The Guide #268: Laptop twee is the gloriously awkward sound giving British music a new lease of life

If you’d told me back in January that one of my favourite tracks of 2026 would count noughties new rave outfit Hadouken! and goofy Kesha parodists The Midnight Beast among its influences, I would have looked at you skeptically, at the very least. I’m all for the nostalgic reappropriation of the most neglected and deeply uncool relics of pop music past, but these particular reference points would have seemed like a step too far. I would have been very wrong.

The Ballad of St Nick’s Park by 300SkullsAndCounting (AKA Leamington Spa native Hal Hewetson) and his collaborator Jenny Sparks is one of the most unexpected and addictive songs I’ve heard in years.