''No Rocket Required'' is the second studio album by English rock band

the Moonlandingz The Moonlandingz are an English rock band, formed in 2015. The band consists of Eccentronic Research Council duo Adrian Flanagan and Dean Honer, along with Fat White Family members Saul Adamczewski and Lias Kaci Saoudi. The band was originally ...

. It was released on 25 April 2025 by

Transgressive Records Transgressive Records is an independent record label based in London, founded in 2004. Its founders, Tim Dellow and Toby L, first met at a Bloc Party gig organised by Toby's Rockfeedback website. The label's debut release was "1am" by the Su ...

in vinyl, CD and digital formats.

Background

Released eight years after the band's debut album, '' Interplanetary Class Classics'', ''No Rocket Required'' incorporates elements of

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

and

disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...

. The album consists of ten tracks with a total runtime of approximately forty minutes, and features contributions from

Ewen Bremner Ewen Bremner (born 23 January 1972) is a Scottish actor. His roles have included Shawn Nelson in '' Black Hawk Down'', Julien in '' Julien Donkey-Boy'' and Daniel "Spud" Murphy in '' Trainspotting'' and its 2017 sequel '' T2 Trainspotting''. E ...

Nadine Shah Nadine Petra Katarina Shah (born 16 January 1986) is a British singer and songwriter. Background Shah was born in Whitburn to an English people, English mother from South Shields of part Norwegians, Norwegian ancestry and a British Pakistanis, ...

and

Iggy Pop James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter, actor and radio broadcaster. He was the vocalist and lyricist of proto-punk band the Stooges, who were formed in 1 ...

. Its first and second singles, "The Sign of a Man" and "Give Me More", were released on 21 January and 24 February 2025.

Reception

John Murphy of ''

MusicOMH ''MusicOMH'' (stylized as ''musicOMH'') is a London-based online music magazine which publishes independent reviews, features and interviews from across all genres including classical, metal, rock and R&B. History ''MusicOMH'' was founded an ...

'' rated the album four stars and compared it to the band's debut project, ''Interplanetary Class Classic'', noting the similarities in the two albums, such as the "riotous, inventive, scuzzy rock-synth tracks with an impressive cast list of guest artists." ''

Louder Than War ''Louder Than War'' is a music and culture website and magazine focusing on mainly alternative arts news, reviews, and features. The site is an editorially independent publication that was started by the English musician and journalist John R ...

'' assigned it a rating of four out of five, stating "''No Rocket Required'' finds the remaining crew in fine fettle, with plenty to say and as with their first offering, a host of willing accomplices from either end of pop's space-time continuum." ''

BrooklynVegan ''BrooklynVegan'' is an American online music magazine founded in 2004 by David Levine. The company is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, and originally focused on vegan food and the music community in and around New York City, before broadeni ...

'', in its review of the album, commented that ''No Rocket Required'' is reflective of the band's "tender side" and "new maturity". Andrew Perry of ''

Mojo Mojo may refer to: * Mojo (African-American culture), a magical charm bag used in Hoodoo Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * ''Mojo'' (2017 film), a 2017 Indian Kannada drama film written and directed by Sreesha Belakvaadi * '' ...

'' gave the album a three-star rating and noted it as leaning "more towards ironised easy listening and '80s disco, topped with compulsively gut-churning lyrics." '' Dork'', rating the album four out of five, referred to it as "an album that's both a critique of modern life and a celebration of its absurdities."

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from the album's

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or cassette j-cards. Origin Liner notes are descended from the prog ...

The Moonlandingz

* Saul Adamczewski * Adrian Flanagan – bass guitar (tracks 1, 3–5), backing vocals (1, 3, 5, 6, 8), synthesizers (2, 4, 7, 10); guitar, strings,

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

(3, 5);

harpsichord A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. Depressing a key raises its back end within the instrument, which in turn raises a mechanism with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic that plucks one ...

(3, 6), effects (3, 7, 10), organ (4), beats (5, 7),

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which causes a length of magnetic tape to contact a Capstan (tape recorder), capstan, which pulls i ...

(5, 10),

glockenspiel The glockenspiel ( ; or , : bells and : play) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a Musical keyboard, keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the v ...

