The Longcut - Arrows (Album Review)

Seven years is a long time, but that’s precisely how long it took Manchester’s the Longcut to ensure their new album, ‘Arrows’, was as sharp as possible. In fact, it took three attempts to get there, because the first two were scrapped. That means that what we have before us is actually the third version of their third studio album. Is it third time lucky all round, perhaps?

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Tuesday, 10 April 2018

Thirty Seconds To Mars - America (Album Review)

Thirty Seconds To Mars have a habit of tapping into the musical zeitgeist. Their self-titled debut capitalised on the fallout from nu-metal at the start of the millennium, while their breakthrough, ‘A Beautiful Lie’, rode high on the emo wave of mid-2000s. More recent releases - ‘This is War’ and ‘Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams’ - followed the trend of infusing anthemic guitar music with outsized electronics.

Written by: Liam Turner | Date: Monday, 09 April 2018

Soccer Mommy - Clean (Album Review)

According to Soccer Mommy, guitar music is dead as a mode of pop. And that’s something that makes Sophie Allison’s music so intriguing. Her honest lyrics, about the insecurities of being a young woman, come across like a sweary Taylor Swift after a couple of pints of cider with Ed Sheeran. But she has no designs on the top 10. Her style of music places her firmly in the alternative world, where a voice such as hers has traditionally had to work harder to be taken seriously.

Written by: Jennifer Geddes | Date: Monday, 09 April 2018

The Wonder Years - Sister Cities (Album Review)

Photo: Jonathan Weiner When listening to ‘Sister Cities’, it's often hard to believe that the Wonder Years are pop-punk veterans. The Philadelphia band's sixth studio album is a true mark of their progressive style, elegantly closing the door on the thrashier sounds of their youth. Their 2015 release, ‘No Closer to Heaven’, began the transition into a darker chapter, but here they really hit a musical peak.

Written by: Katy Westaway | Date: Friday, 06 April 2018

Rick Parfitt - Over and Out (Album Review)

Photo: Heiko Roth Due to the immediate swell of reverence that accompanies a musician’s death, posthumous releases and objectivity rarely go hand in hand. When evaluating Rick Parfitt’s posthumous solo LP ‘Over and Out’, then, it helps if you have never served as a denim clad lieutenant in the ‘Quo Army’. And, from a neutral perspective, there’s a lot of praise to afford this swansong from Status Quo’s Telecaster-bashing blonde.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Friday, 06 April 2018

Frankie Cosmos - Vessel (Album Review)

Frankie Cosmos’s Greta Kline is a prodigious talent. Her first two albums married gnarly New York indie with unvarnished, millennial heartbreak. Her third - ‘Vessel’ - develops that aesthetic with increased lyrical confidence and musicality. One suspects that if some of these songs were presented differently, they might make the charts. But that's not really what Frankie Cosmos is about.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Thursday, 05 April 2018

The Voidz - Virtue (Album Review)

Perhaps Julian Casablancas peaked too soon. The huge cultural impact of the Strokes’ 2001 debut, ‘Is This It’, meant that by the time his songwriting had blossomed - on 2006’s ‘First Impressions of Earth’ - many had tired of their sound and gone elsewhere.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 04 April 2018

The Boxer Rebellion - Ghost Alive (Album Review)

The Boxer Rebellion have a knack for racing out of the blocks on their albums, often turning in an early trio of heavy hitters. The opening stages of ‘Union’ and ‘Promises’ were breathtaking, but on album six, ‘Ghost Alive’, we have a different beast entirely. This time, everything’s a little more refined.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Wednesday, 04 April 2018

George Ezra - Staying at Tamara's (Album Review)

‘Staying at Tamara’s’, George Ezra’s second album, has been accompanied by the kind of major label fanfare that suggests the British singer-songwriter is here to stay.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Thursday, 29 March 2018

Courtney Marie Andrews - May Your Kindness Remain (Album Review)

Photo: Laura E. Partain   During the early part of her career, Courtney Marie Andrews released a string of under the radar folk albums. If those formative LPs were her caterpillar phase, then 2016’s ‘Honest Life’ began an artistic metamorphosis that’s culminated in ‘May Your Kindness Remain’, a soulful, gospel-tinted record where she’s blossomed into a butterfly.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Thursday, 29 March 2018

David Byrne - American Utopia (Album Review)

David Byrne is feeling buoyant. Despite all that is wrong with the world (and the USA in particular), he is choosing to answer it with relentless positivity. The title ‘American Utopia’ isn’t exactly tongue in cheek; Byrne is clearly not happy about the way things are going but is certain that we can get to the bottom of the problem.

