The Strokes - Comedown Machine
4 Stars
‘Comedown Machine’ is not, then, the most straightforward of albums.
21st March 2013
4 Stars rated Albums & EPs
Wavves - Afraid Of Heights
4 Stars
‘Afraid Of Heights’ soars above the scuzz of 2010’s ‘King Of The Beach’.
19th March 2013
Youth Lagoon - Wondrous Bughouse
4 Stars
This is still as beautifully out of focus as the debut but feels that much brighter and more vibrant.
18th March 2013
Marnie Stern - The Chronicles Of Marnia
4 Stars
Her recklessness momentum is forever tinged with a hint of shyness.
14th March 2013
Rhye - Woman
4 Stars
These really could be any old straightforward love songs, but there’s something about their placid simplicity which dwells on deep intimacy and passionate emotion.
4th March 2013
Hookworms - Pearl Mystic
4 Stars
A surprisingly immediate debut.
3rd March 2013
The Men - New Moon
4 Stars
Listen to this and you’ll feel a fraction of the awe Neil Armstrong must have felt when he put up his thumb and blotted out that tiny pea, pretty and blue.
2nd March 2013
Bastille - Bad Blood
4 Stars
The beautiful part about ‘Bad Blood’ is that it is both entirely predictable yet completely disarming.
1st March 2013
David Bowie - The Next Day
4 Stars
For one who’s never really harked back to his old works, it’s as if he’s leaving us, deliberately, with reminders of his past.
1st March 2013
Kate Nash - Girl Talk
4 Stars
‘Girl Talk’ is the sound of Kate Nash, stretching her wings and just pleasing herself.
28th February 2013
Palma Violets - 180
4 Stars
The kind of howling exuberance that could make even the most cynical want to join in.
26th February 2013
Keaton Henson - Birthdays
4 Stars
Keaton is a very sad man, and this is a very sad album.
23rd February 2013
Iceage - You’re Nothing
4 Stars
The Danes’ second album shows a more emotional side buried amongst the mix of punk, post-rock and hardcore.
16th February 2013
Jamie Lidell - Jamie Lidell
4 Stars
It’s unabashedly sexy, full of synthesised drum beats that sound as bright and shiny now as thirty years ago.
16th February 2013
Low - The Invisible Way
4 Stars
The Low we encounter here appears to have undergone an inversion; it is no longer Sparhawk’s mildly irascible voice which dominates.
15th February 2013
Flume - Flume
4 Stars
Australian producer Harley Streten’s debut effort is both accessible and rinsed in invention.
14th February 2013
Widowspeak - Almanac
4 Stars
Don’t you dare write them off as mere Mazzy Star wannabes.
10th February 2013
My Bloody Valentine - m b v
4 Stars
20 years on and a house full of chinchillas later; we still need to talk about Kevin.
8th February 2013
Pissed Jeans - Honeys
4 Stars
The Pennsylvanian band’s latest is a fun record, and a funny record.
6th February 2013
Veronica Falls - Waiting For Something To Happen
4 Stars
The band’s second album possesses a newfound elegance and maturity, without compromising their sense of character.
1st February 2013
The Bronx - The Bronx (IV)
4 Stars
The feeling of knowing a song inside-out before it ends is easily one of the most joyous around: here, it’s happened before you’ve even pressed play.
1st February 2013
Eels - Wonderful, Glorious
4 Stars
E and gang’s tenth album is a return to distorted guitar-and-vocals primal garage rock.
31st January 2013
Christopher Owens - Lysandre
4 Stars
Stylistically it may differ from Girls, but lyrically it’s in very much the same realm.
24th January 2013
Foxygen - We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors Of Peace And Magic
4 Stars
Despite taking much from the late 1960s, this is not a record that’s reverential or mere pastiche.
19th January 2013
Festival special! Featuring Wolf Alice, Kasabian, Lykke Li, Marmozets, Genesis Owusu and more.