John Cale - Poptical Illusion (Album Review)
Photo: Madeline McManus John Cale has never been one to stand still, whether as a member of The Velvet Underground or subsequently as a prolific and highly influential solo artist and producer. Now 82, he returns with the aptly titled ‘Poptical Illusion’, showing he has no intention of slowing down any time soon. It is another creative flex from a master of reinvention.
Written by: Chris Connor | Date: Wednesday, 12 June 2024
Bonny Light Horseman - Keep Me on Your Mind/See You Free (Album Review)
Photo: Jay Sansone Although their merry band has begun to sprawl — incorporating a number of acquaintances and contributors since its inception — the core Bonny Light Horseman trio might be looked upon as masters of heartfelt brevity. With both clocking in at just over 30 minutes, Anaïs Mitchell, Eric D. Johnson, and Josh Kaufman’s first two records delivered perfectly formed folk songs that felt like they’d been plucked from the air.
Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Wednesday, 12 June 2024
Aurora - What Happened To The Heart? (Album Review)
Aurora has long been happy operating on the fringes of modern pop, creating emotionally rich worlds that defy easy categorisation. Her fifth album ‘What Happened to the Heart?’ is no different, with the Norwegian songwriter offering up another slate of intense musical arrangements, theatrical vocals and radio-ready hits with her own unique twist.
Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Tuesday, 11 June 2024
Charli XCX - Brat (Album Review)
Sometimes, reaching your stated goal is just the start. After 2022’s ‘Crash’ catapulted Charli XCX from cult figure to bona fide mainstream star, the ensuing ‘Brat’ is not just a reaction to its far more accessible predecessor but also an emphatic re-embracing of the pop auteur’s club roots.
Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Monday, 10 June 2024
Bat For Lashes - The Dream of Delphi (Album Review)
Photo: Michal Pudelka Waxing lyrical about the wonder of parenthood is a bit of a high wire act, artistically. At best, it unearths secrets about your own character that may have been hidden since childhood. But at worst it is cloying and indulgent, often drifting into facetious sentimentality. On ‘The Dream of Delphi’, Bat for Lashes manages to stick the landing.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Friday, 07 June 2024
Ani DiFranco - Unprecedented Sh!t (Album Review)
Photo: Danny Clinch Perhaps unsurprisingly given its title, ‘Unprecedented Sh!t’ finds Ani DiFranco in a spiky and experimental mood, offering up a record of scraggly guitars, chunky production and direct-ish lyricism. It’s a highly listenable turn from a writer whose impressive career — she founded her own label at 19, in 1989 — has often been underscored by folksy urgency and political activism.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Thursday, 06 June 2024
Jessica Pratt - Here in the Pitch (Album Review)
Jessica Pratt’s music is perfect for a certain niche — the horror movie trailer set to a folk song that cuts to black as the knife-wielding killer does their thing. But it’s so much more than that, with her rich, whimsical voice entirely decade-defying on her fourth album ‘Here in the Pitch’.
Written by: Emma Way | Date: Thursday, 06 June 2024
Beth Gibbons - Lives Outgrown (Album Review)
Photo: Netti Habel If you hear that the singer of a band you like is going to work on a solo project, it’s reasonable to react with a little bit of trepidation. Will it expand upon that established sound or reveal the limits of the artist’s (or group’s) talents? Perhaps most importantly…will it break up the band?
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 05 June 2024
DIIV - Frog in Boiling Water (Album Review)
Photo: Shervin Lainez If you’re not familiar with the expression “frog in boiling water” then rest assured, it’s not something you’d want to experience. Except you are experiencing it right now – we all are – in a world that slowly crushes the life out of even the most optimistic souls. As the Verve once put it, “you’re a slave to money then you die”.
Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Tuesday, 04 June 2024
Crowded House - Gravity Stairs (Album Review)
Crowded House have left an indelible mark on pop music through hits such as Don’t Dream It’s Over, Weather With You and Something So Strong, but ‘Gravity Stairs’ is not the work of a band content to ride the coattails of past glories.
Written by: Chris Connor | Date: Monday, 03 June 2024
Richard Hawley - In This City They Call You Love (Album Review)
Photo: Chris Saunders Richard Hawley has enjoyed a highly eclectic career across the past 30 years, initially as a member of Britpop outfit Longpigs and briefly as a touring guitarist with Pulp. It’s his solo work, though, that has made him one of the most venerated British singer-songwriters of recent times and his 10th studio album ‘In This City They Call You Love’ is another delightful tour of his musical influences.
