Reviews
July 2024
5th July
Album Review
4 Stars
Kasabian - Happenings
Rarely predictable, and full of genuinely interesting choices.
Album Review
4 Stars
KOKOKO! - BUTU
Relentlessly frenetic fun.
12th July
Album Review
5 Stars
BERWYN - WHO AM I
An impeccably delivered expression of BERWYN’s multitudes.
Album Review
3 Stars
Cat Burns - Early Twenties
Its title implies an artist still trying things on for size, and there are certainly some emotionally astute gems to be found.
Album Review
4-5 Stars
Clairo - Charm
The intricacies of ‘Charm’ demand to be intimately known.
Album Review
3-5 Stars
Griff - vertigo
The sum of its parts is triumphant in quality.
EP Review
4 Stars
Metronomy - Posse EP Volume 2
A project that sees band leader Joe Mount collaborating with artists across a range of genres to frequently thrilling effect.
Album Review
5 Stars
Remi Wolf - Big Ideas
A record that stands up well against the high bar set by her debut, in both scope and ambition.
Album Review
3-5 Stars
STONE - Fear Life For A Lifetime
An album that continues to show the band as exciting still-newcomers.
17th July
Album Review
4 Stars
bby - 1
Prepped for the summer’s festival stages.
19th July
Review
3-5 Stars
Denzel Curry - King Of The Mischievous South Vol. 2
Never boring.
Album Review
4-5 Stars
Glass Animals - I Love You So F***ing Much
Confident, self-aware, and ambitious.
Album Review
4-5 Stars
Lava La Rue - Starface
A window into the multitudes of an artist who’s evidently brimming with them.
Album Review
4-5 Stars
Los Campesinos! - All Hell
Among the signature melancholy, there’s a sense of contentment.
Album Review
4 Stars
Role Model - Kansas Anymore
A fun, emotive showcase of classically pop-rock songwriting.
Album Review
5 Stars
SOFT PLAY - Heavy Jelly
The pair have come a long way to get here, but have made easily their best album yet by simply being themselves.
3-5 Stars
Weird Milk - We Were Strangers
A short collection that’s retro-leaning, no doubt.
2 Stars
Brian Eno & Karl Hyde - Someday World
The strongest tracks on the record are those where Eno’s influence is most clearly felt.
3 Stars
Chad VanGaalen - Shrink Dust
Every word is intended, never inferred.
3 Stars
Coldplay - Ghost Stories
Martin at his most tender, heartfelt and tangibly ready to sell his thoughts.
3 Stars
Conor Oberst - Upside Down Mountain
Oberst possesses an uplifting energy that suits him well.
2 Stars
Creative Adult - Psychic Mess
Creative Adult just sound like they’re spitting at the bus stop and trying to convince someone older to buy them the smallest, cheapest vodka.
3 Stars
Elephant - Sky Swimming
A cohesive compilation of songs that may change in theme but never its soul.
2 Stars
Japanther - Instant Money Magic
For a moment it’s almost like Japanther are revitalised and reinvigorated.
3 Stars
La Sera - Hour of the Dawn
More punk-pop than pop-punk.
3 Stars
Oliver Wilde - Red Tide Opal In The Loose End Womb
Nothing short of fascinating.
3 Stars
Owen Pallett - In Conflict
An undeniably strong album, in which existing fans will find much to love.
3 Stars
Papercuts - Life Among The Savages
A more refined, more focused Papercuts than before.
3 Stars
Smoke Fairies - Smoke Fairies
A largely mixed bag of lyrically intelligent but sometimes slightly weak songs.
2 Stars
TEEN - The Way And Color
Louder, bolder, but a little less unique.
3 Stars
The Black Keys – Turn Blue
Less ‘El Camino’, more a bright yellow Lamborghini.
3 Stars
The Faint – Doom Abuse
Good – but not great.
3 Stars
The Icypoles - My World Was Made For You
An undercurrent of dissent is continually offset with a sunny, joyous disposition.
