Pure Bathing Culture - Pray For Rain (Album Review)

Pop songs are often deceptively complex. Deconstructed into their constituent parts, some might litter each available surface in a workshop. ‘Moon Tides’, Pure Bathing Culture’s debut, was a collection built around that principle.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Thursday, 29 October 2015

Joanna Newsom - Divers (Album Review)

The sleeve of Joanna Newsom’s 'Divers' depicts an illuminated cloud engulfing a landscape of heather, flowers and hillside bracken. Swiftly capturing the imagination while presenting an ethereal concept and higher state of being, it seamlessly ties in with the LP itself.

Written by: Milly McMahon | Date: Tuesday, 27 October 2015

Protomartyr - The Agent Intellect (Album Review)

“Social pressures exist, and if you think about them all of the time you're gonna find that your head's been kicked in.” Either that, or you're going to make a really moody post-punk record.

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Monday, 26 October 2015

Nothing But Thieves - Nothing But Thieves (Album Review)

This self-titled effort may be Nothing But Thieves’ debut, but the Southend five piece display an aptitude for the polished and eclectic throughout. Despite a few misgivings they show great potential, balancing slick pop-rock with the odd trip into darker territory, though in which direction they will ultimately head remains unclear.

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Friday, 23 October 2015

Deerhunter - Fading Frontier (Album Review)

Don’t expect to find Deerhunter exactly where you left them. Last time we saw the band, they had twisted and contorted into the tightly-wound garage-rock of ‘Monomania’, where their clever melodies were accompanied by a fresh layer of grit. Two years later, ‘Fading Frontier’ occupies an entirely different place.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Thursday, 22 October 2015

Dilly Dally - Sore (Album Review)

The road to Dilly Dally’s debut has been littered with line up changes. Katie Monks and Liz Ball worked their way through three drummers and bassists before the arrival of Benjamin Reinhartz and Jimmy Tony to complete the current line up, but ‘Sore’ was worth the wait.

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Friday, 16 October 2015

!!! - As If (Album Review)

!!! are a band designed to befuddle. For starters, that introductory sentence doesn't even make sense unless you say the band's name as three monosyllabic sounds (they prefer Chk Chk Chk). And, if making experimental music means confusing the listener at every turn, !!! certainly tick that box too. One track on 'As If', the wryly titled Freedom! '15, even challenges listener to keep up by asking: “Did you figure it out, what this song is about?”

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Thursday, 15 October 2015

The Winery Dogs - Hot Streak (Album Review)

Photo: Jamel Toppin If releasing two albums of exhilarating hard rock qualifies as a hot streak, then the Winery Dogs are now a rolling ball of fire and flame. It's a confident title but the trio do it justice on their second album, spreading their colourful wings without sacrificing the cocktail of virtuoso chops and hooks that ignited their widely-lauded debut. For young rock bands looking to reinvigorate an old form - this is how you do it.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Wednesday, 14 October 2015

Hurts - Surrender (Album Review)

Photo: Neil Krug No matter what some might say, the crowded pop landscape is a pretty exciting place to be at the moment. There are chart-conquering mainstays aplenty, just as there are countless pockets of online experimentation to investigate at will. Hurts want a slice of the action.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Wednesday, 14 October 2015

City And Colour - If I Should Go Before You (Album Review)

Five albums in, change is afoot in the world of City and Colour. Dallas Green, fresh from a riotous set of reunion shows with Alexisonfire, has made notable shift from the stripped-back early days of the project on ‘If I Should Go Before You’, overseeing a progression towards a fuller, more collaborative sound with the backing of his touring band.

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Wednesday, 14 October 2015

Joe Bonamassa - Live At Radio City Music Hall (Album Review)

Photo: Christie Goodwin “Another one? Holy bank balance!” Joe Bonamassa has released what seems like his hundredth live effort of the decade and even hardcore fans will be wondering why they should be interested after shelling out for performance packages covering every stage of his meteoric rise. But 'Live At Radio City Music Hall' delivers unique thrills and spills to leave the faithful drooling.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Tuesday, 13 October 2015

Eagles Of Death Metal - Zipper Down (Album Review)

It’s been over a decade since Eagles Of Death Metal’s debut and seven years since their last LP, ‘Heart On’. Is ‘Zipper Down’ worth the wait? Hell yes. As Jesse Hughes sings on Complexity, Eagles Of Death Metal are the itch you didn’t know you wanted to scratch.

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Friday, 09 October 2015

Deafheaven - New Bermuda (Album Review)

When your every move is viewed with suspicion and each stylistic choice is considered an act of provocation, retreat is the easiest option. Deafheaven, a couple of years on from sending sections of the metal world into a frothing meltdown with ‘Sunbather’, have done quite the opposite. ‘New Bermuda’ dispenses with the shackles early on, taking a step away from post-rock and instead reconfiguring some staple metal moves. At times it soars, at others it fizzes with an almost classic rock fervour. Mainly, though, it hits like a train.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Thursday, 08 October 2015

Editors - In Dream (Album Review)

On their fifth album, 'In Dream', Editors don’t stray too far from the formula of melancholy and minor chords that made their name but, 10 years on from their debut, ‘The Back Room’, it remains clear that they aren't quite the same band anymore.

Written by: Jennifer Geddes | Date: Thursday, 08 October 2015

Rudimental - We The Generation (Album Review)

Rudimental write powerful, anthemic pop hymns. Two years on from their breakthrough first album, there is an expectation on their music to deliver epiphanies amid massive chorus drops. ‘We Are The Generation’ does exactly that.

Written by: Milly McMahon | Date: Wednesday, 07 October 2015

Wavves - V (Album Review)

“Have I lived too long? Why does my head hurt?”

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Wednesday, 07 October 2015

Trivium - Silence In The Snow (Album Review)

You wouldn't catch Ozzy Osbourne singing Suffer The Children after a few bevvies, would you? No. Although it would be hilarious. Metal music has endlessly morphed and mutated since Black Sabbath's inception yet, 40 years on, Sabbath remain the heaviest, most downright evil band on the planet. Keep that in mind. It doesn't matter that there's no screaming on Trivium's seventh full-length, 'Silence In The Snow', because it's heavier than a transit van full of dinosaurs.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Tuesday, 06 October 2015

Disclosure - Caracal (Album Review)

If there's one thing that has defined British music since the dawn of the millennium, it's gifted young bands' inability to recapture the magic of their first record on subsequent releases. Disclosure might not even count as a band - they're perhaps closer to a production duo - but their debut album, ‘Settle’, immediately presented the Lawrence brothers as unlikely rock stars.

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Tuesday, 06 October 2015

Clutch - Psychic Warfare (Album Review)

“A shoot-out, right, is a shoot-out. Like a Western.” Tom Hardy, or Ronnie Kray’s, speech from Legend isn't about the new Clutch album, but it definitely could be. It's time for some telekinetic dynamite. Time for some 'Psychic Warfare'.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Monday, 05 October 2015

David Gilmour - Rattle That Lock (Album Review)

Pink Floyd's David Gilmour is one of the finest purveyors of electric guitar soloing ever to walk this here earth. His tone and phrasing are sublime, as is his ability to conjure up dreamy, meditative soundscapes. While those traits are typically exquisite on ‘Rattle That Lock’, his first solo album in nine years, the same flaws that have plagued his output for the previous three decades remain.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Monday, 05 October 2015