Ab-Soul - Herbert (Album Review)

Photo: Chris Carey   Top Dawg Entertainment is having quite the year. Having already put out Kendrick Lamar's peerless ‘Mr Morale & the Big Steppers’ back in May, and SZA's sizzling ‘SOS’ a short while  ago, they're capping 2022 with ‘Herbert’, the fifth entry in Ab-Soul's discography, and his first in more than six years.

Written by: Jack Terry | Date: Monday, 19 December 2022

Little Simz - No Thank You (Album Review)

Following a breakout year, including a Mercury Prize win and the Best Album award at the MOBOs, both for the terrific ‘Sometimes I Might Be Introvert’, Little Simz is back with a surprise drop of new material in the form of ‘No Thank You’, a compact, confident and confrontational collection of 10 tracks.

Written by: Jack Terry | Date: Thursday, 15 December 2022

††† - Permanent.Radiant (Album Review)

A collaborative project headed by Chino Moreno of Deftones and Shaun Lopez of Far, Crosses (stylised as †††) have been mostly dormant since 2014. On Christmas Eve of 2020 and 2021, however, the band reemerged with two covers of ‘80s synth-pop tracks, as if to further iterate the direction the project was heading in.

Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Wednesday, 14 December 2022

SZA - SOS (Album Review)

The second album by R&B sensation SZA has certainly been long-awaited. But, given her notoriously perfectionist nature and claims her debut was only released because her label got sick of waiting and stole her hard drive, it’s no surprise we’ve waited five years for the follow up to ‘CTRL’.

Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Monday, 12 December 2022

NOFX - Double Album (Album Review)

Seeking to bow out in style after announcing their retirement from touring in 2023, punk legends NOFX are attempting to conquer something that few musicians have successfully managed before them: the double album. 

Written by: Maddy Howell | Date: Friday, 02 December 2022

Stormzy - This Is What I Mean (Album Review)

It's been almost a decade since Stormzy emerged as grime's new golden boy, with his Shut Up freestyle paving the way for his debut album ‘Gang Signs And Prayer’ to hit number one in the UK, and a 2019 headline slot at Glastonbury. Today, these achievements have bought him ample freedom to do what he wants on his third album ‘This Is What I Mean’.

Written by: Jack Terry | Date: Tuesday, 29 November 2022

The White Buffalo - Year of the Dark Horse (Album Review)

‘Year of the Dark Horse’ more than lives up to The White Buffalo’s claim that he’s finally made his ‘headphones album’. Over the past two decades Jake Smith has strode across the nebulous Americana realm like a god among mortals. He’s a mysterious Emmy-nominated artist who conveys grim truths with either a mesmeric whisper or visceral, damaged roar.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Thursday, 24 November 2022

Brockhampton - The Family (Album Review)

Photo: Conor Cunningham It’s challenging for any artist to call it a day, but bowing out on your own terms is always preferable to an ignominious end. Enter alternative hip hop collective Brockhampton. Since forming in 2010 they’ve been a breath of fresh air, discussing sexuality, self-discovery and their own brotherhood in a world that has sometimes been dominated by hyper-masculine and misogynistic lyrics.

Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Wednesday, 23 November 2022

Nickelback - Get Rollin' (Album Review)

After a five year hiatus, everyone’s favourite musical punchline are back with an album that’s pulled off the unenviable feat of sounding dated the moment it was released. While the rest of the world was in lockdown, it appears Nickelback may have been hibernating in some kind of vacuum-tight stasis chamber. But whether that’s a bad thing or not will, like everything to do with this hugely polarising outfit, be very much subjective.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Tuesday, 22 November 2022

Christine and the Queens - Redcar les adorables étoiles (prologue) (Album Review)

Photo: Pierre-Ange Carlotti For his third full album the French performance artist known at various times as Chris and Christine and the Queens has created a new persona: the titular ‘Redcar’. The album, sung from Redcar’s perspective, picks up much of the pop melancholy of the singer’s first two albums while honing art-pop tropes successfully deployed on his most recent release: the 2020 EP, ‘La Vita Nuova’. The result is a bit of a mess, lacking focus in songwriting and structure, but which nonetheless contains flashes of the brilliant artist lurking within.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Monday, 21 November 2022

Neil Young and Crazy Horse - World Record (Album Review)

Photo: Joey Martinez Time can take an immeasurable toll. The passing years have the ability to dull the senses, and dampen fires that once burned brightly. It can be all too easy to become complacent, to allow each day to roll into the next. 

Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Friday, 18 November 2022

Weyes Blood - And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow (Album Review)

Photo: Neil Krug It has come to light that Weyes Blood’s superb 2019 album ‘Titanic Rising’ was the first in a trilogy. It served as a warning shot from a world going wrong, with ominous tides and people becoming more detached from each other than ever before.

Written by: Matty Pywell | Date: Thursday, 17 November 2022

Bruce Springsteen - Only The Strong Survive (Album Review)

If you’re one of the greatest songwriters of all time, covering the work of others isn’t something you do out of necessity or on a whim. It has to mean something. So where 2006’s ‘We Shall Overcome’ found Bruce Springsteen passionately shining a light on folk numbers popularised by Pete Seeger, ‘Only The Strong Survive’ indulges his love for classic R&B and soul music to create a record that, although an entertaining curio, never feels as imperative as its predecessor.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Wednesday, 16 November 2022

L.S. Dunes - Past Lives (Album Review)

Photo: Luke Dicky In a year when emo nostalgia has hit a heady peak—from the comebacks of My Chemical Romance and Paramore, to the excitement around When We Were Young festival’s throwback line up—it only seems right that we should be greeted by a supergroup such as L.S. Dunes.

Written by: Jack Terry | Date: Monday, 14 November 2022

Big Joanie - Back Home (Album Review)

Photo: Ajamu X Big Joanie are well on their way to being big news. The London-based feminist-punk trio have already notched touring slots with IDLES and Bikini Kill, showing significant promise both in the UK and Stateside. Now striding forward with their second LP ‘Back Home’ they serve up a superb set of biting punk tracks with a few worthwhile surprises thrown in for good measure.

Written by: Rebecca Llewellyn | Date: Wednesday, 09 November 2022

Special Interest - Endure (Album Review)

War, the climate emergency, the cost of living crisis, combustible governments. TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. There is no shortage of harrowing aspects of existence in 2022. Nor is there a lack of ways to be informed, or misinformed, about them. As we reach for our phone for the hundredth time, to speed read the latest notification, interrupting the half thought that we were on the cusp of completing, it is little wonder our minds lose focus. When everything is a disaster until a bigger disaster comes along, and priorities are swallowed by bigger priorities, how do you move forward?

Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Tuesday, 08 November 2022

Joanne Shaw Taylor - Nobody's Fool (Album Review)

Photo: Chris Wilson In 2021, Joanne Shaw Taylor dazzled and delighted with an album of life affirming blues covers, delivered in tandem with producers Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith. Hope was kindled that this chemistry-rich trio might bring the exact same magic to her next batch of original material, which they have done in some style.​

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Monday, 07 November 2022

Phoenix - Alpha Zulu (Album Review)

Photo: Shervin Lainez Phoenix’s music has always displayed a sprightly elegance. A clean-cut, immaculately capable group, they have from the outset had their own unique take on indie-rock, embracing pop and electronics without falling into electroclash. Slowly, they became as synonymous with French alternative music as Daft Punk were with French house.

Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Friday, 04 November 2022

Simple Minds - Direction of the Heart (Album Review)

With much of Simple Minds’ most recognisable line-up having departed at various points during the past 40 years, Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill are now the only mainstays who provide the face of the band as they head into their 60s. It’s not just the two of them these days, of course, but those who were there with them at the start will likely see it that way.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Thursday, 03 November 2022

Pinkshift - Love Me Forever (Album Review)

Before the pandemic, the members of Pinkshift were three college students who played in a band for fun. They came out the other side as viral sensations after their feisty yet tormented grunge-pop hit I’m Gonna Tell My Therapist on You punctured the internet in the depths of the Covid shutdown.

Written by: Emma Wilkes | Date: Wednesday, 02 November 2022