Jockstrap - I<3UQTINVU (Album Review)

Photo: Eddie Whelan Jockstrap occupy a strange space. They are musical oddballs who produce the sort of music many might baulk at, and yet, they are also radio-play regulars with a Mercury Prize nomination to their name. ‘I<3UQTINVU’ (shorthand for 'I Love You Cutie, I Envy You') is more interested in exploring  the former state than the latter.

Written by: Jo Higgs | Date: Wednesday, 15 November 2023

Kevin Abstract - Blanket (Album Review)

Photo: Arseni Khachaturan Where do you go after a break-up? Usually, nowhere specific. You float around for a while and find out where or how you’re meant to exist without a former constant in your life. Kevin Abstract’s latest solo album ‘Blanket’ finds the former Brockhampton leader in this open-ended spot, navigating a world without the anchor that saw him from adolescent to adult.

Written by: Jack McGill | Date: Thursday, 09 November 2023

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - The Silver Cord (Album Review)

How much synth could a lizard wizard synth if a lizard wizard could play a synth? Well, here’s your answer. ‘The Silver Cord’ is King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s 25th album, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have new tricks up their billowing sleeves.

Written by: Jack McGill | Date: Wednesday, 08 November 2023

Empty Country - Empty Country II (Album Review)

Not content with releasing four blistering records as the frontman of the post-rocking indie-punks Cymbal Eat Guitars, in 2020 Joseph D’Agostino announced an entirely new project in the form of Empty Country. Far from being a poor imitation of what had come before, it signalled a fresh chapter and reinvigorated way of working for the songwriter, whose razor sharp observations of American life bled into his increasingly fictitious writing style.

Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Wednesday, 08 November 2023

Tkay Maidza - Sweet Justice (Album Review)

Photo: Dana Trippe It feels as though Tkay Maidza has been set to achieve household name status for several years now. The versatile Zimbabwean-Australian vocalist has all the ingredients to become the next big thing — her sound is a dream fusion of bass-heavy Megan Thee Stallion-esque rap and SZA-style alternative R&B.

Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Tuesday, 07 November 2023

Bombay Bicycle Club - My Big Day (Album Review)

Photo: Tom Oxley ‘My Big Day’, Bombay Bicycle Club’s sixth studio album, is a collab-laden journey through the neon fairground of the soul, with guest appearances from Damon Albarn, Nilüfer Yanya and Jay Som, among others. The result is a tight and colourful record that keeps the band relevant, but doesn’t break new ground.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Monday, 06 November 2023

Taylor Swift - 1989 (Taylor's Version) (Album Review)

Photo: Beth Garrabrant Many songwriters will tell you that when their material is first written and recorded it’s like a baby who’s yet to develop a fully formed identity. That often comes over time due to performing them every night, where they begin to communicate to their creators who they are and what they mean. Having spent nearly a decade with ‘1989’, Taylor Swift’s latest re-recording project suggests she has developed a particularly nuanced, loving relationship with her mega-selling pop-opus.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Friday, 03 November 2023

DJ Shadow - Action Adventure (Album Review)

Photo: Koury Angelo  On his seventh album, DJ Shadow has reined in the collaborations with vocalists and put his compositional nous front and centre. The result feels like a trippy 1980s mixtape with synths and boom-bap drums intersecting elegantly. Though it doesn’t quite have the emotional or commercial viability of 2019’s ‘Our Pathetic Age’, it lands in a pretty handsome sweet spot, with an awe inspiring degree of production versatility.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Thursday, 02 November 2023

The Mountain Goats - Jenny From Thebes (Album Review)

Photo: Jackie Lee Young  Serious questions would need to be raised if anyone claimed to be the same person that they were 20 years ago. Time ultimately softens some aspects of our personalities while hardening others against the world. And, while there is no shame in being content with our own histories, most people would go back and make a few changes if they could.

Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Wednesday, 01 November 2023

Duran Duran - Danse Macabre (Album Review)

Duran Duran are back with their sixteenth album and, given the season, it’s an appropriately ghoulish affair. Blending original tunes with classic covers and spooked-up versions of their own songs, ‘Danse Macabre’ has its roots in a Halloween show the band played in Las Vegas, and demonstrates the fun and silliness that they have made one of their defining characteristics over the past 45 years.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Tuesday, 31 October 2023

The Gaslight Anthem - History Books (Album Review)

Photo: Casey McAllister No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. Almost a decade on from the release of their last studio album, The Gaslight Anthem are back with ‘History Books’. 

Written by: Adam England | Date: Monday, 30 October 2023

Dream Nails - Doom Loop (Album Review)

Dream Nails are a band of intention, fearlessly tackling topics that many avoid as they don’t have the mettle — not to mention the musical chops — to turn an unacceptable socio-political reality into something captivating and joyful.

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Friday, 27 October 2023

Offset - Set It Off (Album Review)

The best word to describe Offset’s career to date is turbulent. On one hand there’s being part of one of trap's greatest groups, Migos, and forming a rap power-couple with Cardi B. On the other is scandal and tragedy, including the loss of his bandmate  Takeoff last year. Nothing has come easy, and so it is with his second solo album 'Set It Off'.

Written by: Jack Terry | Date: Wednesday, 25 October 2023

Sampha - Lahai (Album Review)

Sometimes life goes in circles. Sampha’s ‘Lahai’ is a long-awaited return that follows up a long-awaited debut, picking up where 2017’s ‘Process’ left off before journeying to a host of unexpected realms.

Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Wednesday, 25 October 2023

††† (Crosses) - Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete. (Album Review)

Photo: Brian Ziff For the past few years ††† (Crosses), the synthwave project helmed by Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and Far guitarist Shaun Lopez, have been drip feeding new material to fans. The slow-burn has been building towards a full length follow up to 2014's self-titled debut, and it's been worth the wait.

Written by: Jack Terry | Date: Tuesday, 24 October 2023

Blink-182 - One More Time (Album Review)

Photo: Jack Bridgland There’s a new Blink-182 album featuring the unmistakable drawl of Tom DeLonge and puerile humour that drips from song titles such as Edging. The year is, somehow, 2023. Following Mark Hoppus’s recovery from cancer the pop-punk titans are back in the configuration that conquered the world two decades ago — with Travis Barker still behind the kit and DeLonge’s return meaning the exit of Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba — and ‘One More Time…’ is their chance to take one more stab at things.

Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Monday, 23 October 2023

The Streets - The Darker The Shadow The Brighter The Light (Album Review)

Mike Skinner, clipper lighter aficionado, DJ and the mind behind The Streets, has been slipping in and out of the zeitgeist for decades, soundtracking lost nights and reflective mornings. On ‘The Darker The Shadow The Brighter The Light’ he shows his words have lost none of their potency.

Written by: Jack McGill | Date: Friday, 20 October 2023

Creeper - Sanguivore (Album Review)

British punks Creeper arrive at their third studio album with a sweeping sense of gothic grandeur now a vital part of their sound. On ‘Sanguivore’ the band plays into every tongue-in-cheek spooky narrative and arterial fountain with total confidence and an unshakeable sense of self. 

Written by: Rebecca Llewellyn | Date: Wednesday, 18 October 2023

The Menzingers - Some Of It Was True (Album Review)

Photo: Danielle Dubois On the surface, heartland rock is a lot like buses. You wait years for a band to bring it back, and suddenly The Gaslight Anthem have reformed while Bruce Springsteen is on the road racking up stadium show after stadium show. In the background, though,  The Menzingers’ wheels never stopped spinning.

Written by: Jack Press | Date: Tuesday, 17 October 2023

Troye Sivan - Something To Give Each Other (Album Review)

Photo: Stuart Winecoff It has been a long five years since Troye Sivan released ‘Bloom’, an album that received praise for vulnerable, defiant tracks that honestly discussed his experiences of being a queer man, enabling Sivan to situate himself as one of pop’s most essential voices. Its follow up, ‘Something To Give Each Other’ adds further colours to his palette: it is a 10 track celebration of sex, community, queerness, love, and friendship. 

Written by: Katie Macbeth | Date: Tuesday, 17 October 2023