Zeal & Ardor - Devil Is Fine (Album Review)

Photo: Matthias Willi Black metal has all the best one-man projects. They represent uncompromised vision, and the greatest solo endeavours from this icy, frostbitten genre are born from experimentation and genuine desire for change. So it makes some sense that Zeal & Ardor’s label as a black metal act is contradicted by the actual music. There’s very little black metal on ‘Devil is Fine’. And, well, that’s just fine.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Tuesday, 07 March 2017

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - The Tourist (Album Review)

In 2005, getting your music heard by listeners outside the usual mix of friends, family and local fans was pretty much only possible if you were signed. Then the internet came along and turned that theory on its head. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah made hay once the goalposts shifted, beginning with a critically lauded self-titled debut.

Written by: Ben Gallivan | Date: Monday, 06 March 2017

Ryan Adams - Prisoner (Album Review)

If the dictionary employed sounds to define words rather than written descriptions the music of Ryan Adams would feature repeatedly, most likely next to entries for heartbreak, pain and most of their downbeat derivatives.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Friday, 03 March 2017

Syd - Fin (Album Review)

The term might sound tacky and unnecessary now, but ‘alternative R&B’ was an exciting and innovative concept at the turn of the decade. After years of silver-tongued heartthrobs dominating the charts, artists like Frank Ocean represented a welcome change of pace.

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Thursday, 02 March 2017

The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Don't Get Lost (Album Review)

With Anton Newcombe promising to “review the reviews” of ‘Don’t Get Lost’, the Brian Jonestown Massacre’s 16th full length release, it’s tempting to cower in the corner or heap it with praise without even hearing it. Alternatively, you could give it a single cursory listen and write it off as sheer self-indulgence, such is its eclectic nature. To do so would be a big mistake.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Thursday, 02 March 2017

Los Campesinos! - Sick Scenes (Album Review)

There was a heaving, sweaty pile of indie landfill clogging up the airwaves during the mid-to-late ‘00s. You couldn’t breathe for deliberately specific lyrics, lo-fi keyboard lines, chinos and unkempt hairdos that took an hour to perfect. In 2017, a lot of those bands have fizzled out, changed course or just broken up. Los Campesinos!, though, have weathered the storm and clambered from the wreckage mostly unscathed. 

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Thursday, 02 March 2017

Stormzy - Gang Signs & Prayer (Album Review)

Have you seen Crank? There’s this one scene in a hospital where Jason Statham’s heart-rate is juddering to a halt. He points a gun at Glenn Howerton, him off Always Sunny in Philadelphia, passes him a defibrillator paddle and says “juice me”. Well, Statham is grime and the defibrillator is Stormzy.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Wednesday, 01 March 2017

Foxygen - Hang (Album Review)

First things first, you will struggle to find a more musically diverse pop album this year. ‘Hang’, Foxygen’s fourth offering, is a record of genre-hopping dexterity. It demonstrates a profound understanding of textures and tones while sashaying through categories with genuine affection.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 01 March 2017

Dirty Projectors - Dirty Projectors (Album Review)

Photo: Jason Frank Rothenberg Dirty Projectors’ wheel has come full circle. Mainstay David Longstreth was flying solo upon the release of their debut ‘The Glad Fact’ back in 2003 and now, 14 years and a million (or so) band members later, he’s on his own again, in more ways than one.

Written by: Ben Gallivan | Date: Tuesday, 28 February 2017

Pissed Jeans - Why Love Now (Album Review)

Four men surrounded by pink. The title: ‘Why Love Now’. It looks like a power-pop album. Mere subterfuge. This is the biggest swindle since the front cover of Throbbing Gristle’s ‘20 Jazz Funk Greats’. And it’s brilliant.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Monday, 27 February 2017

Future - HNDRXX (Album Review)

One result of the switch from physical units to digital downloads has been variation in album release schedules. Records no longer rely on physical distribution and as such can arrive with little or no fanfare. The watershed in this cultural shift was probably Beyoncé’s 2013 eponymous album, which arrived by surprise after a recording process shrouded in secrecy.

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

Thundercat - Drunk (Album Review)

You’ll often discover a musician through other musicians. You don't just stumble upon Stanley Clarke, you find him via Jaco Pastorius, who you come to through Weather Report, and so on. Many will have discovered Thundercat through his work with Herbie Hancock, Kamasi Washington or Flying Lotus or, more likely, his recordings with Kendrick Lamar.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Friday, 24 February 2017

Meat Wave - The Incessant (Album Review)

When it comes to generating a confrontational, oppressive atmosphere on record, there is more than one way to skin a cat. Take the metallers whose doomy riffs are so heavy as to take physical form, the rapper who refuses to conform to percussive mores or the industrial band who drive home that one pneumatic drum sample until the cracks appear in the listener’s skull.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Thursday, 23 February 2017

Frontier Ruckus - Enter The Kingdom (Album Review)

Michigan does a fine line in pop musicians. Alongside Madonna, Stevie Wonder, the White Stripes and Eminem, diverse cult heroes like Iggy Pop, George Clinton and potential Republican rivals for the Senate, Ted Nugent and Kid Rock, all have ties to the state. Nestled in this elaborate melange we also have folk-country innovators Frontier Ruckus.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Thursday, 23 February 2017

Dutch Uncles - Big Balloon (Album Review)

Few bands manage to last long enough to make five albums. Fewer still manage to make five albums in less than 10 years. Never ones to follow the crowd, that’s exactly what Dutch Uncles have achieved with the release of ‘Big Balloon.’ It’s ain’t half bad, either.

Written by: Liam Turner | Date: Wednesday, 22 February 2017

Jens Lekman - Life Will See You Now (Album Review)

To describe ‘Life Will See You Now’ as an acquired taste is a bit like describing Brexit as a conscious uncoupling. It’s an understatement, which is a narrative tool that Jens Lekman apparently views with a degree of contempt.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Tuesday, 21 February 2017

The Orwells - Terrible Human Beings (Album Review)

Chicago-based garage-rock quintet the Orwells have released their third album, ‘Terrible Human Beings’. It’s their second full-length to be released on a major label and follows their 2014 breakthrough, ‘Disgraceland.’ If that sounds straightforward, that’s because ‘Terrible Human Beings’ is a straightforward record.

Written by: Liam Turner | Date: Monday, 20 February 2017

Strand of Oaks - Hard Love (Album Review)

After three largely ignored folk-rock records, ‘HEAL’ blasted Timothy Showalter and Strand of Oaks to a position of significance. The album arrived in a blaze of glory; it was bigger, louder and at its heart was the majestic JM, a seven minute, slow-burning stoner rock tour de force.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Monday, 20 February 2017

Rag'N'Bone Man - Human (Album Review)

Rag'n'Bone Man has grand expectations of his audiences. Rory Graham’s music is designed to raise the roof and ignite hopes like wildfire. Disregarding the masculine preconception that emotion equals weakness, this brutish, bearded soul artist is a switched on, deep-thinking performer.

Written by: Milly McMahon | Date: Friday, 17 February 2017

Jesca Hoop - Memories Are Now (Album Review)

It feels lazy to liken Jesca Hoop’s sound to that of PJ Harvey or Tori Amos, especially when female indie singer-songwriters are often marginalised in wider public discourse. That said, this Manchester-based Californian’s seventh album, ‘Memories Are Now’, does share characteristics with the work of those artists, demonstrating a surreptitiously poppy vision via a strikingly independent sound.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Thursday, 16 February 2017