Written by: Ben Gallivan | Date: Wednesday, 28 March 2018

Sunflower Bean - Twentytwo in Blue (Album Review)

Sunflower Bean practically asked for the ‘saviours of rock and roll’ label with their 2016 debut, ‘Human Ceremony’, a collection of spunky tunes evoking the golden days of psychedelia, glam and shoegaze. Hell, their guitarist was even a dead ringer for a young Bob Dylan.

Written by: Liam Turner | Date: Tuesday, 27 March 2018

Jack White - Boarding House Reach (Album Review)

While Jack White has never been the most kempt figure, his music has always possessed meticulous attention to detail. The fact his long-running blues-rock band the White Stripes wore strictly colour coordinated outfits only reinforces the perception that he's a rigorous self-editor with a penchant for regimentalism.

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Monday, 26 March 2018

Lucy Dacus - Historian (Album Review)

Photo: Dustin Condren Lucy Dacus doesn’t primarily see herself as a songwriter. But the success of her debut album, ‘No Burden’, particularly the track I Don’t Want To Be Funny Anymore, led her to contemplate the responsibilities of her new role. This is, in part, what led her to call her second album ‘Historian’.

Written by: Jennifer Geddes | Date: Monday, 26 March 2018

Titus Andronicus - A Productive Cough (Album Review)

Photo: Ray Concepcion  The Titus Andronicus line up is a merry go round revolving around singer, songwriter and guitarist Patrick Stickles. Each new iteration has yielded fresh, unique noise-scapes, making them less a band and more an anarchic art project.

Written by: Milly McMahon | Date: Friday, 23 March 2018

The Breeders - All Nerve (Album Review)

Photo: Marisa Gesualdi It takes a short while to get your head around the new album from the Breeders as it sounds like something very familiar. After multiple listens, it turns out that the answer is…the Breeders. ‘All Nerve’ sounds just like the Breeders.

Written by: Ben Gallivan | Date: Thursday, 22 March 2018

Hot Snakes - Jericho Sirens (Album Review)

Photo: Rick Froberg Few corners of the music world subscribe to the law of diminishing returns quite like reunion albums. They are, broadly, to be treated with suspicion. What are the motives behind them? Does each note contained within sound like a dollar sign rolling around in cartoon eyes? Do the band care? Do we care?

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Wednesday, 21 March 2018

Yo La Tengo - There's A Riot Going On (Album Review)

Since they shuffled onto the stage over 30 years ago, New Jersey’s Yo La Tengo have established themselves as one of the most enduring lo-fi bands on the east coast, creating a catalogue of distinctive shoegaze that has impressed with its subtle diversity.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 21 March 2018

Mount Eerie - Now Only (Album Review)

Mount Eerie’s Phil Elverum is a musician unlike almost any other. His music, lacking in any perceptible pop structure, plays like a stream of consciousness; raw, without embellishment, and completely devastating. Following the death of his wife, Geneviève, Elverum explored his grief through his work, resulting in the release of a critically acclaimed album, ‘A Crow Looked At Me’.

Written by: Olivia Tambini | Date: Wednesday, 21 March 2018

The Magic Gang - The Magic Gang (Album Review)

Photo: Dan Kendall There’s nothing edgy about the Magic Gang’s self-titled debut. It’s not offensive, it’s not abrasive, it’s not cynical and it certainly isn’t controversial. It’s lacking in a number of seemingly crucial qualities possessed by many classics. And yet that’s precisely why the record feels as fresh as the summer breeze it so often evokes.

Written by: Liam Turner | Date: Tuesday, 20 March 2018