ALTERNATE COVER WITH SUPERMOON SILVER INSERT AND SIGNED INSERT

On his fourth album, 2025's Idols, British pop iconoclast Yungblud delivers an ambitious production that finds him unabashedly drawing inspiration from some of his own British rock heroes. Recognized by his throaty yawp and hyper-stylized aesthetic (a kohl-eyed Harry Styles?), Dominic Richard Harrison, aka Yungblud, has been a chart-topping presence in England since his sophomore album, 2020's Weird. He's also been slowly making waves in the States, where his 2022 eponymous album cracked the Top 50 of the Billboard 200. On Idols, he reunites with producer Matt Schwartz (Massive Attack, Olly Murs), who was one of several collaborators on Weird and who steps up as the main producer here. Together, they make a creative turn away from the singer's previous dancey, pop-punk sound, embracing a heady blend of Brit-pop and classic rock sounds. He conjures the grunge power balladry of Radiohead on "Zombie," wanders down Elton John's glittery '70s Yellow Brick Road on the piano-driven "Supermoon," and even captures the soaring shoegaze-adjacent majesty of Ride on "Monday Murder." There's also the epic album opener, "Hello Heaven, Hello," a kind of two-song prog rock mash-up that starts like a U2 song from the late '90s before launching into an '80s AC/DC cock-rock anthem. Admittedly, all of Yungblud's sonic borrowing can get a bit maddening. Nonetheless, you feel his passion, and the album takes on layers of meta-self-reflection, as if he's trying to work through his influences as a way to suss out his own musical identity and legacy. On "Idols, Pt. I" he sings," I wear too much makeup to see/You broke all the mirrors in me." It's easy to appreciate the stagey aesthetics of the whole thing, where Yungblud (whose voice has never sounded more resonant) frames himself in big string and choral orchestrations and his longtime guitarist Adam Warrington leaps out from the wings for a fiery solo just before the curtain falls as he does on the Ziggy Stardust-esque "Change." One of the pinnacle moments of inspiration on Idols is "Lovesick Lullaby," an infectious novelty infused with a '90s Madchester "lad mag" hedonism in which Yungblud half-raps in his cockney accent against a spiraling, psych-rock groove. That the song brings to mind a wild fusion of peak "Cool Britannia"-era Blur, Happy Mondays, and the Stone Roses feels nakedly intentional. That it's also bursting at the seams with Yungblud's own mischievous pop charisma speaks to the way he's often able to bend his influences to his will on Idols.

A1        Hello Heaven, Hello    9:06
A2        Idols Pt. I    3:32
A3        Lovesick Lullaby    2:57
A4        Zombie    4:06
A5        The Greatest Paradise    3:55
B1        Change    3:28
B2        Monday Murder    2:54
B3        Ghosts    6:26
B4        Fire    2:32
B5        War    3:50
B6        Idols Pt. II    1:41
B7        Supermoon    3:12