Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - Wild God (Album Review)
Photo: Megan Cullen Analysing Nick Cave’s music has become an increasingly difficult proposition for two reasons. Firstly, his outspoken views reveal a deeply complex, contradictory man. Secondly, recent unfathomably tragic life events have lent an oppressive emotional intensity to his accomplished catalogue.
Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Wednesday, 04 September 2024
Mura Masa - Curve 1 (Album Review)
Photo: Dani Bastidas With ‘Curve 1’ Mura Masa (also known as Guernsey-born producer Alex Crossan) has embraced change. As well as being his first release on his own Pond Recordings label it’s also a departure from earlier pop-leaning works, ambitiously broadening horizons while focusing less heavily on high-profile features.
Written by: Nieve Elis | Date: Monday, 02 September 2024
Zeal & Ardor - Greif (Album Review)
Manuel Gagneux had a brilliant idea and could have spent his entire career cashing in on it. Ten years ago, the Swiss-American multi-instrumentalist started Zeal & Ardor in response to a 4chan troll telling him to mix black metal with “[n-word] music”. Instead of furiously hammering out a response, he decided a better riposte would be to try it and make it good.
Written by: Matt Mills | Date: Friday, 30 August 2024
Sabrina Carpenter - Short n' Sweet (Album Review)
If it seems like Sabrina Carpenter has only recently exploded into the public consciousness, then that’s likely more about you than her. It’s been a decade since she debuted as Maya Hart on Disney’s Girl Meets World and almost as long since the release of her first album. Fast forward to the present day and she is now far removed from her sickly sweet child star persona, with her sixth LP ‘Short n’ Sweet’ radiating confidence and sex appeal at almost every turn.
Written by: Issy Herring | Date: Thursday, 29 August 2024
Uniform - American Standard (Album Review)
Photo: Joshua Zucker-Pluda & Sean Stout CW: This review contains descriptions of eating disorders. Uniform have carved a career out of making disquieting sounds, and the ones that start ‘American Standard’ may be their most disquieting yet. “A part of me! But it can’t be me!” vocalist Michael Berdan snarls with no musical backing at the outset of the album’s 21-minute title track.
Written by: Matt Mills | Date: Wednesday, 28 August 2024
Fontaines D.C. - Romance (Album Review)
Photo: Theo Cottle Fontaines D.C. have earned a reputation as a band that won’t sit still, and yet ‘Romance’ still registers as a significant transformation. Since releasing 2022’s ‘Skinty Fia’, itself a reinvention of their earlier post-punk sound, there has been a shift from baggy T-shirts and trackie bottoms to sitting front-row at Milan Fashion Week, a change of record labels from Partisan to XL, and a switching out of producers, with James Ford tagging in after recent work with The Last Dinner Party, Depeche Mode and Blur. None of this would matter, of course, if the music fell flat. It doesn’t.
Written by: Katie Macbeth | Date: Tuesday, 27 August 2024
Tinashe - Quantum Baby (Album Review)
Tinashe has never been one to wait around. Since leaving girl group The Stunners in 2011, she has been a self-starter — she’s released seven albums in the past 10 years and ‘Quantum Baby’ is her second in 11 months.
Written by: Jack Butler-Terry | Date: Friday, 23 August 2024
Hamish Hawk - A Firmer Hand (Album Review)
Photo: Michaela Simpson It will soon be three years since the release of Hamish Hawk’s ‘Heavy Elevator’, which means it’ll soon be three years since everything changed for the young songwriter from Edinburgh. Despite the flashes of brilliance that had peppered earlier releases, and while acknowledging the small but loyal fanbase they brought him, his first full length proper lifted him to fresh heights.
Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Wednesday, 21 August 2024
Post Malone - F-1 Trillion (Album Review)
Photo: Adam DeGross Red Wing boots, whiskey sour cocktails, and the cowboy-core resurgence: it’s never been cooler to be country. And even if he spends a lot of his time collecting cliches like Pacman gobbles up dots, ‘F-1 Trillion’ finds Post Malone doing what the genre’s legends have been doing for decades: outrunning the ghosts of their past and having the time of their lives doing it.
Written by: Jack Press | Date: Monday, 19 August 2024
Fucked Up - Another Day (Album Review)
Photo: Colin Medley Across a career that spans more than 20 years and a head-spinning amount of music, Fucked Up have balanced straight-up hardcore with a sideline as art-punk provocateurs. Their breakthrough album ‘The Chemistry of Common Life’ scooped the Polaris Prize — Canada’s answer to the Mercury — in 2009, while with ‘David Comes To Life’ they went full concept in 2011, setting out an experimental ethos they’d further develop on.
