Gabi Garbutt - Radical Love (2026)
Artist: Gabi Garbutt
Title: Radical Love
Year Of Release: 2026
Label: InH Records
Genre: Alternative, Indie Pop, Adult Contemporary
Quality: FLAC (tracks)
Total Time: 33:03
Total Size: 220 Mb
WebSite: Album Preview
Tracklist: Title: Radical Love
Year Of Release: 2026
Label: InH Records
Genre: Alternative, Indie Pop, Adult Contemporary
Quality: FLAC (tracks)
Total Time: 33:03
Total Size: 220 Mb
WebSite: Album Preview
1. Radical Love (4:22)
2. New Kind Of Weather (3:35)
3. Never Danced So Much (3:03)
4. Red River (3:58)
5. Snaggletooth (2:43)
6. Lightning Held (3:54)
7. Fire In The Well (2:55)
8. Let The Trees Sing (3:27)
9. Deep Sea Creatures (3:20)
10. Radical Love Coda (1:56)
No-one can accuse Gabi Garbutt’s new album of lacking intensity. Its 10 shimmering songs about the transformative power of love will stick in your brain with limpet-like persistence. Robert Plummer enjoys the radical chic.
Gabi Garbutt is standing on the shoulders of the right giants. The London-based singer-songwriter’s androgynous look and lyrical stylings bring to mind punk poetess Patti Smith in prime Horses era. At the same time, Garbutt’s serene synth-heavy alt-pop and willingness to play with the codes of modern sexuality definitely take a leaf out of the Christine and the Queens playbook.
Such role models offer opportunities to seize, but also pitfalls to avoid. In the case of the artist born Héloïse Letissier, two stunning albums were followed by a change of identity to Redcar and a simultaneous decline in melodic quality. It became evident that here was an individual for whom gender issues were more important than music: sadly, the singer’s popularity has never really recovered.
Gabi Garbutt is similarly at that “difficult third album” stage, yet its songs mercifully show no signs of falling into the same trap. In the run-up to its release, Garbutt promised a record of “sapphic chaos”, of which Never Danced So Much is the best example. “I’ve never been so destroyed by a woman’s touch,” run the words, delivered in an impassioned tone against a limpid sonic backdrop that perfectly mimics the oxytocin rush of love.
The quirky title track, previously released as a single, comes across as a manifesto, with a healing message articulated in stately, soothing tones. Garbutt wanders whimsically through “forests alive with synapses of mind” and encounters “axolotls, ocelots and other unlikely creatures”. Ultimately, kindness is the key: “With the mind of a fox and the heart of a dove/I’ll face this world with a radical love.”
New Kind Of Weather maintains the feelgood tunefulness in the midst of an all-embracing apocalypse. Although Garbutt warns of “a storm of murder and theft”, the synths remain strong and stable, while the guitars break in with keening seagull interjections. Whether you’re most afraid of climate change or political upheaval, the lesson is the same – “We can’t hide, we’re all on the same ride.”
The tempo slows on Red River, a sinister piano-led ballad that finds Garbutt in a fragile mood (“Sometimes I feel I’m drowning, sometimes floating”). That’s followed by Snaggletooth, a tender acoustic folksong that unexpectedly delves into a punk past spent daubing slogans on clothing and getting bruised in moshpits. As we hear in the self-analytical payoff: “We waited a really long long time to find out what was going on in this troubled little mind.”
Lightning Held is another joyous invocation of loving too much and getting in too deep. “We swim in dark waters ‘til my defences are undone/Through the jolted choreography of my tongue,” sings Garbutt, who readily concludes: “I’m in trouble again.” Even so, there is no alternative to allowing yourself to be “scorched by the moment”.
Once you’re lost in emotion, what more can you do than rock out with a vengeance? Fire In The Well turns Jemma Freeman’s guitar up to 11 as the passion takes hold. “My fingers tremble as they know something that I don’t understand,” sings an ecstatic Garbutt, while fellow musicians Matt Arthur, Chris Brambley and Max Revell boost the band’s sound to stadium-filling dimensions.
