24 red hot albums out this February!

Mallrat’s second album lands on Valentine’s Day. The follow-up to her Top 10 debut, Butterfly Blue, it finds the 26-year-old Brisbane artist exploring “the intangible and mysterious allure of human connection, held together by curious investigations into light”.

The result is ethereal electropop. “Look outside and I’m amazed,” Mallrat sings in Ray of Light, “how the clouds are making shapes.”

Light Hit My Face Like a Straight Right is a potent mix of romance and magic, where the artist is “floating, floating, floating, floating”.

Light Hit My Face Like a Straight Right by Mallrat drops via Dew Process/Universal.

British band Architects have designs on the charts with their 11th studio album The Sky, the Earth & All Between.

Shooting for their fifth Top 10 album in a row, their progressive metalcore sound certainly packs a punch.

Check out the aptly titled Whiplash. It will shake the windows and wake the neighbours.

The Sky, the Earth & All Between by Architects drops via Rocket.

American metal band Dream Theater celebrate their 40th anniversary with their sweet 16th studio album, the first to feature original drummer Mike Portnoy since 2009.

It’s an epic 71-minute adventure that lives up to its title, which describes disruptive, sleep-related disturbances including sleepwalking, sleep paralysis, and night terrors.

Parasomnia by Dream Theater drops via Sony.

“Maybe I am a thing of the past,” Melbourne’s Geoffrey O’Connor ponders on his new solo album. And his dreamy, romantic pop does sound like it comes from a bygone era. But it’s easy to love what he does in 2025.

This record has more love songs than an Air Supply album, with Let’s Make Love Feel Good Again, I’m So Lonely I Could Fall in Love, Late to Love, Love Takes What It Takes, and I Don’t Want to Be Loved.

O’Connor – who is also a member of The Crayon Fields – has delivered a sweet treat. The perfect album for Valentine’s Day.

I Love What We Do by Geoffrey O'Connor drops via Dinosaur City/Rocket.

There have been some big changes in the Hands Like Houses world. Since their last album, singer Trenton Woodley has departed, replaced by Josh Raven from Perth band The Faim.

“The idea for Atmospherics came during one of the low parts of our career,” explains bass player Joel Tyrrell. “Everything we knew had been swept away, and we didn’t really know if we would continue as a band.”

But the Canberrra kings have bounced back with a big beast – 16 tracks, split into four volumes: Tropo(sphere), Strato(sphere), Meso(sphere) and Thermo(sphere).

Atmospherics by Hands Like Houses drops via Civilians.

Horsegirl is an indie rock band from Chicago, featuring Nora Cheng, Penelope Lowenstein, and Gigi Reece.

Phonetics On and On is their second album. Produced by Cate Le Bon, they explain that it is “an exploration of the lines between pop, minimalism and playful experimentation”.

The first single is called 2468. Who do we appreciate? Horsegirl!

Phonetics On and On by Horsegirl drops via Matador/Inertia.

The Irish band is shooting for the stars with their new album, Open Wide.

The pulsating rock record was inspired by New York, “our second home”. “It’s like the Mecca of everything,” singer Elijah Hewson says. “The centre of the universe. It was exciting to harness that energy and put it into music and lyrics.”

Inhaler made Open Wide with producer Kid Harpoon (real name Tom Hull), who is best known for his work on Harry Styles’ Harry’s House.

Open Wide by Inhaler drops via Universal.

GNX is the American rapper's hotly anticipated sixth studio album.

The follow-up to Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, GNX is Lamar's first album after his departure from longtime labels Top Dawg Entertainment and Aftermath Entertainment.

Lamar and Dave Free executive produced the album, which features appearances from AzChike, Dody6, Hitta J3, Peysoh, Roddy Ricch, Siete7x, SZA, Wallie the Sensei, and YoungThreat.

GNX by Kendrick Lamar drops via Interscope.

American metalcore band Killswitch Engage unleash their ninth studio album, explaining that it was a difficult beast to build.

“This album has been a great challenge for me,” singer Jesse Leach admits. “But now that it’s almost complete I can say that I wouldn’t change a thing. All the trials, difficulties and deep anxieties were all worth it... I gave this my everything and it will show.”

This Consequence by Killswitch Engage drops via Rocket.

Fun fact: Lacuna Coil means “empty spiral”.

Sleepless Empire is the tenth studio album for the Italian goth metal band who formed in Milan in 1994.

What sets Lacuna Coil apart is the male/female vocal dynamic, which still works a treat. Andrea Ferro’s growl is sweetened by the soaring vocals of Cristina Scabbia.

Sleepless Empire by Lacuna Coil drops via Sony.

It looks like it’s going to be a big year for solo releases by members of South Korean superstars Blackpink.

Next in line is Lisa, who is also set to appear in the new series of The White Lotus.

On the album, Lisa says she’s embodying five characters, “each representing a unique personality”. The album shows she’s keen to move on from the group, declaring: “I’m a new woman.”

Alter Ego by Lisa drops via Sony.

Michigander is a term that refers to people who live in the US state of Michigan.

Michigander, the pop-rock band, are from Kalamazoo in Michigan. After a string of singles and EPs, this is their self-titled debut album.

Singer Jason Singer says: “To make an analogy, the EPs were like television episodes of my story, and the album is the movie version.”

Michigander by Michigander drops via Rocket.

After finding fame on TikTok, America’s Nessa Barrett released her debut album, Young Forever, in 2022.