(5),

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''vo''ice and en''coder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder wa ...

(6); drones, ancient

pipes Pipe(s), PIPE(S) or piping may refer to: Objects * Pipe (fluid conveyance), a hollow cylinder following certain dimension rules ** Piping, the use of pipes in industry * Smoking pipe ** Tobacco pipe * Half-pipe and quarter pipe, semi-circu ...

balalaika The balalaika (, ) is a Russian string instrument, stringed musical instrument with a characteristic triangular wooden, hollow body, fretted neck, and three strings. Two strings are usually tuned to the same note and the third string is a perf ...

(7); bass synthesizer (8); piano,

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestr ...

(9);

drum machine A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument that creates percussion sounds, drum beats, and patterns. Drum machines may imitate drum kits or other percussion instruments, or produce unique sounds, such as synthesized electronic tones. A d ...

, dubs (10) * Dean Honer – mixing (all tracks),

(1–5, 7, 8, 10) synthesizers (1–3, 5–8, 10), beats (1, 2, 7),

EMS Ems or EMS may refer to: Places and rivers * Domat/Ems, a Swiss municipality in the canton of Grisons * Ems (river) (Eems), a river in northwestern Germany and northeastern Netherlands that discharges in the Dollart Bay * Ems (Eder), a river o ...

synthesizer (4, 9),

theremin The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone, etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named aft ...

(6), effects (7, 10); drones, ancient pipes, balalaika (7); dubs (8, 10); Mellotron, drum machine (10) * Mairead O'Connor – electric guitar (4) * Lias Saoudi – lead vocals (2–4, 7, 8, 10), production (10)

Additional contributors

* Oliver Harrap – drums (1–6, 8), backing vocals (1),

rototom The rototom is a shell-less drum developed by Al Payson and Michael Colgrass that is able to change pitch by rotating its drumhead around a threaded metal ring. Unlike many types of drums, rototoms are designed to have a variable definite pi ...

s (6, 8) *

Ross Orton Ross Orton is an English songwriter, producer, and musician based in Sheffield. Orton is known for his work as drummer in Add N to (X) and as part of electro trio Fat Truckers, and since that band's split in 2004 has formed the Cavemen songwrit ...

– engineering (1, 4, 6, 8, 9), drum machine

programming Program (American English; also Commonwealth English in terms of computer programming and related activities) or programme (Commonwealth English in all other meanings), programmer, or programming may refer to: Business and management * Program m ...

(4),

electronic drum Electronic drums are a modern electronic musical instrument, primarily designed to serve as an alternative to an acoustic drum kit. Electronic drums consist of an electronic sound module which produces the Drum synthesiser, synthesized or Sampler ...

programming (6); synthesizers, dubs (8) * Sydney Minsky-Sargeant – guitar, synthesizer (1, 8); bass (2), electric guitar (2, 4),

Omnichord The Omnichord is an electronic musical instrument introduced in 1981 by the Suzuki Musical Instrument Corporation. It allows users to play distinctive harp-like arpeggios produced through an electronic strum plate, simulating the experience of ...

(4) *

– lead vocals (1) * Alex White – saxophone (2–6, 8),

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

(3–5, 8), backing vocals (3) * Hannah Hu – backing vocals (2, 4, 5, 8) *

– lead vocals (3) *

– lead vocals (5) *

Sean Ono Lennon is a British-American musician, songwriter, and producer. He is the son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and half-brother to Julian Lennon. Over the course of his career, he has been a member of the bands Cibo Matto, the Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tige ...

– synthesizer, Omnichord, keyboards (6) * Jessica Winter – lead vocals, strings, synthesizer, bass synthesizer (9) * Alex Greaves – engineering (1–6, 8) * Peter Ferguson – engineering (9) * The Rainlord – artwork, concept * Gareth Mallinson –

layout In general terms, a layout is a structured arrangement of items within certain limits, or a plan for such arrangement. Specifically, layout may refer to: * Page layout, the arrangement of visual elements on a page ** Comprehensive layout (comp), ...

* Stanley Chow – specialist additional 'fig' photography

Charts

Note

References

{{Reflist 2025 albums Albums produced by Ross Orton Pop albums by English artists The Moonlandingz albums Transgressive Records albums