Sufjan Stevens - Javelin (Album Review)

There are some things in life that feel almost too precious to experience. They offer moments of such clarity that you are tempted to shield yourself from their candour lest you break the spell in some way. ‘Javelin’, the latest record from Sufjan Stevens, is one of them.

Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Wednesday, 11 October 2023

Drake - For All The Dogs (Album Review)

Photo: UMG As if his book of poetry Titles Ruin Everything — 160 pages of pettiness and misogyny — wasn’t enough for 2023, Drake’s accompanying album ‘For All The Dogs’ is the cherry on top of a cake liberally flavoured by toxic masculinity.

Written by: Jack Press | Date: Tuesday, 10 October 2023

Slow Pulp - Yard (Album Review)

Releasing their first album, ‘Moveys’, during the pandemic didn’t seem to hinder Slow Pulp’s rise all that much, with critical acclaim settling on a record that felt fitting for gloomy autumn nights. Now, with the release of their second LP, ‘Yard’, the Wisconsin indie-rockers delve further into a sense of isolation in order to deal with the subsequent feelings of re-learning to trust and love others.

Written by: Katie Macbeth | Date: Monday, 09 October 2023

Armand Hammer - We Buy Diabetic Test Strips (Album Review)

Billy Woods is on fire. His stellar solo releases, output as the head of Backwoodz Studioz and as one half of Armand Hammer prove that he is the most vital experimental rapper in the world right now.

Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Friday, 06 October 2023

Code Orange - The Above (Album Review)

Photo: Tim Saccenti If any one feeling defined Code Orange’s landmark 2020 album ‘Underneath’, it was a sense of impending doom. Landing just as the world began to shut down thanks to COVID-19, its ugly industrial discordance and hulking dread-laced noise made it a fitting soundtrack for a terrifying time.

Written by: Emma Wilkes | Date: Thursday, 05 October 2023

Ed Sheeran - Autumn Variations (Album Review)

Photo: Annie Leibovitz ‘Autumn Variations’ teased a return to the quirkily charming (albeit still reasonably irritating to many) pop-folk of Ed Sheeran’s emergence – the cover resembles his debut EP, ‘You Need Me’, and Aaron Dessner of The National, though a prior collaborator who failed to make ‘Subtract’ a likeable record, is a quality producer. Furthermore, signalling the completion of the increasingly gimmicky mathematical symbol album series can only be a plus (which is also, by far, the best album of that run). 

Written by: Jo Higgs | Date: Wednesday, 04 October 2023

Teenage Fanclub - Nothing Lasts Forever (Album Review)

Photo: Donald Milne We all love a bit of Teenage Fanclub, don’t we? Having given listeners so many wonderful moments throughout their decades-long, wildly influential career, the thirst for more will always be there. With that, though, comes expectation. Expectation that ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ struggles to match.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Tuesday, 03 October 2023

Wilco - Cousin (Album Review)

Photo: Peter Crosby Wilco’s ‘Cousin’ documents a particular feeling: the sensation of being an outlier while also maintaining a connection. For Jeff Tweedy, being a “cousin to the world” is about forming part of a family while knowing that you’re far from central to the group. 

Written by: Jo Higgs | Date: Monday, 02 October 2023

Slaughter Beach, Dog - Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling (Album Review)

Photo: Ashley Gellman Around the time of 2019’s ‘Safe and Also No Fear’ Slaughter Beach, Dog’s Jake Ewald talked at length about his new found love of Wilco. And while that new fandom did not particularly influence its self-recorded pandemic record follow up — 2020’s stunning ‘At the Moonbase’ — it is certainly noticeable in the considered nuances and sumptuous execution of ‘Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling’.

Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Thursday, 28 September 2023

Will Butler + Sister Squares - Will Butler + Sister Squares (Album Review)

Photo: Alexa Viscius When Will Butler left Arcade Fire after recording ‘We’, he said it was “time for new things.”  Given that he was already three solo records deep at that stage, the statement suggested a possible handbrake turn in his near future. But the fuzzy synths, feel-good melodies, and frenetic pacing of 2020’s ‘Generations’ are all present ‘Will Butler + Sister Squares’, and so is the nagging feeling that we’re listening to Arcade Fire from another dimension, rather than anything new.