3 Stars
The Pack A.D. - Do Not Engage
Within just two tracks of ‘Do Not Engage’, the pair from Vancouver have you completely arrested – and there’s no right to remain silent.
3 Stars
Tom Williams And The Boat – Easy Fantastic
Less ruffian troubadour, more world-weary and mature.
2 Stars
We Were Evergreen - Towards
The Parisian trio are at their best when they keep their sound as simple as possible.
3 Stars
Woods - With Light And With Love
Perhaps their most immediate, but also most expansive release yet.
3 Stars
Wye Oak - Shriek
An album of intriguing musical variety and striking emotional intimacy.
2 Stars
Yann Tiersen - Infinity
Simply too mired in experimentation.
2 Stars
Chuck Inglish - Convertibles
So secure in its foundations yet still so out of place.
3 Stars
Fatherson - I Am An Island
A solid debut with more than a hint of songwriting beauty, passion and appeal.
2 Stars
OFF! - Wasted Years
16 slices of ramshackle garage punk with its beating 80s heart worn well and truly on its sleeve.
3 Stars
Owls - Two
The sound of a band trying to fit back into clothes it has outgrown.
3 Stars
Ramona Lisa - Arcadia
An endearingly frustrating record that deserves more treatment than it is given, if only for its stellar lyrical content.
3 Stars
Ratking - So It Goes
Incredibly daring hip-hop that isn’t trying to impress, but does so anyway.
3 Stars
The Amazing Snakeheads – Amphetamine Ballads
So dark, so seedy, so grotty basement-fuelled, it’s possible to smell, feel and touch damp while it plays.
3 Stars
Coves - Soft Friday
An album with doomed romance writ large over it.
3 Stars
Howler - World Of Joy
‘World of Joy’ bursts at the seams with verve and vitality.
3 Stars
Jimi Goodwin - Odludek
Goodwin’s talent as a multi-instrumentalist and orchestrator shines through the album.
3 Stars
Kevin Drew - Darlings
‘Darlings’ is a good record.
3 Stars
Lucius - Wildewoman
There’s a balance between a sweet, butter wouldn’t melt surface and a resolutely ballsy undercurrent.
3 Stars
S. Carey - Range Of Light
Dreamy in every imaginable sense of the term.
3 Stars
Timber Timbre – Hot Dreams
A forest of haunting memories and forgotten terrors.
3 Stars
We Are Catchers - We Are Catchers
The entire album looks out, wonders for, lusts after and contemplates that Californian ideal.
3 Stars
Augustines - Augustines
Whilst obviously somewhat dark at moments, it comes loaded with joyous and celebratory sounds.
2 Stars
Ava Luna – Electric Balloon
Like two records playing simultaneously, it’s as if they couldn’t quite decide which band to be, so threw in everything they had at once.
3 Stars
Axxa/Abraxas - Axxa/Abraxas
An accomplished debut but surely only the mere beginnings.
3 Stars
Babe - Volery Flighty
The focus is primarily on making breezy and buoyant off-kilter pop songs.
3 Stars
Black Lips - Underneath The Rainbow
Not so much shifting the formula as refining it.
3 Stars
Bleeding Rainbow - Interrupt
If ‘Interrupt’ were ten tracks in the ilk of ‘Time & Place’, ‘Start Again’ and ‘Dead Head’, it would be a phenomenal debut.
3 Stars
Blood Red Shoes – Blood Red Shoes
This fourth long player neatly combines facets of their first three.
3 Stars
Cheatahs - Cheatahs
Derivative, it may well be. But, it’s also really well done.
3 Stars
Chuck Ragan - Till Midnight
While ‘Till Midnight’ does move Ragan forward as an artist on first listen there’s still a sense of familiarity.
3 Stars
Dan Croll – Sweet Disarray
Not once does the record feel disjointed, or out of place.