Written by: Matthew McLister | Date: Friday, 16 August 2024
Beabadoobee - This Is How Tomorrow Moves (Album Review)
Photo: Jules Moskovtchenko / Creative Direction: Patricia Villirillo Beabadoobee — real name Beatrice Laus — has spent the past seven years growing up in the spotlight. Along the way there has been viral success, critical acclaim and high profile gigs, as evidenced by recent support slots on Taylor Swift’s enormous Eras tour. Underpinning it all has been a reverence for ‘90s alt rock, shoegaze and grunge, retrofitted with a gooey indie-pop core.
Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Wednesday, 14 August 2024
Orville Peck - Stampede (Album Review)
Orville Peck’s ‘Stampede’ is an ambitious departure from his previous work. In stark contrast to 2019’s ‘Pony’ and the ensuing ‘Bronco’, both of which foregrounded his masked cowboy aesthetic and hypnotic baritone voice, here this lone cowboy has company on a record that, as its title suggests, comprises starry duets.
Written by: Nieve Elis | Date: Tuesday, 13 August 2024
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Flight b741 (Album Review)
Photo: Maclay Heriot Some bands are content to release an album every two or three years, but others have no time for the norm. Australian psych-rockers King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, for example, have released a remarkable 25 studio albums since 2012, with ‘Flight b741’ making it 26.
Written by: Chris Connor | Date: Monday, 12 August 2024
Wand - Vertigo (Album Review)
Wand are one of the most underrated rock bands of modern times. Over the past decade, the Los Angeles four-piece have built a reputation as an ambitious yet accessible outfit without receiving the mainstream praise they deserve.
Written by: Matthew McLister | Date: Thursday, 08 August 2024
X - Smoke & Fiction (Album Review)
Photo: Gilbert Trejo X will be remembered as one of the most important American punk bands of all time. Their 1980 debut ‘Los Angeles’ nailed their flag to the mast geographically and spiritually, becoming a formative west coast record and paving the way for a discography that took its share of fascinating diversions across almost half a century.
Written by: Chris Connor | Date: Wednesday, 07 August 2024
The Smashing Pumpkins - Aghori Mhori Mei (Album Review)
Photo: Paul Elledge The Smashing Pumpkins’ back catalogue has more highs and lows than a mountaineer’s career. Their early output scaled mountains, planting their flag at alt-rock’s summit, but since original members Billy Corgan, James Iha, and Jimmy Chamberlain made peace in 2018, they’ve struggled to reach base camp.
Written by: Jack Press | Date: Tuesday, 06 August 2024
Crack Cloud - Red Mile (Album Review)
Photo: Megan-Magdalena Bourne Some bands bank on being difficult, building thought experiments disguised as songs. Like their post-punk peers in Courting before them, Crack Cloud are happy for us to decide whether they’re geniuses awaiting a Nobel Prize or the result of a high school science project gone wrong.
Written by: Jack Press | Date: Thursday, 01 August 2024
Ice Spice - Y2K! (Album Review)
Photo: Coughs Ice Spice’s debut does everything you want it to, but too often it does plenty of things you don’t. At its most accomplished, ‘Y2K!’ oozes confidence at every intersection, silencing haters each step of the way. At its worst, the album is brash and unnecessarily boastful with lacklustre songwriting at its heart.
Written by: Issy Herring | Date: Wednesday, 31 July 2024
Denzel Curry - King Of The Mischievous South Vol. 2 (Album Review)
Just two years after a foray into jazz-rap on ‘Melt My Eyez See Your Future’, Denzel Curry has upended expectations once again with ‘King Of The Mischievous South Vol. 2’, serving up an ode to the music that raised him.
Written by: Jay Fullarton | Date: Wednesday, 31 July 2024
Soft Play - Heavy Jelly (Album Review)
Photo: Jude Harrison With their first album as Soft Play, Isaac Holman and Laurie Vincent have flipped a switch. Having ditched their problematic former name and emerged from a hiatus sparked by devastating life events and music industry malaise – Vincent’s partner died of cancer in 2020, while Holman struggled with his mental health, at one point considering quitting the band altogether to become a gardener — ‘Heavy Jelly’ is an attempt to wring the fun out of things again.