Written by: Jack Press | Date: Thursday, 28 September 2023

Hot Milk - A Call To The Void (Album Review)

Photo: Frank Fieber Five years. That’s how long it’s taken Manchester pop-punk duo Hot Milk to release their debut album, capitalising on a string of high-profile shows including a support slot with Foo Fighters and general next big thing hype. ‘A Call To the Void’ was pieced together between Los Angeles and Manchester and it’s ultimately an album that tells the story of its own making, including the toll it took on its  creators. But was it worth the wait? 

Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Wednesday, 27 September 2023

Vic Mensa - Victor (Album Review)

Photo: Biz 3 Publicity In the six years since the release of ‘The Autobiography’, Vic Mensa has stood on shifting sands, with drugs, the law and changing creative tastes all in play. He looked inward, dabbled in short-form releases and side-projects, and found a new lease of life that his second album ‘Victor’ chronicles with varying rates of success.

Written by: Jack Terry | Date: Wednesday, 27 September 2023

The National - Laugh Track (Album Review)

Photo: Graham MacIndoe Surprise releases are becoming more and more common, but it’s more unusual for a band such as The National to spring one like this. ‘Laugh Track’ follows quickly on the heels of ‘First Two Pages of Frankenstein’, which arrived earlier this year. The new album arose from the same sessions as its predecessor but, while that LP paled in comparison to many of its peers, this chapter is quietly superb.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Tuesday, 26 September 2023

Nation of Language - Strange Disciple (Album Review)

Photo: Shervin Lainez Presiding over a melting pot of nostalgic new wave, motorik rhythms and dancefloor-ready basslines, Brooklyn’s Nation of Language possess the ability to move listeners both physically and emotionally.

Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Monday, 25 September 2023

Mitski - The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We (Album Review)

Photo: Ebru Yildiz Mitski quietly made three albums before crashing into the wider consciousness with Your Best American Girl in 2016. In this time, she honed not so much a sound as a sound world, tied together by haunting melodies and cutting but syrupy vocals.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Friday, 22 September 2023

Demi Lovato - Revamped (Album Review)

Photo: Angelo Kritikos From many smiley roles on the Disney Channel through a box office pop career, Demi Lovato had plenty of expectations to subvert with the release of ‘Holy Fvck’ in 2022. The album’s rock-centric, cathartic approach served as something of a reset with both fans and critics, setting up ‘Revamped’, a collection of Lovato's biggest hits newly recast as rock songs.

Written by: Jack McGill | Date: Thursday, 21 September 2023

Thirty Seconds to Mars - It's The End Of The World But It's A Beautiful Day (Album Review)

Photo: Bartholomew Cubbins Whether it's down to an artist’s maturity, necessity or the shifting tides of public taste, change is the only constant in modern music. Thirty Seconds To Mars has always worn that fact on their sleeves, and over the course of 25 years have shifted from emo-flecked rock to electronic art-pop with various stops in between. With their sixth album 'It's The End Of The World But It's A Beautiful Day' their unknowable journey continues, but the scenery is a drag.

Written by: Jack Terry | Date: Wednesday, 20 September 2023

Corey Taylor - CMF2 (Album Review)

Photo: Marina Hunter It has been less than a year since Slipknot’s last album, and yet their force-of-nature frontman, Corey Taylor, is already back with his second solo outing. ‘CMF2’ riffs on the title of his first effort ‘CMFT’ — in other words, Corey Mother Fucking Taylor — and fittingly does the same with its sound, carrying the baton forward while simultaneously heading into uncharted territory.

Written by: Rishi Shah | Date: Wednesday, 20 September 2023

Baroness - Stone (Album Review)

Photo: Ebru Yildiz Few metal or metal-adjacent bands ramp up their heaviness as they age. It takes extreme skill and ambition to find new ways to deliver crushing blows across careers that span multiple albums and, potentially, decades.

Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Tuesday, 19 September 2023

Courtney Barnett - End of the Day (Album Review)

Anonymous Club, Danny Cohen’s documentary about Courtney Barnett, threw up an interesting treat for fans, offering insight into the Australian indie-rocker’s journey to international recognition. Now, ‘End of the Day’ takes the film’s score and gives it its own release, pulling down the curtain on Milk! Records, the label Barnett started a little more than a decade ago, in the process.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Monday, 18 September 2023