Blacklisted - When People Grow, People Go (Album Review)

Too often, the concept of heaviness is reduced to simple, bro-headed terms, implying not a sense of dread or sustained atmosphere but a decision to bow to pit pressure. Blacklisted, though, have always resisted the urge to cater solely to base desires. On 'When People Grow, People Go', they continue to write their own rules.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Tuesday, 17 February 2015

Imagine Dragons - Smoke + Mirrors (Album Review)

Perhaps the greatest challenge facing arena rock is that the bands who have attained such lofty levels of success are increasingly bound by the safe, solid structures that got them there. Imagine Dragons, who smashed a hole through charts across the globe with Radioactive a couple of years back, are a case in point.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Tuesday, 17 February 2015

Thunder - Wonder Days (Album Review)

For many of us, looking back at carefree younger days while battling adult struggles is an experience that's equal parts nostalgia and bittersweet sense of loss. Six years after another unconvincing split, Thunder are back and doing just that, with ‘Wonder Days’ a superb slice of classic rock that ranks as their finest effort since 1994’s underrated 'Behind Closed Doors'.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Monday, 16 February 2015

Charli XCX - Sucker (Album Review)

'Sucker' is a blast of neon; a snotty declaration to a pop landscape populated by artists often more comfortable lurking in the shadows, superhero sequel style.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Monday, 16 February 2015

The Districts - A Flourish And A Spoil (Album Review)

The Districts’ second album in short order is ringed by the boundaries of a small town. ‘A Flourish And A Spoil’ finds the band growing up on the road, but still just a few steps removed from the day-to-day, neat rows of houses and compartmentalised life of Lititz, Pennsylvania.

Written by: Matt Williams | Date: Friday, 13 February 2015

Blackberry Smoke - Holding All The Roses (Album Review)

When a band's career is on a sharp upward trajectory, they often hook up with a big name producer to capitalise on the momentum and strike gold.  With that in mind, Blackberry Smoke have recruited Brendan O'Brien - of Springsteen, Pearl Jam and AC/DC fame - to ensure that album number four takes them to the promised land. But have they sacrificed something of themselves in the process?

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Thursday, 12 February 2015

Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear (Album Review)

Love songs are the backbone of pop music. They’re also mawkish, insincere and calculating. Father John Misty’s ‘I Love You, Honeybear’ is a response to that. The follow up to ‘Fear Fun’ is vulnerable, warts-and-all honest, very funny, a little jaded and unashamedly, inescapably romantic. It’s about loving someone who hates the same stuff you do.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Wednesday, 11 February 2015

Kodaline - Coming Up For Air (Album Review)

It’s crowded at the top. But it’s going to stay that way. U2, Coldplay and Take That are now stadium-filling pop-rock elder statesmen, with the Script and Snow Patrol also playing ambitious songs in the sort of halls best-suited to having ambitious songs belted out to the cheap seats. ‘Coming Up For Air’, Kodaline’s second album, is precision made to ensure that they make that leap sooner rather than later.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Tuesday, 10 February 2015

Two Gallants - We Are Undone (Album Review)

Two Gallants have always been partial to a bit of caterwauling. Their music, whether at the country-punk or bare-bones Americana ends of their spectrum, possesses an abrasive quality, a sense that as it pours out it’s doing some damage to the duo.

Written by: Matt Williams | Date: Monday, 09 February 2015

Title Fight - Hyperview (Album Review)

Title Fight have always been ambitious. ‘Floral Green’ may have been cut from the same hardcore cloth as their early thrashings, but it seemed far bigger, its aims grander in scope. ‘Hyperview’, the Kingston, PA quartet’s third full-length, fulfils that promise, but in a fashion that will almost certainly leave some long-term fans grasping at thin air.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Thursday, 05 February 2015

Soto - Inside The Vertigo (Album Review)

According to a certain wizened Jedi master, an overload of anger is a one way trip to red lightsabers, planet smashing and eternal suffering. What the tiny green killjoy fails to mention, though, is that searing rage often creates fantastic music. That's certainly evident here, as Jeff Scott Soto ditches his nice-guy-of-AOR image to embrace the dark side, unleashing a tornado of expansive contemporary metal and expelling some vengeful personal demons in the process.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Thursday, 05 February 2015

Rae Morris - Unguarded (Album Review)

‘Unguarded’ is, at its core, about Rae Morris’ voice. It’s a malleable thing, capable of snaking its way through a low-key ballad or blooming, Kate Bush-style, as part of an emotive chorus. There are some good songs here, but Morris makes them great.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Tuesday, 03 February 2015

Mark Ronson - Uptown Special (Album Review)

Perhaps the biggest compliment you can pay Mark Ronson following the release of album four is to say that it survives the threat of death by pop ubiquity. Uptown Funk, that snazzy, Bruno Mars-led megahit, is a huge standout on its parent record, ‘Uptown Special’, but it’s not the only one.

Written by: Gavin Rees | Date: Monday, 02 February 2015

Enter Shikari - The Mindsweep (Album Review)

‘The Mindsweep’ is Enter Shikari’s third top 10 record in the UK. It’s also a fire-in-its-belly response to the idea that popularity equals an empty vessel making a shedload of noise. Their list of enemies is a mile long, their targets thoroughly deserving of their genre-mangling ire.

Written by: Matt Williams | Date: Friday, 30 January 2015

Meghan Trainor - Title (Album Review)

Your enjoyment of ‘Title’, Meghan Trainor’s soon-to-be-massive new record, will depend almost entirely on whether you really are All About That Bass. That superhit is the first song proper here and its giddy fusion of doo-wop with up-to-the-minute pop-R&B and mixed messages sets a distinctive tone for what’s to follow.

Written by: Gavin Rees | Date: Friday, 30 January 2015

Aphex Twin - Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt2 EP (Album Review)

Mitt at the ready, ‘cos here comes that curveball you wanted. After a 13 year wait for ‘Syro’, Richard D. James has unveiled ‘Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt2’, an Aphex Twin EP that ditches the throwback, good-time squelches in favour of more experimental fare.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Wednesday, 28 January 2015

Belle And Sebastian - Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance (Album Review)

‘Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance’, Belle and Sebastian’s first record in five years, is proof that substance always breathes new life into style. One of pop’s stated aims is to engage hips and feet along with brain, and here they have crafted a collection that does just that. You know what, Belle and Sebastian can dance.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Monday, 26 January 2015

Joey Bada$$ - B4.DA.$$ (Album Review)

A couple of years back, when Kendrick Lamar proclaimed himself the king of both coasts on his Control verse, it seemed natural that Joey Bada$$ would take umbrage. He was, after all, the most touted emcee from the east coast in years.

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Friday, 23 January 2015

The Decemberists - What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World (Album Review)

‘What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World’, the Decemberists’ seventh album and the follow up to 2011’s ‘The King Is Dead’, has been in the works for the last 18 months and finds the band grappling with expectations of increased maturity and development. And they live up to them. Sort of.

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Thursday, 22 January 2015

Funeral For A Friend - Chapter And Verse (Album Review)

A decade ago, for every My Chemical Romance, there were scores upon scores of Funeral For A Friends; bands who acquired massive followings due to the uncompromising nature of their music before slipping into the mainstream. The only problem being that their sonic wanderings eventually lost the support of radio-listening robots.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Wednesday, 21 January 2015