DMA's - How Many Dreams? (Album Review)

Photo: Reuben Bastienne-Lewis In recent years, DMA’s have become one of Australia’s best exports, with their strand of indie-rock winning them sufficient acclaim to warrant touring slots alongside both Gallagher brothers and Arctic Monkeys. They’ve also achieved relatively high billing at Reading and Leeds on their way to becoming an arena draw in their own right.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Tuesday, 18 April 2023

Heather Woods Broderick - Labyrinth (Album Review)

For too long Heather Woods Broderick’s name has been best known as a footnote on the work of others. Yes, she has played and toured with Sharon Van Etten, Damien Jurado and Beth Orton, but these experiences speak only to her brilliance as a musician. Her capability as a songwriter is often overlooked, despite being plain to hear for anyone who has spent time with her back catalogue.

Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Monday, 17 April 2023

Billie Marten - Drop Cherries (Album Review)

Photo: Katie Silvester Billie Marten arrives at her fourth album knowing precisely who she is creatively. ‘Drop Cherries’ is a record befitting its name, with syrupy romantic notions placed delicately among her trademark acoustic indie-folk. 

Written by: Rebecca Llewellyn | Date: Friday, 14 April 2023

Yaeji - With a Hammer (Album Review)

Photo: Dasom Han ‘With a Hammer’ is the debut album from Yaeji, following on from her 2020 mixtape ‘What We Drew 우리가 그려왔던’. It finds the DJ, producer and singer in a period of creative rage, with tracks that snarl, blip and penetrate. The results are sometimes arresting and sometimes a bit meh, but they all pave the way for late night dirty dancing in Brooklyn.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Thursday, 13 April 2023

Mudhoney - Plastic Eternity (Album Review)

Although they were inevitably tied into the brief grunge explosion of the early ‘90s, through a combination of geography and face-melting fuzz, Mudhoney have carved out a respectably long and varied career.

Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Tuesday, 11 April 2023

Bury Tomorrow - The Seventh Sun (Album Review)

Photo: Nic Bezzinae Line-up changes always cause some consternation and Bury Tomorrow proved to be no exception after announcing the departure of guitarist-vocalist Jason Cameron in 2021. ‘The Seventh Sun’ is their first new music since then, and it serves as a declaration of intent and a resolute refusal to be cowed.

Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Friday, 07 April 2023

Boygenius - The Record (Album Review)

Photo: Harrison Whitford Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus—both together as Boygenius and apart as solo artists—already command fervent love from fans who have bordered on frenzied in the past. Their music is deserving of such respect, but when approaching their first full length as a group it’s easy to wonder what they might be able to offer to surpass what has come before.

Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Thursday, 06 April 2023

City and Colour - The Love Still Held Me Near (Album Review)

Photo: Vanessa Heins Death is a cruel aspect of life. The loss of an elder tends to be easier to stomach—we can attempt to rationalise the hole we have been left with. “It was their time,” we say. But when we lose a peer or a friend there are no platitudes with which to wrap ourselves in. The grief cuts deeper, not only because of the cruelty that accompanies a premature departure, but also because it focuses our minds on our own mortality.

Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Wednesday, 05 April 2023

The New Pornographers - Continue as a Guest (Album Review)

Yet again, like so many works currently being wheeled out, the New Pornographers’ ninth studio album was shaped by the pandemic. Bearing traits of isolation and the unsettling restrictions of being limited to seeing just a handful of people within your bubble, ‘Continue as a Guest’ was mostly moulded at a distance. 

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Tuesday, 04 April 2023

The Hold Steady - The Price of Progress (Album Review)

Photo: Shervin Lainez "It's hard to make friends when your job is so demanding." You can almost hear the lump in Craig Finn's throat as he delivers this line during Sixers, a standout on The Hold Steady’s ninth album ‘The Price of Progress’. 

Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Monday, 03 April 2023

Liturgy - 93696 (Album Review)

Photo: Alexander Perrelli The world is starting to catch up with Liturgy. Haela Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix’s experimental black metal project was once the subject of immense opprobrium, stemming from her genre-busting music as much as her highbrow philosophical themes.

Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Friday, 31 March 2023

Fall Out Boy - So Much (For) Stardust (Album Review)

Photo: Pamela Littky It’s been a while since Fall Out Boy have been truly great. Released in 2015, ‘American Beauty/American Psycho’ was a sanitised attempt at radio rock that periodically came off as bland, while 2018’s ‘Mania’ was a maximalist car crash that buried the band’s idiosyncrasies under ultra-processed production. 

