Knowledge of the solid-state properties is one of the key issues in understanding the performance of drugs. Recent developments in spectroscopic techniques have made them popular tools for solid phase analysis; they are fast, accurate and suitable for real-time measurements during processing, and further, they can be used to obtain structural understanding of solid forms, for example, by the use of multivariate analysis and computational chemistry. In this article emerging topics related to spectroscopic analysis of pharmaceutical solids are reviewed. The following areas are highlighted: (1) the importance of multivariate methods in the analysis of solid forms when using spectroscopic techniques, (2) spectroscopic analysis of processing-induced solid phase transformations in the manufacturing setting, (3) novel spectroscopic techniques and pharmaceutical examples of their use, and (4) the advantages and the use of computational simulation of vibrational spectra. The topics listed are thought to be of the foremost importance in improving the understanding of pharmaceutical materials, processes and formulations.