Gotthard - Silver (Album Review)

It has been 25 years since these Swiss hard rockers formed, but although named to commemorate that anniversary, ‘Silver’ unwittingly denotes how their once gold-standard sound has become decidedly second rate since the tragic death of frontman Steve Lee in 2010. This is the band’s third album without him and it’s sad to say, with each release, his loss feels increasingly insurmountable.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Friday, 27 January 2017

Loyle Carner - Yesterday's Gone (Album Review)

Grime’s had an exciting, colourful 12 months. Skepta and Wiley both dropped career-defining records. Everybody’s still going wild for Stormzy. And Croydon boy Loyle Carner has now added a different dose of brilliance with his debut proper, ‘Yesterday’s Gone’, taking elements of the scene and twisting it into an introspective new shape.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Wednesday, 25 January 2017

Austra - Future Politics (Album Review)

On January 20, Donald Trump was sworn in as President of the United States of America. On the same day, the Canadian synth-pop outfit Austra released their third LP, ‘Future Politics’. Katie Stelmanis, the band’s creative engine, has dismissed matchup as a coincidence, but it’s hard to deny that Austra’s first full-length release since 2013 has a lot to say about the current state of the world.

Written by: Liam Turner | Date: Tuesday, 24 January 2017

Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes - Modern Ruin (Album Review)

“I hate you and I wish you would die,” sang Frank Carter as he charmed his way into the public’s hearts and secured a Top 20 album with ‘Blossom’. His debut with the Rattlesnakes afforded the former Gallows vocalist something of a blank canvas and upon it he splattered blues, rickety punk and lots of words beginning with ‘f’ and ending with ‘uck’.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Monday, 23 January 2017

AFI - AFI (The Blood Album) (Album Review)

The word comeback is overused. To call Weezer’s ‘White Album’ a comeback was warranted, because they’d basically been in the shitter for over a decade. To call Faith No More’s ‘Sol Invictus’ a comeback was fine, because that was a legendary band returning to the studio after 18 years apart and still surprising us. Calling ‘AFI (The Blood Album)’ a comeback because it’s got a bit of screaming on it is silly.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Friday, 20 January 2017

Sohn - Rennen (Album Review)

Since James Blake’s 2013 Mercury Prize win for ‘Overgrown’, a particular category of electronica has risen to prominence. It has a more minimal aesthetic, tends to champion production and sound design over songwriting, and lends itself incredibly well to commercial synchronisation (read: adverts). Mainly, that’s because it sounds edgy but actually isn’t.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Thursday, 19 January 2017

Bonobo - Migration (Album Review)

Bonobo’s sixth studio album, ‘Migration’, is a truly existential experience where a melodic fusion of sounds - including flecks of soul, tribal beats and orchestral crescendos - links each track. It conjures emotions ranging from melancholia to euphoria and is the result of Simon Green challenging himself to write his most human record to date.

Written by: Milly McMahon | Date: Thursday, 19 January 2017

Julie Byrne - Not Even Happiness (Album Review)

Photo: Jonathan Bouknight In the blurb accompanying ‘Not Even Happiness’ we learn that Julie Byrne, a New York City resident who moonlights as a park ranger, “readily admits she can’t read music and doesn't even listen to it all that much - the first vinyl she owned was indeed, her own”.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 18 January 2017

The XX - I See You (Album Review)

In marketing, there is a highly prized target group called ‘early adopters’.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Tuesday, 17 January 2017

The Flaming Lips - Oczy Mlody (Album Review)

Brexit, Boris, Syria...Trump. After a year spent teetering on the brink, it perhaps makes sense to want to lock away the outside world and retreat to some far away fantasy land. With titles like Listening To The Frogs With Demon Eyes and One Night While Hunting For Faeries And Witches And Wizards To Kill, ‘Oczy Mlody’, the Flaming Lips’ 14th LP, offers the chance to do just that, even if it’s not quite the magic potion it occasionally threatens to be.

Written by: Liam Turner | Date: Monday, 16 January 2017

Code Orange - Forever (Album Review)

We’re drowning in a sea of beatdowns, and Code Orange are the liferaft. A liferaft harbouring four ravenous punks from Pittsburgh ready to cave your skull in, but a liferaft nonetheless. Their third full-length, ‘Forever’, is an album capable of carving through the mediocri-sea of bands currently half-arsing hardcore and shredding them in its hulking engines.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Thursday, 12 January 2017

Gone Is Gone - Echolocation (Album Review)

A group of moderately well-known musicians hang out and form a band. The internet goes mad, the hype train chugs through Supergroup Central and you think the result’s going to match the respective members’ day jobs. More often than not, though, such expectation ends with you listening in woeful denial. “He was really good in Faith No More, so this must be genius,” you think. But no, be honest, you don’t like Tomahawk’s ‘Anonymous’ album.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Wednesday, 11 January 2017

Brian Eno - Reflection (Album Review)

Reviewing ambient music is a difficult task, mainly because it operates in a different way to most other styles of the artform. It is sound intended to fade into the background; eschewing attention and directing the listener to alternative cognitive locations.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Tuesday, 10 January 2017

You Me At Six - Night People (Album Review)

You Me At Six have made it abundantly clear that their new record, ‘Night People’, is not like their others. Vocalist Josh Franceschi cited influences ranging from Frank Ocean to Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin when discussing its gestation and the result is a record that dips its toe in the deeper end of the rock pool without ever becoming fully submerged.

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Monday, 09 January 2017

Nine Inch Nails - Not The Actual Events (Album Review)

“New NIN coming in 2016. Other stuff, too.”

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Thursday, 05 January 2017

Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels 3 (Album Review)

Since Run The Jewels emerged in 2013, Killer Mike’s politicised aggression has slammed against El-P’s intergalactic production to craft something pretty special. Even the remix album they did full of cat noises was quite good.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Thursday, 05 January 2017

Neil Young - Peace Trail (Album Review)

Following this year’s strangely mesmerising, yet decidedly oddball, pseudo-live album ‘Earth’, Neil Young has dispensed with backing band Promise of the Real to produce ‘Peace Trail’, a predominantly acoustic solo offering that was recorded in just four days.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Thursday, 22 December 2016

The Rolling Stones - Blue & Lonesome (Album Review)

They’ve certainly earned their reputation as the world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll band, but the Rolling Stones have always been, at heart, a terrific blues outfit. It’s the genre on which their empire was built and the bedrock of their swaggering identity. It’s their first, most abiding love. And now, over 50 years since they formed, Mick Jagger and co. have returned to mother on a youthful and exuberant album of blues covers for the connoisseur. That’s right, Stones purists: Christmas has come early.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Friday, 09 December 2016

Childish Gambino - Awaken, My Love! (Album Review)

Generally speaking, it's easier to glean pleasure from something you worked hard for than something you didn't. Except when you're talking pop songs, that is. Then, the prize is immediacy and a perfectly-packaged endorphin rush.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Wednesday, 07 December 2016

Slowcoaches - Nothing Gives (Album Review)

Never let it be said that a band's decision to play fast and loud masks a lack of finesse. An album like ‘Nothing Gives’, the debut LP by London-via-Leeds punk trio Slowcoaches, performs a thousand melodic tricks at a hundred miles an hour, which is just as hard as it sounds.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Monday, 05 December 2016