Myles Kennedy - The Ides of March (Album Review)

Photo: Chuck Brueckmann There’s little doubt that the global pandemic has polarised society in a way most of us have never experienced. Now more than ever we need rationality, perspective, understanding and respect. Reflecting on this period, Myles Kennedy’s second solo album will rightly be lauded for its musical prowess, but everything that’s great about it flows from the songwriter’s laudable sense of humanity and empathy.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Monday, 24 May 2021

Paul Weller - Fat Pop (Volume 1) (Album Review)

Paul Weller is not slowing down. The singer-songwriter’s 16th solo album is a locked-down romp through pop sounds that, though not his best work, shows a high degree of focus and integrity.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Friday, 21 May 2021

St. Vincent - Daddy's Home (Album Review)

Photo: Zachery Michael St. Vincent arrives at her sixth studio album, ‘Daddy’s Home’, clad in a fur coat, striking and sublime amid a sepia ‘70s haze. Immersed in the thriving atmosphere of a New York bar, lost in the lull of velvet vocals, she seeks clarity from the familiar clink of champagne glasses. Remove this aesthetic mask, though, and this is a record as straight talking as its title suggests.

Written by: Rebecca Llewellyn | Date: Thursday, 20 May 2021

J. Cole - The Off-Season (Album Review)

J. Cole is close to the top of his game. The North Carolina rapper and producer has found time away from his other passion of basketball—he recently made his debut for Rwanda-based Patriots in the Africa Basketball League—to deliver ‘The Off-Season’, an album of tremendous poise and guile with a host of well-thought-out collabs that elevate the record without compromising cohesion.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 19 May 2021

The Black Keys - Delta Kream (Album Review)

Photo: Joshua Black Wilkins After a year of global lockdowns, you would hope that enough time was available for your favourite artists to knuckle down to writing some seriously good new music. The Black Keys, however, have taken a different stance, opting instead to knock out a covers album that pays tribute to Mississippi hill country blues, particularly the music of artists such as Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Tuesday, 18 May 2021

Weezer - Van Weezer (Album Review)

Photo: Sean Murphy If there were such a thing as a musical conspiracy theorist they’d have a field day coming up with explanations for Weezer’s erratic output, possibly claiming the band’s strongest efforts are crafted by the actual Rivers Cuomo and company, before said foursome kick back and allow doppelgangers to produce utter dross such as the ‘Black’ album. Fortunately, ‘Van Weezer’, a joyous tribute to 1980s stadium rock, finds the real deal back in the saddle and firing on all their giddiest, geekiest cylinders.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Monday, 17 May 2021

Alfie Templeman - Forever Isn't Long Enough (Album Review)

Photo: Blackksocks To be young is to be messy and unsure of yourself. Unless you’re Alfie Templeman, apparently. To be young and Alfie Templeman is to be assured and focused. The teenage producer-musician appears to have already tamed the more shaggy, sophomoric impulses in his sound and ‘Forever Isn’t Long Enough’ arrives without a hair out of place.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Friday, 14 May 2021

Dawn Richard - Second Line (Album Review)

Dawn Richard is a resilient, gifted musical entity. Persistently misunderstood by the industry throughout a six album solo career that followed the end of a run in the reality TV-founded girl group Danity Kane, the frustrations that have followed her since she departed from Diddy's Bad Boy label fuel her wildly inspired new LP ‘Second Line’.

Written by: Milly McMahon | Date: Wednesday, 12 May 2021

Squid - Bright Green Field (Album Review)

Photo: Holly Whitaker Squid are part of a wave of British bands—alongside such outfits as Black Midi and Black Country, New Road—who have a number of tags swirling above their heads, from post-punk to post-rock. Yet, and this is crucial, their music mostly does away with anything approximating a pigeonhole related to genre.

