in some capacity. Here’s a brief shout out to a handful of the best Forgotten Gems of 2025. Continue reading →

Top Tracks: The Belair Lip Bombs – Don’t Let Them Tell You (It’s Fair)

/ James Fenney

There are days when I’ve found myself listening to so much music, for hours on end, that it all starts to blend together. The same few trends being chased time and again, melodies so similar they could be long lost twins. I find myself longing to be surprised, but by its very nature it’s hard to search for the unexpected, you simply have to trust that it will find you. This time it arrives in the form of ‘Don’t Let Them Tell You (It’s Fair)’, the new single from Australian quartet The Belair Lip Bombs. Taken from their forthcoming album Again, out this Halloween, I find myself so awed by and enamoured with this track’s guitar work. So many gorgeous and varied moments – rock solid riffs you could set your watch by, bright soaring licks swooping in and out, light ethereal harmonics gently tinkling like raindrops – all of it just so casual and fleeting, not giving you a moment to process before the next dazzling flourish catches your attention. There’s an energy and playfulness here reminiscent of The Only Ones ‘Another Girl, Another Planet’, and a timeless quality that reminds me a little of Violent Femmes’ ‘Blister in the Sun’. This track is one of my favourite discoveries of 2025; like an open flame that leaves you mesmerised by the way it dances and flickers.