Jon Hopkins - Music For Psychedelic Therapy (Album Review)

Photo: Steve Gullick Jon Hopkins’ ‘Music For Psychedelic Therapy’ is unlike anything he has produced before. Known for creating tracks that reach for beat-driven euphoria, here he has ditched blueprints that have brought him legions of fans and even a Grammy nod for best dance/electronic album for his 2018 album ‘Singularity’.

Written by: Matty Pywell | Date: Monday, 22 November 2021

Jerry Cantrell - Brighten (Album Review)

Whether it’s with Alice In Chains, or as a solo artist, Jerry Cantrell’s music always resides in the vast grey realm located between rigid notions of black and white. Exploring internal and external battles with unflinching candour, he’s a songwriter who understands that we’re complex souls driven by conflicting elements. A cinematic, stylistically surprising and ultimately uplifting trip through that dramatic landscape, ‘Brighten’ is a feast for the senses.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Monday, 22 November 2021

Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats - The Future (Album Review)

Backed by the wonderfully expressive Night Sweats, a joyous eight piece ensemble who dispatch vintage Muscle Shoals R&B textures with class to burn, Nathaniel Rateliff never sounds like a man who consciously writes and sings music. When he steps up to the microphone, it’s as if some unstoppable force has entered his body, using him as a conduit to express elemental truths about life, love and, on this soul-searching record, the existential crisis that overwhelmed him during the pandemic.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Friday, 19 November 2021

Taylor Swift - Red (Taylor's Version) (Album Review)

Earlier this year Taylor Swift pulled off the remarkable feat of re-recording, and consequently improving, her superstar-making album ‘Fearless’. Next up, the record many consider her finest, most representative work gets the full bells and whistles makeover.  But when divorced from the unique emotional maelstrom she experienced while forging it a decade ago, Swift’s expanded version of ‘Red,’ although impressive, doesn’t strike as authentically as it did the first time around.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Thursday, 18 November 2021

Diana Ross - Thank You (Album Review)

Photo: Ross Naess Thank You’ is Diana Ross’ 25th studio album and the first since 2006’s wretched ‘I Love You’—a covers record that would have otherwise served as an unsatisfactory coda to a magnificent recording career. And while there is no evidence that this will indeed be the 77-year-old Michigander’s last offering, it’s hard to avoid a sense of finality as that title runs up against songs full of groove, heart and sentimentality.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 17 November 2021

Idles - Crawler (Album Review)

Idles have long been a reliable source of mayhem, with Joe Talbot’s polemics running up against torrents of guitar noise, but learning to pull things back and explore the impact of the notes left unplayed requires another skill set entirely. It’s one the Bristol band have honed beautifully on ‘Crawler’, their second album in a little more than a year.

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Wednesday, 17 November 2021

Snail Mail - Valentine (Album Review)

Photo: Tina Tyrell There has been a tendency in recent years to lazily draw comparisons between the “confessional” female singer-songwriters who’ve lit up indie sphere for the past decade—glossing over the differences in style and approach between artists such as Phoebe Bridgers and Soccer Mommy, for example—and on ‘Valentine’ Snail Mail’s Lindsey Jordan again underlines the reductive nature of such an approach.

Written by: Alex Myles | Date: Tuesday, 16 November 2021

Courtney Barnett - Things Take Time, Take Time (Album Review)

Photo: Mia Mala McDonald Courtney Barnett’s third solo album ‘Things Take Time, Take Time’ represents another meeting of kindred spirits. The Australian songwriter’s creative ties with Kurt Vile run deep, of course, but following the release of their joint album ‘Lotta Sea Lice’ in 2017, she has now turned to Warpaint drummer Stella Mozgawa as producer and collaborator.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Monday, 15 November 2021

Black Veil Brides - The Phantom Tomorrow (Album Review)

Embrace this new concept album by Black Veil Brides as a powerhouse arena-rock juggernaut, where massive hooks and stirring sentiments are rigged to explode at regular intervals, and you’ll be treated to a raging inferno of rousing pop-metal. Invest heavily in the record’s rock-operatic pretensions, however, and you may end up stuck on a dystopian wasteland feeling a tad chilly and confused.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Friday, 12 November 2021

Lana Del Rey - Blue Banisters (Album Review)

Over the course of seven idiosyncratic and wilfully enigmatic albums, not to mention a bursting landfill of thinkpieces deconstructing her every move, it’s become increasingly clear Lana Del Rey, or rather Lizzy Grant, is a very complex person indeed. Introspective, initially impenetrable and as flawed as it is wonderful, ‘Blue Banisters’ shines new light on one of modern music’s most confounding and magnetic performers.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Thursday, 11 November 2021

