Khruangbin - A La Sala (Album Review)

Photo: David Black ‘A La Sala’ finds Khruangbin returning to low-key grooves, mixing spaghetti Western guitars with old-school drums and sauntering basslines. It is an excellent addition to the Houston trio’s catalogue, who continue to explore a distinctive, meticulous sound.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 10 April 2024

Vampire Weekend - Only God Was Above Us (Album Review)

Photo: Michael Schmelling Five years in the making, Vampire Weekend’s ‘Only God Was Above Us’ is a far cry from the group’s self-titled debut. Where that 2008 LP offered up insouciant indie-pop, here we have perhaps their most experimental work to date, combining a fixation on raga with slick production and dark, sombre lyrical themes.

Written by: Issy Herring | Date: Tuesday, 09 April 2024

Marcus King - Mood Swings (Album Review)

Photo: JM Collective Stratospheric rises are rarely without their drawbacks. When South Carolina blues prodigy Marcus King burst onto the scene with his band back in 2015 at the age of just 19, guitar fans the world over sat up and paid attention. 

Written by: Jack Butler-Terry | Date: Monday, 08 April 2024

Beyoncé - Cowboy Carter (Album Review)

Photo: Mason Poole “This is not a country album,” Beyoncé writes in the liner notes to ‘Cowboy Carter’. “This is a Beyoncé album.” There aren’t many artists who can pull off that sort of statement but, then again, there aren’t many artists who can pull whole styles of music into their orbit as she can. This is the second instalment in a shapeshifting trilogy that began with 2022’s disco-infused ‘Renaissance’ and across its mammoth 27 track running order Beyoncé leans into country history in fascinating fashion.

Written by: Katie Macbeth | Date: Thursday, 04 April 2024

Sheryl Crow - Evolution (Album Review)

With a sound that encompasses Americana, rock and country, Sheryl Crow’s 1990s records became the soundtrack to a thousand interstate drives. Meanwhile, her literate and witty storytelling ensured her fanbase stretched across the Atlantic and beyond.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Thursday, 04 April 2024

Elbow - Audio Vertigo (Album Review)

Elbow’s 10th studio album reveals a strength that has not always been apparent in their work: the ability to remain succinct. Around 35 songs were whittled down to 12 for ‘Audio Vertigo’, which was tracked at their own Migration Studios in Gloucestershire. Clocking in at 39 minutes, it fits neatly on two sides of vinyl and does away with anything resembling the lengthy, drawn out efforts that stud their back catalogue. As a result, it skips along nicely.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Thursday, 04 April 2024

Sum 41 - Heaven :x: Hell (Album Review)

Photo: Travis Shinn Sum 41 didn’t intend to write their own eulogy. Still, it speaks volumes that the Canadian band finished work on their eighth album — a sprawling 21-track opus that covers both their pop-punk side and their metal side — and knew it was the perfect way to close the book on two-and-a-bit decades together.

Written by: Emma Wilkes | Date: Wednesday, 03 April 2024

While She Sleeps - Self Hell (Album Review)

While She Sleeps have been undergoing a metamorphosis on their past few releases. Pushing past the metalcore fury of ‘You Are We’ and ‘Brainwashed’, the Sheffield band embraced electronics to greater degrees with ‘So What?’ and ‘Sleeps Society’. Their latest missive ‘Self Hell’ doesn’t just continue in that vein, it does take a sledgehammer to expectations.

Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Wednesday, 03 April 2024

Empress Of - For Your Consideration (Album Review)

Photo: Kaio Cesar Empress Of entered the scene in 2015 with in-your-face, feminist electronica. In the intervening years she has stood up her own label and refined her sound. But with a move towards club bangers, 'For Your Consideration' places Lorely Rodriguez in a pretty crowded field. 

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Tuesday, 02 April 2024

Gossip - Real Power (Album Review)

To some, Gossip have been defined by one song. It’s been almost 20 years since Standing In The Way Of Control cut through the indie sleaze scene with  groove and dancefloor ambition, making Beth Ditto into an LGBTQ+ icon and setting up a breakthrough album at the third time of asking. 

Written by: Matthew McLister | Date: Friday, 29 March 2024

The Jesus And Mary Chain - Glasgow Eyes (Album Review)

Photo: Steve Gullick Despite veering from uber cool to directionless, the Jesus & Mary Chain’s eighth album is a more cohesive band effort than its predecessor, 2017’s ‘Damage & Joy’, which was mainly built around pieces the Reid brothers had accumulated individually during the band’s almost decade-long hiatus.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Thursday, 28 March 2024

Lauran Hibberd - Girlfriend Material (Album Review)

Photo: Emily Marcovecchio Sometimes you need something to transport you to a different place; to get away from whatever’s slowing you down. For the most part that’s what Lauran Hibberd’s ‘Girlfriend Material’ provides, its satisfactory indie-rock speckled with pop culture references to make you feel included in its part break up, part grief, part Mean Girls world.

Written by: Jack McGill | Date: Wednesday, 27 March 2024

Adrianne Lenker - Bright Future (Album Review)

Photo: Germaine Dunes Adrianne Lenker’s latest solo album feels like a work in progress — these are rough and raw songs recorded onto tape before they can be crafted into something solid and sellable. This, perhaps, is the point.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Tuesday, 26 March 2024

Waxahatchee - Tigers Blood (Album Review)

Waxahatchee’s 2020 record ‘Saint Cloud’ will likely come to be viewed as a tipping point in the career of singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield. Her fifth record in eight years, it transformed her from indie-folk’s best kept secret into an alt-Americana star.

Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Friday, 22 March 2024

Judas Priest - Invincible Shield (Album Review)

Photo: James Hodges More than 50 years in the game have established Judas Priest as one of the UK’s most important bands, metal or otherwise. It would take something truly risible to tarnish that legacy at this point and their 19th album certainly isn’t that. On ‘Invincible Shield’ the quintet prove the value of experience with another rock solid record.

Written by: Jack Butler-Terry | Date: Thursday, 21 March 2024

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