Muncie Girls - From Caplan To Belsize (Album Review)

If you've been to more than a handful of punk shows in the UK in the last few years, there's a decent chance you've seen Muncie Girls play. If not, you've probably been told to search them out. They're part of the furniture.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Monday, 07 March 2016

The Dirty Nil - Higher Power (Album Review)

The lo-fi aesthetic has given punk so much. It has allowed bands to express themselves and to lay classic songs down without the aid of major studios and financial investment. But sometimes a band comes along and reminds you that bigger can be better.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Friday, 04 March 2016

Yuck - Stranger Things (Album Review)

Yuck have been a band, in some form or another, since 2009. The ride hasn’t always been smooth. A couple of years after the release of their debut, founding member Daniel Blumberg quit the band. That period of flux ended with the arrival of guitarist Edward Hayes and time spent in a dingy studio recording ‘Glow & Behold’, their second album.

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Thursday, 03 March 2016

Supersonic Blues Machine - West Of Flushing, South Of Frisco (Album Review)

When it comes to modern music, there's a lot of smoke and mirrors involved. Auto tune can turn pitchless also rans into singing sensations, backing tapes make dire live acts resemble world beaters and computers can replicate virtually any sound you desire. Thankfully, the chemistry, passion and spontaneity of genuine, interactive musical performances can't be faked, and such creative authenticity is in full force on this stupendous stew of rock, blues, soul and country from one of the hottest new bands around.  

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Thursday, 03 March 2016

Kanye West - The Life of Pablo (Album Review)

Whether or not you like him as an artist, Kanye West is the undisputed king of self-publicity. You’d be forgiven for assuming that his personal Twitter is a parody account, such is the extremity of his narcissism. Though much of Kanye’s act is built around confusing his listeners, the drawn out “reveal” of the title ‘The Life of Pablo’ was an anti-climax in that it was predictable.

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Wednesday, 02 March 2016

The 1975 - I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It (Album Review)

It’s been almost three years since the 1975 became unexpected chart darlings with their debut and the intervening period has seen them, led by the loose-lipped Matt Healy, become masters of hype. Their follow up statement is a 17 track album of pure, unabashed pop that peppers its hour-plus running time with tracks as absurdly over the top as its title: ‘I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It’ .  

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Monday, 29 February 2016

Animal Collective - Painting With (Album Review)

Photo: Hisham Akira Bharoocha and Abby Portner The first five seconds of ‘Painting With’, Animal Collective’s 11th album, explode into an overwhelming, ticker tape parade of sounds, its opening splurge heralding the Baltimore band’s least driven, most incomplete body of work.

Written by: Milly McMahon | Date: Monday, 29 February 2016

Monster Truck - Sittin' Heavy (Album Review)

Remember when the kids in Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory entered Willy Wonka's place and were spellbound by the wondrous wealth of delicious treats surrounding them? Well, replace said urchins with heavy rock fans, substitute confectionery for pounding, groove-laden riffs and sit Canada's Monster Truck down in the author’s chair and you’ve got this bullshit-crushing beast of a second album.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Thursday, 25 February 2016

Jack Garratt - Phase (Album Review)

Jack Garratt, as you know, has been tipped for the top and is well on his way to getting there. He’s got the BBC’s Sound of… award in one pocket, the critics’ choice gong from the Brits in another and is powering towards the number one slot in the album charts and a sold out headline show at Brixton Academy. So, does it actually matter if his debut, ‘Phase’, is any good?

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Wednesday, 24 February 2016

Inglorious - Inglorious (Album Review)

If your musical bread and butter is ‘70s hard rock, and there's a gaping Black Country Communion-shaped hole in your life following their implosion, then this impressive debut album from British five piece Inglorious will provide enough sustenance to nourish your eardrums. Let the reverence commence.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Wednesday, 24 February 2016

Future - EVOL (Album Review)

Quite why Future is so popular, critically acclaimed even, might seem a bit of a mystery at first. On the surface, the Atlanta native is a serviceable rapper with little discernible lyrical flair. And, even with the help of auto-tune, he’s a god-awful singer.

