Music Editor: Roisin Teeling
Liza with a Z (A Concert for Television), Liza Minnelli, 1972
I found Liza with a Z the way most musical theatre kids find anything, falling down a YouTube hole when I should have been studying or getting an early night for school. I’d sung the Cabaret songs in lessons, but I’d never seen anyone do them like this, on one night with no second chances, Fosse’s cameras so close you can see her sweat. It was the first time I realised you could be note-perfect and still look like you might fall apart, and that was actually what made everything better. I still put it on before anything that scares me, like an interview, a press night, or trying something new. She sings like she’s daring the room not to love her. Over fifty years later, it still works on me every single time.
‘Say Liza (Liza with a Z)’ is my favourite. It’s the whole special in miniature, funny, cheeky and confident, and you’ll never mispronounce her name again
Features and Nightlife Editor: Phoebe
Alas, I Cannot Swim (2008) by Laura Marling
It’s her debut indie folk singer-songwriter album which she recorded when she was extraordinarily young: 17. I’m not sure when I first came across it, because it’s always been there – I think the CD must’ve been in my parents’ car or something. But it took until adulthood to feel ready for it and think, wait, this is a masterpiece. She has this wonderful way to conjure up these characters in the album who are all lost and afraid. They’re racked by a lovelorn or existential fragility, or are afraid to take the plunge to find true happiness. They’ve lost their spark, or are even waking up screaming, crawling out of the sea and haunted by ghosts. She sort of offers them her company so they aren’t alone, and that makes the album comforting to listen to, too.
The album’s namesake song is hidden at the end of the final track after a prelude of birdsong, and “Ghosts” is the big hit. My pick is “Crawled Out Of The Sea”.
Fashion Editor: Flora
Madonna Greatest Hits Volume 2
I am very much a late bloomer to the Madonna craze, partly due to my age and pop-adverse parents. Unashamedly, my listening was spurred on by the Madonna arms ‘trend’. Pressing shuffle on my Madonna playlist is a Pavlovian attempt at getting absolutely ripped. I chose this album because it is my only physical copy of her music I have found (so far) in charity shops. Upon cracking open its plastic shell, you are met with a collage of looks from the hedonistic slip dress in Like A Prayer to the fuschia Marilyn-inspired ensemble in Material Girl. The inner booklet also features an introduction by Dan Cadan who begins “I would never dare attempt to delve into the psyche of a Madonna fan, however ardent, to try and examine the emotions that she impels upon them.”
Literature Editor: Lexi
Carrie & Lowell by Sufjan Stevens
The first time I listened to Carrie & Lowell by Sufjan Stevens I was still in school, sitting in a public library, hoping that if I stared long enough at the keyboard of my laptop, my essay on Macbeth would write itself. It was October and dappled sunlight danced on the cream plaster wall next to the DVDs. Two tracks in, the decision had been: I want to write a story that feels the way this album feels. I bunked off the Macbeth essay, opened a new tab and suddenly my fingers were flying over the keyboard. Is it too predictable to still choose Carrie & Lowell, in all its melancholia, as my favourite album in 2026? I don’t care! Over 10 years later, it still feels like a call to action: Will I ever write something even half as beautiful? If you only have four minutes to spare, put on the song Fourth of July, and see if you feel called to pick up the aintbrush / guitar /sticky computer keyboard.
Photo Editor: Lauren
Glow On by Turnstile
I stumbled across this album 2 years ago when my partner and I were doing one of our YouTube music video exploration nights and we instantly fell in love with the sound and aesthetic that Turnstile created. For the next couple months it was all we played in our flat, and then their subsequent album Never Enough was on heavy rotation soon after. We missed out on tickets to their show in London, so we took a trip to Barcelona to see them there and it was one of the best gigs that either of us have been to. If you only have time for one, I’d say go for the big hit on the record Holiday.
