Desaparecidos - Payola (Album Review)

The best protest songs engage on both intellectual and physical levels. They are calls to action in both form and meaning. Desaparecidos, 13 years on from the release of ‘Read Music/Speak Spanish’, have taken that idea to heart on ‘Payola’, which is unfailingly direct and invigorating.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Tuesday, 23 June 2015

Creepoid - Cemetery Highrise Slum (Album Review)

‘Cemetery Highrise Slum’ is Creepoid’s third time around the block and on it the Philadelphians have managed to fine tune their gloriously gloomy mix of grunge and shoegaze. But, don’t wander along this path without expecting the quartet to dash off on tangents with scant regard for whether you’re interested in following them.

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Tuesday, 23 June 2015

Geraint Rhys And The Lost Generation - All That Is Left Is Us (Album Review)

If there's one good thing about the nonsense that surrounds an election, it's the accompanying burst of creativity so often generated by those who feel disillusioned by it all. The latest in a long line of artists putting across an anti-austerity point of view is South Wales' Geraint Rhys and his band, The Lost Generation.

Written by: Dave Ball | Date: Friday, 19 June 2015

Hudson Mohawke - Lantern (Album Review)

Hudson Mohawke is in a strange, if exciting, place. On one hand he’s a producer to the stars, trap provocateur and co-conspirator of Kanye West, on the other he’s a whip-smart artist in his own right and remains signed to that bastion of electronic taste, Warp. ‘Lantern’ is his second record under his own steam and displays his aptitude for pop experiments as much as his willingness to play with form and expectation.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Thursday, 18 June 2015

Keston Cobblers Club - Wildfire (Album Review)

Mumford and Sons have ditched the banjos and, as such, the world is on the lookout for a new folk rock group to soundtrack journeys between darkness and angst, sunshine and flowers and every stop inbetween. Step forward, Keston Cobblers Club.

Written by: James Ball | Date: Tuesday, 16 June 2015

Giorgio Moroder - Deja Vu (Album Review)

Photo: Kathryn Hancock Giorgio Moroder’s influence over popular music has rarely been more plain. His synth meddling and disco smarts have become blueprints for modern hitmakers, keen to tap into the exuberance and forward-thinking cool of his best work. After a 30-year gap, ‘Déjà Vu’ is his return to the fold as a headline act. As an effort to reshape a scene he helped to define in the first place, it falls flat.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Monday, 15 June 2015

Sharon Van Etten - I Don't Want To Let You Down EP (Album Review)

It’s strange to think of there being loose ends, or spare parts, left over from ‘Are We There’, Sharon Van Etten’s heartbreaking fourth album. Released last spring, it captured the painful aftermath of a broken relationship with levels of wit, craft and candour beyond most artists. It felt all-encompassing.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Friday, 12 June 2015

Muse - Drones (Album Review)

Let’s start with the truth. This comes from a Muse fan and a place of love. Following the band has become something like supporting Liverpool: the glory days are behind them and they’re now a bit shit, but hope remains that they can turn things around.

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Wednesday, 10 June 2015

Florence And The Machine - How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (Album Review)

When a stylistic choice becomes a defining characteristic, things can get tricky. Florence Welch’s appetite for the melodramatic is part of the fabric of her band’s status as arena-straddling behemoths, but ‘How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful’ offers a chance to play with that formula a little. At times it does just that, but the old way still wields great influence.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Wednesday, 10 June 2015

Matt Skiba And The Sekrets - Kuts (Album Review)

Matt Skiba has had an interesting few months. While Alkaline Trio soldier on - still pretty great, still playing a lot of shows - he has been a supporting character in the disintegration and repackaging of Blink-182.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Tuesday, 09 June 2015

Girlpool - Before The World Was Big (Album Review)

‘Before The World Was Big’ is the full length debut from Cleo Tucker and Harmony Tividad, a Los Angeles-born duo shaped by the extraordinarily fertile Philadelphia indie and punk scene. While their youth and relative inexperience - they have put out one self-titled EP prior to this - might lead you to assume that this record will be one of insecurity and obvious attempts to make a mark, nothing could be further from the truth.

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Friday, 05 June 2015

Rolo Tomassi - Grievances (Album Review)

When a band becomes part of the furniture, it can mean a couple of things. They might deal in chart-topping, multi purpose wallpaper, or they might be the sort of collective that has inspired devotion for such a period of time that their presence feels necessary. With ‘Grievances’, Rolo Tomassi turn 10. They’ve never sounded more alive.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Thursday, 04 June 2015

Ash - Kablammo (Album Review)

Eight years after declaring they were done making full length albums, the eternally youthful Ash return with – you guessed it – a brand new record of the full length variety. Leaving behind the style-hopping experimentation of their 'A-Z' project, 'Kablammo!' is a sparkling return to the band’s classic guitar-driven anthemics, and a mostly a fitting testament to the strength of the long player format.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Wednesday, 03 June 2015

A$AP Rocky - At.Long.Last.A$AP (Album Review)

There’s a lot of hyperbole thrown about when it comes to releases from mainstream rappers. Maybe it’s the Kendrick effect, but we seemingly have never been so hungry for hip hop records to blow us away.

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Wednesday, 03 June 2015

Paradise Lost - The Plague Within (Album Review)

No hope in sight: the mindset of hardcore Paradise Lost fans for the past couple of decades and the opening snarl of the band's new album, 'The Plague Within'. Die-hards have witnessed the Halifax heavyweights sculpt death metal masterpieces, questionable synthpop farts and doomy, riff-stacked melodies over the years and, as a result, this album could have gone one of several ways.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Monday, 01 June 2015

The Vaccines - English Graffiti (Album Review)

There’s something almost elemental about The Vaccines’ desire to have their name up in the biggest lights possible. It’s something that has been a little at odds with their staple diet of unfussy pop-rock workouts, but ‘English Graffiti’ might help in redressing that imbalance.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Friday, 29 May 2015

Ceremony - The L-Shaped Man (Album Review)

Are you exactly the same person you were five years ago? Same values, same perspective on things? Can’t see it. Ceremony aren’t the same, either. ‘Rohnert Park’ is a modern classic, but half a decade later its creators are in a different place altogether.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Thursday, 28 May 2015

Hot Chip - Why Make Sense? (Album Review)

Hot Chip are here to get specific. ‘Why Make Sense?’, the band’s sixth album, is one that dwells in the early hours, when bodies have begun to slow on the dancefloor. Its conglomeration of funk, sleepy electro-pop and soul is wistful and intoxicating.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Friday, 22 May 2015

Brandon Flowers - The Desired Effect (Album Review)

Exuberance is an oft-overlooked quality. Much of the time, we’re happy for our pop music to be served with lashings of introspection and superhero sequel darkness. Brandon Flowers, enjoying a second spell away from his day job as frontman of the Killers, has gone some way to redressing that imbalance on ‘The Desired Effect’, which is a celebratory rehashing of his influences.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Thursday, 21 May 2015

Torres - Sprinter (Album Review)

It’s clear that Mackenzie Scott has evolved since her 2013 debut as Torres, but perhaps not enough. The tracks that make up ‘Sprinter’, her second album, are bigger, but they are not always better.

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Thursday, 21 May 2015