Whiskey Myers - Tornillo (Album Review)
Dripping with Muscle Shoals horns and propelled by a variety of impossible-to-resist grooves, Whiskey Myers have spiced up their style-stretching gumbo even further on ‘Tornillo’, a jubilant record that leaves their southern rock peers eating dust.
Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Thursday, 04 August 2022
Maggie Rogers - Surrender (Album Review)
Photo: S. Holden Jaffe Maggie Rogers’ second album sees the recent Harvard Divinity School masters graduate expand upon the success of 2019’s ‘Heard it in a Past Life’. It delivers 12 powerful pop tracks that will easily fill the arena-sized venues in which she now plays.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Tuesday, 02 August 2022
The Kooks - 10 Tracks To Echo In The Dark (Album Review)
The Kooks found themselves entrenched in the creative hotbed of Berlin during the early part of recording for album six ’10 Tracks To Echo In The Dark’, but when the pandemic struck they were forced to retreat to the UK until further notice. Time dragged on and Luke Pritchard continued his work via Zoom, like so many others.
Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Monday, 01 August 2022
Joey Bada$$ - 2000 (Album Review)
Sequels are relatively common in hip hop. Genre masters such as Nas, Raekwon, and Jay-Z have all released follow ups to beloved albums, each with varying degrees of success. Fittingly for a rapper whose music has been built on emulating the greats, ‘2000’ sees New York’s Joey Bada$$ join this esteemed lineage.
Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Friday, 29 July 2022
Beach Bunny - Emotional Creature (Album Review)
Beach Bunny’s second album does what it says on the tin, but not in the most straightforward way. The sort of albums that might be described as ‘emotional’ are usually the ones where a vocalist searches for a release from their turbulent feelings, but ‘Emotional Creature’ is a far cry from that.
Written by: Emma Wilkes | Date: Thursday, 28 July 2022
Jamie T - The Theory of Whatever (Album Review)
Photo: Reuben Bastienne-Lewis We have become accustomed to protracted absences from Jamie T. Five years separated his second LP ‘Kings and Queens’ and its follow up ‘Carry On The Grudge’, and it is now close to six since his last full length, ‘Trick’. The panic that he may not return at all has dissipated since that first hiatus, though, with fans knowing that he was likely doing what he always does: writing, writing, then writing some more.
Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Wednesday, 27 July 2022
Jack White - Entering Heaven Alive (Album Review)
Photo: David James Swanson Jack White’s second record of 2022 sees the mercurial Michigander and former White Stripe deliver 11 tracks of quieter, more intellectual rock-roots music, bolstered by rich, textured arrangements and ever melodious guitar stylings.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 27 July 2022
Working Men's Club - Fear Fear (Album Review)
The ‘difficult second album’ can often be a red herring. It’s something that can happen, of course, particularly when a band must quickly follow an impressive debut that they had a lifetime to prepare for. In the case of Working Men’s Club, their 2020 self-titled LP was that kind of success, but the sophomore slump hasn't darkened their door.
Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Tuesday, 26 July 2022
...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - XI: Bleed Here Now (Album Review)
Photo: Dave Creaney ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead are one of this era’s great cult bands. The Austin six-piece have developed a committed fanbase through a unique musical aesthetic that journeys between art-rock, prog-rock and post-hardcore, with fantastical artwork and narratives offering another side of a unique, grandiose concoction.
Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Monday, 25 July 2022
Steve Lacy - Gemini Rights (Album Review)
Catch the name Steve Lacy on a festival line up and it might bring to mind a middle aged English pop-rocker knocking out 35 minutes of a forgotten 1990s catalogue before finally cracking and playing the one massive hit. Instead, you’d actually find an exciting kind of neo-soul Frank Ocean-Thundercat mashup infused with DIY production and sass.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Monday, 25 July 2022
Mabel - About Last Night... (Album Review)
Mabel’s second album ‘About Last Night...’ follows her to a party, where she moves from confident beginnings to romantic struggles that eventually blossom into newfound euphoric self-love. On this night of twists, you’ll find no pre-drinks at Spoons or dodgy kebabs in sight.
