Pixies - Indie Cindy (Album Review)

‘Indie Cindy’ is an album that most music fans, if they’re being honest, never thought they’d hold in their hands. Pixies, that most volatile of bands, have been back together for a decade but, until last summer, new music wasn’t really on the agenda.

Written by: Matt Williams | Date: Monday, 28 April 2014

The Menzingers - Rented World (Album Review)

There are no hard and fast rules on following up a breakthrough album, and the waters only become muddier when you’re a punk band. The Menzingers set a new bar, and ushered in a legion of soundalikes, with ‘On The Impossible Past’ two years ago and ‘Rented World’ poses the age-old question: more of the same or something new?

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Friday, 25 April 2014

Needtobreathe - Rivers In The Wasteland (Album Review)

Needtobreathe have spent the last eight years putting out good records. The band’s fifth album, ‘Rivers In The Wasteland’ is a continuation of that theme.

Written by: Sam Hailes | Date: Friday, 25 April 2014

Kelis - Food (Album Review)

For Kelis Rogers, ‘Food’ is more than just an idle theme to which an album can be tethered. In recent years she's branched out into culinary pursuits, becoming a Cordon Bleu-trained saucier, selling grub from her own truck at SXSW and fronting a cooking show back in the US. The idea of experimenting with flavour has become intertwined with her music on album six, which is suitably fit for a feast.

Written by: Gavin Rees | Date: Thursday, 24 April 2014

Eels - The Cautionary Tales Of Mark Oliver Everett (Album Review)

If nothing else, ‘The Cautionary Tales Of Mark Oliver Everett’ is an apt title for Eels’ 11th studio outing. E has, since the earliest days of the band - ‘Beautiful Freak’ and ‘Electro-Shock Blues’ - been adept at delivering one-two punches, moving from mood to mood in a few quick steps.

Written by: Matt Williams | Date: Wednesday, 23 April 2014

More Than Life - What's Left Of Me (Album Review)

‘What’s Left Of Me’ represents take two for More Than Life, who have refined the sound that made them underground darlings following the release of their debut, ‘Love Let Me Go’.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Tuesday, 22 April 2014

Smoke Fairies - Smoke Fairies (Album Review)

The fact that Smoke Fairies very nearly didn’t survive long enough to make it gives their latest, self-titled album added weight, but in truth it doesn’t really need it. This is, for the most part, an atmospheric treat.

Written by: Gavin Rees | Date: Thursday, 17 April 2014

H.E.A.T - Tearing Down The Walls (Album Review)

Photo: Gustaf Sandholm Andersson After three albums of storming melodic rock that would have made them megastars a few decades ago, it's time for these rocket-fuelled Swedes to translate success in their homeland to the global stage. With this outstanding new record under their belts, they've every chance of doing just that.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Wednesday, 16 April 2014

Triptykon - Melana Chasmata (Album Review)

You think you know evil? Well, you don't know the half of it, sunshine. Triptykon's 'Melana Chasmata' makes Mordor look like Balamory. The Swiss metal masters' second full-length offering is a painstaking and, at times, tiring exercise in the art of darkness and total heaviness.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Tuesday, 15 April 2014

Paolo Nutini - Caustic Love (Album Review)

‘Caustic Love’ finds Paolo Nutini giving in to ambition and making it work. It’s a muscular soul record, unashamedly old-fashioned and beautifully performed, that puts open water between the artist he aspires to be and his tentative beginnings as an indie-pop troubadour.

Written by: Gavin Rees | Date: Tuesday, 15 April 2014

The Afghan Whigs - Do To The Beast (Album Review)

When the Afghan Whigs returned from the wilderness in 2012, ostensibly for a series of shows celebrating their magnificent back catalogue, it was only the most optimistic of fans who seriously expected a new album from the band to emerge. It is probably reasonable to say, then, that 'Do To The Beast' has even more pressure on its shoulders than your average comeback release. I’m not sure any fan of the band could cope with a record ruining their sizeable legacy.

Written by: Ben Bland | Date: Friday, 11 April 2014

Pup - Pup (Album Review)

It’s always exciting to discover a band that lets you indulge your base musical desires. Pup are one of those bands, and their self-titled debut album is one to be sweated along to at a packed show, one to be screamed along to until your breath gives out.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Friday, 11 April 2014

Sohn - Tremors (Album Review)

Sohn’s debut album arrives bearing the burden of buzz, with his recent production exploits - notably for alt-R&B star of the future Banks - adding to the hype generated by The Wheel’s appearance a couple of years back.

Written by: Gavin Rees | Date: Thursday, 10 April 2014

Marc Ford - Holy Ghost (Album Review)

Former Black Crowes guitarist Marc Ford teaming up with a now defunct band from Bristol to make an album of introspective Americana initially seems like a strange musical marriage. The result, however, is one of the most beautiful records of the year.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Thursday, 10 April 2014

Off! - Wasted Years (Album Review)

Even at this early stage in their tenure, each burst of hardcore noise Off! commit to tape is more a refinement than reinvention. ‘Wasted Years’, their second full-length, is perhaps even more direct than its self-titled predecessor and ‘The First Four EPs’, providing another ferocious base for Keith Morris to get a few things off his chest.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Wednesday, 09 April 2014

Combichrist - We Love You (Album Review)

'Aggrotech'. That's a made up word, right? Well, apparently not. It's an industrial sub-genre used to describe a plethora of bands, and Combichrist happen to be one of them. We could argue about genre conventions like lonely little nerds all we like but, fortunately, Combichrist's seventh full-length, 'We Love You', is a beast that transcends such borders and tags.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Tuesday, 08 April 2014

Band Of Skulls - Himalayan (Album Review)

Band of Skulls have, if nothing else, set themselves up for a fall by naming their third album ‘Himalayan’. Renowned as they are for huge riffs and no little power, the comparison is a neat one. But, for once, it’s not all that accurate.

Written by: Gavin Rees | Date: Monday, 07 April 2014

Steel Panther - All You Can Eat (Album Review)

Nobody expects Deicide to stop singing about Satan. Nobody expects Sabaton to stop writing songs about war, tanks and shooting stuff. And, while we’re at it, hasn't Bruce Springsteen been banging on about the American dream for, like, 40 years? So please, for the love of all that is unholy, stop the incessant bitching about Steel Panther.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Friday, 04 April 2014

Manchester Orchestra - Cope (Album Review)

If ‘Simple Math’, Manchester Orchestra’s third album, was Andy Hull flexing his compositional muscles, then ‘Cope’ is the sound of a band embracing the most primal urges of rock music. It’s loud, uncomplicated and goes straight for the throat.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Friday, 04 April 2014

Pantera - Far Beyond Driven: 20th Anniversary Edition (Album Review)

There never has been, and never will be, another band quite like Pantera. Most prominent at a time when Metallica all had nice haircuts, grunge was king and nobody really gave a toss about metal, they provided the huge kick up the arse that the mainstream deserved, reintroducing metal to the masses while bands like Sepultura, At The Gates and Cradle Of Filth began making waves of their own on a smaller scale.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Thursday, 03 April 2014