After listening to their lead single "Heaven" I was pretty much settled on this being top five - easy. To be honest I would have even thought top three given how excited I was. Well they managed to PVRIS managed to make it into my top five with All We Know Of Heaven, All We Need Of Hell but ohnly just. Don't let that negate how good the album actually is, I just didn't expect there to be so much other amazing music out this year! But let's get into it...

Following on from 2013's pretty stellar White Noise, PVRIS are back with another brilliant album concept staying true to their nature. Practically made to be heard live, and with Lynn's unique vocals, as strong and as enchanting as ever.

My biggest criticism of this album is that they released too many of the songs as singles. By the time it dropped I'd already heard most of the tracks and to be honest a lot of the strongest ones. The visuals were amazing but I reckon if they wanted to get the most out of such a strong concept I would've liked to see them do an enire visual album all released at once instead. I just feel like that would've had more of an impact.

Regardless, my favourite tracks at the moment are "Anyone Else", "Walk Alone", "Same Soul", "Heaven", and "Half". I haven't even gone a week since the album was released without listening to at least one of these songs. "Anyone Else" probably has the least lyrics on any track in this whole record but resonates the most to me. I had that rolling over in my head for weeks and weeks after first listening and I'm sure I'll be listening to this and the rest of the record on repeat until album three drops.

Have a read of my thoughts on last year's very different number five pick here.

My heart. I can't really explain how good it feels to have new PVRIS music in my life honestly. The last time I tuned into a radio station specifically to hear a song debut was when Paramore released "Now" in 2013, I remember it so clearly. I doubt I'll be forgetting the first time I heard this song either. As always, Lynn's giving us those beautiful, strong and gritty vocals over a beat that forces you to move. As much as I enjoyed their debut record, the amount that they've improved as a band is pretty clear.


As big as the track sounded initially, this video brings so much substance to it making it easier to isolate each detail in such an encomspassing sound. People often associate good music with colour and even in black and white PVRIS have managed to paint a bold picture here. The scenes of death and reawakening did remind me of Slipknot's "The Devil In I" concept but as gruesome as it seemed in that video, here PVRIS have managed to make it seem almost beautiful. The album drops on the 4th of August and is available for pre-order right now. PVRIS are playing a couple of small shows this week in London (Shepherd's Bush Empire) and a few more across Europe. I don't doubt that there'll be a few surprises at those shows and I have high hopes for the new album, so if you can get along to see them at some point, most definitely do.