A$AP Ferg - Still Striving (Album Review)

‘Still Striving’ is A$AP Ferg’s most defiantly ambitious work to date, finding the rapper making a play for A$AP Rocky’s crown.

Written by: Milly McMahon | Date: Wednesday, 06 September 2017

Mogwai - Every Country's Sun (Album Review)

Anyone who attended Mogwai’s back-to-back anniversary shows in 2015 will tell you the same thing: magic was in the air. The Glasgow post-rockers returned to their home city to play two nights of tracks spanning 20 years of material and the grim weather outside ironically added to the spectacle.

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Wednesday, 06 September 2017

Oh Sees - Orc (Album Review)

The first thing one must do with a record by Oh Sees (or its multiple derivatives) is check whether or not it is an official John Dwyer project. The suspicion remains that the man himself may have lost track of the number of incarnations that this band has taken over the past 20 years or so.

Written by: Ben Gallivan | Date: Tuesday, 05 September 2017

LCD Soundsystem - American Dream (Album Review)

In 2011, New York electro-rock band LCD Soundsystem played their last gig at Madison Square Garden and promptly disbanded. In the intervening time, frontman James Murphy acted, composed, worked on the Despacio soundsystem. Then he started writing songs again.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Monday, 04 September 2017

Nadine Shah - Holiday Destination (Album Review)

One glance at the cover of Nadine Shah’s third album, ‘Holiday Destination’, gives a large clue as to what lies inside. The sleeve photograph, of a war-torn building in Gaza, could very well have been taken at any one of the battlegrounds that are beamed directly into our homes night after night. From the off, this is an uncomfortable, disturbing and occasionally terrifying listen.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Friday, 01 September 2017

A$AP Mob - Cozy Tapes Vol. 2: Too Cozy (Album Review)

Trap is a genre of hip hop that relies on its cheapness for effect. Cheap production, cheap drum sounds. Cheap sentiment told through cheap rhymes. In many ways, cheapness is the essential characteristic of trap music: it screams urban credibility thousands of miles from the million-dollar studios of Beverly Hills. It's music produced in dank bedrooms and on laptops between gigs.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Friday, 01 September 2017

Brand New - Science Fiction (Album Review)

Everybody likes surprises, especially when they’re nice. Rumours about possible new material from Brand New have been circulating for years - along with speculation that they will split in 2018 - but that didn’t detract from the shock when ‘Science Fiction’, the follow up to 2009’s ‘Daisy’, appeared from thin air a couple of weeks ago.

Written by: Ben Gallivan | Date: Thursday, 31 August 2017

Liars - TFCF (Album Review)

Over 17 years and six albums, band members have steadily left Liars’ ranks. Following the lukewarm response to 2014’s dance album, ‘Mess’, Aaron Hemphill departed, leaving musical director Angus Andrew as the last Liar standing.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Thursday, 31 August 2017

The War on Drugs - A Deeper Understanding (Album Review)

Photo: Shawn Brackbill After the unexpected adulation afforded to 2014’s ‘Lost in the Dream’, the War on Drugs suddenly found themselves on a whole new level. The praise was fully justified, with tracks like Under The Pressure, Red Eyes and the fantastic An Ocean In Between The Waves sending shivers down spines.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Wednesday, 30 August 2017

Ghostpoet - Dark Days + Canapés (Album Review)

There’s the UK hip hop scene, there’s the grime scene and then there’s Ghostpoet. Obaro Ejimiwe has always eschewed convention wherever possible, whether that’s through his garbled vocal delivery or his bleak, even atonal production choices. Most markedly of all, though, across three albums he has developed a cynical narrative style that’s entirely his own.

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Tuesday, 29 August 2017

Fifth Harmony - Fifth Harmony (Album Review)

Fifth Harmony are a Miami-based girl group who finished third in the American X Factor in 2012. They were subsequently signed jointly with Epic Records and Simon Cowell’s Syco Records and released two records before the departure of the charismatic Camila Cabello in December 2016. They quickly opted to continue as a four piece.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Tuesday, 29 August 2017

Rainer Maria - S/T (Album Review)

Photo: Shawn Brackbill If there’s one thing to be said about Rainer Maria in 2017 it’s that they can now be regarded as one of the most consistent indie-rock bands of the last couple of decades. In their pomp they held the simple belief – correctly in hindsight – that you could release a record every couple of years, tour it ruthlessly and gain a steady, passionate following.

Written by: Ben Gallivan | Date: Friday, 25 August 2017

The Sherlocks - Live For The Moment (Album Review)

The Sherlocks’ frontman Kiaran Crook recently spoke of his belief that the band could be new “pioneers” of guitar music. Let’s chalk that up to a poor choice of words. Pioneering anything these days is practically impossible and, given the band sound like a throwback to a time when their Yorkshire neighbours in Arctic Monkeys stormed the scene, revivalists is probably a more accurate tag.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Wednesday, 23 August 2017

Kesha - Rainbow (Album Review)

To understand ‘Rainbow’, look to its lead single, Praying. In the shadow of Kesha’s well documented (and ongoing) legal battle with producer Dr Luke following allegations of sexual and emotional abuse, the song is a gospel-fuelled salute to a new artistic era.

Written by: Milly McMahon | Date: Wednesday, 23 August 2017

Grizzly Bear - Painted Ruins (Album Review)

Photo: Tom Hines Alongside Alt-J, Metronomy and (to some extent) Arcade Fire, Grizzly Bear occupy a particular space in modern indie. They produce some of the most thoughtful, innovative pop music around while lacking one key component: a superstar front-person.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Tuesday, 22 August 2017

The Cribs - 24-7 Rock Star Shit (Album Review)

That the Cribs have released an album called ‘24-7 Rock Star Shit’ makes plenty of sense. The title’s mix of side-eye and snark is a Jarman go-to, much as the record’s febrile mix of yelped melodies and filthy guitars will be instantly familiar to anyone who’s followed and enjoyed their semi-pro approach to being a punk band.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Tuesday, 22 August 2017

Everything Everything - A Fever Dream (Album Review)

It wasn't all that long ago that commentary on current affairs was reserved for those who had something to say and knew how to say it. Those days are long gone.

Written by: Liam Turner | Date: Monday, 21 August 2017

Downtown Boys - Cost of Living (Album Review)

How long can a band keep their foot down? That’s always the concern when faced with a debut record as ferocious as Downtown Boys’ 2012 self-titled LP, which saw vocalist Victoria Ruiz spitting vitriol at breakneck pace. Its follow up, 2015’s ‘Full Communism’, charged along a similar path. ‘Cost of Living’, though, is where Providence band smooth out some of their rougher edges.

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Friday, 18 August 2017

Japanese Breakfast - Soft Sounds From Another Planet (Album Review)

‘Psychopomp’, Michelle Zauner’s first LP as Japanese Breakfast, was an album that came to be inextricably tied to the time and place of its writing. Assembled in her home state, Oregon, following the death of her mother, the record would become a byword for grief in the coverage that followed.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Friday, 11 August 2017

Foster The People - Sacred Hearts Club (Album Review)

Foster the People have always possessed more ability than they’ve been given credit for. Pumped Up Kicks, their big breakout single, arrived in 2010 off the back of the ‘landfill indie’ years and it was hard to escape the track’s earworm groove, which was later used on everything from talent shows to adverts to sitcoms.

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Thursday, 10 August 2017