Written by: Chris Connor | Date: Friday, 31 May 2024
Bring Me The Horizon - POST HUMAN: NeX GEn (Album Review)
Expectations are a difficult thing to manage. ‘POST HUMAN: NeX GEn' has been a long time coming, allowing hype to build to fever pitch, but Bring Me The Horizon have also been hamstrung by the record’s protracted build up.
Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Thursday, 30 May 2024
Jordan Rakei - The Loop (Album Review)
“This was the path I had to take,” Jordan Rakei sings during A Little Life. ‘The Loop’, his fifth record, is full of references like this one. Since relocating from his family home in Brisbane to London in 2015 — later collaborating with artists including Tom Misch, Disclosure, and Loyle Carner — he has grown both personally and professionally.
Written by: Emma Way | Date: Wednesday, 29 May 2024
Vince Staples - Dark Times (Album Review)
Few might have foreseen it at the time, but Vince Staples has gone on to forge one of the most interesting and consistently great discographies of any rapper once affiliated with Odd Future.
Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Tuesday, 28 May 2024
Slash - Orgy of the Damned (Album Review)
Photo: Gene Kirkland Given its heady slate of guest vocalists, from Iggy Pop to Demi Lovato and AC/DC’s Brian Johnson, ‘Orgy of the Damned’ could easily feel like a compilation. It’s to Slash’s credit as a guitarist and bandleader that it hangs together, though, with his playing serving as the glue that binds these blues covers into an exciting whole.
Written by: Adam England | Date: Friday, 24 May 2024
Gatecreeper - Dark Superstition (Album Review)
Photo: Joey Maddon Since the end of the pandemic, we’ve seen a string of young metal bands become breakout stars. Sleep Token are barrelling towards stadium status, Malevolence went viral with their whirlpool-sized mosh pits and, right now, Knocked Loose are one of the most talked-about bands on the planet. ‘Dark Superstition’ declares that, if there’s any justice in the world, Gatecreeper will become the next name on that list.
Written by: Matt Mills | Date: Thursday, 23 May 2024
Shellac - To All Trains (Album Review)
Photo: Daniel Bergeron We tend to become needlessly philosophical whenever a beloved musician dies just before releasing new music, joining dots in a manner that amounts to pareidolia — the human instinct to find meaning in the random. Sure, David Bowie famously made some allusions to his death on ‘Blackstar’, but that was the exception that proves the rule.
Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Tuesday, 21 May 2024
Pallbearer - Mind Burns Alive (Album Review)
Photo: Dan Almasy Life hasn’t got any more chipper for doom metal experimentalists Pallbearer. On their previous album, 2020’s ‘Forgotten Days’, the Arkansas four-piece wrote lyrics lamenting the experience of watching family members live with Alzheimer’s and die of cancer. Four years later, ‘Mind Burns Alive’ offers even more unfettered melancholy: its six songs together form an anthology about “people in various stages of mental distress”.
Written by: Matt Mills | Date: Tuesday, 21 May 2024
Billie Eilish - Hit Me Hard and Soft (Album Review)
Photo: William Drumm In anticipation of her third album, Billie Eilish didn’t release any advance singles. It has proved to be a smart move on a couple of counts — not only did hype reach fever pitch as the release date edged ever closer, but ‘Hit Me Hard and Soft’ deserves to be consumed as a whole. This is Eilish’s strongest work to date, continuing her creative evolution while maintaining her grip on the whisper-pop dynamic that made her name.
Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Monday, 20 May 2024
Hot Water Music - Vows (Album Review)
Photo: Jesse Korman There’s something about Hot Water Music’s latest outing that feels, in the purest sense possible, truly victorious. It takes their discography into double figures and underlines their heavy influence over a generation of gruffly emotive punk bands, displaying a sound that’s been sharpened to a point over the past 30 years.
Written by: Emma Wilkes | Date: Friday, 17 May 2024
Kings of Leon - Can We Please Have Fun (Album Review)
Photo: Matthew Followill Their preacher family backstory and Southern-fried take on The Strokes’ garage rock revival sound made Kings of Leon an intriguing phenomenon in the ‘00s. In particular, their raw and energetic first couple of records were lapped up in the UK, while the heavy polish of the next two saw their success grow on a huge global scale, catapulted by the success of 2008 single Sex on Fire.