Written by: Emma Wilkes | Date: Tuesday, 30 July 2024
Johnny Blue Skies - Passage du Desir (Album Review)
Photo: Semi Song In a recent episode of the popular podcast ‘The Rest is Entertainment’, quiz show producer and all round brainbox Richard Osman presented his own study of UK number ones in the 21st Century. Though the exact stats were sometimes a little shaky the general gist was unmistakable: since the year 2000, popular music has pivoted wildly away from bands and groups, and towards individual performers.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Monday, 29 July 2024
Joe Goddard - Harmonics (Album Review)
Photo: Louise Mason In the mid 2000s, Hot Chip suddenly became ubiquitous in a music scene tired of landfill indie and macho rock. They brightened dancefloors with a particular brand of undemanding electro pop, and when Joe Goddard, one of the band’s founders, released his first solo album as a producer in 2009, it felt like a natural development for easy-going, clubbable music loved by hipster-accountants.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Friday, 26 July 2024
Los Campesinos! - All Hell (Album Review)
Photo: Martyna Bannister Los Campesinos! have returned just in time. The world feels like it’s going to hell in a handcart (or in a “handjob” as one of the punny titles on ‘All Hell’ suggests) so the Cardiff indie band’s compassion and intelligence feels all the more vital in these dark days.
Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Thursday, 25 July 2024
Speed - Only One Mode (Album Review)
Photo: James Hartley In case you hadn’t noticed, hardcore is having a moment. Between Knocked Loose playing eye-popping shows in huge rooms and bands such as Gel, Zulu and Scowl igniting the scene’s foundations with boundary-pushing records, the post-Turnstile glow up continues at breakneck pace. Another name to keep a very close eye on is Speed.
Written by: Jack Butler-Terry | Date: Wednesday, 24 July 2024
Childish Gambino - Bando Stone And The New World (Album Review)
Donald Glover’s creative output epitomises ‘metamodern’. His work bulldozes irony in search of complex, messy layers of emotional sincerity. As Childish Gambino, he crafts dense, ambitious albums, rife with self-awareness, juxtaposed genres and cautiously optimistic explorations of human identity.
Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Tuesday, 23 July 2024
Glass Animals - I Love You So F***ing Much (Album Review)
Photo: Lillie Eiger Glass Animals have been a popular band for a decade but the breakout success of their 2020 album ‘Dreamland’ – in particular the slow-burn smash hit Heat Waves – propelled them to unexpected heights.
Written by: Adam England | Date: Friday, 19 July 2024
Remi Wolf - Big Ideas (Album Review)
Photo: Ragan Henderson ‘Big Ideas’ is a transformative release for Remi Wolf, boldly, almost audaciously redefining genre boundaries, but it’s reflected by the emotional minutiae of her life. These songs draw heavily on the transient nature of her life experiences — from her brief time as a competitive skier to her appearances on American Idol — and pull together an overall theme of impermanence that’s reflected by its many shifts in tone.
Written by: Katie Macbeth | Date: Friday, 19 July 2024
Cigarettes After Sex - X's (Album Review)
Photo: Ebru Yildiz White lines, wine, and a wild imagination are all you need to spend a weekend wallowing with Greg Gonzalez. On the band’s third album ‘X’s’, the Cigarettes After Sex frontman chases that heady mix with a deep dive into a toxic relationship. On paper, it sounds perfect. On record, it's a deadening 40-minute slide through 10 songs that are all indistinguishable from one another.
Written by: Jack Press | Date: Thursday, 18 July 2024
Griff - Vertigo (Album Review)
In 2021, Griff won the Brits’ rising star award, catapulting her into a creative production mode and a touring schedule that left the singer-songwriter nearly burnt out. Now, after an inspiration-seeking grand tour of European Airbnbs, the Hertfordshire native is back with ‘Vertigo’, a debut album defined by exciting and breathy pop.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 17 July 2024
Clairo - Charm (Album Review)
Photo: Lucas Creighton Clairo has come a long way since her debut. Where ‘Immunity’ traded in hook-heavy, scratchy bedroom-pop, she has followed up her acclaimed 2021 record ‘Sling’ with her most fully realised album yet. Each track on ‘Charm’ is brimming with full-bodied, rich instrumentals produced in collaboration with Leon Michels, whose past attachments to Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings and The Black Keys offer a glimpse of its palette.
