March 29th saw the release of a new album from Shropshire’s extremely prolific Thought Bubble, namely Who’s to Say? The album is available at https://bubble.bandcamp.com/album/whos-to-say and, in good news, the pre-order CD run is sold out, but you can still kop a hold of a digital copy. I like this band, innovative electronica and a unique stamp on the world.

So, let’s discuss and play a couple of YouTube videos for you.

Let the Light starts us off, and we could certainly do with it in this somewhat gloomy, war torn and greed ridden world of ours in 2026, and it is both pleading for said light, but also recognises that light and good can triumph over the dark. The video is embedded below. There is an eastern mystic feel as we start here, dispelled as the voice enters, suitably emotional in its call. Dystopian sounds abound, and it is a track which requires attention from the listener, and more than once, because underneath, you hear all sorts of music, notes, and feel happening, swirling and inviting you in. I think it is a very solid start to proceedings.

Small Things and Sandwiches is a clear contender for the website’s annual “title of the Year” award. The lies, the noise blaring through our televisions daily, with us ordinary mortals talking about small things, which, of course, matter the most to us. There are some contrasts here, between the brighter opening, the dark industrial experimentation of “blaming will be televised”, to the guitar driven psych of the chaotic closing section.

We Know Where This Leads, the lives controlled and destiny dictated to by algorithms, and who, indeed, knows where this will end up. See the video for this embedded below. It is just about the perfect musical and vocal accompaniment to the chaos which surrounds us on an hourly basis now, and the reason I do not get involved in media, social or otherwise, political commenting. Frankly, I do not want the additional stress.

Lightfoot - Andrew, a man split in two, sent to the stars and stuck at home, who tamed the machines. The mood change is tangible here, some of the notes high and bright, the voice respectfully proud of the subject, the main electronic riff calming and secure.

I’ll Buy Your Oranges, a life and road journey with Julie and her Austin Seven car. This takes me right back to the experimental, avant spirit of the late 60’s and early 70’s, when the likes of Zappa and the rest could essentially record whatever they liked, no matter how bizarre, and this is from that playbook, the melodies in here entrancing and insistent.

Your Call is a much-needed lyrical piss take of those endless calls to government call centres and ghastly corporations, hanging on the phone for ages, being told by an electronic voice just how important your call, and “experience” are to it. I hate the way our lives have been impersonalised quite deliberately by the morons who run and own our lives. The spartan notes. the insistent bass, the repetitive voice capture perfectly this modern pain the backside, the loop telling us that, in reality, they could not give two hoots about us poor citizens. Quite brilliant, and a contender for “political commentary of 2026” in this year’s website awards.

We close with A Man Split in Two, the longest track here, over eight minutes, and we return to our hero, Lightfoot Andrew. This track is electronica minimalism wrought large (an oxymoron, perhaps, but the best way I could think of describing it). The vocals are set back in the mix behind the cloud stirring electronic noises produced, some of them deeply strange and disturbing.

I think Thought Bubble will agree with me that Who’s To Say? is another release from them that will not appeal to those who only listen to melodic or symphonic rock music. For those of you, though, who like to either dip your toes, or immerse yourselves, into the fantastical world of experimentation, electronic art rock, with biting and intelligent world commentary brought into the mix, this album is as good as it gets and therefore comes highly recommended to such readers.