Written by: Emma Wilkes | Date: Thursday, 30 March 2023

Depeche Mode - Memento Mori (Album Review)

Photo: Anton Corbijn ‘Memento Mori’ is Depeche Mode’s 15th studio album, and the first to be released following the sudden death of founding member Andy Fletcher in 2022, at the age of just 60. Coming as a crushing blow to remaining members Dave Gahan and Martin Gore, Fletcher’s loss could easily have spelled the end for the band, but instead we have a record that serves as both a tribute to their friend and an admission to themselves that they too are mortal.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Wednesday, 29 March 2023

The HIRS Collective - We're Still Here (Album Review)

Photo: Chris Suspect The HIRS Collective has never been a group to shy away from pushing the limits of extreme music, either in sound or scope. Whether they’re putting out a collection of 100 songs at a time, or collaborating with pioneers, their brand of grindcore has always been about inclusivity and equality. 

Written by: Jack Terry | Date: Tuesday, 28 March 2023

Lana Del Rey - Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (Album Review)

Photo: Chuck Grant When Lana Del Rey stepped into the pop hemisphere a decade ago, she was a creature of intense curiosity. Her breakout single Video Games still captures a unique moment in space and time: retro storytelling through the prism of social media filters, full of artifice and yet somehow in her own way, utterly authentic.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Monday, 27 March 2023

Black Honey - A Fistful of Peaches (Album Review)

Photo: Jamie Noise There are few places scarier than the confines of your own mind. We are, for the most part, our own worst enemies: overly critical, self-loathing and holding ourselves to standards higher than anyone around us would expect us to meet. 

Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Friday, 24 March 2023

Yves Tumor - Praise a Lord... (Album Review)

Photo: Jordan Hemingway Another fabulous example of the post-genre future that we seem to be rapidly heading towards, Yves Tumor’s latest is as unclassifiable and engrossing as contemporary rock-leaning music comes.

Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Thursday, 23 March 2023

100 Gecs - 10,000 Gecs (Album Review)

Photo: Chris Maggio ‘10,000 Gecs’ is the second studio album from American hyperpop duo 100 Gecs and arrives a year after it was initially slated for release. If the delay was due to adding final touches to the music, then it sort-of shows. This album is a frenetic, hyperactive melange of styles and genres with enough diversity of noise to keep the listener guessing for months.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 22 March 2023

Unknown Mortal Orchestra - V (Album Review)

Photo: Juan Ortiz Arenas From their inception Unknown Mortal Orchestra have been musical outliers. Decidedly ‘anti-scene’, the group, fronted by songwriter Ruban Nielson, have always incorporated a twisted nest of influences into their sound.

Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Tuesday, 21 March 2023

Miley Cyrus - Endless Summer Vacation (Album Review)

Photo: Marcell Rév In Ken Burns’ epic documentary series Country Music, he asks guitar godfather and key architect of the so-called Nashville Sound, Chet Atkins, exactly what that sound comprises. Atkins jingles some coins in his pocket. “That’s the Nashville Sound!” he says with an accompanying grin.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Monday, 20 March 2023

Princess Nokia - I Love You But This Is Goodbye (Album Review)

When Princess Nokia dropped '1992 Deluxe' back in 2017, it seemed as if the emo-rap crown would inevitably be hers for the taking. She's not quite managed to match those heights with subsequent releases, but her new EP 'I Love You But This Is Goodbye' sets out to right the ship as a short, sharp shot of her myriad influences and styles.

Written by: Jack Terry | Date: Friday, 17 March 2023

Dutch Uncles - True Entertainment (Album Review)

Photo: Oliver Sangster It's not every day that you come across an album that cites Prince, Yellow Magic Orchestra and Talking Heads as key influences. Then again, it's not every day you come across a band quite like Dutch Uncles. The Mancunian art-pop quartet are back with their sixth album 'True Entertainment' and they prove here that certain sounds can be truly timeless.

Written by: Jack Terry | Date: Thursday, 16 March 2023

Kali Uchis - Red Moon in Venus (Album Review)

Photo: Cho Gi-Seok For Kali Uchis’ third studio album, the Colombian-American R&B singer has delivered a luxurious cocktail of slow jam-soul pop. 'Red Moon in Venus' demonstrates a gorgeous high point in her catalogue, its vintage production providing an elegant background to syrupy singing and raunch. In ancient astrology, the red moon is meant as a portent of doom. In this context, it appears to predict something altogether more erotic.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 15 March 2023

Slowthai - Ugly (Album Review)

‘Ugly’ is the third album from UK rapper Slowthai, presenting raw and introspective lyricism with dark garage-rock backing, giving a compelling view into the performer’s troubled psyche. 

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Tuesday, 14 March 2023

Sleaford Mods - UK Grim (Album Review)

Releasing seven albums in 10 years is no mean feat, but when your music focuses on taking potshots at arseholes and austerity like Sleaford Mods' does, it sadly seems you'll never be short of content. 

