James Blake - Assume Form (Album Review)

Photo: Amanda Charchian James Blake’s fourth album, ‘Assume Form’, is his most diverse creative work to date. Featuring a powerful line up of collaborators, including artists the writer admires, like Andre 3000, Travis Scott, Metro Boomin and Rosalía, it feels like spiritual growth has taken place since the release of ‘The Colour in Anything’ in 2016.

Written by: Milly McMahon | Date: Tuesday, 29 January 2019

Toro Y Moi - Outer Peace (Album Review)

‘Outer Peace’, Toro y Moi’s sixth studio album, is a likeable collection of groovy chillwave that makes use of the singer’s laconic autotune and delicate house beats. It’s a decent—if not quite groundbreaking—follow up to 2017’s ‘Boo Boo’, a record that did not live long in the memory.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Monday, 28 January 2019

Steve Mason - About The Light (Album Review)

‘About the Light’, Steve Mason’s first collection since 2016, is a raucous album of finely tuned British rock that gyrates and swaggers with skill and precision. It’s an excellent turn from a musician whose decades-long musical career has taken him on a journey through folktronica, experimental indie and the borderlands of downtempo shoegaze, and who has been through multiple reinventions since the Beta Band called it quits.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Thursday, 24 January 2019

Maggie Rogers - Heard It In A Past Life (Album Review)

Across its 45 minute running time, Maggie Rogers’ debut LP initially appears to be a success. It is immaculate—from her vocal performances through to her tasteful arrangement of modern pop tropes—and wears the hype of an early Pharrell endorsement with ease. But time reveals that to be a surface reflection.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Wednesday, 23 January 2019

Sharon Van Etten - Remind Me Tomorrow (Album Review)

Photo: Ryan Pfluger We’ve all got them: those little chores we should be getting on with. Posting that letter. Watering our houseplants. Shaving our legs. Sharon Van Etten’s got them, too, but she favours a different approach to these small administrative tasks. ‘Remind Me Tomorrow’, her fifth album, is about being more present and not giving a shit about the small stuff.

Written by: Helen Payne | Date: Wednesday, 23 January 2019

The Twilight Sad - It Won/t Be Like This All The Time (Album Review)

When football fever gripped England in the summer of 2018, as Gareth Southgate’s side saw off Sweden to book a place in the World Cup semi-finals, the celebrations extended to the sweltering heat of London’s Hyde Park. A huge crowd had assembled to witness a similarly colossal line-up curated by the Cure at British Summer Time, swapping the pubs and bars of the capital for sweeping goth-pop following the final whistle.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Tuesday, 22 January 2019

Ex:Re - Ex:Re (Album Review)

Ex:Re is the sorrowful, touching new project from Elena Tonra, the lead singer of acclaimed indie-folk band Daughter, and their self-titled debut should perhaps come with a warning: the chances of having a good cry with this album are extremely high.

Written by: Helen Payne | Date: Wednesday, 09 January 2019

Charlotte Gainsbourg - Take 2 EP (Album Review)

Almost 18 months on from its release, the ripples continue to flow out from Charlotte Gainsbourg’s ‘Rest’. A fabulous collection of gossamer synth-pop songs, the record already has a remix EP on one arm and now another new short-form release, ‘Take 2’, is vying for our attention.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Tuesday, 08 January 2019

AFI - The Missing Man EP (Album Review)

Fans of AFI, and perhaps rock fans in general, have always struggled with a sprawling, multifaceted idea that the writer L.P. Hartley put beautifully in his novel The Go-Between: “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there."

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Thursday, 03 January 2019

Gucci Mane - Evil Genius (Album Review)

One of the advantages in helping to pioneer an entire subgenre of music is that no one has grounds to complain when you eventually move into new territory. Bearing that in mind, you'd expect Gucci Mane, one of the architects of southern trap in the mid-2000s, to have tried his hand at something else by now. However, across 12 albums and a disputed number of mixtapes (online catalogues suggest around 70), the Atlanta-based rapper has uniformly stuck to the distinctively heavy bass sound he helped originate.