Written by: Nieve Elis | Date: Tuesday, 16 July 2024
Eminem - The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup de Grāce) (Album Review)
Much has been made of Eminem’s decision to revive his iconic, foul-mouthed alter ego Slim Shady only to kill him off — supposedly for good this time — but ‘The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)’ isn’t really interested in the big question. Namely, do we need Shady in 2024?
Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Monday, 15 July 2024
Previous Industries - Service Merchandise (Album Review)
Photo: Robyn Von Swank For a minute it felt as though hip-hop’s axis had shifted, with wordplay and storytelling ushered out by lean, face tats and Soundcloud rap. What a relief it is, then, to hear ‘Service Merchandise’, the debut album from Previous Industries.
Written by: Jack Butler-Terry | Date: Thursday, 11 July 2024
Stefflon Don - Island 54 (Album Review)
It’s wild to think that — after almost a decade in the game, multiple mixtapes and features on tracks by Ne-Yo, Wiley and Mariah Carey — this Stefflon Don is only now ready to unleash her debut studio album. ‘Island 54’ arrives steeped in anticipation and promise, just about delivering.
Written by: Jack Butler-Terry | Date: Wednesday, 10 July 2024
Megan Thee Stallion - Megan (Album Review)
Right now, Megan Thee Stallion is where most artists want to be — wherever you look in the world of hip-hop, the Houston rapper is right at the heart of it, setting the agenda rather than following it. Her third album ‘Megan’, then, could not come at a better time.
Written by: Jack Butler-Terry | Date: Tuesday, 09 July 2024
Gracie Abrams - The Secret Of Us (Album Review)
Photo: Abby Waisler It rarely hurts to receive a co-sign from the biggest pop star on the planet, as Gracie Abrams recently discovered. ‘The Secret of Us’, her second album, features Us, a co-write and duet with Taylor Swift that the pair recently teamed up to perform together at the Wembley Stadium leg of the Eras Tour. But there’s more to Abrams than this glossy endorsement.
Written by: Emma Way | Date: Tuesday, 09 July 2024
Kasabian - Happenings (Album Review)
Photo: Neil Bedford Kasabian have been one of the most successful indie bands of the past 20 years thanks to enduring hits including Club Foot, Underdog and Fire, seeing off the exit of singer Tom Meighan in 2020 to continue their popularity under Serge Pizzorno.
Written by: Chris Connor | Date: Monday, 08 July 2024
Washed Out - Notes From a Quiet Life (Album Review)
Photo: Landon Speers The name Washed Out has long been synonymous with dreamy chillwave and ‘Notes From A Quiet Life’ slips neatly into Ernest Greene’s catalogue. Following a four year absence, he returns with a typically rich and textured retro synth-pop sound, which is admirable chiefly for its smooth, immaculately polished sonics.
Written by: Matthew McLister | Date: Thursday, 04 July 2024
Loma - How Will I Live Without a Body? (Album Review)
Photo: Emily Cross One knock on effect of the relentless pace of modern life is that time and space have become highly prized commodities. We may often be on our own, but we are rarely alone with just our thoughts for company. On their third record, though, Loma seem to cherish taking some time out to focus inwards.
Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Wednesday, 03 July 2024
Camila Cabello - C,XOXO (Album Review)
Photo: Dimitrious Giannoudis Camila Cabello’s musical journey has had a consistent theme of self-discovery. Released in 2022, 'Familia' was an embrace of her Cuban roots, where her 2019 album 'Romance' reflected the process of moving on from past relationships. Now, ‘C,XOXO’ ventures into new musical territory, offering 11 tracks that blend R&B and hip hop influences with occasional hints of hyperpop, presenting a willingness to explore new sounds and experiment.
Written by: Katie Macbeth | Date: Monday, 01 July 2024
Wilco - Hot Sun Cool Shroud (Album Review)
Photo: Peter Crosby Wilco have never been ones to stick to the script. Across 30 years together they have continuously broken elements of indie-rock and Americana apart, reassembling them into enduringly popular records such as ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’, ‘A Ghost Is Born’ and ‘Sky Blue Sky’. Led by Jeff Tweedy, they return with the EP ‘Hot Sun Cool Shroud’, a suitably eclectic six track collection that, as with all Wilco projects, is hard to pin down.