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Tuesday, 23 February 2016

Pinegrove - Cardinal (Album Review)

‘Cardinal’ is a lesson in utilising the power of music and performance to create intimacy between a band and their audience. Initially the solo project of Evan Stephens Hall, Pinegrove’s notable strengths remain his lyrical skill and singing style, which add depth to their cosy alt-rock melodies.

Written by: Jennifer Geddes | Date: Monday, 22 February 2016

Creeper - The Stranger (Album Review)

New bands are often picked up and dropped like they’re cricket balls covered in shit. Creeper, though, are not covered in shit. Creeper are covered in a spooky, translucent ectoplasm that you can’t help but touch.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Friday, 19 February 2016

Lissie - My Wild West (Album Review)

Unless tailor made to target the wallets of a mass audience, most music is usually shaped by a songwriter's personal experiences and their immediate surroundings while crafting a record.  'My Wild West' is certainly in that mould and, with her having fled a decade-long love affair with California to return to the Midwest, it finds Lissie adopting a stripped back approach over the course of an introspective journey that doesn't quite fulfil its potential.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Wednesday, 17 February 2016

Money - Suicide Songs (Album Review)

Photo: Joe Wilson  Any band that calls an album ‘Suicide Songs’ is almost certainly setting themselves up for a fall – if not physically then artistically. It takes an extraordinary writer to powerfully convey one of the darkest corners of the human psyche.

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Wednesday, 17 February 2016

Basia Bulat - Good Advice (Album Review)

Photo: George Fok Pop music and break-ups go hand in hand; their shared history is one of shoulders cried on and empowering fresh starts. Basia Bulat’s ‘Good Advice’ is another for the annals of post-split records and deserves its place as a pocket-sized triumph of sparkling melody.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Monday, 15 February 2016

DIIV - Is The Is Are (Album Review)

There are writing processes, and then there’s the road to DIIV’s second album, ‘Is The Is Are’. It’s one potted with drug addiction, high-profile arrests, isolation, writer’s block, fallings out and, at its beginning and end, Zachary Cole Smith’s desire to get his ambitions down on paper; to breathe new meaning into the skeletal outlines of others’ past glories. “We’re trying to extend the life of guitar music,” he recently told Pitchfork’s Jeremy Gordon. He really seems to mean it.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Friday, 12 February 2016

Dream Theater - The Astonishing (Album Review)

When these progressive metal pioneers started teasing their first full concept album since 2000’s revered 'Scenes From A Memory', the excitement was almost unbearable. Then the drip feeding of cryptic and embarrassingly convoluted messages began, as key characters and conflicts were introduced, leaving fans either dreading a ridiculously overblown fantasy-themed effort, or embracing the unabashed geekiness involved. Since its release those opinions have only intensified, with 'The Astonishing' already alienating and enrapturing in equal measure.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Friday, 12 February 2016

Rotting Christ - Rituals (Album Review)

Photo: Ester Segarra Extreme metal is silly. You've got grown ups dressed like badgers, singing about a midnight rendezvous with Satan, or crawling through the Arctic wasteland, or shoving knives into orifices that knives should not be shoved into. But, as Morbid Angel's 'Illud Divinum Insanus' so painfully proved in 2011, your arse can get a bit stuck if you try and wiggle out of the death metal rabbit hole you’ve burrowed for yourself.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Thursday, 11 February 2016

Milk Teeth - Vile Child (Album Review)

It can be perilous for a band to emerge fully formed on their first album. Characteristics of their sound can become entrenched in the minds of their fans and, eventually, old ideas can quickly sound new again once the pressure of a follow up rears its head. Then you have a band like Milk Teeth; a band brimming with potential and ideas, but one with plenty of growing left to do.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Wednesday, 10 February 2016