John Mellencamp - Sad Clowns & Hillbillies (Album Review)

For obvious reasons, the US is currently enduring one of the most turbulent periods in its history. So the prospect of plainspoken singer-songwriter John Mellencamp returning with a passionate, scathing diatribe about the current state of his nation was an exciting one. Ever the contrarian, though, ‘Sad Clowns & Hillbillies’ is instead a surprisingly uplifting comeback that’s less protest piece and more existential comfort blanket.  

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Friday, 05 May 2017

Feist - Pleasure (Album Review)

‘Pleasure’ is about choosing the opportune moment.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Thursday, 04 May 2017

Incubus - 8 (Album Review)

Incubus still have a DJ in their ranks. That automatically leads to a deduction of one mark out of a possible five. Not a good start.

Written by: Ben Gallivan | Date: Thursday, 04 May 2017

Brad Paisley - Love and War (Album Review)

Brad Paisley is one of life’s good guys. He’s an old school gentleman, a goofy comedian, a humble superstar with a social conscience. Which means that criticising him, or his work, would surely be an act of unconscionable cruelty. So it’s a relief that we don’t have to sink to such depths when reviewing ‘Love and War’, an album that finds the Nashville icon back to his best.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Wednesday, 03 May 2017

Juliana Hatfield - Pussycat (Album Review)

Hey guys…does anybody else yearn for the carefree, check-shirted, baggy-jeaned days of the mid-’90s? Days where we’d sit on grassy banks next to the river, sharing cheap cider and poppers and chattering incessantly about new albums by the Fannies and Buffalo Tom. Days where we’d proudly purchase a copy of Select magazine just for the double-sided poster of Suede and Smashing Pumpkins. Days where we’d dream about finally smuggling a friend into Reading Festival under a carefully positioned tarp in the boot of a Renault 5.

Written by: Ben Gallivan | Date: Tuesday, 02 May 2017

Mark Lanegan Band - Gargoyle (Album Review)

Photo: Eric Gabriel ‘Mark! It’s the '90s on the phone, they want their album back!’ A little joke for you there. That said, there is some real fun to be had with Mark Lanegan’s 10th solo album, ‘Gargoyle’. Tracks like Goodbye to Beauty and Nocturne have a patience and maturity that is highly nuanced and involving, while Death’s Head Tattoo and Sister are strange, vintage hybrids. The latter is a funereal dirge driven by a hectic reversed piano motif. Its vocal recalls David Bowie’s Cat People: all subliminal contempt and campfire spirituality.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Tuesday, 02 May 2017

Charly Bliss - Guppy (Album Review)

The best pop songs have both a visceral and intellectual impact. Job number one is always to make us feel something - like the fizzing overload of a perfect hook - but they then set to work on us in the spaces between the sugar rushes. On ‘Guppy’, their first album, Charly Bliss tick both boxes as though doing so were routine. It’s not, which is why this stacks up as a deeply impressive record that’s never less than a shitload of fun.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Friday, 28 April 2017

The Black Angels - Death Song (Album Review)

‘Death Song’ is the Black Angels’ fifth album, their first release on Partisan Records and also possibly the finest work they’ve set to wax since their 2004 formation.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Wednesday, 26 April 2017

Maximo Park - Risk To Exist (Album Review)

Prior to the release of their 2014 album ‘Too Much Information’, Maxïmo Park’s lead vocalist Paul Smith said: “Our lyrics and our music will never be too-cool-for-school - we are an emotional band even if it might be too much information for some.” Never has a truer word been spoken.

Written by: Ben Gallivan | Date: Wednesday, 26 April 2017

Future Islands - The Far Field (Album Review)

It’s a reliable music industry trope: the breakthrough that becomes a millstone.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Tuesday, 25 April 2017

Kendrick Lamar - Damn (Album Review)

On ‘Damn’, the melancholic, paradoxical rhyme-weaver Kendrick Lamar casts himself in the lead role. He utilises real life characters to rep good vs bad, writing poignant poems that deliberate over the corruption and creativity he encounters on the daily.

