Cast - Love is the Call (Album Review)

Photo: Paul Husband The ‘90s are big business right now, and the nostalgia industry hasn’t skipped over Britpop. A number of the old guard have joined the fray, with Blur and Pulp wowing huge crowds last year, and Shed Seven recently landing their first number one album. Cast are getting in on the act with ‘Love is the Call’, their first album since 2017’s ‘Kicking Up the Dust’.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Tuesday, 20 February 2024

Usher - Coming Home (Album Review)

Photo: Bellamy Brewster You want music to get down to, you go to Usher. That was true 30 years ago, and it’s true today. Released to coincide with his career-spanning Super Bowl halftime show, his ninth album ‘Coming Home’ shows no signs of letting that slip.

Written by: Jack Terry | Date: Tuesday, 20 February 2024

Brittany Howard - What Now (Album Review)

Photo: Bobbi Rich Released only a year after her band Alabama Shakes were placed on the shelf, Brittany Howard’s solo bow ‘Jaime’ was a rich, enticing mix of sentimental genre fusions, heavy-hitting songwriting and an unwavering sense of confidence. Remarkably, ‘What Now’ is an improvement on all fronts.

Written by: Jay Fullarton | Date: Monday, 19 February 2024

The Last Dinner Party - Prelude to Ecstasy (Album Review)

Photo: Cal McIntyre ‘Prelude to Ecstasy’ is a hugely exciting and precocious debut from some very talented musicians. Here the Last Dinner Party combine grand orchestral arrangements, chamber pop, and indie stylings with fantastic lyrical storytelling, justifying the band’s early hype and likely setting up their inclusion on plenty of year-end lists come winter. 

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Friday, 16 February 2024

Zara Larsson - Venus (Album Review)

It’s a bit weird that Zara Larsson isn’t one of the biggest pop stars on the planet. Continuously packaged and produced for breakout success, and with a decade of Europop bangers already under her belt, it feels like she should be everywhere. But, for a variety of reasons, it hasn’t happened. Her new album ‘Venus’ is a fairly transparent attempt to course-correct her career.

Written by: Jack Press | Date: Thursday, 15 February 2024

Declan McKenna - What Happened To The Beach? (Album Review)

For his third album, Declan McKenna has zigged across to the West Coast of America to record an album of wonky, skronky pop songs. It’s another left turn for a singer-songwriter whose 2017 breakthrough record ‘What Do You Think About the Car?’ introduced a precocious indie teen troubadour — a sort of Gen Z Gary Numan. 

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 14 February 2024

Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She (Album Review)

Photo: Ebru Yildiz Chelsea Wolfe has always been unpredictable. The last we heard from her, she was teaming with Converge to create an unholy racket on their ‘Bloodmoon: I’ collaborative album, having already experimented with genres including folk, goth, rock, and industrial in her solo career. It’s remarkable, then, that her latest album ‘She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She’ manages to venture into uncharted territory once more.

Written by: Katie Macbeth | Date: Friday, 09 February 2024

Gruff Rhys - Sadness Sets Me Free (Album Review)

Photo: Mark James More than 35 years into his career, Gruff Rhys is still finding ways to surprise people. Having masterminded a weird-pop moment with Super Furry Animals before embarking on a solo career studded with puppets and soundtrack work, ‘Sadness Sets Me Free’ is his latest left-turn.

Written by: Jack Butler-Terry | Date: Wednesday, 07 February 2024

Future Islands - People Who Aren't There Anymore (Album Review)

Photo: Frank Hamilton Not so long ago, Future Islands vocalist Samuel T. Herring’s lyrics painted a picture of relationship bliss. Released in 2020, the band’s last album ‘As Long As You Are’ chronicled his experiences after relocating to Sweden to start a new life with actress Julia Ragnarsson. But then the pandemic happened.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Tuesday, 06 February 2024

Alkaline Trio - Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs (Album Review)

Photo: Jonathan Weiner It’s been a little more than five years since Alkaline Trio last sent out an arterial spray of uniquely sardonic, gothy punk-rock, and the world they have returned to with ‘Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs’ perhaps resembles the black mirror they’ve long held up up more obviously than ever before.

Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Monday, 05 February 2024

Torres - What An Enormous Room (Album Review)

Photo: Ebru Yildiz Mackenzie Scott’s sixth album as Torres finds the US singer-songwriter delivering 10 songs of solid indie-rock, developing her music towards broader soundscapes and, theoretically, larger venues. It is a cool, confident record of guile and precision, but it’s not terribly distinctive and perhaps lacks a little creative ambition.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Friday, 02 February 2024

NewDad - Madra (Album Review)

Photo: Zyanya Lorenzo Irish shoegaze four piece NewDad initially announced their arrival way back in 2020, kicking off a run of dreamy singles that banked critical acclaim while lighting a long fuse for their debut album ‘Madra’.

Written by: Matthew McLister | Date: Friday, 02 February 2024

Ty Segall - Three Bells (Album Review)

You might group Ty Segall with Osees and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard as shape-shifting modern practitioners of psychedelic rock. Following them is fun because of each act’s gentle unpredictability — you never quite know what’s coming next and if you don't like it, something different will arrive soon anyway.

Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Thursday, 01 February 2024

Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes - Dark Rainbow (Album Review)

Photo: Brian Rankin Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes’ fifth album takes us on a sultry, dimly-lit journey into self-reflection, channelling sex, unconditional love, and spite into their most intimate and honest work to date. 

Written by: Jack McGill | Date: Wednesday, 31 January 2024

Courting - New Last Name (Album Review)

Photo: Charlie Barclay Harris Courting’s second album is a wild ride. ‘New Last Name’ is like The 1975’s Matty Healy and The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas fronting landfill indie and pop-punk bands that, through a time travel twist, came up on Black Midi’s prog-jazz and Black Country, New Road’s art-rock.

Written by: Jack Press | Date: Tuesday, 30 January 2024

The Umbrellas - Fairweather Friend (Album Review)

Photo: Jorge Aguilar Music might be more homogeneous than ever before thanks to streaming and the erosion of easily identifiable scenes, but there is still a certain romance tied to specific places and periods of time.

Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Monday, 29 January 2024

The Smile - Wall Of Eyes (Album Review)

Photo: Frank Lebon Featuring Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood, alongside Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner, The Smile made a mark for themselves with 2022’s ‘A Light for Attracting Attention’, combining elements of post-punk, jazz, Afrobeat and electronic music with weighty atmospherics that plugged a Radiohead-shaped hole for fans.

Written by: Chris Connor | Date: Friday, 26 January 2024

Sleater-Kinney - Little Rope (Album Review)

Sleater-Kinney’s ‘Little Rope’ was hammered into shape by the force of one particular event. Midway through its recording, guitarist Carrie Brownstein lost both her mother and stepfather in a car crash while they were on holiday in Italy. 

Written by: Emma Wilkes | Date: Wednesday, 24 January 2024

Green Day - Saviors (Album Review)

There’s something about Green Day and years ending in four. Thirty years ago, ‘Dookie’ sent the band stratospheric. In 2004, their near-flawless rock opera masterpiece ‘American Idiot’ set the seal on a theatrical reinvention. So, no pressure in 2024, then. Fortunately, ‘Saviors’ is the band’s best record since George W. Bush was festering in the White House. 

Written by: Adam England | Date: Tuesday, 23 January 2024

The Fauns - How Lost (Album Review)

Photo: Roberto Vivancos The Fauns’ first album in 10 years sees the Bristolian shoegaze outfit deliver nine tracks of sprawling, breathy dream-pop. It’s a welcome return for a group who have established a loyal and dedicated following, demonstrating significant development from their 2013 record, ‘Lights’.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Monday, 22 January 2024