Written by: Matty Pywell | Date: Friday, 22 July 2022
Interpol - The Other Side of Make-Believe (Album Review)
Twenty five years into their career, Manhattan miserabilists Interpol aren’t getting any chirpier. Following a pandemic, their gloomy traits perhaps feel more fitting than ever but ‘The Other Side of Make-Believe’ often feels like there’s a struggle going on. On one hand it’s as though their lives have been frozen in time, as they were, and on the other there is the reality of a painfully slow thawing out post-Covid.
Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Thursday, 21 July 2022
Lizzo - Special (Album Review)
Photo: AB+DM Body positivity and self-love are not new concepts, particularly in Lizzo’s camp, but the Detroit-born artist’s ability to deliver messages in support of them, while embracing complex lyrical and musical tropes, is impressive. The fact that she keeps it all feeling fresh is even more so.
Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Thursday, 21 July 2022
Rae Morris - Rachel@Fairyland (Album Review)
Rae Morris’s third studio album offers up a multicoloured patchwork of pop tunes, investigating and interrogating themes of British life against the backdrop of her hometown, Blackpool. The result is a joyful, frequently romantic romp through the singer’s heart and soul, sashaying into musical theatre and electro chamber pop with mixed results.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 20 July 2022
Journey - Freedom (Album Review)
After a decade of increasingly bizarre shenanigans, one of the world’s most iconic and dysfunctional AOR bands have produced a new album that, all things considered, is rather intriguing. It might be easier to pick holes in this record than to find AutoTune on a contemporary pop vocal but, despite of such imperfections, ‘Freedom’ is an engrossing listen that delivers a sprawling and invigorating synthesis of the fresh and familiar.
Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Wednesday, 20 July 2022
Beabadoobee - Beatopia (Album Review)
Photo: Erika Kamano ‘Beatopia’ began life as the imaginary world of Beabadoobee—first conceived when she was seven years old, she has subsequently brought that same feeling of childlike wonder into focus with the album bearing its name. Over the course of its 45 minutes it’s alternately playful and introspective, meandering between indie rock, shoegaze and bedroom pop.
Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Tuesday, 19 July 2022
Black Midi - Hellfire (Album Review)
Photo: Atiba Jefferson Say what you want about Black Midi (and many people have chosen to do so) but the London three-piece are nothing if not unique. They’ve been variously categorised as experimental rock, math-rock and prog-rock, but none of these labels really stuck to the imaginative, manic and absurd flights of fancy that the precociously talented Brixton band concocted to date.
Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Monday, 18 July 2022
Superorganism - World Wide Pop (Album Review)
Photo: Jack Bridgland Disruption can be a powerful tool. When fighting, bargaining or toeing the line fail to get you noticed, the ability to shake up the status quo can be illuminating. Superorganism’s 2018 debut had that quality, upending expectations of what an indie-pop band might seek to achieve.
Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Friday, 15 July 2022
Katy J Pearson - Sound of the Morning (Album Review)
Katy J Pearson likes to turn heads. Placing her eccentric vocals firmly at the forefront of her second album ‘Sound of the Morning’, the Bristolian artist provides a refreshing sound that feels uniquely her own.
Written by: Rebecca Llewellyn | Date: Wednesday, 13 July 2022
Metric - Formentera (Album Review)
Photo: Justin Broadbent Nearly 25 years and eight albums into their career, it’d be easy to assume Canadian synth-rock outfit Metric are content to play it safe. But, while that was largely true of their recent albums, ‘Formentera’ bucks this trend in spectacular fashion. From its bold opening moments to its emotional journey and a shifting tone throughout, it’s a revitalising work that meditates on life and loss over its 48 minute runtime.
Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Tuesday, 12 July 2022
Viagra Boys - Cave World (Album Review)
Photo: Andre Jofre It can be hard to make yourself heard as a punk band these days. Three thrashed chords and snarled politicking long ago ceased to cut it, and wave upon wave of post-punk acts have hogged the spotlight, often obscuring the real punks in the process.
Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Monday, 11 July 2022
James Bay - Leap (Album Review)
Photo: Julia Broad Regardless of the record’s commercial success, with the benefit of hindsight James Bay’s ‘Electric Light’ was clearly the sound of a young artist in crisis. But if that difficult second album represented something of a stylistic stumble, ‘Leap’ is the work of a musician who has absorbed those lessons, remembered who he is and re-emerged with a jukebox of potential hit singles. And all it took was a little extra-curricular reading.
Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Thursday, 07 July 2022
Alexisonfire - Otherness (Album Review)
Photo: Vanessa Heins If you rattle off the names of post-hardcore’s greatest bands and don’t include Alexisonfire you’re doing it wrong—the Canadian crew are among the genre’s most fearless and successful forces. They’ve topped the charts in their home country, despite specialising in scrapping, screaming aggro flavoured with bluesy heaviness.
Written by: Matt Mills | Date: Wednesday, 06 July 2022
Paolo Nutini - Last Night In The Bittersweet (Album Review)
Paolo Nutini has always had an undeniable charm. A romantic soul with frayed edges, the Scottish musician captivated a mainstream audience with his rasping vocals on two albums that combined pop, soul, indie and folk before getting a tad more experimental on 2014’s ‘Caustic Love’.
Written by: Rebecca Llewellyn | Date: Tuesday, 05 July 2022
Greg Puciato - Mirrorcell (Album Review)
Photo: Jim Louvau Greg Puciato is something of a chameleon. His career may have taken off with the chaotic mathcore explosions of The Dillinger Escape Plan, which expanded into jazz, noise, electronics and even ambient music, but since their dissolution he’s only become more unpredictable and prolific.
Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Monday, 04 July 2022
Regina Spektor - Home, Before and After (Album Review)
Photo: Shervin Lainez On what is her eighth studio album, released after a lengthy six-year hiatus, Regina Spektor delights with the trademark spark of childlike curiosity that has enthralled listeners since her career began in the early ‘00s.
Written by: Rebecca Llewellyn | Date: Friday, 01 July 2022
Soccer Mommy - Sometimes, Forever (Album Review)
Soccer Mommy is an artist constantly wanting to evolve. In under five years, she’s metamorphosed from a lo-fi bedroom pop artist to a subtly shoegazey indie rock star with a sound as big as her emotions.
Written by: Emma Wilkes | Date: Thursday, 30 June 2022
TV Priest - My Other People (Album Review)
Photo: Hollie Fernando “I need to sleep,” are the first words we hear from TV Priest’s Charlie Drinkwater on ‘My Other People’. Accompanied by a sparsely picked guitar line, it is as though the vocalist is creeping into an unfamiliar room and surveying the scene before making his arrival known. It hints at a more considered approach than the one that propelled their debut ‘Uppers’, and that’s something the London post-punks investigate further over the course of the record's 12 tracks.
Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Thursday, 30 June 2022
Jessie Buckley and Bernard Butler - For All Our Days That Tear The Heart (Album Review)
Interesting one, this. ‘For All Our Days That Tear The Heart’ pairs the Oscar-nominated Irish actor Jessie Buckley with the former Suede guitarist and super-producer Bernard Butler. The result is a rich and ecstatic album of poise and resilience, demonstrating the tremendous singing voice that Buckley showcased in the film Wild Rose alongside complicated folk arrangements and deeply engaging lyrics.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Tuesday, 28 June 2022
Logic - Vinyl Days (Album Review)
‘Vinyl Days’ is the seventh album from the 32-year-old rapper born Sir (yes, ‘Sir’) Robert Bryson Hall II, and his second release since ending his self-imposed retirement.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Thursday, 23 June 2022
Nova Twins - Supernova (Album Review)
There are a lot of bad records made by great live bands. In fact, being called a ‘great live band’ is a pretty savage burn when wielded correctly. Nova Twins have a particularly high bar to clear as a recording act given that they are a truly seismic live proposition, but their second LP ‘Supernova’ does so with a flourish.
Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Wednesday, 22 June 2022
Foals - Life is Yours (Album Review)
Photo: Edward Cooke Foals’ seventh album finds the Oxonians in vibrant spirits. Despite the departure of two members —bassist Walter Gervers and keyboardist Edwin Congreave—the now three piece have delivered a work of glossy swagger, expanding and filling out the indie disco stylings of previous records. The result is a work of incredibly satisfying music led by bass and keys, and one that will form the backdrop to many a summer's eve out.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Tuesday, 21 June 2022
George Ezra - Gold Rush Kid (Album Review)
Photo: Alex Aiden-Smith It is possible for nice music to provoke extreme responses. Sometimes it’s because these inoffensive songs feel disingenuous, and at other times it’s because the lack of invention and risk-taking is stifling.
Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Wednesday, 15 June 2022
Horsegirl - Versions of Modern Performance (Album Review)
Photo: Cheryl Dunn The key word in the title of Horsegirl’s debut LP is ‘versions’. ‘Modern’ is probably next up, but only if you count the past 35 years or so as modern. This strikingly young Chicago band play indie-rock that is cognisant of what came before them, folding knotty guitars and an understated sense of melody together in songs that pinball between Yo La Tengo, Built to Spill and early Lemonheads. Members of Sonic Youth—guitarist Lee Ranaldo and drummer Steve Shelley—stop by to have their say on a couple of tracks and slot seamlessly into the conversation. You get it.
Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Monday, 13 June 2022
Joyce Manor - 40 oz. to Fresno (Album Review)
Joyce Manor crank out the kind of pop-punk that blends saccharine melodies with sarcastic lyrics, and with their sixth album ‘40 oz. to Fresno’ they see no reason to deviate from their formula. Still, there is plenty of nuance here to reward repeat listens despite its short runtime.
Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Friday, 10 June 2022
Post Malone - Twelve Carat Toothache (Album Review)
For Post Malone’s fourth album, the 26-year-old rapper-singer has delivered 16 tracks of strikingly confessional music, continuing the genre-melding formula that he has honed over the past 10 years. ‘Twelve Carat Toothache’ is puckish, sometimes memorable and antagonistic, with big musical swings taken throughout the record and big variation in the quality of the results.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Thursday, 09 June 2022
Alfie Templeman - Mellow Moon (Album Review)
Photo: Lillie Eiger Alfie Templeman is selling stuff that you can get elsewhere—Tom Grennan does a decent line in it, Declan McKenna too—but he’s banking on build quality to ensure he comes out on top when the figures come in. He trades in sleek, neatly-appointed pop that flirts with soul, funk and indie, with the odd non-threatening psychedelic flourish, and while still in his teens has perfected a blend that is completely reliable.
Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Wednesday, 08 June 2022
Angel Olsen - Big Time (Album Review)
Angel Olsen’s sixth album is wonderful—a tough and tender tumble into country music that elevates and escalates the Asheville, North Carolina resident’s entire catalogue.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Tuesday, 07 June 2022
Soak - If I Never Know You Like This Again (Album Review)
Photo: Sam Hiscox In their late teens, Soak tore into the indie scene like an emotional tornado with their debut album ‘Before We Forgot How to Dream’. Its incisive lyrics and delicate vocals have continued to be a cornerstone of their work in the near decade since, echoing the uncertainties we all face at some point in our adult lives. Of course, it’s only fitting that they release ‘If I Never Know You Like This Again’ while we are stumped on how to live life post-pandemic.
Written by: Jessica Howkins | Date: Monday, 06 June 2022
Wilco - Cruel Country (Album Review)
There is a warmth to Wilco’s ‘Cruel Country’ that doesn’t extend as far as its lyric sheet. It is a languid, patient dive into a world of acoustic and slide guitars, with Jeff Tweedy’s weather-beaten voice imparting easy charm and gruff gravity to each stop along the way. His words, though, speak of division and lingering hurt. “I love my country, stupid and cruel,” he sings on the title track. “Red, white, and blue.”
Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Wednesday, 01 June 2022
Def Leppard - Diamond Star Halos (Album Review)
Photo: Anton Corbijn Def Leppard’s eagerly-anticipated follow up to 2015’s excellent self-titled record is a curiously uneven grab bag that boasts as many anthemic heavy hitters as it does close-but-no-cigar air punches. Granted, we shouldn’t expect another game changer in the vein of ‘Pyromania’ or ‘Hysteria’ at this late stage, but with a stronger vision and better quality control, ‘Diamond Star Halos’ could have been as potent as its predecessor.
Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Tuesday, 31 May 2022
Liam Gallagher - C'mon You Know (Album Review)
Photo: Greg Williams It shouldn’t be hard to write great material for Liam Gallagher. Whether it’s swaggering rock with a tonne of roll, or epic balladry that falls on the right side of schmaltz, give the charismatic icon some songs that fall within those parameters and he’ll employ every ounce of his inimitable swagger to hand you back anthemic gold. So, why are the singer’s A-List collaborators still struggling to do just that on a consistent basis?
Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Monday, 30 May 2022
Everything Everything - Raw Data Feel (Album Review)
Everything Everything’s sixth studio album is terrific—a joyous sashay around a disco art gallery; all neon imagery, day-glo cocktails and sexy synths. Over 14 tracks and 54 minutes, we find the Mancunian quartet kicking at the outer edges of their distinctive dance-art-rock, offering up hugely diverse sounds and influences.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Friday, 27 May 2022
Porridge Radio - Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky (Album Review)
Having made it their business to explore a wide range of the emotions that exist on the human spectrum, Brighton-founded indie outfit Porridge Radio are no strangers when it comes to expressing themselves through music.
Written by: Rebecca Llewellyn | Date: Thursday, 26 May 2022
Harry Styles - Harry's House (Album Review)
How many truly global pop stars has the UK produced in the past 10 years? Ed Sheeran is one, Adele is another and you can certainly make a case for Dua Lipa.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 25 May 2022
Bear's Den - Blue Hours (Album Review)
Photo: Bennie Curnow The major driver behind Bear’s Den’s fourth album ‘Blue Hours’ is depression. Both Andrew Davie and Kevin Jones have suffered recently, and acknowledge the stigma and reluctance to speak out about mental health, a particular issue among men. ‘Blue Hours’ is a reference to an “imaginary space you get into at night” to “process difficult things”—it is awash with lyrical torment but the songs are stunning and strangely uplifting.
Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Tuesday, 24 May 2022
Cave In - Heavy Pendulum (Album Review)
Photo: Jay Zucco You’d be forgiven for thinking 2019’s ‘Final Transmission’ was exactly that for metal visionaries Cave In following the loss of bassist Caleb Scofield. Thankfully, that wasn’t to be the case. On their first proper studio recording since 2009 they deliver plenty of what made fans fall in love with the band in the first place, as well as offering a memorial of sorts to their late bandmate.
Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Monday, 23 May 2022
The Waterboys - All Souls Hill (Album Review)
There’s something not right when an artist can burst onto the scene almost 40 years ago and then disappear without actually going anywhere. Logistically, Mike Scott may have gone from Scotland to Ireland but he’s still churning out music with The Waterboys, and there’s a whole cache of it available from after their 1980s heyday. ‘All Souls Hill’ takes his albums, including solo efforts, into the late teens, but how many of them do you know? Criminally, it’s likely to be few.
Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Friday, 20 May 2022
The Black Keys - Dropout Boogie (Album Review)
Photo: Jim Herrington The Black Keys’ 11th studio album ‘Dropout Boogie’ picks up where their covers LP ‘Delta Kream’ left off: entrenched in a classic rock ‘n’ roll sound as opposed to the more expressive ‘Turn Blue’ and even ‘El Camino’. Within their portfolio, this means the vibe points firmly towards rekindling the sound of the band's early records ‘Rubber Factory’ and ‘Thickfreakness’.
Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Thursday, 19 May 2022
The Smile - A Light For Attracting Attention (Album Review)
Photo: Alex Lake Things in Radiohead land take time. The five members are releasing albums less and less frequently, pursuing solo albums and side-projects before they (hopefully) one day return to their acclaimed band.
Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Wednesday, 18 May 2022