Written by: Jack Terry | Date: Monday, 13 March 2023

The Veils - …And Out Of The Void Came Love (Album Review)

Released as a double album after Finn Andrews hit an unexpected rich vein of form, ‘…And Out of the Void Came Love’ is the Veils’ sixth LP, and first for seven years. During that time, Andrews suffered from writer’s block, a feeling that is captured on the excellent lead single Undertow. Having both parents as writers, Andrews was fully aware of the troubles encountered when the well runs dry—at one point had lost hope that he would ever be able to create again.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Wednesday, 08 March 2023

Gorillaz - Cracker Island (Album Review)

At this point, Damon Albarn has likely had more airplay as the creator of Gorillaz than as the frontman of Blur. The use of the word ‘airplay’ is relevant because since Gorillaz’s debut album (‘Cracker Island’ is their eighth) the entire machinery of music listening has changed from physical to streaming. And this is relevant because to listeners of a certain vintage Gorillaz still feel somehow…new.

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

The Slow Readers Club - Knowledge Freedom Power (Album Review)

For a band recognised as being from the gloomy Joy Division mould, the Slow Readers Club’s new album ‘Knowledge Freedom Power’ is intentionally more optimistic as things shift over from the dark side to one of more noticeable light.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Friday, 03 March 2023

Algiers - Shook (Album Review)

Photo: Ebru Yildiz Algiers were a band on the brink of collapse. The genre-mashing collective, burnt out from relentless touring, were feeling the pressure from all sides in a world rife with turmoil and unrest. For a moment, it looked as if they would be calling it a day. “We all got shook,” says multi-instrumentalist Ryan Mahan. But rather than let it spell the end of a group that had already put out three albums and been friends for years, they retreated to where it all began and produced their new album.

Written by: Jack Terry | Date: Thursday, 02 March 2023

Logic - College Park (Album Review)

At the age of just 30, Logic announced he was done with the music industry and retired. A year later he was back with his seventh album ‘Vinyl Days’, cranking it out in 12 days before severing ties with his long-time label Def Jam. Now, the Maryland rapper returns to the fold as an independent artist with ‘College Park’. And he sounds even better for it.

Written by: Jack Terry | Date: Wednesday, 01 March 2023

Philip Selway - Strange Dance (Album Review)

In Radiohead’s absence, the band’s members have consistently put out projects. Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood have worked on acclaimed film scores as well as the band The Smile, while Ed O’Brien put out an understated and underrated solo album in 2020 titled ‘Earth’.

Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Tuesday, 28 February 2023

Shame - Food For Worms (Album Review)

Since establishing themselves as figureheads of the British post-punk revival with their 2018 debut, ‘Songs of Praise’, South London’s Shame have not been ones for complacency.

Written by: Maddy Howell | Date: Monday, 27 February 2023

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Land of Sleeper (Album Review)

British doom metal bands occupy key spots in the genre’s canon. Black Sabbath invented it, Electric Wizard made it more evil, Iron Monkey upped the transgressive ante and, more recently, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs have imbued this dark and murky genre with crossover-friendly fun.

Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Thursday, 23 February 2023

Black Belt Eagle Scout - The Land, The Water, The Sky (Album Review)

Photo: Nate Lemuel of Darklisted Photography For the uninitiated, Black Belt Eagle Scout is the musical outlet of Swinomish multi-instrumentalist Katherine Paul. Her Native ancestry has always been an important backdrop to her music, but on what is now her third record for Saddle Creek, these themes take a greater prominence than ever before.

Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Wednesday, 22 February 2023

Shania Twain - Queen of Me (Album Review)

Showing laudable resilience after huge parts of her arsenal were torn away, ‘Queen Of Me’ is an entertaining and vibrant pop record from Shania Twain that, when it strikes the right equilibrium between her unique input and some necessary production choices, represents a nice cathartic pick me up.  

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Wednesday, 22 February 2023

Screaming Females - Desire Pathway (Album Review)

A ‘desire pathway’ is a route forged as an alternative to assigned roads, worn over time into a flat surface by individuals who have deemed it the best direction in which to travel. For a seasoned band such as Screaming Females, establishing such paths has almost become second nature.

Written by: Maddy Howell | Date: Tuesday, 21 February 2023

Andy Shauf - Norm (Album Review)

Photo: Angela Lewis It's well known that there is a bar in Boston where everybody knows your name, and it seems appropriate that Andy Shauf’s latest record ‘Norm’ shares its name with one of the most recognisable characters from the iconic sitcom Cheers.

Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Monday, 20 February 2023

Caroline Polachek - Desire, I Want To Turn Into You (Album Review)

Photo: Nedda Asfar It didn’t take long following the dissolution of her former band Chairlift for Caroline Polachek to step out into the world of pop under her own name. In 2019 she skipped beyond the production-focused work of her early solo career to release ‘Pang’, a top-drawer record that hummed with avant-pop promise.

Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Thursday, 16 February 2023

Paramore - This is Why (Album Review)

Everybody, it seems, is a little bit in love with Paramore right now. But that’s almost become the normal state of affairs in their corner of the internet. It’s rare to see interest in a band surge as it has for them in the past couple of years with only the vague promise of new music dangled above fans’ heads. They trend on Twitter at random intervals, with vocalist Hayley Williams seemingly only needing to exhale to have their following in raptures.

Written by: Emma Wilkes | Date: Wednesday, 15 February 2023

Kelela - Raven (Album Review)

Photo: Justin French Six years on from Kelela’s debut, she has released a sophomore album of incredible fine tuning; presenting and proselytising around the Black queer female experience in a way that is at times forthright, delicate and incredibly groovy.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Tuesday, 14 February 2023

Yo La Tengo - This Stupid World (Album Review)

Photo: Cheryl Dunn It could be argued that Yo La Tengo are something of a jam band, especially when they lay down the bones of a record as a live three piece. That is once again the case on their sublime 16th LP ‘This Stupid World’, where their extended instrumental sections and experimental voyages are enlivened by grizzled pop melodies and euphoria-inducing breakdowns.

Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Monday, 13 February 2023

Raye - My 21st Century Blues (Album Review)

‘My 21st Century Blues’ is the debut album from London-born singer songwriter Raye, and it arrives pretty well formed after a bumpy journey. Signed by major label Polydor at 17, she became a frequent featured artist on dance tracks before acrimoniously parting with the label in 2021, claiming that the company had been delaying the release of her album. The result is a record of diverse pop sounds, full of energy and invention, that fires a few shots back at her former colleagues.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 08 February 2023

Young Fathers - Heavy Heavy (Album Review)

It’s been half a decade since art-pop genre-mashers Young Fathers last graced us with their all encompassing sounds, but with their fourth album ‘Heavy Heavy’ the trio show that great things come to those that wait.

Written by: Jack Terry | Date: Tuesday, 07 February 2023

Sam Smith - Gloria (Album Review)

Photo: Michael Bailey Gates Cast your mind back into the mists of time. It's the early 2010s and a new singer-songwriter is bestriding the pop charts like a latter day Cliff Richard. Their singing voice is tender, distinctive and utterly ubiquitous, and a host of blue chip musical collaborations appear to be lining up to blast them into the pop stratosphere.

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

Samia - Honey (Album Review)

Over a haunting score, Samia pours out raw, melancholy lyrics. Dripping in emotion while divulging her innermost thoughts, opening track Kill Her Freak Out is an eerily beautiful introduction to her second album, ‘Honey’.

Written by: Rebecca Llewellyn | Date: Friday, 03 February 2023

The Arcs - Electrophonic Chronic (Album Review)

Photo: Alysse Gafkjen ‘Electrophonic Chronic’ is the long awaited follow up to the Arcs’ 2015 debut ‘Yours, Dreamily’ but, tragically, it comes after the death of band member Richard Swift in 2018. Most of the groundwork was completed before Swift passed, meaning the core of the album was in place some six or seven years ago, and with something like 100 tracks in the vaults frontman Dan Auerbach resolved to release something as “a way for us to say goodbye to him”.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Thursday, 02 February 2023

Lil Yachty - Let's Start Here. (Album Review)

Lil Yachty has long prided himself on being one to stand out: individualistic and relentlessly optimistic, he set himself apart from the face-tatted mumble rappers that broke through alongside him. Musically, however, he's never managed to set himself apart as much as he does visually.

Written by: Jack Terry | Date: Wednesday, 01 February 2023

King Tuff - Smalltown Stardust (Album Review)

Photo: Wyndham Garnett King Tuff’s one of those musicians who’s been around so long, and has ploughed such a similar furrow to uber-prolific garage-rock acts such as Osees and Ty Segall, that it’s easy to forget he’s only released six studio albums.

Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Tuesday, 31 January 2023

SG Lewis - AudioLust & HigherLove (Album Review)

Photo: Lauretta Suter Despite what you might think, SG Lewis is not a high concept cabaret act combining the characters of C.S. Lewis’s Narnia Chronicles, and neither is he the offspring of 1990s reggae star CJ Lewis, reaching for his father’s legacy. He’s an electronic music producer from Reading.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Monday, 30 January 2023

Fucked Up - One Day (Album Review)

Photo: Jeaninne Kaufer “What could you do in just one day?” This question, posed in the title track of Fucked Up’s latest full length, was at the forefront of guitarist Mike Haliechuk’s mind when he conceived the band’s sixth album. The idea was a simple one: to see if he could write and record an album's worth of material in just 24 hours of studio time, and have his bandmates lay down their parts within the same time constraints.

Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Friday, 27 January 2023