The Soundtrack to your Monday.

 Art School Girlfriend — “Doing Laps”

Album: Lean In

Album release date: 11 March

Label: Fiction Records

Single: “Doing Laps”

Artist: Art School Girlfriend

Real name: Polly Mackey

Based: London

Raised: Wrexham

London-based, Wrexham-raised artist and producer Art School Girlfriend shares “Doing Laps,” the latest single from her upcoming album Lean In, released via Fiction Records.

The track finds Polly Mackey reflecting on the exhaustion and disillusionment of making art in an increasingly digital and claustrophobic world. Built around hypnotic vocals, radio static recorded from a 1970s transistor radio, ticking hi-hats, a treadmill-like beat and soft synth textures, “Doing Laps” balances frustration with calm, creating a sound that feels both anxious and meditative.

Mackey describes the song as exploring the conflict between continuing to release music in a system that offers little financial reward and contributes to the cultural devaluation of music, or withdrawing entirely and creating only for personal pleasure.

Lean In was self-produced in Mackey’s East London studio and sees Art School Girlfriend expanding her sound across alternative rock, electronic pop, experimental ambient music and shoegaze textures. The album follows previous singles “L.Y.A.T.T.” and “The Peaks,” the latter of which was added to the BBC Radio 6 Music playlist.

Art School Girlfriend’s audience has grown significantly through her wider work across the music scene, including contributions to music by Daniel Avery, Lane 8, Jasper Tygner and Ghostpoet, touring with The Japanese House and Marika Hackman, DJ work, production and engineering, and her long-running monthly radio show on Foundation FM.

Mackey says Lean In was made while processing grief, joy, love, anxiety, hopelessness, hopefulness, age, capitalism and technology. The result is an existential but deeply intentional record: music for headphones, late-night anxiety, emotional release and connection.

Lean In tracklist

Doing Laps

L.Y.A.T.T.

The Field

Down The Line

Almost Transparent

Save Something

The Peaks

Hope More, Hopeless

Lines

Framer

Live dates

19–21 February — Borderline Festival, Dublin

7 April — Dust, Brighton

8 April — Colour Factory, London

9 April — Strange Brew, Bristol

10 April — Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff

15 April — Brudenell, Leeds

16 April — Gorilla, Manchester

Album: In My Mind There’s A Photograph
Album release date: 29 May 2026
Single release date: 22 May 2026
Label: Last Night From Glasgow
Artist: Mull Historical Society
Featuring lyrical contribution from: Irvine Welsh
Featured artists: London African Gospel Choir

Mull Historical Society, the project of multi-award-winning musician, producer, author and playwright Colin MacIntyre, returns with “Dopamine Eyes,” the final single from the album In My Mind There’s A Photograph.

The album is the second in Colin MacIntyre’s collaborative series with writers, and his first with independent label Last Night From Glasgow. For the project, a selection of world-leading authors were invited to reflect on a photograph that held personal significance.

“Dopamine Eyes” features lyrics from renowned Scottish novelist, playwright and screenwriter Irvine Welsh, inspired by the first photograph taken of him and his wife Emma. The story goes back to the COVID lockdown, when the two began falling in love during socially distanced walks, connecting through conversation and eye contact before anything else.

Irvine Welsh describes the photograph as important because it captured the earliest stage of that relationship, a time when masks and distance meant that connection, infatuation and seduction were focused through the eyes.

Colin MacIntyre says it was a pleasure to collaborate with Irvine on such an intimate story, and that the phrase “dopamine smash” helped lead the song towards its title. The track also features the London African Gospel Choir, adding further lift and emotional depth.

Across In My Mind There’s A Photograph, the songs explore hope, empathy, understanding, childhood, place, identity, memory, family and language. The album spans deeply personal and global themes, with stories reaching from Mull to Glasgow, China, Botswana, Gaza and 9/11.

The album features lyrical contributions from Irvine Welsh, Len Pennie, Ali Smith, Colum McCann, Alexander McCall Smith, Yiyun Li, Louise Welsh, Jehan Bseiso, Irenosen Okojie, Paul Lynch, Alan Johnson and Dan Richards.

The record was arranged and produced by Colin MacIntyre, recorded on the Isle of Mull by Gordon Maclean, and released on vinyl in three shades through Seabass Vinyl, Scotland’s only pressing plant.

11 September 2026 — Hebden Bridge Trades
15 September 2026 — Hare & Hounds 2, Birmingham