Abba - Voyage (Album Review)

For the Abba aficionados out there, news of a ninth album a full 40 years after their previous release will likely have brought joy, and a little trepidation. While the Swedish band’s catalogue of singles is jammed with solid gold, era-defining hits, their albums were often poor, with cringey ditties languishing among the treasure, stinking the place out with twee arrangements and dubious storylines. ‘Voyage’ is no different.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 10 November 2021

Dream Theater - A View From The Top Of The World (Album Review)

Photo: Rayon Richards During the closing track on Dream Theater’s 15th studio album, singer James LaBrie unwittingly sums up the MO that once drove his band: “To stretch beyond our limits, to blaze a brand new trail, bold enough to conquer, brave enough to fail.”  Alas, anyone wanting to hear that boundary-pushing act would be better off revisiting their groundbreaking early material than consuming a new album that ultimately represents a well executed piece of wheel spinning.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Tuesday, 09 November 2021

The War on Drugs - I Don't Live Here Anymore (Album Review)

Why tweak a successful formula? The War on Drugs’ fifth studio LP ‘I Don’t Live Here Anymore’ asks just that, delivering an album that follows a familiar path to their last two efforts ‘A Deeper Understanding’ and ‘Lost in the Dream’. In fact, there’s so little to distinguish each collection that they could have been part of the same sessions.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Monday, 08 November 2021

Joe Bonamassa - Time Clocks (Album Review)

When he first broke out, Joe Bonamassa’s six-string abilities were exploited to position him as a contemporary guitar deity for fans of blues-rock to worship. Over the last decade, however, his increasingly potent original material has taken centre stage. Posters for his gigs may declare them ‘The Guitar Event of the Year,’ but with superb albums like ‘Time Clocks’ at his disposal, that snappy slogan only tells part of the story.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Thursday, 04 November 2021

Ed Sheeran - = (Album Review)

Photo: Dan Martensen Ed Sheeran’s affable persona is somewhat misleading once the singer-songwriter gets down to brass tacks about the business of music. Rarely have we seen a musician so attuned to the shifting, streaming-optimised tastes of consumers, and equally it is unusual to see one so comfortable swimming in waters populated by industry sharks.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Thursday, 04 November 2021

Tori Amos - Ocean to Ocean (Album Review)

Photo: Desmond Murray After all the past 18 months have thrown at us, Tori Amos has your back. Her most universally appealing album since the early 1990s, ‘Ocean to Ocean’ is a gracefully melodic, lush and emotionally regenerative work with the capacity to rejuvenate even the most beleaguered of souls.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Wednesday, 03 November 2021

Elton John - The Lockdown Sessions (Album Review)

Elton John has crammed several lives into his 74 years, but despite this he remains a remarkably down-to-earth presence both in interviews and his hugely popular Apple Music radio show. For his latest album, the British superstar has brought together a wide array of musical talent, including similar grandees such as Eddie Vedder and Stevie Nicks alongside contemporary stars such as Dua Lipa, Nicki Minaj and Miley Cyrus.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Tuesday, 02 November 2021

Duran Duran - Future Past (Album Review)

​   Photo: John Swannell Forty years ago, Duran Duran reigned supreme in synth-pop land. With classic singles such as Hungry Like The Wolf, Save a Prayer and Planet Earth arriving in a relentless onslaught, everything they touched turned to gold. They then reached the summit of their popularity when Is There Something I Should Know? went straight in at number one in the UK, a rare event at the time, and solidified their status across the pond.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Monday, 01 November 2021

Johnny Marr - Fever Dreams Pt 1 (Album Review)

Photo: Andy Cotterill For Johnny Marr’s latest musical epistle the former Smiths guitar legend offers up a four-track EP as a precursor to more substantial recordings in the new year. It’s chunky, grooving music with the Mancunian’s vocals sounding confident and laconic, and his hugely influential playing style dancing round the record like an old flame.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Monday, 01 November 2021

Every Time I Die - Radical (Album Review)

Photo: Michael Watson It takes only a few seconds for ‘Radical’ to produce 2021’s best mosh call. As Every Time I Die’s ninth album winds up, Keith Buckley seizes the microphone and, over screeching guitar feedback, yells: “Spare only the ones I love, slay the rest.”

Written by: Emma Wilkes | Date: Thursday, 28 October 2021