Justin Timberlake - Everything I Thought It Was (Album Review)
Justin Timberlake is a pro when it comes to making high-quality pop. He’s probably the most successful former boyband member this side of Michael Jackson — sorry Robbie, sorry Harry — and barring the 2018 misstep ‘Man of the Woods’, he has seldom put a musical foot wrong.
Written by: Adam England | Date: Thursday, 21 March 2024
The Dandy Warhols - Rockmaker (Album Review)
For album 12, the Dandy Warhols’ frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor had in mind a heavier, more metallic collection. While guitarist Peter Holmström took some persuading, drummer Brent DeBoer was on board immediately and, with the push coming from the two of them, it was too much for the indie-rock lifers to resist.
Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Wednesday, 20 March 2024
Four Tet - Three (Album Review)
Four Tet’s Kieran Hebden is a remarkably unpretentious musician. It would be easy to look at his improvised collaborations with jazz drummer Steve Reid and get the wrong idea, given the way recent crowd-pleasing work with Skrillex and Fred Again revealed someone unconcerned with high brow expectations.
Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Jahari Massamba Unit - YHWH Is Love (Album Review)
Photo: Jimel Primm It used to be that a simple genre tag would give you a clear idea of what an album or artist sounds like, but with all the advancements and innovations that have been made over the years, they can be quite restrictive. Take Madlib and Karriem Riggins’ collaborative project Jahari Massamba Unit, for instance. When they released their debut record — 2020’s ‘Pardon My French’ — they opted for the term ‘Black classical music’ because the ‘jazz’ label that the industry favoured just didn't do the work justice.
Written by: Jack Butler-Terry | Date: Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Kacey Musgraves - Deeper Well (Album Review)
Photo: Kelly Christine Sutton On album five, country-pop titan Kacey Musgraves has set aside the lush, maximalist affair that was ‘Star Crossed’, going back to basics for an intimate, folk-tinged stroll through love, loss and ruminations on life’s purpose.
Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Monday, 18 March 2024
Ariana Grande - Eternal Sunshine (Album Review)
Photo: Katia Temkin Four years on from the release of ‘Positions’ Ariana Grande has kicked things up a notch with ‘Eternal Sunshine’, serving up hit after hit while swapping out tales of lust, attraction and intimacy to focus on her life post-divorce.
Written by: Issy Herring | Date: Wednesday, 13 March 2024
Hurray for the Riff Raff - The Past Is Still Alive (Album Review)
Photo: Tommy Kha Alynda Segarra has lived a life. Every detail — the teenage runaway, the box cars, years spent busking — has come to inform their standing as one of America’s most talented and interesting singer-songwriters. And, while their fortunes may have changed, Hurray For the Riff Raff’s ninth album ‘The Past Is Still Alive’ is a sobering reminder that every experience leaves an indelible mark.
Written by: Jack Butler-Terry | Date: Tuesday, 12 March 2024
Nils Frahm - Day (Album Review)
Nils Frahm’s ‘Day’ is a piano record that displays the composer’s ability to wring something introspective and profound from a minimalist’s palette, flowing with the ease of a brook in a tranquil valley.
Written by: Milly McMahon | Date: Tuesday, 12 March 2024
Kim Gordon - The Collective (Album Review)
Photo: Danielle Neu Kim Gordon’s second solo album is a grimy hot mess — a sonic journey into guitar dirges, glitchy trap beats and scrawled late night iPhone notes. It's another strikingly bold record from the former Sonic Youth bassist and maintains much of the urgent energy of her 2019 debut ‘No Home Record’.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Monday, 11 March 2024
Bleachers - Bleachers (Album Review)
Photo: Alex Lockett Jack Antonoff has had a successful and varied career as both a producer and performer, but he tends to exist in the shadows cast by his megastar associates, from Taylor Swift to the 1975 and Lana Del Rey. Here he returns with the fourth Bleachers album, serving up an expectedly eclectic collection that underlines his credentials as a songwriter who can adapt to different surroundings.
Written by: Chris Connor | Date: Friday, 08 March 2024
Yard Act - Where's My Utopia? (Album Review)
Photo: Phoebe Fox Move over post-punk, the funk-pop revolution has begun. Yard Act have followed up their breakthrough debut album ‘The Overload’ with ‘Where’s My Utopia?’, a self-reflexive masterpiece where bangers are crafted by putting a knife to the throat of the very notion of hitmaking.
Written by: Jack Press | Date: Thursday, 07 March 2024
Faye Webster - Underdressed at the Symphony (Album Review)
A lot has changed since Faye Webster put out ‘I Know I’m Funny Haha’ three years ago. She’s now one of those artists whose profiles blew up thanks to organic TikTok virality, giving her previously steady rise something of a turbo boost. But you wouldn’t know it from ‘Underdressed At The Symphony’, where she continues to develop her sound as though nothing has changed, leaving no emotional stone unturned in the process.
Written by: Issy Herring | Date: Wednesday, 06 March 2024
Kaiser Chiefs - Kaiser Chiefs' Easy Eighth Album (Album Review)
Photo: Cal McIntyre Halfway through ‘Kaiser Chiefs’ Easy Eighth Album’ it becomes pertinent to ask if they might have instead gone for a different self-referential title: everything is average nowadays. Guided by ex-Rudimental producer Amir Amor and part-facilitated by a songwriting hook up with Nile Rodgers, the band’s latest missive is a middle-aged identity crisis.
Written by: Jack Press | Date: Tuesday, 05 March 2024
Everything Everything - Mountainhead (Album Review)
Photo: Steve Gullick Following the release of ‘Get to Heaven’ in 2015 there was a hell of a lot for Everything Everything to live up to. The album was a maximalist reset for their sound, setting a benchmark that their ensuing work, while nothing to sniff at, couldn’t quite reach. But they’ve gone up a gear with ‘Mountainhead’, a record that finally stands as a worthy successor.
Written by: Adam England | Date: Tuesday, 05 March 2024
Liam Gallagher and John Squire - Liam Gallagher John Squire (Album Review)
Photo: Tom Oxley This isn’t really what anyone had in mind when it came to Liam Gallagher uniting with another Manchester legend. After so much to-ing and fro-ing with his brother Noel, and the slightest hint of an Oasis reunion, he’s chosen instead to team up with Stone Roses guitarist John Squire.
Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Monday, 04 March 2024
Real Estate - Daniel (Album Review)
Photo: Sinna Nasseri Over the past 15 years, Real Estate have mastered the sort of gentle jangle-pop that might soundtrack days spent at the beach following sunny road trips along coastal highways. They might one day veer from the blacktop but their sixth album continues to follow that road, drawing strength from its comforting sense of familiarity.
Written by: Matthew McLister | Date: Friday, 01 March 2024
Mick Mars - The Other Side Of Mars (Album Review)
Given the furore over his retirement from Mötley Crüe after four decades of riffs and glam-metal excess, Mick Mars had a lot of fuel with which to approach his first solo record. On ‘The Other Side Of Mars’ the guitarist seeks to display, you guessed it, another side to his work, pairing his undimmed skills as a guitarist with the dominant vocal abilities of Jacob Bunton and Brion Gamboa. When they click, they are something of a force of nature together, but too often they don’t.
Written by: Issy Herring | Date: Wednesday, 28 February 2024
Nadine Shah - Filthy Underneath (Album Review)
Photo: Tim Topple Anyone attending recent Depeche Mode shows would have been treated, however briefly, to a bewitching support slot from Nadine Shah. In her grasp she held a clutch of new songs from ‘Filthy Underneath’, an album that encompasses so much about what makes the Tyneside artist so deeply admired and loved.
Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Wednesday, 28 February 2024
iDKHOW - Gloom Division (Album Review)
Photo: MANIC PROJECT ‘Gloom Division’ is the second studio album from former Panic!At the Disco bassist Dallon Weekes under the not-at-all-clunky name I Dont Know How But They Found Me, or iDKHOW for short. For the most part, it’s a sunny synth-drenched popsicle, balancing chunky rhythms and bass with catchy-ish melodies and theatrical vocals.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 28 February 2024
The Snuts - Millennials (Album Review)
Photo: Gaz Williamson ‘Millennials’ is the Snuts’ third studio album, but notably the first the Scottish indie-rockers have released on their own label, Happy Artists. Finding that their vision no longer aligned with that of their major label, Parlophone, the name of their new home is decidedly pointed.
Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Tuesday, 27 February 2024
MGMT - Loss of Life (Album Review)
Photo: Jonah Freeman Since invading indie-rock with their hugely successful debut ‘Oracular Spectacular’ in 2007, MGMT have hummed along in the background, leaning heavily into electronic music and releasing records that led to a heady fusion of several styles. Returning with their fifth album ‘Loss of Life’, their first in six years, Andrew VanWyngarden and Benjamin Goldwasser prove that they still aren’t comfortable playing it safe.
Written by: Chris Connor | Date: Tuesday, 27 February 2024
Serpentwithfeet - Grip (Album Review)
Even when viewed alongside such luminaries as Frank Ocean, Steve Lacy, and Blood Orange’s Dev Hynes, Serpentwithfeet’s unique vocal inflections and heart-rending melodies have helped him to stand out in a blossoming R&B scene informed by the experiences of queer black men. He has one of the most haunting voices in the entire genre but ‘Grip’ shows that he also has his share of unrealised potential.
Written by: Jay Fullarton | Date: Monday, 26 February 2024
Paloma Faith - The Glorification of Sadness (Album Review)
A lot can change in four years. Paloma Faith’s sixth album ‘The Glorification of Sadness’ offers quite the contrast to ‘Infinite Things’, flipping that record’s focus on all-consuming love to something closer to triumph despite heartbreak. What we have here is “a divorce album without the divorce” as the chart-topping singer-songwriter leans heavily on her work following a turbulent split with her long-term partner.
Written by: Issy Herring | Date: Monday, 26 February 2024
Laura Jane Grace - Hole In My Head (Album Review)
Photo: Bella Peterson Since the pandemic, Laura Jane Grace’s solo career has become less of a side quest than a main adventure. In the first two years of this decade, the Against Me! frontwoman pulled two stellar releases from her sleeve — 2020’s ‘Stay Alive’ and 2021’s ‘At War With The Silverfish’ EP — with no prior warning.
Written by: Emma Wilkes | Date: Friday, 23 February 2024
William Doyle - Springs Eternal (Album Review)
‘Springs Eternal’ is the latest missive from William Doyle, the Bournemouth electronic (and occasionally ambient) producer also known for a time as East India Youth. It finds this tender soul in diverse spirits, delivering a record of impressive versatility, if not always solid gold songwriting.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Thursday, 22 February 2024
IDLES - Tangk (Album Review)
Each new IDLES album has come to feel like a turning point, with the Bristol band always reaching for something approaching a defining statement. ‘Tangk’ is no different, stepping into a revolving door of love songs that are alternately angry, soft, or gleeful.
Written by: Jack McGill | Date: Thursday, 22 February 2024
Grandaddy - Blu Wav (Album Review)
Photo: Dustin Aksland Fans of sad, cosmic alt-country rejoice! This small but fervent group will be ecstatic at the release of ‘Blu Wav’, the latest from California cult heroes Grandaddy, who looked for a while like they were finished.
Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Wednesday, 21 February 2024
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
Kali Uchis - Orquídeas (Album Review)
Photo: COUGHS Kali Uchis keeps moving. The Colombian-American singer only recently finished touring her last album, ‘Red Moon In Venus’, but she’s already back with her second predominantly Spanish-language release, ‘Orquídeas’.
Written by: Jack Terry | Date: Friday, 19 January 2024
The Vaccines - Pick-Up Full Of Pink Carnations (Album Review)
The Vaccines have reached a stage in their career where they can bend different themes to their will. Three years ago ‘Back In Love City’ was heavily inspired by dystopian blockbuster movies, but its excellent follow up ‘Pick-Up Full Of Pink Carnations’ is dominated instead by a dramatic, tangible feelings of loss.
Written by: Issy Herring | Date: Wednesday, 17 January 2024
Bill Ryder-Jones - Iechyd Da (Album Review)
Photo: Marieke Macklon Bill Ryder-Jones has come a long way from being recognised chiefly as The Coral’s lead guitarist. Since leaving the psych-rock band in 2008, he has fashioned a diverse, exciting solo career that, thanks to the patchy ‘Iechyd Da’, now runs to five albums.
Written by: Issy Herring | Date: Tuesday, 16 January 2024