3 Stars
Drive-By Truckers - English Oceans
A leaner, more focused, take on their country infused rock ’n’ roll.
2 Stars
Foster the People - Supermodel
Too much surface and not nearly enough substance.
3 Stars
Ghost Beach - Blonde
Part 80s homage, part original creation.
2 Stars
Grouplove – Spreading Rumours
Not a lot on ‘Spreading Rumours’ makes sense.
3 Stars
Jamaica - Ventura
The boundaries remain well and truly unpushed, but this is an incredibly solid and polished offering.
3 Stars
Joan As Police Woman - The Classic
A welcome addition to Joan Wasser’s repertoire.
2 Stars
Keel Her – Keel Her
A record infinitely more about the process than the result.
3 Stars
La Dispute - Rooms Of The House
Visually thrilling and sonically stimulating.
3 Stars
Let’s Wrestle - Let’s Wrestle
The band move away from the scrappy slacker-punk of yore to a fuller, more layered sound.
2 Stars
Lo-Fang - Blue Film
His electronics blend perfectly with his soft voice, heating the otherwise frosty soundscapes.
3 Stars
Lyla Foy – Mirrors The Sky
Warm, pretty, and quite often stunning.
3 Stars
Mas Ysa - Worth
A debut grappling with heavy topics and conquering them.
3 Stars
Maximo Park – Too Much Information
When they’re not absolutely desperate to demonstrate the extent of their intelligence they’re still capable of making something with merit.
3 Stars
patten – ESTOILE NAIANT
An album which reflects its creator.
3 Stars
Shit Robot - We Got A Love
A highly-polished performance with just the odd malfunction.
3 Stars
Skaters – Manhattan
To suggest the band have just one influence is to do them a massive injustice.
3 Stars
Skrillex - Recess
A hint at broader musical ambitions.
3 Stars
Taking Back Sunday - Happiness Is
Big rock songs resound as the five-piece play it a little more mature.
3 Stars
Tense Men – Where Dull Care Is Forgotten
Six tightly-wound tracks.
3 Stars
The Hold Steady - Teeth Dreams
On the surface at least, very little has changed.
3 Stars
The Men – Tomorrow’s Hits
It’s Springsteen, it’s 70s soft-rock, it’s sun-soaked Californian road trips.
3 Stars
The Notwist - Close To The Glass
Once again frighteningly fresh.
3 Stars
Tokyo Police Club – Forcefield
The Ontario gang must have been hard at work listening to a lot of Phoenix.
3 Stars
Twin Forks - Twin Forks
It might be cookie-cutter, but cookies are delicious.
3 Stars
Tycho - Awake
If a comparison has to be made regarding Tycho’s sound, it’s that of the most relaxing walk in the countryside conceivable.
3 Stars
Vulkano – Live Wild Die Free
Driving riffs? Check. Furious drumming? Check. Bonkers lyrics? Check. And shouty chorus? Check!
3 Stars
We Are Scientists - TV En Français
Part girl group, part cocktail lounge.
2 Stars
Withered Hand – New Gods
Anyone deciding to stay is bludgeoned again and again with his relentless wet sentimentality.
3 Stars
Wolves Like Us - Black Soul Choir
Entirely immersing and toweringly emotional.
3 Stars
bEEdEEgEE - SUM/ONE
A solo debut that ranges from middling to outstanding.
3 Stars
Billie Joe + Norah – Foreverly
A rewarding listen that serves its purpose mighty well.
3 Stars
Breton - War Room Stories
A record that draws upon their art foundations more than their first.
2 Stars
Canterbury - Dark Days
A head nodder rather than a head banger.
3 Stars
Cate Le Bon – Mug Museum
Melancholy through a psych filter.
3 Stars
CEO - Wonderland
An album which prefers to glisten rather than to outright shine.
3 Stars
Cold Crows Dead – I Fear A New World
‘We’ve got a theremin, and we’re gonna use it’
