Touché Amoré - Spiral In A Straight Line (Album Review)

Photo: Sean Stout You can feel the emotion that roars from Jeremy Bolm’s voice in your bones and to know anything about Touché Amoré’s music is to know that their frontman should have been broken a long time ago. The California hardcore band’s previous two records dealt with the gravitational pull of grief following the death of his mother, finding catharsis but not necessarily a way out. Now, ‘Spiral In A Straight Line’ maps the way to exit. 

Written by: Jack McGill | Date: Monday, 21 October 2024

Goat - Goat (Album Review)

Goat’s sixth studio record sees the masked Swedish rockers saunter through afrobeat, funk, pastoral folk and more in a psychedelic journey of extreme joy. The result is a record of interstellar overdrive and creative overflow that jinks and zigs and spirals while just about hanging together.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Thursday, 17 October 2024

Caribou - Honey (Album Review)

If earlier Caribou albums hadn’t already, ‘Honey’ proves that Dan Snaith is a sure pair of hands for energetic and musically intellectual dance music. But what sets it apart from previous endeavours is the pace. From the opening track, Broke My Heart, this record picks up momentum that evolves throughout and never wavers.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 16 October 2024

Drug Church - Prude (Album Review)

Photo: Manuel Barajas On the surface, Patrick Kindlon is one of the most comically cynical writers in hardcore’s recent history. But Drug Church’s fifth album ‘Prude’ is so much more than that — there is painfully catchy and arresting guitar work that keeps the record moving, along with genuine depth of feeling.

Written by: Jack McGill | Date: Tuesday, 15 October 2024

The Hard Quartet - The Hard Quartet (Album Review)

Photo: Atiba Jefferson The Hard Quartet’s lineup reads like a Comic Con lineup for indie heads, bringing together Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus, The Cairo Gang’s Emmett Kelly, Chavez’s Matt Sweeney, and Dirty Three’s Jim White. Reflecting its members’ wandering tastes, the supergroup’s self-titled debut is a sprawling buffet of decades and genres.

Written by: Jack Press | Date: Friday, 11 October 2024

Jake Bugg - A Modern Day Distraction (Album Review)

Photo: Kevin Westenberg When Jake Bugg burst onto the scene as an 18-year-old, his debut album’s distinctive throwback blend of indie, folk and skiffle set him up as a future giant. In the decade since, though, he has opted to experiment with different sounds, incorporating elements of country and electronic music with varying degrees of success. His latest ‘A Modern Day Distraction’, sees a return to the more raw sound of his early work. 

Written by: Chris Connor | Date: Friday, 11 October 2024

Geordie Greep - The New Sound (Album Review)

Photo: Yis Kid Geordie Greep’s debut solo album is a smutty mix of chamber pop, Baxter Dury and Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads. Over 11 tracks we are introduced to energetic, desperate characters envisioned and performed by the former Black Midi guitarist — they plead and prate and ultimately fail to reassure. As a group they seem locked in an occasionally delicious death spiral of substance abuse and sexual ennui. You’re going on a journey, or actually, several.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Thursday, 10 October 2024

Godspeeed You! Black Emperor - No Title As of 13 February 2024, 28,340 Dead (Album Review)

Photo: Yannick Grandmont Godspeed You! Black Emperor have always excelled at crafting poignant, expansive post-rock, telling instrumental stories where words won’t do. Never has that sentiment been more true than with ‘No Title as of 13 February 2024, 28,340 Dead’. The band’s eighth album’s title makes explicit reference to the death toll in Gaza and its six movements are odes to both the devastation wrought and also small glimmers of hope.

Written by: Will Marshall | Date: Thursday, 10 October 2024

The Smile - Cutouts (Album Review)

Photo: ShinKatan x Weirdcore It has been almost a decade since the last Radiohead record landed, but it’s not like that space has been filled with silence. ‘Cutouts’ is the second release by The Smile — Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood alongside Sons of Kemet’s Tom Skinner — in 2024 and their third in two years. As we have come to expect it is another varied album charting their diverse range of influences in a more playful manner than Yorke and Greenwood might have in the past.

Written by: Chris Connor | Date: Wednesday, 09 October 2024

Coldplay - Moon Music (Album Review)

Photo: Anna Lee It feels like Coldplay aren’t really making albums anymore, instead they’re making setlist alterations for their stadium tours. ‘Moon Music’, like 2021’s ‘Music Of The Spheres’ before it, feels more like listening to the second disc of a best of compilation — you’ve heard all the hits so here’s some more, just not as good.