The comedown kicks in on Let The Trees Sing, a pastoral piece with an eco-friendly message (“We always destroy what the earth tries to create”). Then there’s just time to luxuriate in the delirious dream-pop smooch of Deep Sea Creatures before a final unplugged reprise of the title track, bringing it all back home.
Radical Love is the kind of album you make when your heart is unashamedly on your sleeve. Its author is no stranger to the rawer side of life, yet every track is alive with undaunted empath soul. Gabi Garbutt knows how to transform personal feelings and experiences into universally accessible songs – and with a flair that is a sure sign of a rising talent.
Gabi Garbutt is standing on the shoulders of the right giants. The London-based singer-songwriter’s androgynous look and lyrical stylings bring to mind punk poetess Patti Smith in prime Horses era. At the same time, Garbutt’s serene synth-heavy alt-pop and willingness to play with the codes of modern sexuality definitely take a leaf out of the Christine and the Queens playbook.
Such role models offer opportunities to seize, but also pitfalls to avoid. In the case of the artist born Héloïse Letissier, two stunning albums were followed by a change of identity to Redcar and a simultaneous decline in melodic quality. It became evident that here was an individual for whom gender issues were more important than music: sadly, the singer’s popularity has never really recovered.
Gabi Garbutt is similarly at that “difficult third album” stage, yet its songs mercifully show no signs of falling into the same trap. In the run-up to its release, Garbutt promised a record of “sapphic chaos”, of which Never Danced So Much is the best example. “I’ve never been so destroyed by a woman’s touch,” run the words, delivered in an impassioned tone against a limpid sonic backdrop that perfectly mimics the oxytocin rush of love.
The quirky title track, previously released as a single, comes across as a manifesto, with a healing message articulated in stately, soothing tones. Garbutt wanders whimsically through “forests alive with synapses of mind” and encounters “axolotls, ocelots and other unlikely creatures”. Ultimately, kindness is the key: “With the mind of a fox and the heart of a dove/I’ll face this world with a radical love.”
New Kind Of Weather maintains the feelgood tunefulness in the midst of an all-embracing apocalypse. Although Garbutt warns of “a storm of murder and theft”, the synths remain strong and stable, while the guitars break in with keening seagull interjections. Whether you’re most afraid of climate change or political upheaval, the lesson is the same – “We can’t hide, we’re all on the same ride.”
The tempo slows on Red River, a sinister piano-led ballad that finds Garbutt in a fragile mood (“Sometimes I feel I’m drowning, sometimes floating”). That’s followed by Snaggletooth, a tender acoustic folksong that unexpectedly delves into a punk past spent daubing slogans on clothing and getting bruised in moshpits. As we hear in the self-analytical payoff: “We waited a really long long time to find out what was going on in this troubled little mind.”
Lightning Held is another joyous invocation of loving too much and getting in too deep. “We swim in dark waters ‘til my defences are undone/Through the jolted choreography of my tongue,” sings Garbutt, who readily concludes: “I’m in trouble again.” Even so, there is no alternative to allowing yourself to be “scorched by the moment”.
Once you’re lost in emotion, what more can you do than rock out with a vengeance? Fire In The Well turns Jemma Freeman’s guitar up to 11 as the passion takes hold. “My fingers tremble as they know something that I don’t understand,” sings an ecstatic Garbutt, while fellow musicians Matt Arthur, Chris Brambley and Max Revell boost the band’s sound to stadium-filling dimensions.
The comedown kicks in on Let The Trees Sing, a pastoral piece with an eco-friendly message (“We always destroy what the earth tries to create”). Then there’s just time to luxuriate in the delirious dream-pop smooch of Deep Sea Creatures before a final unplugged reprise of the title track, bringing it all back home.
Radical Love is the kind of album you make when your heart is unashamedly on your sleeve. Its author is no stranger to the rawer side of life, yet every track is alive with undaunted empath soul. Gabi Garbutt knows how to transform personal feelings and experiences into universally accessible songs – and with a flair that is a sure sign of a rising talent.
