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

The Decemberists - I'll Be Your Girl (Album Review)

Photo: Holly Andres On their eighth studio album, ‘I’ll Be Your Girl’, the Decemberists have taken a substantial risk. To a large extent, their folky, quirky core has disappeared and in its place you’ll find something unusual: synthesizers. In the words of frontman Colin Meloy, they experimented with “a lot of weird keyboards”.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Tuesday, 20 March 2018

Myles Kennedy - Year of the Tiger (Album Review)

Thanks to the modern trend of cherry picking individual tracks for consumption, crafting a fully-realised album, one that’s both musically and thematically cohesive, is an artform that’s slowly being eroded. Fortunately for those of us who still worship at the altar of this classic format, Myles Kennedy is blissfully unaware of such a sea change.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Monday, 19 March 2018

Gwenno - Le Kov (Album Review)

The dreamy soundscapes that Gwenno offers up on her latest record are as lush as the landscapes that inspired them. Picking up where she left off with the closing track - Amser - on her wonderful solo debut, ‘Y Dydd Olaf’, ‘Le Kov’ has been penned and performed in the Cornish language.

Written by: Ben Gallivan | Date: Monday, 19 March 2018

Albert Hammond Jr. - Francis Trouble (Album Review)

Photo: Autumn de Wilde “What the music says may be serious, but as a medium it should not be questioned, analyzed or taken too seriously.”

Written by: Helen Payne | Date: Friday, 16 March 2018

Nervus - Everything Dies (Album Review)

The title of Nervus’s sophomore album belies an optimistic streak. ‘Everything Dies’ suggests a bleak outlook and little hope of consolation, but throughout the record vocalist and guitarist Em Foster discusses acceptance, both personal and societal, alongside some frank words about insecurity and the damage done by preconceptions.

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Friday, 16 March 2018

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats - Tearing At The Seams

Photo: Brantley Gutierrez Is there anything more invigorating, enlivening and downright sexy than listening to a posse of supremely talented musicians casting their spell? For proof, look no further than the Night Sweats, a sublime backing group who - in tandem with bandleader Nathaniel Rateliff - you’d gladly sell your soul to witness in full flow. Especially if you love vintage Americana ensembles like the Band, Booker T & the M.G.’s and Muscle Shoals rhythm maestros the Swampers.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Thursday, 15 March 2018

Editors - Violence (Album Review)

Although not in the same league as Dylan going electric, there have been a number of shifts in Editors’ style over the years. From the Joy Division-derived gloom of their debut, ‘The Back Room’, to 2015’s ‘In Dream’, where their metamorphosis into a bleak electronica band seemed complete, their transformations have occurred without too much getting left behind.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Thursday, 15 March 2018

Conjurer - Mire (Album Review)

Riffs. Massive, bestial riffs. Riffs that link thrash to ballads and the epic with outright savagery. Riffs to write home about. Riffs to introduce to your parents. Riffs that pull together bands like Converge and Emperor, Metallica and Mayhem. Riffs that ensure Conjurer are at home alongside such luminaries.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Thursday, 15 March 2018

Young Fathers - Cocoa Sugar (Album Review)

Young Fathers are a hard act to review because they're so wilfully and unapologetically avant-garde. It's virtually impossible to neatly categorise the Edinburgh trio or wax poetic on their lineage. To make matters worse, their albums are too frenetic and overwhelming to play on repeat without taking a lengthy recovery nap.

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Wednesday, 14 March 2018

Gengahr - Where Wildness Grows (Album Review)

Gengahr’s sophomore album, ‘Where Wildness Grows’, arrives three years after the London indie-rockers’ refreshing debut, ‘A Dream Outside’, and following several false starts. Early recordings were rejected in favour of starting over, with extensive touring and the ensuing tiredness taking a toll as they looked to capitalise on an excellent opening move. So, was the wait worthwhile?

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Wednesday, 14 March 2018

Judas Priest - Firepower (Album Review)

A full hour of new music from a heavy metal band who have been knocking about since 1969. That sounds tedious, doesn’t it? That sounds painful, right? Embarrassing? No to all three, because Judas Priest have just released their best album in 28 years.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Tuesday, 13 March 2018

Ministry - AmeriKKKant (Album Review)

[Insert witty jibe about Ministry saying they’d break up, only to return a few years later.] Great, now that’s out of the way we can start talking about album 14 from Al Jourgensen’s industrial institution, ‘AmeriKKKant’. Its title, a play on words relating to the state of affairs in the US right now, has been lovingly nicked from Ice Cube’s classic ‘AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted’. There’s a 28 year gap between those two records, yet the joke still lands.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Monday, 12 March 2018

Tracey Thorn - Record (Album Review)

If it weren’t for the xx, specifically Romy Madley Croft, you could probably describe Tracey Thorn’s musical oeuvre as completely unique within British music. Her sultry style and low-slung melodies have hovered elegantly just outside of the mainstream for nearly 40 years.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Friday, 09 March 2018

The Men - Drift (Album Review)

It often helps to be uncompromising, whether you’re a DIY purist, a pop perfectionist or simply out to make the most obtuse record you can. The Men have made a career out of it. The Brooklyn band have resolutely stuck to their own path, wandering through gritty punk, shoutalong bar-band rock and campfire acoustic curios and back again on their way to ‘Drift’, their difficult new record.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Friday, 09 March 2018

Camp Cope - How To Socialise & Make Friends (Album Review)

Photo: Naomi Beveridge “Just get it all out, put it in a song.”

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Thursday, 08 March 2018