The Libertines - All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade (Album Review)
Photo: Ed Cooke That The Libertines are still producing music 20 years after their initial break up is nothing short of a miracle. Pete Doherty and Carl Barat’s relationship deteriorated so much during the process of making their second album that the band’s future appeared permanently dashed.
Written by: Matthew McLister | Date: Thursday, 11 April 2024
Ride - Interplay (Album Review)
Photo: Cal McIntryre When Ride began working on their seventh studio album, lockdown was very much a recent memory. When they eventually got together, they found inspiration from different avenues: jamming sessions, demos, backing tracks. With each member contributing significantly, drummer Loz Colbert’s suggestion of ‘Interplay’ as a title proved to be right on the money.
Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Thursday, 11 April 2024
Khruangbin - A La Sala (Album Review)
Photo: David Black ‘A La Sala’ finds Khruangbin returning to low-key grooves, mixing spaghetti Western guitars with old-school drums and sauntering basslines. It is an excellent addition to the Houston trio’s catalogue, who continue to explore a distinctive, meticulous sound.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 10 April 2024
Vampire Weekend - Only God Was Above Us (Album Review)
Photo: Michael Schmelling Five years in the making, Vampire Weekend’s ‘Only God Was Above Us’ is a far cry from the group’s self-titled debut. Where that 2008 LP offered up insouciant indie-pop, here we have perhaps their most experimental work to date, combining a fixation on raga with slick production and dark, sombre lyrical themes.
Written by: Issy Herring | Date: Tuesday, 09 April 2024
Marcus King - Mood Swings (Album Review)
Photo: JM Collective Stratospheric rises are rarely without their drawbacks. When South Carolina blues prodigy Marcus King burst onto the scene with his band back in 2015 at the age of just 19, guitar fans the world over sat up and paid attention.
Written by: Jack Butler-Terry | Date: Monday, 08 April 2024
Beyoncé - Cowboy Carter (Album Review)
Photo: Mason Poole “This is not a country album,” Beyoncé writes in the liner notes to ‘Cowboy Carter’. “This is a Beyoncé album.” There aren’t many artists who can pull off that sort of statement but, then again, there aren’t many artists who can pull whole styles of music into their orbit as she can. This is the second instalment in a shapeshifting trilogy that began with 2022’s disco-infused ‘Renaissance’ and across its mammoth 27 track running order Beyoncé leans into country history in fascinating fashion.
Written by: Katie Macbeth | Date: Thursday, 04 April 2024
Sheryl Crow - Evolution (Album Review)
With a sound that encompasses Americana, rock and country, Sheryl Crow’s 1990s records became the soundtrack to a thousand interstate drives. Meanwhile, her literate and witty storytelling ensured her fanbase stretched across the Atlantic and beyond.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Thursday, 04 April 2024
Elbow - Audio Vertigo (Album Review)
Elbow’s 10th studio album reveals a strength that has not always been apparent in their work: the ability to remain succinct. Around 35 songs were whittled down to 12 for ‘Audio Vertigo’, which was tracked at their own Migration Studios in Gloucestershire. Clocking in at 39 minutes, it fits neatly on two sides of vinyl and does away with anything resembling the lengthy, drawn out efforts that stud their back catalogue. As a result, it skips along nicely.
Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Thursday, 04 April 2024
Sum 41 - Heaven :x: Hell (Album Review)
Photo: Travis Shinn Sum 41 didn’t intend to write their own eulogy. Still, it speaks volumes that the Canadian band finished work on their eighth album — a sprawling 21-track opus that covers both their pop-punk side and their metal side — and knew it was the perfect way to close the book on two-and-a-bit decades together.
Written by: Emma Wilkes | Date: Wednesday, 03 April 2024
While She Sleeps - Self Hell (Album Review)
While She Sleeps have been undergoing a metamorphosis on their past few releases. Pushing past the metalcore fury of ‘You Are We’ and ‘Brainwashed’, the Sheffield band embraced electronics to greater degrees with ‘So What?’ and ‘Sleeps Society’. Their latest missive ‘Self Hell’ doesn’t just continue in that vein, it does take a sledgehammer to expectations.
Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Wednesday, 03 April 2024
Empress Of - For Your Consideration (Album Review)
Photo: Kaio Cesar Empress Of entered the scene in 2015 with in-your-face, feminist electronica. In the intervening years she has stood up her own label and refined her sound. But with a move towards club bangers, 'For Your Consideration' places Lorely Rodriguez in a pretty crowded field.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Tuesday, 02 April 2024
Gossip - Real Power (Album Review)
To some, Gossip have been defined by one song. It’s been almost 20 years since Standing In The Way Of Control cut through the indie sleaze scene with groove and dancefloor ambition, making Beth Ditto into an LGBTQ+ icon and setting up a breakthrough album at the third time of asking.
Written by: Matthew McLister | Date: Friday, 29 March 2024
The Jesus And Mary Chain - Glasgow Eyes (Album Review)
Photo: Steve Gullick Despite veering from uber cool to directionless, the Jesus & Mary Chain’s eighth album is a more cohesive band effort than its predecessor, 2017’s ‘Damage & Joy’, which was mainly built around pieces the Reid brothers had accumulated individually during the band’s almost decade-long hiatus.
Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Thursday, 28 March 2024
Lauran Hibberd - Girlfriend Material (Album Review)
Photo: Emily Marcovecchio Sometimes you need something to transport you to a different place; to get away from whatever’s slowing you down. For the most part that’s what Lauran Hibberd’s ‘Girlfriend Material’ provides, its satisfactory indie-rock speckled with pop culture references to make you feel included in its part break up, part grief, part Mean Girls world.
Written by: Jack McGill | Date: Wednesday, 27 March 2024
Adrianne Lenker - Bright Future (Album Review)
Photo: Germaine Dunes Adrianne Lenker’s latest solo album feels like a work in progress — these are rough and raw songs recorded onto tape before they can be crafted into something solid and sellable. This, perhaps, is the point.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Tuesday, 26 March 2024
Waxahatchee - Tigers Blood (Album Review)
Waxahatchee’s 2020 record ‘Saint Cloud’ will likely come to be viewed as a tipping point in the career of singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield. Her fifth record in eight years, it transformed her from indie-folk’s best kept secret into an alt-Americana star.
Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Friday, 22 March 2024
Judas Priest - Invincible Shield (Album Review)
Photo: James Hodges More than 50 years in the game have established Judas Priest as one of the UK’s most important bands, metal or otherwise. It would take something truly risible to tarnish that legacy at this point and their 19th album certainly isn’t that. On ‘Invincible Shield’ the quintet prove the value of experience with another rock solid record.
Written by: Jack Butler-Terry | Date: Thursday, 21 March 2024
Justin Timberlake - Everything I Thought It Was (Album Review)
Justin Timberlake is a pro when it comes to making high-quality pop. He’s probably the most successful former boyband member this side of Michael Jackson — sorry Robbie, sorry Harry — and barring the 2018 misstep ‘Man of the Woods’, he has seldom put a musical foot wrong.
Written by: Adam England | Date: Thursday, 21 March 2024
The Dandy Warhols - Rockmaker (Album Review)
For album 12, the Dandy Warhols’ frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor had in mind a heavier, more metallic collection. While guitarist Peter Holmström took some persuading, drummer Brent DeBoer was on board immediately and, with the push coming from the two of them, it was too much for the indie-rock lifers to resist.
Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Wednesday, 20 March 2024
Four Tet - Three (Album Review)
Four Tet’s Kieran Hebden is a remarkably unpretentious musician. It would be easy to look at his improvised collaborations with jazz drummer Steve Reid and get the wrong idea, given the way recent crowd-pleasing work with Skrillex and Fred Again revealed someone unconcerned with high brow expectations.
Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Jahari Massamba Unit - YHWH Is Love (Album Review)
Photo: Jimel Primm It used to be that a simple genre tag would give you a clear idea of what an album or artist sounds like, but with all the advancements and innovations that have been made over the years, they can be quite restrictive. Take Madlib and Karriem Riggins’ collaborative project Jahari Massamba Unit, for instance. When they released their debut record — 2020’s ‘Pardon My French’ — they opted for the term ‘Black classical music’ because the ‘jazz’ label that the industry favoured just didn't do the work justice.