Written by: Chris Connor | Date: Monday, 01 July 2024
The Mysterines - Afraid of Tomorrows (Album Review)
Photo: Steve Gullick In 2022, The Mysterines had one of those years. The Liverpool rockers scored a top 10 album with their anthemic debut ‘Reeling’, while there was also the small matter of an opening slot on Arctic Monkeys’ The Car tour. A couple of years on, ‘Afraid Of Tomorrows’ is a more creative and well-rounded return that, crucially, can continue their precipitous rise.
Written by: Matthew McLister | Date: Friday, 28 June 2024
Normani - Dopamine (Album Review)
Photo: Hugo Comte When Fifth Harmony went on permanent hiatus in 2018, it was pretty clear that the first of the band’s members to race out of the traps towards solo stardom would be Camila Cabello, who had quit two years earlier. Four albums later, she has solidified her place in the pop firmament, while at the other end of the scale ‘Dopamine’ is bandmate Normani's long-awaited debut.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Thursday, 27 June 2024
Pond - Stung! (Album Review)
Should we put into place a set number of albums a band is allowed to release? Four and out, maybe. Get over the infamous difficult second album, enjoy it for a bit and head off the album five identity crisis at the pass, skipping the complete delusion behind album seven and the dead-horse flogging of albums eight and nine entirely. Let’s not talk about album 10.
Written by: Jack McGill | Date: Thursday, 27 June 2024
Kehlani - Crash (Album Review)
A decade on from their first mixtape, ‘Crash’ finds Kehlani bending an R&B sound to their will, offering up unapologetic songs that dive into sexual expression and situationships with nods to queer sensuality. It pushes every boundary possible, and it is totally worth the risks it takes.
Written by: Issy Herring | Date: Wednesday, 26 June 2024
John Grant - The Art of the Lie (Album Review)
Photo: Hörður Sveinsson On his sixth solo record, John Grant leans into 1980s textures and vocoder, delivering 11 songs of varied, entertaining synth-pop that, while offering a marvellous platform for his unique, occasionally hilarious lyricism, don't quite match his best work.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Tuesday, 25 June 2024
Lola Young - This Wasn't Meant For You Anyway (Album Review)
Lola Young’s path seemed to have been set out for her — the young singer-songwriter has a John Lewis Christmas ad plus BBC Sound of… and Brit Rising Star award nominations under her belt already — but her debut album ‘This Wasn’t Meant For You Anyway’ isn’t interested in following an easy roadmap. Its 11 tracks showcase genuine musical range while offering comfort and tranquillity amid romantic turmoil.
Written by: Katie Macbeth | Date: Monday, 24 June 2024
The Decemberists - As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again (Album Review)
Photo: Shervin Lainez Given that it’s now almost 25 years since The Decemberists began their voyage into highly literate and theatrical indie-rock, a lot of minds have been made up about the band. The twee charm of frontman Colin Meloy's sordid re-envisioning of historical tales grates on some, as does the impeccable nature of the band's music, a stark contrast to their lo-fi contemporaries in the Pacific Northwest indie scene. But, despite being a hipster’s dream, the group have never strayed into self-parody, with their new record ‘As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again’ gamely holding true to their course.
Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Thursday, 20 June 2024
Cola - The Gloss (Album Review)
Photo: Craig Scheihing Moving on is hard. Moving on from something that worked is even harder. Cola rose from the ashes of Ought after the great Montreal band had run its course, all of its precious art-rock ore used up. They dove in at the deep end of a new sound, with their moody debut ‘Deep In View’ trading in sophisticated and wordy post-rock, but now they appear to have reconciled with their former selves somewhat.
Written by: Jack McGill | Date: Tuesday, 18 June 2024
Kaytranada - Timeless (Album Review)
Photo: Jivi Emir Kaytranada’s ‘Timeless’ sounds and feels like a decent mixtape-album fusion, where playful skits and ditties emerge between full songs that feature a diverse and talented stable of collaborators. Over 21 tracks it demonstrates the Haiti-born, Canada-raised rapper, producer and singer’s production expertise and compositional versatility while never quite serving up any absolute bangers.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Tuesday, 18 June 2024
Peggy Gou - I Hear You (Album Review)
Peggy Gou’s debut album finds the superstar Korean DJ delivering 10 tracks of throwback 1990s dance music that, while dispatched with a lot of creativity and joy, struggles sometimes to find a point of difference. It is a record that begins to carve out its own sound, but which doesn’t always hang together as well as it should.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Monday, 17 June 2024
