Album Review: Celestial Skies – Today’s Malaise

I have to admit, I did feel seen when Celestial Skies, aka British singer-songwriter Chris Selman, sings at one point of people being busy being lazy.

But as much as I could see some of myself at times in the twelve songs of Today’s Malaise, that’s what gives it such a penetrating and poignant quality.

Chris Selman is a Manchester-based musician who previously went under the name Words & Noises before the pandemic led to his new musical persona. With that came another change; his lyrics on his previous albums, 2022’s Songs for Blue Romantics and 2025’s The Art of Breaking Hearts, have seen a gradual shift from the personal to the political. It may be more accurate to say that on Today’s Malaise Selman finds where the two meet.

On Small Boats, he draws a connection, and pinpoints the misdirection on how our increasingly frayed quality of life here in the UK is politicised. ‘Blame them but never name them,’ he sings as our anger at train strikes and closed hospitals is redirected by the media and political parties on people who have, as yet, not even set foot in the UK. The lighter tone that typifies much of the album is absent here, as if to reflect the dour situation the country is in.     

Selman embraces the past on an album that is very much focused on the present. He recorded with a full live band and strings section at Blueprint Studios in Salford and had it mastered at London’s iconic Abbey Road Studios, and that is an indicator of where he looks to terms of the sounds and structures on the LP.

That could be why Main Character comes from a very northern and observational perspective; the lyrics find common ground between Pet Shop Boys and Alan Bennett. But where their works are often a reflection on times gone, it fixes on modern culture and the way some people have immersed themselves in becoming the stars of their own imaginary shows. Phones and social media come into play here, no doubt. Selman does have a vocal resemblance to Neil Tennant, but it’s not a strong one. The strong storyline within the song is probably making me think that, but that theme of telling a story really defines the album.

The album concludes with Signifying Nothing, a possible nod to Shakespeare, and for me, the most emotionally effective track of all. You can read it as a eulogy, or an elegy, as you can tell here, and on the album as a whole, that Selman loves where he lives – or maybe loved – a place that has changed utterly in recent years. It’s strongly anchored around some excellent songwriting, and it needs to be as it looks at a country that is increasingly ill at ease with itself.

Selman says it tackles issues like “phone addiction, brain rot, influencer culture, Ozempic and the beauty industry, the politics surrounding immigration, and our obsession with quick fixes” and does so in a pointed and catchy indie setting. Think The Smiths, James, The Frank and Walters, and you’ll get a feel for where Today’s Malaise is coming from, and where it wants to take you.

You can listen to Today’s Malaise on SoundCloud, Spotify, and Apple Music. Get to know Celestial Skies and Chris Selman better by checking them out on their Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook socials.