Written by: Milly McMahon | Date: Monday, 24 April 2017

Brian May and Kerry Ellis - Golden Days (Album Review)

You may think that combining the genres of musical theatre and rock ‘n’ roll will result in a listening experience that’s about as palatable as a marmite sandwich laced with ball bearings. But when the hard rocker in question is Queen’s Brian May, a man whose band aren’t exactly known for subtlety or restraint, it’s a much more plausible marriage that, at its best, offers a bombastic buffet of pure cheesy goodness.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Friday, 21 April 2017

Little Dragon - Season High (Album Review)

It is both a blessing and a curse that Little Dragon have become so popular since their debut arrived a decade ago. A blessing in the sense that they have been invited to collaborate with some of music’s big hitters (DJ Shadow, Gorillaz, Outkast’s Big Boi), but also a curse when it comes to their own material.

Written by: Ben Gallivan | Date: Thursday, 20 April 2017

The Big Moon - Love In The 4th Dimension (Album Review)

Juliette Jackson always wanted to be in a gang. So, while working as a waitress in London, she eventually gave up on finding a band to join and decided to form her own. Putting the message out among friends she eventually met Soph Nathan, Celia Archer and Fern Ford, who form the rest of the Big Moon. The collective energy that these four produced on stage made people take notice early on and ‘Love in the 4th Dimension’, their first full length, doubles down on it.

Written by: Jennifer Geddes | Date: Wednesday, 19 April 2017

Father John Misty - Pure Comedy (Album Review)

Photo: Guy Lowndes Father John Misty’s ‘Pure Comedy’ is philosophically dense and poignantly intellectual. Its lyrics are complex and intricate, detailing dystopian predictions for modern man’s moral devolution. It is also dark and humourless.

Written by: Milly McMahon | Date: Wednesday, 19 April 2017

Michelle Branch - Hopeless Romantic (Album Review)

With reinvention to the forefront, former teen star Michelle Branch has returned after a lengthy hiatus armed with a new album’s worth of too-cool-for-school indie-styled synth-pop that imagines what Taylor Swift’s ‘1989’ might have sounded like if produced by Patrick Carney of the Black Keys. Whether it’s an inspired creative rebirth or calculated career move, it’s a mostly successful metamorphosis either way.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Thursday, 13 April 2017

San Fermin - Belong (Album Review)

Folktronica, or electro-folk, is a complicated sell. On the one hand, it seems like a natural money pit given the relentless rise of EDM and the deep ethnographic resonance of folk music.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Thursday, 13 April 2017

Blaenavon - That's Your Lot (Album Review)

From the moment Take Care, the opener on Blaenavon’s debut album, ‘That’s Your Lot’, edges into range, it’s clear that they mean business. The sound is crisp, immediate and contemporary, and the songs feel highly literate, cerebral even. It’s unlikely that they will kickstart a third golden age of indie - the horse may have bolted on that - but they will surely awaken potentially dormant sensibilities in fans of the Vaccines, the Kooks and, somewhat inevitably, the Smiths.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 12 April 2017

Diet Cig - Swear I'm Good At This (Album Review)

Gimme a D, gimme an I, gimme an E, gimme a T, gimme a C, I and G. Who’s got spirit? Diet Cig do, by the buttload. Whether they’re singing about being slut-shamed at 16 or loving a bath, Alex Luciano and Noah Bowman deliver sincere songs with refreshing energy, creating a confident debut album that leaves behind the insecurities present on their first EP, ‘Over Easy’.

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Wednesday, 12 April 2017

The New Pornographers - Whiteout Conditions (Album Review)

The New Pornographers, the Canadian power-pop conglomerate led by AC Newman, have always somehow evaded the spotlight in the UK compared to how they are viewed back home. Their success on this side of the Atlantic is somewhat muted despite their indisputable ability to conjure up catchy, sugary pop nuggets.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Wednesday, 12 April 2017