Jessy Lanza - Oh No (Album Review)

Photo: Alex Welsh Producing pastel-hued electronic mindscapes complete with jarring synths, Ontario artist Jessy Lanza moves through elegant audiovisual atmospheres.

Written by: Milly McMahon | Date: Friday, 13 May 2016

Goo Goo Dolls - Boxes (Album Review)

They may have started out as snotty punks enthralled by the Replacements, but over the last two decades the Goo Goo Dolls have morphed into a slick, radio-friendly modern rock act with a penchant for emotionally stirring anthems. ‘Boxes’, their 11th studio album, unfortunately takes that process of sonic softening too far, embracing a pop sound in a way that suggests they are having a musical mid-life crisis.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Thursday, 12 May 2016

Pity Sex - White Hot Moon (Album Review)

‘White Hot Moon’, Pity Sex’s second album, explores the desire for human connection and sets it against a backdrop of the hazy days of summertime and heavy guitar feedback.

Written by: Jennifer Geddes | Date: Wednesday, 11 May 2016

Avatar - Feathers & Flesh (Album Review)

They say variety is the spice of life and, if 'Feathers & Flesh' is anything to go by, Avatar must be eating napalm curry made by the Devil with their naan bread. The Swedes have gone from standard melodeathers to, er, something else entirely with their sixth full length.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Wednesday, 11 May 2016

White Lung - Paradise (Album Review)

There aren’t many fields that cater to the complete abandonment of ambition. There’s a vocal corner of the punk world, though, that would like bands to play along with the idea. To change or evolve, particularly if that involves a greater level of technical proficiency, is to be declared dead to them. Well, if that’s your deal, take White Lung straight to the morgue and shut the drawer.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Tuesday, 10 May 2016

Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool (Album Review)

The one thing you can always say about a Radiohead album is that it is guaranteed to divide the crowd to some extent; to provoke reactions by its failure to be what one section or another of the group’s fanbase wants it to be. In this sense, they have never once shied from the challenge of making albums that are genuinely concerned with being worthwhile entries in a back catalogue few artists would turn down.

Written by: Ben Bland | Date: Tuesday, 10 May 2016

Beyonce - Lemonade (Album Review)

Beyoncé plunges from the side of a building, disappearing into a seemingly limitless pool at the moment the asphalt rolls out its welcome. She floats through submerged rooms, tailed by the words ‘Are you cheating on me?’, before thrusting its doors open and allowing the water to escape in a torrent. Smiling as Hold Up kicks in, she takes a baseball bat from a kid on the street and sets about wreaking havoc on parked cars. This is the denial stage of ‘Lemonade’. There are more fireworks just around the corner.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Tuesday, 10 May 2016

Baby In Vain - For The Kids EP (Album Review)

Diving into ‘For The Kids’, the debut EP from Copenhagen trio Baby In Vain, it’s all too easy to become gripped by the sheer enormity of their ferocious, guitar-led sound.

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Friday, 06 May 2016

Tremonti - Dust (Album Review)

If you scoff at the saying ‘money can’t buy happiness’, just listen to the music of Mark Tremonti. As a founding member of both multi-million selling post-grunge outfit Creed and arena headliners Alter Bridge, the guitarist is unlikely to plead poverty any time soon. Nevertheless, this latest offering once again finds the tortured guitar hero purging his demons in a maelstrom of brutal, melodic and cathartic heaviness.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Thursday, 05 May 2016

Into It. Over It. - Standards (Album Review)

In recent years, dozens of critics have attempted to tackle the emo revival and its causes, with the genre having been reclaimed from the melodramatic poster boys of the 2000s in favour of a more low-key aesthetic.

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Wednesday, 04 May 2016

A$AP Ferg - Always Strive And Prosper (Album Review)

It could be argued that a rap clique is redundant if listeners only check for one or two emcees on any given track. When blasting Wu-Tang Clan you might pick out Raekwon’s bravado, ODB’s surreal flows, GZA’s wordplay or Inspectah Deck’s technical wizardry but, by contrast, A$AP Mob has always felt like A$AP Rocky and some random dudes.

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Friday, 29 April 2016

Katy B - Honey (Album Review)

To describe a new album as a project is to tread on shaky ground. The word has been used out of context, and misleadingly, so many times that it carries a pretentious weight around its neck. To cut through that requires something different; a clean break from normal service. That’s precisely what Katy B has attempted to do with ‘Honey’.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Thursday, 28 April 2016

Matthew And The Atlas - Temple (Album Review)

Matthew Hegarty’s blend of classic folk and synths amassed considerable attention upon the release of his debut album under the Matthew and the Atlas moniker, ‘Other Rivers’, in 2014. Having supported Mumford & Sons in the early days, Hegarty was well versed in folk but his ability to blend those roots with a brush of electronica was spellbinding in the record’s finest moments: Into Gold, Pale Sun Rose and Counting Paths.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Wednesday, 27 April 2016

Mogwai - Atomic (Album Review)

Photo: Brian Sweeney Mogwai’s music has always been about the journey, whether that’s from quiet reflection to loud and explosive or from sorrow to euphoria. They’ve also always been cinematic, tending to emphasise texture over traditional song structures, so it’s unsurprising to see them take on the challenge of scoring a film.

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Tuesday, 26 April 2016

We Are Scientists - Helter Seltzer (Album Review)

We Are Scientists are, if nothing else, prolific and consistent. ‘Helter Seltzer’ is their fifth album in just over a decade, following their last appearance two years ago with ‘TV en Français’.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Monday, 25 April 2016

Sturgill Simpson - A Sailor's Guide To Earth (Album Review)

Photo: Reto Sterchi Over the last few years Sturgill Simpson has spent a considerable amount of time refuting claims that he’s the saviour of country music. We certainly live in a time where people love to label everything and everyone, but ‘A Sailor’s Guide To Earth’ proves that tagging this Nashville-based troubadour is completely reductive. Is he country, bluegrass, rock ‘n’ roll, soul, Americana? The answer is all of those and more. Much, much more.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Friday, 22 April 2016

Cate Le Bon - Crab Day (Album Review)

‘Crab Day’ is at turns agitated and serene. At one moment it’s starkly personal, at others it’s prickly in its idiosyncrasies. In Cate Le Bon’s own words, it’s a melange of “inescapable feelings and fabricated nonsense”.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Thursday, 21 April 2016

Santana - IV (Album Review)

Sorry to burst your futuristic bubble, but time travel is impossible. No Delorean, Tardis or rabbit hole can transport a person’s physical form to another era. Our minds, though, are a different proposition. Reuniting for their first album in 45 years, the line-up that recorded Santana’s classic ‘III’ have effectively crafted a sonic slingshot capable of hurling listeners back to the early ‘70s, with all the good and not-so-good that entails in 2016.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Wednesday, 20 April 2016

PJ Harvey - The Hope Six Demolition Project (Album Review)

‘The Hope Six Demolition Project’, the follow up to 2011’s Mercury Prize-winning ‘Let England Shake’, has PJ Harvey once again joining creative forces with Seamus Murphy, the war photographer whose work in Afghanistan and Kosovo sparked her fascination with the regions.

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Tuesday, 19 April 2016

Misty Miller - The Whole Family Is Worried (Album Review)

The Misty Miller who first appeared five years ago, fresh-faced and folky, is no more. ‘The Whole Family Is Worried’, her new album, is filled with rock tunes about sleeping around and cab rides home after a night on the town.

Written by: Jennifer Geddes | Date: Tuesday, 19 April 2016