Written by: Matthew McLister | Date: Friday, 17 May 2024
Arab Strap - I'm Totally Fine With It Don't Give A Fuck Anymore (Album Review)
During their initial run between 1995 and 2006 much of Arab Strap’s appeal relied on the sense of messy fun found in both the lives the band wrote about and the medium through which they were communicated. Since their reunion in 2019 it’s become clear that the duo have grown up, and yet they haven’t misplaced that spark.
Written by: Jo Higgs | Date: Thursday, 16 May 2024
Knocked Loose - You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To (Album Review)
Knocked Loose are in the process of rewriting their DNA. The Kentucky band’s early albums offered bruising metallic hardcore, but with their 2021 EP ‘A Tear In the Fabric of Life’ and last year’s Upon Loss singles they showed a desire to get heavier and weirder.
Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Wednesday, 15 May 2024
Mdou Moctar - Funeral For Justice (Album Review)
Credit: Ebru Yildiz The contents of ‘Funeral for Justice’ are as incendiary and engaging as its title suggests. It is a statement of intent that is driven through these fierce, twanging songs, where Mdou Moctar (the stage name of both musician and band, Alice Cooper-style) commits to an uphill battle for what is right, pushing back against colonialism and cultural erosion with grit beyond reach of most musicians.
Written by: Jo Higgs | Date: Tuesday, 14 May 2024
Kamasi Washington - Fearless Movement (Album Review)
Kamasi Washington’s ‘Fearless Movement’ is a trip — an intense, sprawling jazz happening that combines big arrangements, hyper-competitive instrumental solos and hip hop interludes. It’s hugely impressive and accomplished.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Monday, 13 May 2024
The Lemon Twigs - A Dream Is All We Know (Album Review)
Photo: Stephanie Pia The Lemon Twigs have long walked a thin line between acknowledging classic ‘60s songwriters and being a pastiche of that period. After the success of 2023’s ‘Everything Harmony’, the New York-based brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario have wasted little time in delivering their fifth album ‘A Dream Is All We Know’, with the strength of their joyful melodies and meticulously-crafted indie-pop songs keeping them on the right side of things.
Written by: Matthew McLister | Date: Friday, 10 May 2024
Nell Mescal - Can I Miss It For A Minute? (Album Review)
Photo: Sophie Scott Nell Mescal has garnered attention on social media for both her raw, personal TikToks and witty comments on the output of her older brother, actor Paul Mescal. Her engaging approach has helped develop a fanbase even before the arrival of her debut EP, ‘Can I Miss It For A Minute?’, which should cement her position as one to watch.
Written by: Katie Macbeth | Date: Wednesday, 08 May 2024
Dua Lipa - Radical Optimism (Album Review)
Photo: Tyrone Lebon In 2020, ‘Future Nostalgia’ propelled Dua Lipa into the pop stratosphere. Adored by critics and fans alike, the album’s retro sheen and irresistible dancefloor appeal became a lockdown panacea. Four years later, its successor ‘Radical Optimism’ joins a small trend set by pop stars who followed up acclaimed records with lighter, more optimistic work. Think Lorde answering ‘Melodrama’ with ‘Solar Power’ or Miley Cyrus serving up ‘Endless Summer Vacation’ after ‘Plastic Hearts’.
Written by: Adam England | Date: Tuesday, 07 May 2024
Pet Shop Boys - Nonetheless (Album Review)
Photo: Alasdair McLellan On their 15th studio album, Pet Shop Boys have teamed up with Arctic Monkeys producer James Ford to deliver a record of terrific poise and poetry that revisits their ‘80s and ‘90s heyday. It is a fine offering from one of British pop music’s most enduring creative partnerships, with Chris Lowe’s steady disco underscoring lyrics that are literary and confessional.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Thursday, 02 May 2024
Fat White Family - Forgiveness Is Yours (Album Review)
Photo: Louise Mason It hasn’t always been easy for Fat White Family’s music to cut through the noise, the drugs, the nudity, the provocation and the headlines. But the south London art-rock band’s fourth album, their first in five years, showcases a newfound sense of refinement as they explore various genres with a chameleonic approach.