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Tuesday, 18 December 2018

Meek Mill - Championships (Album Review)

Fresh from his release from prison, Meek Mill’s fourth studio LP, ‘Championships’ is a dynamic, uncensored body of work that signals a fresh change of direction.

Written by: Milly McMahon | Date: Friday, 14 December 2018

Jeff Tweedy - WARM (Album Review)

Jeff Tweedy’s first collection of solo songs adds up to a gentile album of warm Americana that stumbles along in joyous reverie and elegant inebriation. It’s a fine turn from the Wilco frontman, whose band’s 25 year musical catalogue has sometimes fallen flat, but whose previous album—2016’s ‘Schmilco’—seemed to reinvigorate and freshen their sound. These good vibes have continued on 'Warm'.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Thursday, 13 December 2018

Earl Sweatshirt - Some Rap Songs (Album Review)

Photo: Steven Traylor The theory that depression makes for good art is long-standing, and its proponents can certainly point to numerous examples, but it should also be a source of unease from an observer's perspective. If unchecked, the invisible link between artist and listener (or creator and beneficiary) can feel exploitative or voyeuristic. The behaviour of a small minority of entitled social media users, who complained when Earl Sweatshirt cancelled a European tour earlier this year following the death of his father, was just one illustration of this dynamic.

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Tuesday, 11 December 2018

The 1975 - A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships (Album Review)

It can sometimes be difficult for an artist to capture the zeitgeist. Even if they know what to say, they often struggle to find the right way to say it. Not so for Matt Healy and his 1975, who haven’t just captured the zeitgeist—they’ve wrestled it into submission, stuffed it in a cage and made it perform tricks for our amusement.

Written by: Liam Turner | Date: Tuesday, 04 December 2018

Rita Ora - Phoenix (Album Review)

Rita Ora is one of the most successful singles artists in the history of the UK charts and a regular collaborator with some of the most powerful brands in fashion, music and film. Until recently, though, she had only one album to her name.

Written by: Milly McMahon | Date: Monday, 03 December 2018

Anderson .Paak - Oxnard (Album Review)

It's hard not to romanticise Californian multi-instrumentalist Anderson .Paak's progression as an artist to some extent. Very few are privileged enough to collaborate with legendary rapper and producer Dr. Dre, let alone effectively be tutored by him.

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Wednesday, 28 November 2018

Pistol Annies - Interstate Gospel (Album Review)

Over the last decade there’s been about as much chance of finding emotional depth and unfiltered honesty in mainstream country music as there has been hearing a succession of female artists emanating from the airwaves of Nashville’s most popular radio stations. Whether they can change the latter is debatable, but what’s certain is that this supergroup (featuring Miranda Lambert, Angaleena Presley and Ashley Monroe) are back with an album that exudes truth from every beautifully bittersweet, traditional country note.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Monday, 26 November 2018

Mariah Carey - Caution (Album Review)

‘Caution’—Mariah Carey’s first album in four years and 15th overall—is a decent pop record that demonstrates a megastar’s capacity to update her sound with contemporary vocal writing and top tier production.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Friday, 23 November 2018

Action Bronson - White Bronco (Album Review)

This might sound absurd, at least at first, but Action Bronson could quite easily lay claim to being the perfect rap emcee. The New York heavyweight has strong projection, an addictive old-school flow, buckets full of charisma and wordplay on tap. The reason he's frequently compared to Ghostface Killah isn't just his cadence and vocal delivery–his verses often hark back to the Wu-Tang Clan legend in his pomp.

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Friday, 23 November 2018

Laura Jane Grace and the Devouring Mothers - Bought To Rot (Album Review)

‘Bought To Rot’ is not an Against Me! Record. Repeat: ‘Bought To Rot’ is not an Against Me! record. Laura Jane Grace might be among friends on her first album with the Devouring Mothers—the roll call does feature drummer Atom Willard and engineer Marc Jacob Hudson, both holdovers from her day job—but the focus is very different.

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Thursday, 22 November 2018