Written by: Jack Press | Date: Wednesday, 09 October 2024

SOPHIE - SOPHIE (Album Review)

Photo: Renata Raksha Almost four years on from her death, SOPHIE’s influence continues to reverberate. Numerous artists operating in disparate genres have paid tribute to her groundbreaking work, showcasing a profound and lasting  impact on contemporary music. Honouring her legacy, though, poses a complex challenge.

Written by: Katie Macbeth | Date: Tuesday, 08 October 2024

Maxïmo Park - Stream of Life (Album Review)

Photo: Moja When Maxïmo Park emerged almost two decades ago their well-read indie-pop quickly pushed them to the top of a thriving British rock scene, with indie disco ubiquity becoming a brief flirtation with mainstream celebrity. Given the shifting sands of the industry, the Newcastle band’s stock isn’t quite as high today but ‘Stream of Life’ is performed as though they’re still in their mid-‘00s heyday.

Written by: Matthew McLister | Date: Monday, 07 October 2024

Sunflower Bean - Shake (Album Review)

Photo: Yulissa Benitez Sunflower Bean’s run to date has been defined by their willingness to dabble in multiple genres and their new EP ‘Shake’ is no different. The New York trio’s latest has more grit and edge than a lot of their previous work, while retaining their love of pleasing melodies and low-key, dulcet vocals.

Written by: Nieve Elis | Date: Monday, 07 October 2024

Christian Lee Hutson - Paradise Pop. 10 (Album Review)

Photo: Michael Delaney Christian Lee Hutson’s fourth album of character studies disguised as intimate folk-pop ditties is his most immersive to date. Assuming the role of an airport-stranded people-watcher, ‘Paradise Pop. 10’ explores the complexities of interpersonal relationships with new found compositional verve.

Written by: Jack Press | Date: Friday, 04 October 2024

Ezra Collective - Dance, No One's Watching (Album Review)

Photo: YOUT The rise of Ezra Collective has been nothing short of astonishing. Already a cornerstone of the blossoming London jazz scene during the past few years, the ensemble's rise was capped with the 2023 Mercury Prize for their album ‘Where I’m Meant To Be’. Naturally, there is a feverish sense of anticipation for its follow up, the aptly-titled ‘Dance, No One’s Watching’. But it delivers, and then some.

Written by: Chris Connor | Date: Friday, 04 October 2024

Pale Waves - Smitten (Album Review)

Photo: Kelsi Luck Over the course of a decade, Pale Waves have developed a large fanbase thanks to their pairing of ‘80s-inspired synthy indie-rock with a cool, grungy aesthetic. Their fourth album doesn’t do away with this formula but it does offer a twist, taking their sound in a softer, more outwardly pop direction. As its title suggests, ‘Smitten’ could easily serve as the soundtrack for a heartwarming queer coming-of-age love story. 

Written by: Nieve Elis | Date: Thursday, 03 October 2024

Thurston Moore - Flow Critical Lucidity (Album Review)

The first thing that comes to mind when Thurston Moore’s name is mentioned will always be Sonic Youth, a band that made indie-rock all the more malleable for later generations. But since their demise he has had his finger in many pies, as a teacher, author, label owner and solo artist, which is where we find him on the meditative ‘Flow Critical Lucidity’.

Written by: Jack McGill | Date: Wednesday, 02 October 2024

Bright Eyes - Five Dice, All Threes (Album Review)

There is a feeling of whiplash at the heart of Bright Eyes’ ‘Five Dice, All Threes’, where an undercurrent of joy meets Conor Oberst’s pen as he wages war on existential dread once more — suicide references pock almost every song, while religion and politics plague joyful pots and pans indie-folk that doubles down on discordant harmonies, poetic juxtaposition, and chaotic sound collages.

Written by: Jack Press | Date: Wednesday, 02 October 2024

The Jesus Lizard - Rack (Album Review)

Photo: Joshua Black Wilkins It’s been a quarter of the century since The Jesus Lizard disbanded. Sure, there was a brief live comeback in the late 2010s, but the Texan noise-rockers soon went their separate ways again. It seemed for all the world that the final chapter was written. What a delight it is, then, to have ‘Rack’, the band’s seventh full length album, with us. What’s even more delightful, though, is that it makes it feel as though they never went away.

Written by: Jack Butler-Terry | Date: Tuesday, 01 October 2024

The Voidz - Like All Before You (Album Review)

Photo: Cheryl Georgette Away from the more straightforward garage-rock style of The Strokes, Julian Casablancas has used The Voidz to indulge in the sort of experiments that wouldn’t light a fire under his main band. Not that everyone has been on board with this approach, however. When their debut ‘Tyranny’ arrived in 2014, reviews were somewhat mixed — it was either unlistenable or refreshingly eclectic, depending on who you asked.

Written by: Matthew McLister | Date: Monday, 30 September 2024