The jangly London quartet World News broke through in 2023 with their singles “Wrapped in Gold” and “The Tinman“. Since then, they’ve stuck around to deliver consistently enjoyable one-off singles and EPs. In Purgatory, the band’s long-awaited debut full length delivers on the promise of those early tracks with one of the most rewarding rock debut albums of the 2020s.
In Purgatory shows off the band’s range and the span of their sound. Over the course of the album, the band skips between blurry indie rock, folky prog, dusty pub rock, and underpinings of Celtic music to deliver something special.
Breaking news for lovers of guitar solos
World News’ sound is powered by the guitar of lead singer Alex Evans. Aside from the jangle pop and post-punk influences, there’s a bit of a Celtic underlining to his tone. Keen fans of music history might catch a flash of Bert Jansch, Mark Knopfler, or Stuart Adamson in his playing. Evans doesn’t sound quite exactly like any one of those guys. It’s a bit unfair to play “spot the influence” with such a good new band and a bracing new guitar hero. Even so, those are comparisons that put a young guitarist in good company. Evans is a guitarist who seems aware of the history of rock guitar, and uses the totality of that information to blaze his own trail as a mightily talented musician.
The album includes four advance singles from 2025 and 2026 that put forward World News as a top tier jangle band. “Don’t Want to Know”, one of the best songs of 2025, finds a full-length home on In Purgatory. The song’s themes of romantic uncertainty are delivers by Evans in a booming baritone, intermingled with his guitar heroics. The band around him, including his brother Rory on bass, are tight and operating on all cylinders.”Don’t Want to Know” perfectly encompasses everything great about World News. It is the kind of song for which a listening might not be able to help hitting repeat.
This just in: In Purgatory is more than just its singles
“Everything is Coming Up Roses” takes a more pastoral, folkier path on their jangle sound. Another single, “The Way It Goes”, has the urgency of 80s new wave bands that favored guitars over synthesizers. “Sidestep” takes for a jammier approach. That song goes off for half of its run time on a guitar odyssey that never wears out its welcome.
Aside from those four landmark singles, World News offer more than just jangle heroics on the rest of the album. Opener “Frog” is nearly entirely instrumental until its last minute or so. It invites listeners to the album with nearly two minutes of a growing guitar wall, showing off the band’s gift for building their sound into something that sounds ready for arenas. “Classical Music” stuffs a metallic center in the middle of a pub rocker that snarks about musical taste. The folkier “I Don’t Hate You” and “Wet Dry, I Can’t Fly” are relatively calmer efforts in the album’s storm of louder guitar heroics.
Five star final: One of the best debut albums of the year
The songs that World News recorded for In Purgatory were written over the course of six years. That’s a span where some bands may have recorded two or three albums. World News taking the slow route results in one of the best indie guitar albums of the past decade. The album is a culmination of the EPs and singles they’ve released in that time. It never once feels like a collection of songs written years apart.
In Purgatory is album that should not be missed by anyone who enjoys the sound of a chiming electric guitar. It stands aside albums by the likes of The Beths, Ducks Ltd., The Tubs, and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever that have made the 2020s such a great decade for jangle pop.
In Purgatory is available now
Album cover image courtesy of Pie & Mash
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World News - "In Purtagory" - 10/10
10/10