Written by: Matty Pywell | Date: Tuesday, 11 May 2021

Manchester Orchestra - The Million Masks of God (Album Review)

Photo: Shervin Lainez You could say the Atlanta quartet Manchester Orchestra are one of modern rock’s biggest secrets, seemingly destined to fly beneath the radar. It’s criminal in many ways, and a minor miracle that they’re not as highly regarded as Band Of Horses or Bears Den, bands that occasionally tread similar ground.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Friday, 07 May 2021

Teenage Fanclub - Endless Arcade (Album Review)

Photo: Donald Milne Since Teenage Fanclub released ‘Grand Prix’ in 1995, we kinda know what’s coming when an album appears. Well versed in the ways of The Byrds, if not direct disciples, there are usually recognisable flecks of the Californian legends’ music, such as Roger McGuinn’s jangly guitars and David Crosby’s love of harmonised vocals, in the Scottish outfit’s indie-rock confections.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Thursday, 06 May 2021

Gojira - Fortitude (Album Review)

Photo: Gabrielle Duplantier “When you change yourself, you change the world,” is perhaps the most enduring mantra gleaned from Gojira’s 2016 record, ‘Magma’. That change, a shift further into more melodic and arena-ready territories for the French progressive death metal quartet, was met with near-unanimous critical praise and an ever-growing audience.

Written by: Sam Sleight | Date: Wednesday, 05 May 2021

Gary Moore - How Blue Can You Get (Album Review)

Famous for scaring the living daylights out of some of the planet’s finest guitarists during his all-too-brief 58 years on earth, the late Gary Moore was quite simply one of the finest to ever make a Les Paul sing, scream and sob. Ten years since his passing, the Northern Irishman’s vault has finally been opened to produce a ‘new’ release that, although containing some fine moments, suggests the depth of unheard material in his archives isn’t exactly bountiful.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Tuesday, 04 May 2021

Royal Blood - Typhoons (Album Review)

Imagine The White Stripes had grown up full of post-millennial angst, worshipping Muse as well as old blues artists. That’s pretty much how Royal Blood sounded when they exploded onto the scene in 2014. But after two albums following said formula, ‘Typhoons’ is what might have transpired had Jack and Meg taken a turn into disco and funk territory. Think that sounds like an awful volte face? Think again.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Friday, 30 April 2021

Greta Van Fleet - The Battle at Garden's Gate (Album Review)

Photo: Alysse Gafkjen Greta Van Fleet are a preposterous band because of course they are. They have to be—they are modelled on some of the most preposterous bands in the rock canon, and to commit to such a high-wire act of mimicry on this scale is preposterous in itself. The Michigan group’s second LP ‘The Battle at Garden's Gate’ is a serious, beautifully presented record that wears that sense of ridiculousness with a flourish, suggesting rather forcibly that their interests do not include worrying over press clippings.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Monday, 26 April 2021

The Offspring - Let The Bad Times Roll (Album Review)

Photo: Daveed Benito What kind of self-respecting punk band takes nine years to make a new album? Were they bereft of motivation? Suffering from creative impotence? Struggling to get back to their best after a run of patchy efforts? Thankfully, such questions concerning this long overdue return from The Offspring are well answered on a comeback that delivers exactly what we want from these pretty fly, now middle-aged, white guys.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Friday, 23 April 2021

Imelda May - 11 Past The Hour (Album Review)

On a mission to preach the gospel of love in all its complex iterations, Imelda May’s latest effort is a sultry, romantic, mature album that ranks as the former rockabilly star’s most accessible to date. But although very potent on a song-by-song basis, these eclectic compositions don’t blend together with any kind of overarching cohesiveness, with their impact undercut as a consequence of stylistic whiplash.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Wednesday, 21 April 2021

London Grammar - Californian Soil (Album Review)

Since the release of their double platinum debut ‘If You Wait’ in 2013, London Grammar have impressively managed to maintain a foothold in the mainstream of British pop while retaining nuances that are so identifiably theirs—Hannah Reid’s evocative contralto being their main USP.

Written by: Alex Myles | Date: Tuesday, 20 April 2021

Glasvegas - Godspeed (Album Review)

Taking some seven years to complete, Glasvegas’s fourth album is the first where frontman James Allan has taken control of just about everything. From the songwriting to the recording, producing, mixing, he’s done it all, having spent the years since the release of ‘Later…When the TV Turns to Static’ learning the ropes as he went along.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Monday, 19 April 2021

The Armed - ULTRAPOP (Album Review)

Photo: Trevor Naud Bands often utilise anonymity as a gimmick. It’s passé, pretentious and really quite irritating. Well, it is when most bands do it. On their last record ‘Only Love’, The Armed hid themselves—identities, band dynamics—and their love of pop culture behind such dense layers of distortion that their bubblegum sensibilities were overwhelmed by filth.

Written by: Sam Sleight | Date: Friday, 16 April 2021