Van Morrison - Versatile (Album Review)

Bang! And another!

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Tuesday, 05 December 2017

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Who Built The Moon? (Album Review)

Alarm bells ring, sonic waves reverberate and scissors snap as Noel Gallagher turns his back on a tried and tested formula to delve into a fascinating world of experimentation on ‘Who Built The Moon?’, his third studio effort with the High Flying Birds.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Monday, 04 December 2017

At The Drive-In - Diamante EP (Album Review)

At The Drive-In are stuck. In the year 2000, they released one of the greatest albums ever made: ‘Relationship of Command’. Seventeen years later, they followed it up with ‘In•ter a•li•a’: a bloated, embarrassing mid-life crisis of a record that failed to capture the bliss of youth. Its follow up, ‘Diamante’, offers some respite, albeit in small doses.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Friday, 01 December 2017

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill - The Rest of Our Life (Album Review)

In 1985, shortly after Tipper Gore and her cronies started protesting against music they deemed ‘unsuitable’, stickers were affixed to certain albums with a warning: Parental Advisory - Explicit Content.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Friday, 01 December 2017

Sufjan Stevens - The Greatest Gift (Album Review)

It might comprise a selection of remixes, unreleased tracks and stripped back demos relating to 2015’s ‘Carrie & Lowell’, but Sufjan Stevens’ ‘The Greatest Gift’ is strong enough to stand as an album in its own right.

Written by: Ben Gallivan | Date: Thursday, 30 November 2017

Baths - Romaplasm (Album Review)

Photo: Mario Luna The wonderful thing about pop music is that there’s no one way to do it. It’s obvious on the first listen of ‘Romaplasm’, the third album from American songwriter Will ‘Baths’ Wiesenfeld, that pop was a principal element of his musical education. It’s written in his vocal patterns, his use of call and response, and his sublime choruses.

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Wednesday, 29 November 2017

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - Soul of a Woman (Album Review)

We don’t always get the send off we want. Goodbyes might be non-existent, hurried or - worse still - over-long: drawn-out, awkward conversations that don’t know when to end.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 29 November 2017

Mavis Staples - If All I Was Was Black (Album Review)

Mavis Staples and Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy have teamed up again on ‘If All I Was Was Black’, and their third collaboration is a call for love, hope and unity in the face of the struggles facing black Americans.

Written by: Jennifer Geddes | Date: Tuesday, 28 November 2017

Björk - Utopia (Album Review)

On ‘Utopia’, Björk’s ninth studio album, she has re-teamed with electronica producer Arca to deliver a collection of avant-garde sound happenings rich in storytelling, elaborate arrangements and majestic vocal blend.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Monday, 27 November 2017

Tove Lo - Blue Lips (Album Review)

Double albums are rarely a good idea. There’s just no easy way to get around that much excess. With ‘Lady Wood’ and ‘Blue Lips’, though, Tove Lo has become the latest artist to make a solid case for tackling a surfeit of like-minded material by splitting it down the middle and releasing the segments at separate intervals.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Friday, 24 November 2017

Shed Seven - Instant Pleasures (Album Review)

There have been some substantial resurrections in 2017, but now it’s the turn of Britpop stalwarts Shed Seven. ‘Instant Pleasures’ is the band’s fifth studio LP, arriving some 16 years after their fourth and a decade after their initial reformation as a touring concern.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Thursday, 23 November 2017

Godflesh - Post Self (Album Review)

In the post-truth era, it’d be quite comforting to receive a Godflesh-by-numbers album. Some crushing, ear-splaying industrial metal, opium of the people, wheel out the hits, yes please.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Thursday, 23 November 2017

Paloma Faith - The Architect (Album Review)

When Amy Winehouse burst onto the scene almost 15 years ago, we were entranced. The gutsy attitude, that unmistakable voice and the catchiest Motown-style numbers this side of the mid-’70s helped catapult her to worldwide stardom. Then came the inevitable pretenders to the crown.

Written by: Ben Gallivan | Date: Wednesday, 22 November 2017

Charlotte Gainsbourg - Rest (Album Review)

Charlotte Gainsbourg seems to move between pop music and acting with a freedom and fluidity that her British contemporaries struggle to emulate. This may be environmental: it feels like UK music execs often place newness and youth ahead of artistic pedigree.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 22 November 2017

Quicksand - Interiors (Album Review)

Quicksand transcend time and place on ‘Interiors’, their first record since 1995. Here the band bring together current influences without stepping too far away from the original sound that made them post-hardcore heroes.

Written by: Jennifer Geddes | Date: Tuesday, 21 November 2017

Taylor Swift - Reputation (Album Review)

Photo: Mert & Marcus “People can say whatever they want about me, but they can't make me lose my mind. I've learned how to shake things off.” Three years after Taylor Swift penned those words for the foreword of her blockbuster pop record ‘1989’, she’s made a mockery of them on ‘Reputation’, a comeback album that ranks as the worst of her career by some distance.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Monday, 20 November 2017

Milk Teeth - Go Away (Album Review)

Photo: Nick Suchak/Anabasis Media No messing. No umm-ing and ah-ing. Four months after their ‘Be Nice’ EP, bubblegum grungers Milk Teeth are back with a new box of fizzy treats in the form of ‘Go Away’.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Monday, 20 November 2017

Morrissey - Low In High School (Album Review)

In a music world too often occupied by blank, mundane personalities, Morrissey remains a torch bearer for political itchiness and introverted bombast. That said, 'Low in High School', his 11th solo album, is laced with borderline bigotry and libidinous ennui. This cantankerous bastard is clearly not dealing with ageing well.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Friday, 17 November 2017

Sleigh Bells - Kid Kruschev (Album Review)

On the ‘Kid Kruschev’ EP, noise-pop duo Sleigh Bells work through both personal and political demons, creating their most cohesive work to date just a year on from the release of their fourth LP, ‘Jessica Rabbit’.

Written by: Jennifer Geddes | Date: Thursday, 16 November 2017

Bryan Adams - Ultimate (Album Review)

If every picture paints a visual story, every ‘best of’ album tells a musical one. For example, there’s the feeling any Bryan Adams collection called ‘Ultimate’ shouldn’t include tracks recorded after the early ‘90s. Although the truth isn’t quite that straightforward, it’s hard to disagree when listening to the Canadian rocker’s latest career-spanning compilation.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Tuesday, 14 November 2017