Written by: Katie Macbeth | Date: Wednesday, 01 May 2024
Justice - Hyperdrama (Album Review)
Photo: André Chémétoff However you choose to label them — electroclash, bloghaus, indie sleaze, French touch — Justice remain one of the most celebrated electronic acts this side of the millennium thanks to the way they have managed to bridge the gap between being indie favourites and huge stars.
Written by: Adam England | Date: Tuesday, 30 April 2024
Full of Hell - Coagulated Bliss (Album Review)
Photo: Zachary Jones Full of Hell are a restless creative force. Across more than 30 releases — including five LPs — the Maryland noisemakers’ pulverising approach to grindcore has continued to expand and warp. With their sixth album ‘Coagulated Bliss’, they further cement their status as modern extreme music legends.
Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Tuesday, 30 April 2024
St. Vincent - All Born Screaming (Album Review)
Photo: Alex Da Corte Annie Clark has become an indie-rock mainstay since the release of the first St. Vincent record in 2007, but her appeal has always bled beyond genre boundaries. In the years since then, her work has straddled arthouse pop, psychedelia and glam-rock, with each of her albums subsequently feeling like an event in their own right.
Written by: Chris Connor | Date: Monday, 29 April 2024
The Zutons - The Big Decider (Album Review)
Photo: Jonathan Turton The Zutons, it turns out, don’t do comebacks by halves. After breaking up back in 2009, they came out of the carbonite in 2019 to tour their 2004 debut ‘Who Killed...... The Zutons?’. But one question that hangs over any such endeavour is whether nostalgia might be answered by something new. In their case the answer is yes — ‘The Big Decider’ is their first album in 16 years. Which leads us to another question: does the world need another indie rock band back from the brink?
Written by: Jack Press | Date: Monday, 29 April 2024
SeeYouSpaceCowboy - Coup de Grāce (Album Review)
SeeYouSpaceCowboy’s music hails from a vivid recent past, when 2000s metalcore met at the corners of screamo and post-hardcore. While 2021’s ‘The Romance of Affliction’ pushed that concoction to its limits, the San Diego band have cannily embraced a neo-noir aesthetic and concept to help ‘Coup de Grâce’ to sound fresh and suitably fiery.
Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Friday, 26 April 2024
Lucy Rose - This Ain't The Way You Go Out (Album Review)
Photo: Josh Shinner After 2019’s stripped back ‘No Words Left,’ Lucy Rose had plans to rest and write her next album at her own pace, away from the road and its all-encompassing demands. Instead, life had something else in store for her. ‘This Ain’t The Way You Go Out’ was inspired by maternal osteoporosis, an excruciating condition that left the songwriter with a broken back following the birth of her son, Otis.
Written by: Emma Way | Date: Thursday, 25 April 2024
Pearl Jam - Dark Matter (Album Review)
Photo: Danny Clinch Twelve albums down the line, it’s kind of an honour to have Seattle grunge icons Pearl Jam still cooking as part of the current musical landscape. There are arenas and stadiums still to be filled, with Eddie Vedder’s signature bellow finding a new generation of fans to back up the die-hards, who will be thrilled by the back-to-basics ballast of ‘Dark Matter’.
Written by: Rishi Shah | Date: Thursday, 25 April 2024
Melvins - Tarantula Heart (Album Review)
Melvins are grafters. Hailing from working class and rural Washington state, vocalist/guitarist Buzz Osborne and drummer Dale Crover are hyper-prolific, hard-touring musicians with a monstrous back catalogue.
Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Wednesday, 24 April 2024
James - Yummy (Album Review)
Photo: Paul W Dixon Photography More than 40 years into their career, Manchester darlings James are still going strong. Few would have thought that when they entered a seven year hiatus in 2001, a split described as necessary by vocalist Tim Booth in order to preserve one another’s wellbeing. Their sign off was ‘Pleased To Meet You’, a fitting peak in an indifferent album catalogue. Now, all these years later, ‘Yummy’ reaches those heights again.
Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Wednesday, 24 April 2024
Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (Album Review)
Photo: Beth Garrabrant You have to hand it to Taylor Swift — she knows how to spring a surprise. Two hours after releasing the heavily-anticipated ‘The Tortured Poets Department’, she swapped it out for an updated version called ‘The Anthology’, turning it into a monster double album stacking up at 31 songs and more than two hours.
Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Tuesday, 23 April 2024
Nia Archives - Silence is Loud (Album Review)
Photo: Lola Banet On her first album, Nia Archives artist fully embraces her ‘Emotional Junglist’ mantra, pushing at the outer reaches of the style. On ‘Silence is Loud’ thunderous basslines and choppy breakbeats serve not as constraints but as a canvas for experimentation.
Written by: Emma Way | Date: Monday, 22 April 2024
Metz - Up On Gravity Hill (Album Review)
Photo: Vanessa Heins Metz are changing as they age. You might remember the Canadian trio being noisy for the sake of it in their early work, but now they have a relationship with the more aggressive elements of their sound that is caustic but tempered by greater textural ambition. Their fifth album ‘Up On Gravity Hill’, for example, is their most refined work to date, with core elements still firmly in place but subject to some judicious self-editing.
Written by: Jack McGill | Date: Monday, 22 April 2024
Bodega - Our Brand Could Be Yr Life (Album Review)
Photo: Pooneh Ghana Two years ago, ‘Broken Equipment’ found Bodega throwing post-punk and art-rock into a blender, rejecting the flavours of modern society in favour of their own favourite tastes. Its follow up, ‘Our Brand Could Be Yr Life’ is less consistent – its ingredients are duly coated in anti-consumerist sentiment, but the recipe is off. The result? A bloated, uneven tasting menu that leaves you feeling as empty as you do full.
Written by: Jack Press | Date: Friday, 19 April 2024
The KVB - Tremors (Album Review)
Photo: Mila F. The KVB have been releasing albums for more than a decade now, but the duo continue to fly under the radar. It’s a shame, as the self-styled “dystopian pop” of their seventh LP ‘Tremors’ is mighty rewarding, pulling in a blend of post-punk, industrial and darkwave, often with a danceable element.
Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Friday, 19 April 2024
Girl In Red - I'm Doing It Again Baby! (Album Review)
It has been a whirlwind time in the life of Norwegian bedroom pop artist Marie Ulven Ringheim, who went from internet sensation to superstardom after the release of Girl in Red’s 2021 debut album ‘If I Could Make It Go Quiet’.
Written by: Matthew McLister | Date: Thursday, 18 April 2024
Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard - Skinwalker (Album Review)
Photo: Charlie Harris Given its analog horror-channelling cover, you’d be forgiven for assuming ‘Skinwalker’ was some eerie dark ambient album. In reality, it’s the latest (and best) release from Cardiff indie-rockers Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard.
Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Wednesday, 17 April 2024
The Black Keys - Ohio Players (Album Review)
Photo: Jim Herrington The Black Keys’ 12th studio LP took more than a year to complete, although it’s a wonder it didn’t take longer given the duo’s extra-curricular commitments. Dan Auerbach’s side project the Arcs released their excellent ‘Electronic Chronic’ collection as recently as early 2023, for example, while he and Patrick Carney hammered out ‘Ohio Players’ with a helping hand from a plethora of contributors.
Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Wednesday, 17 April 2024
Maggie Rogers - Don't Forget Me (Album Review)
Photo: Maggie Rogers Maggie Rogers built a solid reputation across her first two records — ‘Heard It In A Past Life’, propelled by the viral Alaska, and the expansive ‘Surrender’ — offering an exquisite blend of folk, pop, indie and classic singer-songwriter fare. Her third LP ‘Don’t Forget Me’ is a luscious patchwork of textures that displays her singular talent as an artist.
Written by: Chris Connor | Date: Tuesday, 16 April 2024
Bob Vylan - Humble As The Sun (Album Review)
Photo: Ki Price Bob Vylan have developed into one of the UK’s most important bands, fusing their anti-establishment attitude and promotion of health and self-care together with the same flair that they meld grime and punk. On their third album ‘Humble As The Sun’ the duo add further elements to this heady mix, developing their sound to take in everything from electronica to grunge.
Written by: Adam England | Date: Monday, 15 April 2024
Sinkane - We Belong (Album Review)
Photo: Dani Barbieri The world has changed since Ahmed Gallab last released a full album. On 2019’s ‘Dépaysé’, the Sudanese-American musician and bandleader delivered an album of joyous communitarian indie-pop shot through with influences from African music and funk. Since then, Covid and Joe Biden have happened and, perhaps most importantly for this album, Gallab has completed a Master’s degree in Composition. The result is an enormously accomplished work of musical, tonal and generic flexibility.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Friday, 12 April 2024
