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Kaiser Chiefs - Duck (Album Review)
‘Duck’ is Kaiser Chiefs’ seventh studio album and finds the Leeds quintet reunited with the Grammy-winning producer Ben H. Allen, who previously worked on the band’s ‘Education, Education, Education & War’ in 2014.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Tuesday, 06 August 2019
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Violent Femmes - Hotel Last Resort (Album Review)
Photo: Zack Whitford
‘Hotel Last Resort’ is Violent Femmes’ 10th studio album since entering the American punk scene in the early ‘80s. It finds the Milwaukee group in nihilistic-yet-playful spirits, and is a taut, workable album of folk-punk that demonstrates their signature sound of irreverent and occasionally creative lo-fi music making.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 31 July 2019
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Ider - Emotional Education (Album Review)
Photo: Ade Udoma & Michelle Janssen
Ider’s debut is a beautifully crafted pop record that has pristine melodic smarts to tie together a messy, sometimes lacerating slate of lyrics.
Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Tuesday, 30 July 2019
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Of Monsters and Men - Fever Dream (Album Review)
Four years on from the release of the band’s sophomore album Of Monsters and Men are back with 'Fever Dream', an ambitious, sometimes anthemic album with foundations based on sweeping soundscapes and big choruses.
Written by: Milly McMahon | Date: Monday, 29 July 2019
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Freya Ridings - Freya Ridings (Album Review)
There is a certain sort of ballad ideally placed to soundtrack emotive, potentially plot-resonant, montages in prestige TV shows. They are rich and showy but also somehow unobtrusive—when coupled with the visuals they amount to a powerful dose of emotional manipulation.
Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Tuesday, 23 July 2019
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Banks - III (Album Review)
‘III’, Banks’ appropriately titled third album, has been a short while in the making but feels like the culmination of the songwriter’s more ambitious work to this point. Five years since the release of her debut LP 'Goddess' the LA artist has shifted direction within her sound, infusing her synth-heavy trip-pop aesthetic with a jaded sense of heartbreak, maturity and raw passion.
Written by: Milly McMahon | Date: Friday, 19 July 2019
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New Order - ∑(No,12k,Lg,17Mif) (Album Review)
New Order’s new live album is taken from a performance at 2017’s Manchester International Festival. The show was a collaboration with conceptual artist Liam Gillick and featured songs from their 30 year catalogue, alongside tracks by the group’s precursor, Joy Division.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 17 July 2019
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Bleached - Don't You Think You've Had Enough? (Album Review)
Bleached’s return is powered by a desire for change. ‘Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough?’ is the first album that the sisters Clavin, Jennifer and Jessica, have recorded since deciding to get sober, and it’s also a bold attempt to fashion their winningly bratty brand of garage-rock into more expressive, sophisticated shapes.
Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Tuesday, 16 July 2019
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Ed Sheeran - No.6 Collaborations Project (Album Review)
Ed Sheeran’s fourth studio album takes its title from an EP he made eight years ago, pre-superstardom. As he noted on Instagram: “Before I was signed in 2011, I made an EP called No.5 Collaborations Project. Since then, I've always wanted to do another, so I started No.6 on my laptop when I was on tour last year.”
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Monday, 15 July 2019
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The Black Keys - Let's Rock (Album Review)
After five years of side projects and production work, the Black Keys reconvened at Dan Auerbach’s Nashville studio to lay down album number nine. In a return to the ways of old, ‘Let’s Rock’ found Auerbach and Patrick Carney building songs from scratch through riffing and jamming together, the chemistry of their reconnection driving them on after a lengthy hiatus following the Danger Mouse-produced ‘Turn Blue’ in 2014.
Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Monday, 08 July 2019
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Baroness - Gold & Grey (Album Review)
Photo: Pam Strohm
It’s true that any album exists as a reflection of time and place—both who the musicians were when they recorded the thing, and what was happening on the other side of the soundproofed walls—but few capture that sensation quite like Baroness’s ‘Purple’ did.
Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Thursday, 04 July 2019
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Thom Yorke - Anima (Album Review)
Photo: XL Recordings
In the ‘90s and ‘00s, Radiohead were probably the world’s best rock band. Capable of generation-defining stadium bangers alongside heavily experimental sound happenings, the Oxford natives managed to maintain a stunning degree of creative integrity at a time when their contemporaries were falling over each other to sell out. ‘Anima’ is Thom Yorke’s third solo album, and it’s easily his most accomplished to date. Arguably, it’s his best work since Radiohead’s ‘In Rainbows’.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 03 July 2019
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Two Door Cinema Club - False Alarm (Album Review)
You might remember Two Door Cinema Club from such angular refrains as What You Know and Undercover Martyn, from their debut LP, ‘Tourist History’, or even the earworms Sun and Handshake from the early 2010s.
Written by: Helen Payne | Date: Tuesday, 02 July 2019
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Titus Andronicus - An Obelisk (Album Review)
Photo: Ray Concepcion
After last year’s quiet curveball, ‘A Productive Cough’, it was natural to wonder whether the hell-raising Titus Andronicus of old was gone for good. For years, the New Jersey punks had produced some of the finest, smartest, most energising music around, and while that sedate, open-ended bar band offering was certainly intriguing, it lacked the magic that so many had grown to love.
Written by: Ben Gladman | Date: Friday, 28 June 2019
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Hot Chip - A Bath Full of Ecstasy (Album Review)
Photo: Ronald Dick
For a band like Hot Chip, who have built a career out of floor-filling synth-pop anthems, the title ‘A Bath Full of Ecstasy’ was always going to raise a few eyebrows and roll a few eyes back.
Written by: Ben Gladman | Date: Thursday, 27 June 2019
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Madonna - Madame X (Album Review)
Thirty six years on from the release of her iconic debut, Madonna is back with ‘Madame X’. Furthering the chaos theories explored throughout ‘Rebel Heart’ and ‘MDNA’, it’s provocation and a sense of superiority that characterises this botched call to arms.
Written by: Milly McMahon | Date: Wednesday, 26 June 2019
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Telethon - Hard Pop (Album Review)
Condensing Telethon’s outlook into a snappy phrase is a difficult task. The Milwaukee band play scruffy punk songs with due reverence to grand midwest traditions, but throughout their five or so years together they’ve also spent a lot of time colouring outside the lines.
Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Tuesday, 25 June 2019
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Mark Ronson - Late Night Feelings (Album Review)
Mark Ronson’s new album is excellent: 12½ tracks of inventive pop colour featuring a fantastic atelier of contributors and voices. It’s an extremely pleasing offering from the mid-Atlantic super-producer, who is back after four years and one divorce.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Monday, 24 June 2019
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Calexico and Iron & Wine - Years To Burn (Album Review)
‘Years To Burn’ is the second collaborative project shared between the heavenly creative pairing of Calexico and Iron & Wine, following 14 years after their joint EP ‘In The Reins’.
Written by: Milly McMahon | Date: Thursday, 20 June 2019
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