Her sultry second album, Aftercare, has now been given the deluxe treatment with six additional tracks, including Love Looks Pretty on You, Does God Cry?, and Breakfast in Bed.

Aftercare by Nessa Barrett drops via Inertia.

Panda Bear is the recording name for America’s Noah Lennox, who now lives in Portugal, and is also a member of the band Animal Collective.

Sinister Grift is his seventh solo album, and it showcases his trademark mix of lo-fi indie psychedelic pop. A wonderful odyssey.

Sinister Grift by Panda Bear drops via Domino/Universal.

Before his music career, American roots rocker Paul Thorn was a boxer who once fought the great Roberto Durán.

After being discovered by The Police’s manager Miles Copeland, Thorn charted four albums in the Billboard 200, and his resilience is on show here.

“There are two kinds of people in the world,” he believes. “People that lay down and cry when faced with adversity, and those that understand that you have to sometimes fight your way back up.”

Life Is Just a Vapor by Paul Thorn drops via Rocket.

Royston Sagigi-Baira, who records under the name of Royston Noell, is a proud Thanakwith and Wagadagam man from Mapoon in Queensland.

After winning Australian Idol in 2023, he released the single Invincible, written by Tones and I. Now comes the Sunrise EP, which Noell says is a “journey from darkness to light”.

As he showed on Idol, Noell sings like an angel. And he funks things up on the summer banger Feeling Good, an uplifting anthem and a defiant middle finger to the doubters, who are “gonna wanna shut their trap”.

Sunrise EP by Royston Noell drops via Sony.

The Rumjacks started out in Sydney in 2008. They’re now based in Europe, where their Celtic punk sound is much loved.

The band’s breakthrough hit, An Irish Pub Song, is a perennial favourite on St Patrick’s Day.

They’re keeping it real on their sixth album, decrying the fact that “on the radio a 21-year-old sings a song he didn’t write about his own true love”.

Dead Anthems by The Rumjacks drops via Rocket.

Sam Fender’s third studio album, People Watching, was recorded over a period of two years in London, Los Angeles, and the outskirts of Paris.

The album was co-produced by Sam, alongside The War on Drugs’ Adam Grancuciel and Marcus Dravs.

People Watching by Sam Fender drops via Universal.

From the off, Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory is sonically different from Van Etten’s previous work.

Writing and recording in total collaboration with her band for the first time, Van Etten finds the freedom that comes by letting go. The themes are timeless, classic Sharon – life and living, love and being loved – but the sounds are new.

Reflecting on this new direction, Van Etten muses, "Sometimes it's exciting, sometimes it's scary, sometimes you feel stuck. It's like every day feels a little different – just being at peace with whatever you're feeling and whoever you are and how you relate to people in that moment."

Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory by Sharon Van Etten drops via Rocket.

Cowards is the third album for British post-punk band Squid.

It’s a dark delight, with the band explaining that the record is “about evil – nine stories whose protagonists reckon with cults, charisma and apathy. Real and imagined characters wading into the dark ocean between right and wrong.”

It’s quite a trip.

Cowards by Squid drops via Inertia.

Three decades after Alanis Morissette became a music sensation, Tate McRae is following a similar path – a Canadian child star who became an international chart-topper.

So Close to What is the third studio album from McRae, and includes lead singles It’s OK I’m OK and 2 Hands.

So Close to What by Tate McRae drops via Sony.

Liverpool’s The Wombats are shooting for their first chart-topping album in Australia after four Top 5 entries in a row.

Singer Matthew “Murph” Murphy explains that the record ponders some internal questions: “Why are my head and body disconnected all the time? Why am I incapable at times of seeing any form of beauty in the world or in others? Why do I expect the world to conform to my will?”

Oh! The Ocean by The Wombats drops via Rocket.

As the title suggests, New Love sounds like a new beginning for Ziggy Alberts.

“I’m making change,” he sings in the title track, “of what was and who I was. I’m making space for new love.”

Elsewhere on his sixth album, he admits he’s “always trying to be perfect” and he’s “been building my walls up high, avoiding things that I’ve been needing to say”.

New Love is a rootsy pop record about second chances. And Ziggy Alberts is grasping his with both hands.

New Love by Ziggy Alberts drops via Rocket.

BILLY PINNELL'S PICK

Between 1968 and 1970, Creedence Clearwater Revival were music’s greatest and most popular rock band, but that success didn’t happen overnight.

The quartet – two guitarists, John Fogerty and his older brother Tom, drummer Doug Clifford and bass guitarist Stu Cook – formed in 1959 but didn’t achieve significant commercial success until a number of name changes that resulted in the first Creedence Clearwater Revival album seeing the light of day in 1968.

By this time, John Fogerty was in total charge of proceedings: he wrote all the songs, arranged and produced them, while cementing his reputation as one of rock music’s greatest ever singers/lead guitarists.

This album was their third in just over a year, and their first to top the US charts, selling more than a million copies like its predecessors. It included two big hits, Bad Moon Rising and the title track. The only cover was the blues standard Night Time Is the Right Time, popularised in 1958 by Ray Charles.

Fogerty’s almost hysterical vocal and superb controlled feedback guitar solo will forever blow my mind.

In rock and roll, as we all know, democracy isn’t always a long-term arrangement. In 1970 Creedence Clearwater Revival acrimoniously broke up.

But that’s another story.

Green River by Creedence Clearwater Revival drops via Universal.