Written by: Jack Butler-Terry | Date: Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Kacey Musgraves - Deeper Well (Album Review)
Photo: Kelly Christine Sutton On album five, country-pop titan Kacey Musgraves has set aside the lush, maximalist affair that was ‘Star Crossed’, going back to basics for an intimate, folk-tinged stroll through love, loss and ruminations on life’s purpose.
Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Monday, 18 March 2024
Ariana Grande - Eternal Sunshine (Album Review)
Photo: Katia Temkin Four years on from the release of ‘Positions’ Ariana Grande has kicked things up a notch with ‘Eternal Sunshine’, serving up hit after hit while swapping out tales of lust, attraction and intimacy to focus on her life post-divorce.
Written by: Issy Herring | Date: Wednesday, 13 March 2024
Hurray for the Riff Raff - The Past Is Still Alive (Album Review)
Photo: Tommy Kha Alynda Segarra has lived a life. Every detail — the teenage runaway, the box cars, years spent busking — has come to inform their standing as one of America’s most talented and interesting singer-songwriters. And, while their fortunes may have changed, Hurray For the Riff Raff’s ninth album ‘The Past Is Still Alive’ is a sobering reminder that every experience leaves an indelible mark.
Written by: Jack Butler-Terry | Date: Tuesday, 12 March 2024
Nils Frahm - Day (Album Review)
Nils Frahm’s ‘Day’ is a piano record that displays the composer’s ability to wring something introspective and profound from a minimalist’s palette, flowing with the ease of a brook in a tranquil valley.
Written by: Milly McMahon | Date: Tuesday, 12 March 2024
Kim Gordon - The Collective (Album Review)
Photo: Danielle Neu Kim Gordon’s second solo album is a grimy hot mess — a sonic journey into guitar dirges, glitchy trap beats and scrawled late night iPhone notes. It's another strikingly bold record from the former Sonic Youth bassist and maintains much of the urgent energy of her 2019 debut ‘No Home Record’.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Monday, 11 March 2024
Bleachers - Bleachers (Album Review)
Photo: Alex Lockett Jack Antonoff has had a successful and varied career as both a producer and performer, but he tends to exist in the shadows cast by his megastar associates, from Taylor Swift to the 1975 and Lana Del Rey. Here he returns with the fourth Bleachers album, serving up an expectedly eclectic collection that underlines his credentials as a songwriter who can adapt to different surroundings.
Written by: Chris Connor | Date: Friday, 08 March 2024
Yard Act - Where's My Utopia? (Album Review)
Photo: Phoebe Fox Move over post-punk, the funk-pop revolution has begun. Yard Act have followed up their breakthrough debut album ‘The Overload’ with ‘Where’s My Utopia?’, a self-reflexive masterpiece where bangers are crafted by putting a knife to the throat of the very notion of hitmaking.
Written by: Jack Press | Date: Thursday, 07 March 2024
Faye Webster - Underdressed at the Symphony (Album Review)
A lot has changed since Faye Webster put out ‘I Know I’m Funny Haha’ three years ago. She’s now one of those artists whose profiles blew up thanks to organic TikTok virality, giving her previously steady rise something of a turbo boost. But you wouldn’t know it from ‘Underdressed At The Symphony’, where she continues to develop her sound as though nothing has changed, leaving no emotional stone unturned in the process.
Written by: Issy Herring | Date: Wednesday, 06 March 2024
Kaiser Chiefs - Kaiser Chiefs' Easy Eighth Album (Album Review)
Photo: Cal McIntyre Halfway through ‘Kaiser Chiefs’ Easy Eighth Album’ it becomes pertinent to ask if they might have instead gone for a different self-referential title: everything is average nowadays. Guided by ex-Rudimental producer Amir Amor and part-facilitated by a songwriting hook up with Nile Rodgers, the band’s latest missive is a middle-aged identity crisis.
