London queer alt-pop songwriter Gabi Garbutt returns after four years away with third album Radical Love, a record that promises sapphic chaos and cosmic hope in equal measure, and pretty much delivers on both.
Released through INH Records, Radical Love was co-produced, engineered and mixed by long-time collaborator Matt Arthur, with punk stalwart Jemma Freeman on electric guitar and harmony vocals, Chris Brambley (synth and piano) and Max Revell (drums).
For fans of Ezra Furman, CMAT, Christine and The Queens and prime-era Patti Smith, Garbutt belongs to that same lyrically-dexterous, gender-defiant, punk-hearted lineage. Vintage 80s synths chug beneath acoustic guitars and Freeman’s dirtier electric flourishes, while Garbutt’s magically poetic lyrics conjure ocelots and axolotls alongside cortisol and dark arts.
Title track, opener and single ‘Radical Love’ sets out the album’s intent in warm, unhurried tone, you could say a sort of hymn for the terminally anxious.
‘Never Danced So Much’ catches Garbutt hopelessly gone — dizzy, breathless, all-in. Wait for the confession:
I’ve never been so destroyed by a woman’s touch
‘Snaggletooth’ is the tender heart of the record — an bitter-sweet acoustic memory of being a strange, lonely kid that feels all to familiar and has the ability to properly wreck you. Singles ‘Lightning Held’ and ‘Fire In The Well’ pack the biggest wallop, the latter turning Freeman’s guitar feral for a rock-out that promises to be an absolute riot live.
Elsewhere, ‘New Kind Of Weather’ calls out the liars behind the climate emergency while insisting on collective care. ‘Deep Sea Creatures’ is smoky, underwater dream-pop heaven, whilst ‘Let The Tree Sing’ carries on the environmental bent. The closing acoustic reprise of the title track brings it all home in the tenderest of ways.
As Gabi says,
I wanted to write an album about the transformative power of love. The world is facing a humanitarian and climate crisis, and we must keep an open heart and spirit of unity amidst the forces trying to divide us.
Radical Love does exactly that. This is a queer, kind, eclectic, wildly poetic and stubbornly hopeful record, which in 2026 is about as radical as it gets.
Music to fall in love, plant a tree and topple the patriarchy to.
Live Dates:
28 August – Greenbelt Festival
10 September – Cavendish Arms
13 September – Sofar, The Hague
Follow Gabi Garbutt on Bandcamp | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube