Marika Hackman - Big Sigh (Album Review)
Photo: Steve Gullick Marika Hackman’s ‘Big Sigh’ is just that: a therapeutic release of sadness, stress, and lust described by the indie-rock auteur as the hardest album she has ever had to make.
Written by: Katie Macbeth | Date: Monday, 15 January 2024
Sprints - Letter to Self (Album Review)
Photo: JP Dougherty Sprints have already amassed a solid live following since forming in 2019, but nothing can truly prepare you for their debut album ‘Letter to Self’. It’s a work that sounds like it was made by a more weathered band, but it retains such a sense of vitality and urgency it constantly strains at the seams.
Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Friday, 12 January 2024
Nicki Minaj - Pink Friday 2 (Album Review)
When Nicki Minaj came onto the scene she changed the game, particularly with her 2010 debut album ‘Pink Friday’. Since then she has solidified her standing, but that artistic catalyst remains untouched, making this sequel all the more appealing.
Written by: Jack Terry | Date: Wednesday, 20 December 2023
Health - Rat Wars (Album Review)
Photo: Mynxii White It’s cold, dark and wet outside, so it’s the ideal time to crank up some moody industrial rock to get the blood pumping. Health's ‘Rat Wars’ is the perfect companion.
Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Wednesday, 13 December 2023
Tate McRae - Think Later (Album Review)
Tate McRae isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel. There’s nothing you haven’t heard before on ‘Think Later’, from its nods to ‘Beauty Behind The Madness’-era The Weeknd and the darkly-lit vulnerability of Billie Eilish, or its embrace of PVRIS-style electro rock, but she does most of it really, really well.
Written by: Jack Press | Date: Tuesday, 12 December 2023
Full of Hell and Nothing - When No Birds Sang (Album Review)
Photo: Caleb Conner On the surface, acerbic powerviolence outfit Full of Hell and shoegazers Nothing have essentially that in common. But appearances can be deceiving.
Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Monday, 11 December 2023
Spector - Here Come the Early Nights (Album Review)
On ‘Here Come The Early Nights’ Spector pull off a difficult trick — they stay true to who they are while moving on, displaying fresh perspective from within the same fizzing indie songs that made them big fish in the UK indie scene of the early 2010s, alongside bands such as Peace, JAWS and Swim Deep.
Written by: Katie Macbeth | Date: Thursday, 07 December 2023
Guided By Voices - Nowhere To Go But Up (Album Review)
Photo: Trevor Naud There is a decidedly festive thrust to The Race Is On, The King Is Dead, the opener on Guided By Voices’ third, and one can only assume final, full length release of 2023. Amid tolling bells and swaggering guitars, frontman Robert Pollard is in celebratory form as he ushers in another set of songs that are almost impossible to fathom.
Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Wednesday, 06 December 2023
Take That - This Life (Album Review)
Is there still space for Take That in 2023? It’s been more than three decades since the release of their debut album, and almost two since their comeback, while their core appeal has been diluted by the sorts of comings and goings that affect most legacy acts. Robbie Williams rejoined, and then left again, and since the departure of Jason Orange in 2014 the group has become a trio. But ‘This Life’, their first album of new material in six years, shows beyond all else that they still know their audience.
Written by: Adam England | Date: Tuesday, 05 December 2023
The Goa Express - The Goa Express (Album Review)
Photo: Cal Moores Thanks to their infectious, hooky brand of guitar pop, Burnley five-piece The Goa Express have established themselves as one of the UK’s brightest young bands. Their self-titled debut album only underlines that sense of promise, serving up a fantastic collection of explosive indie tracks laden with psych harmonies.
Written by: Matthew McLister | Date: Monday, 04 December 2023
Peter Gabriel - I/O (Album Review)
Photo: Nadav Kander Peter Gabriel has led an eclectic career, initially as a flautist and vocalist for prog icons Genesis before launching a hugely successful solo career studded with hits including Sledgehammer, Solsbury Hill and Big Time. But, remarkably, it has been 21 years since his last album of original material, 2002’s ‘Up’.
Written by: Chris Connor | Date: Friday, 01 December 2023
2 Chainz & Lil Wayne - Welcome 2 Collegrove (Album Review)
Seven years on from the red-tape nightmare of ‘ColleGrove’, Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz are back together again, this time with both of their names on the marquee. ‘Welcome 2 Collegrove’ has been painstakingly assembled to make sure that the record is co-signed properly this time and Wayne’s face on the cover feels like a real show of “Yes, he's really on this one!”
Written by: Jack Terry | Date: Wednesday, 29 November 2023
Chris Stapleton - Higher (Album Review)
Photo: Becky Fluke Country music as a genre is conservative with both a small and a big ‘C’. When country singers move beyond quite strict musical and storytelling parameters, they risk being ostracised, debarred. “That ain’t country,” is a battlecry for barstool bores from Nashville to Austin.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Tuesday, 28 November 2023
Danny Brown - Quaranta (Album Review)
Photo: Peter Beste Danny Brown is a busy man. The Detroit rapper has already released one album this year — ‘Scaring The Hoes’, a supreme collaborative effort with JPEGMAFIA — as well as maintaining a weekly podcast. It’s also been a time of immense change, with a stint in rehab a capper to the circumstances that led to the creation of ‘Quaranta’ during a period of heavy drinking and drug use that spilled out of the pandemic.
Written by: Jack Terry | Date: Monday, 27 November 2023
Beirut - Hadsel (Album Review)
Photo: Lina Gaißer Like many of Beirut’s albums, understanding how ‘Hadsel’ was conceived and recorded is important, but only gets you so far. After a ruthless touring schedule and the pandemic Zach Condon, Beirut’s front and often only man, withdrew to a Norwegian church to assemble the follow up to 2019’s ‘Gallipoli’. Despite its reverent, deep organ mingling with weaving Nordic choruses throughout, ‘Hadsel’ emerges as a mostly joyful and surprisingly spirited album.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Friday, 24 November 2023
André 3000 - New Blue Sun (Album Review)
When André 3000 announced his debut solo album and first full length in 17 years, people immediately paid attention. But when we found out that the OutKast legend’s ‘New Blue Sun’ was an 87-minute instrumental flute record, there were questions. How could it be that one of the greatest rappers and lyricists to ever grace the game was going to do without words?
Written by: Jack Terry | Date: Thursday, 23 November 2023
Dolly Parton - Rockstar (Album Review)
Being the Queen of Country is, apparently, not enough for Dolly Parton. Following her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022, she has set out to earn her stripes in that grizzled arena with ‘Rockstar’, a 30 song behemoth of a record that combines covers and a handful of originals performed alongside megawatt guest stars.
Written by: Jack Press | Date: Tuesday, 21 November 2023
Johnny Flynn and Robert Macfarlane - The Moon Also Rises
During lockdown, Johnny Flynn teamed up with nature writer and commentator Robert Macfarlane to record an album of surprising wit, purpose and solemnity based around the Epic of Gilgamesh. Now, with the world sort-of back to normal, the two have collaborated for a second record. It’s bigger and brighter, and continues to build on Flynn’s distinctive catalogue of southern English pastoral folk.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Monday, 20 November 2023
PinkPantheress - Heaven Knows (Album Review)
Photo: Aidan Zamiri PinkPantheress’s rise has been nothing if not rapid. In the span of a couple of years the 22-year-old has gone from anonymously posting mixes on social media to a couple of million TikTok followers and monthly streaming stats in the same ballpark. Her debut album ‘Heaven Knows’ is perfectly pitched to continue that momentum.
Written by: Katie Macbeth | Date: Friday, 17 November 2023
Baby Queen - Quarter Life Crisis (Album Review)
An album about existential anxiety has no right to be this enjoyable. But in following up her 2021 mixtape ‘The Yearbook’, Baby Queen’s debut LP manages to neatly merge fun with a lurking sense of dread.
Written by: Adam England | Date: Thursday, 16 November 2023
Jockstrap - I<3UQTINVU (Album Review)
Photo: Eddie Whelan Jockstrap occupy a strange space. They are musical oddballs who produce the sort of music many might baulk at, and yet, they are also radio-play regulars with a Mercury Prize nomination to their name. ‘I<3UQTINVU’ (shorthand for 'I Love You Cutie, I Envy You') is more interested in exploring the former state than the latter.
Written by: Jo Higgs | Date: Wednesday, 15 November 2023
Kevin Abstract - Blanket (Album Review)
Photo: Arseni Khachaturan Where do you go after a break-up? Usually, nowhere specific. You float around for a while and find out where or how you’re meant to exist without a former constant in your life. Kevin Abstract’s latest solo album ‘Blanket’ finds the former Brockhampton leader in this open-ended spot, navigating a world without the anchor that saw him from adolescent to adult.
Written by: Jack McGill | Date: Thursday, 09 November 2023
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - The Silver Cord (Album Review)
How much synth could a lizard wizard synth if a lizard wizard could play a synth? Well, here’s your answer. ‘The Silver Cord’ is King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s 25th album, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have new tricks up their billowing sleeves.
Written by: Jack McGill | Date: Wednesday, 08 November 2023
Empty Country - Empty Country II (Album Review)
Not content with releasing four blistering records as the frontman of the post-rocking indie-punks Cymbal Eat Guitars, in 2020 Joseph D’Agostino announced an entirely new project in the form of Empty Country. Far from being a poor imitation of what had come before, it signalled a fresh chapter and reinvigorated way of working for the songwriter, whose razor sharp observations of American life bled into his increasingly fictitious writing style.
Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Wednesday, 08 November 2023
Tkay Maidza - Sweet Justice (Album Review)
Photo: Dana Trippe It feels as though Tkay Maidza has been set to achieve household name status for several years now. The versatile Zimbabwean-Australian vocalist has all the ingredients to become the next big thing — her sound is a dream fusion of bass-heavy Megan Thee Stallion-esque rap and SZA-style alternative R&B.
Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Tuesday, 07 November 2023
Bombay Bicycle Club - My Big Day (Album Review)
Photo: Tom Oxley ‘My Big Day’, Bombay Bicycle Club’s sixth studio album, is a collab-laden journey through the neon fairground of the soul, with guest appearances from Damon Albarn, Nilüfer Yanya and Jay Som, among others. The result is a tight and colourful record that keeps the band relevant, but doesn’t break new ground.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Monday, 06 November 2023
Taylor Swift - 1989 (Taylor's Version) (Album Review)
Photo: Beth Garrabrant Many songwriters will tell you that when their material is first written and recorded it’s like a baby who’s yet to develop a fully formed identity. That often comes over time due to performing them every night, where they begin to communicate to their creators who they are and what they mean. Having spent nearly a decade with ‘1989’, Taylor Swift’s latest re-recording project suggests she has developed a particularly nuanced, loving relationship with her mega-selling pop-opus.
Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Friday, 03 November 2023
DJ Shadow - Action Adventure (Album Review)
Photo: Koury Angelo On his seventh album, DJ Shadow has reined in the collaborations with vocalists and put his compositional nous front and centre. The result feels like a trippy 1980s mixtape with synths and boom-bap drums intersecting elegantly. Though it doesn’t quite have the emotional or commercial viability of 2019’s ‘Our Pathetic Age’, it lands in a pretty handsome sweet spot, with an awe inspiring degree of production versatility.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Thursday, 02 November 2023
The Mountain Goats - Jenny From Thebes (Album Review)
Photo: Jackie Lee Young Serious questions would need to be raised if anyone claimed to be the same person that they were 20 years ago. Time ultimately softens some aspects of our personalities while hardening others against the world. And, while there is no shame in being content with our own histories, most people would go back and make a few changes if they could.
Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Wednesday, 01 November 2023
Duran Duran - Danse Macabre (Album Review)
Duran Duran are back with their sixteenth album and, given the season, it’s an appropriately ghoulish affair. Blending original tunes with classic covers and spooked-up versions of their own songs, ‘Danse Macabre’ has its roots in a Halloween show the band played in Las Vegas, and demonstrates the fun and silliness that they have made one of their defining characteristics over the past 45 years.
Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Tuesday, 31 October 2023
The Gaslight Anthem - History Books (Album Review)
Photo: Casey McAllister No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. Almost a decade on from the release of their last studio album, The Gaslight Anthem are back with ‘History Books’.
Written by: Adam England | Date: Monday, 30 October 2023
Dream Nails - Doom Loop (Album Review)
Dream Nails are a band of intention, fearlessly tackling topics that many avoid as they don’t have the mettle — not to mention the musical chops — to turn an unacceptable socio-political reality into something captivating and joyful.
Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Friday, 27 October 2023
Offset - Set It Off (Album Review)
The best word to describe Offset’s career to date is turbulent. On one hand there’s being part of one of trap's greatest groups, Migos, and forming a rap power-couple with Cardi B. On the other is scandal and tragedy, including the loss of his bandmate Takeoff last year. Nothing has come easy, and so it is with his second solo album 'Set It Off'.
Written by: Jack Terry | Date: Wednesday, 25 October 2023
Sampha - Lahai (Album Review)
Sometimes life goes in circles. Sampha’s ‘Lahai’ is a long-awaited return that follows up a long-awaited debut, picking up where 2017’s ‘Process’ left off before journeying to a host of unexpected realms.
Written by: Tom Morgan | Date: Wednesday, 25 October 2023
††† (Crosses) - Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete. (Album Review)
Photo: Brian Ziff For the past few years ††† (Crosses), the synthwave project helmed by Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and Far guitarist Shaun Lopez, have been drip feeding new material to fans. The slow-burn has been building towards a full length follow up to 2014's self-titled debut, and it's been worth the wait.
Written by: Jack Terry | Date: Tuesday, 24 October 2023
Blink-182 - One More Time (Album Review)
Photo: Jack Bridgland There’s a new Blink-182 album featuring the unmistakable drawl of Tom DeLonge and puerile humour that drips from song titles such as Edging. The year is, somehow, 2023. Following Mark Hoppus’s recovery from cancer the pop-punk titans are back in the configuration that conquered the world two decades ago — with Travis Barker still behind the kit and DeLonge’s return meaning the exit of Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba — and ‘One More Time…’ is their chance to take one more stab at things.
Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Monday, 23 October 2023
The Streets - The Darker The Shadow The Brighter The Light (Album Review)
Mike Skinner, clipper lighter aficionado, DJ and the mind behind The Streets, has been slipping in and out of the zeitgeist for decades, soundtracking lost nights and reflective mornings. On ‘The Darker The Shadow The Brighter The Light’ he shows his words have lost none of their potency.
Written by: Jack McGill | Date: Friday, 20 October 2023
Creeper - Sanguivore (Album Review)
British punks Creeper arrive at their third studio album with a sweeping sense of gothic grandeur now a vital part of their sound. On ‘Sanguivore’ the band plays into every tongue-in-cheek spooky narrative and arterial fountain with total confidence and an unshakeable sense of self.
Written by: Rebecca Llewellyn | Date: Wednesday, 18 October 2023
The Menzingers - Some Of It Was True (Album Review)
Photo: Danielle Dubois On the surface, heartland rock is a lot like buses. You wait years for a band to bring it back, and suddenly The Gaslight Anthem have reformed while Bruce Springsteen is on the road racking up stadium show after stadium show. In the background, though, The Menzingers’ wheels never stopped spinning.
Written by: Jack Press | Date: Tuesday, 17 October 2023
Troye Sivan - Something To Give Each Other (Album Review)
Photo: Stuart Winecoff It has been a long five years since Troye Sivan released ‘Bloom’, an album that received praise for vulnerable, defiant tracks that honestly discussed his experiences of being a queer man, enabling Sivan to situate himself as one of pop’s most essential voices. Its follow up, ‘Something To Give Each Other’ adds further colours to his palette: it is a 10 track celebration of sex, community, queerness, love, and friendship.
Written by: Katie Macbeth | Date: Tuesday, 17 October 2023
The Drums - Jonny (Album Review)
Photo: Qiao Meng Critical darlings during the early 2010s, The Drums have always exuded an effortless sort of charisma. Their plaintive and irresistibly catchy brand of indie-pop, which grafted a west coast vibe onto a krautrock backbone, was a welcome reprieve from much of the overwrought, overly serious music of the time.
Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Friday, 13 October 2023
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