Written by: Jack Press | Date: Tuesday, 05 March 2024
Everything Everything - Mountainhead (Album Review)
Photo: Steve Gullick Following the release of ‘Get to Heaven’ in 2015 there was a hell of a lot for Everything Everything to live up to. The album was a maximalist reset for their sound, setting a benchmark that their ensuing work, while nothing to sniff at, couldn’t quite reach. But they’ve gone up a gear with ‘Mountainhead’, a record that finally stands as a worthy successor.
Written by: Adam England | Date: Tuesday, 05 March 2024
Liam Gallagher and John Squire - Liam Gallagher John Squire (Album Review)
Photo: Tom Oxley This isn’t really what anyone had in mind when it came to Liam Gallagher uniting with another Manchester legend. After so much to-ing and fro-ing with his brother Noel, and the slightest hint of an Oasis reunion, he’s chosen instead to team up with Stone Roses guitarist John Squire.
Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Monday, 04 March 2024
Real Estate - Daniel (Album Review)
Photo: Sinna Nasseri Over the past 15 years, Real Estate have mastered the sort of gentle jangle-pop that might soundtrack days spent at the beach following sunny road trips along coastal highways. They might one day veer from the blacktop but their sixth album continues to follow that road, drawing strength from its comforting sense of familiarity.
Written by: Matthew McLister | Date: Friday, 01 March 2024
Mick Mars - The Other Side Of Mars (Album Review)
Given the furore over his retirement from Mötley Crüe after four decades of riffs and glam-metal excess, Mick Mars had a lot of fuel with which to approach his first solo record. On ‘The Other Side Of Mars’ the guitarist seeks to display, you guessed it, another side to his work, pairing his undimmed skills as a guitarist with the dominant vocal abilities of Jacob Bunton and Brion Gamboa. When they click, they are something of a force of nature together, but too often they don’t.
Written by: Issy Herring | Date: Wednesday, 28 February 2024
Nadine Shah - Filthy Underneath (Album Review)
Photo: Tim Topple Anyone attending recent Depeche Mode shows would have been treated, however briefly, to a bewitching support slot from Nadine Shah. In her grasp she held a clutch of new songs from ‘Filthy Underneath’, an album that encompasses so much about what makes the Tyneside artist so deeply admired and loved.
Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Wednesday, 28 February 2024
iDKHOW - Gloom Division (Album Review)
Photo: MANIC PROJECT ‘Gloom Division’ is the second studio album from former Panic!At the Disco bassist Dallon Weekes under the not-at-all-clunky name I Dont Know How But They Found Me, or iDKHOW for short. For the most part, it’s a sunny synth-drenched popsicle, balancing chunky rhythms and bass with catchy-ish melodies and theatrical vocals.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 28 February 2024
The Snuts - Millennials (Album Review)
Photo: Gaz Williamson ‘Millennials’ is the Snuts’ third studio album, but notably the first the Scottish indie-rockers have released on their own label, Happy Artists. Finding that their vision no longer aligned with that of their major label, Parlophone, the name of their new home is decidedly pointed.
Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Tuesday, 27 February 2024
MGMT - Loss of Life (Album Review)
Photo: Jonah Freeman Since invading indie-rock with their hugely successful debut ‘Oracular Spectacular’ in 2007, MGMT have hummed along in the background, leaning heavily into electronic music and releasing records that led to a heady fusion of several styles. Returning with their fifth album ‘Loss of Life’, their first in six years, Andrew VanWyngarden and Benjamin Goldwasser prove that they still aren’t comfortable playing it safe.
Written by: Chris Connor | Date: Tuesday, 27 February 2024
Serpentwithfeet - Grip (Album Review)
Even when viewed alongside such luminaries as Frank Ocean, Steve Lacy, and Blood Orange’s Dev Hynes, Serpentwithfeet’s unique vocal inflections and heart-rending melodies have helped him to stand out in a blossoming R&B scene informed by the experiences of queer black men. He has one of the most haunting voices in the entire genre but ‘Grip’ shows that he also has his share of unrealised potential.
Written by: Jay Fullarton | Date: Monday, 26 February 2024
Paloma Faith - The Glorification of Sadness (Album Review)
A lot can change in four years. Paloma Faith’s sixth album ‘The Glorification of Sadness’ offers quite the contrast to ‘Infinite Things’, flipping that record’s focus on all-consuming love to something closer to triumph despite heartbreak. What we have here is “a divorce album without the divorce” as the chart-topping singer-songwriter leans heavily on her work following a turbulent split with her long-term partner.
Written by: Issy Herring | Date: Monday, 26 February 2024
Laura Jane Grace - Hole In My Head (Album Review)
Photo: Bella Peterson Since the pandemic, Laura Jane Grace’s solo career has become less of a side quest than a main adventure. In the first two years of this decade, the Against Me! frontwoman pulled two stellar releases from her sleeve — 2020’s ‘Stay Alive’ and 2021’s ‘At War With The Silverfish’ EP — with no prior warning.
Written by: Emma Wilkes | Date: Friday, 23 February 2024
William Doyle - Springs Eternal (Album Review)
‘Springs Eternal’ is the latest missive from William Doyle, the Bournemouth electronic (and occasionally ambient) producer also known for a time as East India Youth. It finds this tender soul in diverse spirits, delivering a record of impressive versatility, if not always solid gold songwriting.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Thursday, 22 February 2024
IDLES - Tangk (Album Review)
Each new IDLES album has come to feel like a turning point, with the Bristol band always reaching for something approaching a defining statement. ‘Tangk’ is no different, stepping into a revolving door of love songs that are alternately angry, soft, or gleeful.
Written by: Jack McGill | Date: Thursday, 22 February 2024
Grandaddy - Blu Wav (Album Review)
Photo: Dustin Aksland Fans of sad, cosmic alt-country rejoice! This small but fervent group will be ecstatic at the release of ‘Blu Wav’, the latest from California cult heroes Grandaddy, who looked for a while like they were finished.
Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Cast - Love is the Call (Album Review)
Photo: Paul Husband The ‘90s are big business right now, and the nostalgia industry hasn’t skipped over Britpop. A number of the old guard have joined the fray, with Blur and Pulp wowing huge crowds last year, and Shed Seven recently landing their first number one album. Cast are getting in on the act with ‘Love is the Call’, their first album since 2017’s ‘Kicking Up the Dust’.
Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Tuesday, 20 February 2024
Usher - Coming Home (Album Review)
Photo: Bellamy Brewster You want music to get down to, you go to Usher. That was true 30 years ago, and it’s true today. Released to coincide with his career-spanning Super Bowl halftime show, his ninth album ‘Coming Home’ shows no signs of letting that slip.
Written by: Jack Terry | Date: Tuesday, 20 February 2024
Brittany Howard - What Now (Album Review)
Photo: Bobbi Rich Released only a year after her band Alabama Shakes were placed on the shelf, Brittany Howard’s solo bow ‘Jaime’ was a rich, enticing mix of sentimental genre fusions, heavy-hitting songwriting and an unwavering sense of confidence. Remarkably, ‘What Now’ is an improvement on all fronts.
Written by: Jay Fullarton | Date: Monday, 19 February 2024
The Last Dinner Party - Prelude to Ecstasy (Album Review)
Photo: Cal McIntyre ‘Prelude to Ecstasy’ is a hugely exciting and precocious debut from some very talented musicians. Here the Last Dinner Party combine grand orchestral arrangements, chamber pop, and indie stylings with fantastic lyrical storytelling, justifying the band’s early hype and likely setting up their inclusion on plenty of year-end lists come winter.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Friday, 16 February 2024
Zara Larsson - Venus (Album Review)
It’s a bit weird that Zara Larsson isn’t one of the biggest pop stars on the planet. Continuously packaged and produced for breakout success, and with a decade of Europop bangers already under her belt, it feels like she should be everywhere. But, for a variety of reasons, it hasn’t happened. Her new album ‘Venus’ is a fairly transparent attempt to course-correct her career.
Written by: Jack Press | Date: Thursday, 15 February 2024
Declan McKenna - What Happened To The Beach? (Album Review)
For his third album, Declan McKenna has zigged across to the West Coast of America to record an album of wonky, skronky pop songs. It’s another left turn for a singer-songwriter whose 2017 breakthrough record ‘What Do You Think About the Car?’ introduced a precocious indie teen troubadour — a sort of Gen Z Gary Numan.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 14 February 2024
