62 total search results — Page 3 of 4
Vow – Kind Eyes
Review — October 10, 2016
LA has been spoiling us lately: Bleached, Deap Valley and Warpaint are just a few of the bands that have been releasing stellar new material. These bands, like so many other musicians, use the fragments of past relationships as a springboard for putting chords and words on record. They …
Courteeners – Mapping the Rendezvous
Review — October 24, 2016
Written in Paris while the city was still reeling in the aftermath of the November 2015 attacks, Mapping the Rendezvous is an album that brims with escapism and the irrepressible desire to live for the moment. Part of the the band's previous album, 2014's Concrete Love, was also written …
Taking Back Sunday – Tidal Wave
Review — November 7, 2016
Taking Back Sunday accidentally ended up being one of the bands that spearheaded the emo movement that bled into the mainstream in the early noughties, a label that the band aren't entirely comfortable with. More recently, frontman Adam Lazzara got into an argument with the organisers of an LA club …
American Football – LP2
Review — November 28, 2016
American Football are the sort of band that shouldn't have attracted so much attention. When they first properly emerged in 1999, a copy of their eponymous debut in hand, they were still playing small college bars around the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Their album cover was so low-key it …
Tom Odell – Spending All My Christmas With You EP
Review — December 19, 2016
Tom Odell's an interesting prospect: The 26-year-old is an Ivor Novello and BRIT award winner with two albums to his name, who mixes piano-laden ballads with affecting pop melodies. His sound is the kind of music that Jools Holland would merrily tap his foot along to after he's three wines …
Andrew Paley – Sirens
Review — January 16, 2017
Perhaps best known as the frontman of Vermont post-punk band The Static Age, Andrew Paley has never been shy about his penchant for playing solo acoustic songs. Where The Static Age's sound is sound is distantly confrontational and awash with the vivid colours of late nights, Paley's solo …
Ódú – Conversations EP
Review — January 30, 2017
Ódú, aka Sally Ó Dúnlaing, is an Irish singer songwriter who crafts sonic heartbreak packaged in a glossy sheen of danceable pop. Born in New York and raised in the Irish seaside town of Bray, Ó Dúnlaing's Conversations EP is the singer's first foray into putting her music on record. …
Mayhaw Hoons & the Outsiders – Lime Green
Review — February 20, 2017
When John Lennon went into the studio to record the vocals for "Twist and Shout" he had already taken multiple throat lozenges and even gargled some milk to combat the sore throat he was suffering from at the time. The recording, a throat-shredding, rough-edged track that sounded unlike any of …
Bearcubs – Underwaterfall EP
Review — March 6, 2017
25-year-old English producer and DJ Jack Ritchie, aka Bearcubs, first attracted the attention of the BBC's new music arm, BBC Introducing, after uploading some of his tracks to their website. This piqued the interest of the BBC Introducing team, and saw Ritchie's experimental electronica get praise from the likes of …
Laura Marling – Semper Femina
Review — April 10, 2017
Laura Marling was routinely described as being precocious when she first started making her own music as a teenager. She emerged as part of London's early '00s nu-folk scene, alongside the likes of Mumford & Sons and Noah and the Whale, but her music still seemed distinctly different from …
The War on Peace – Automated People EP
Review — July 3, 2017
Imagine if the last few minutes of your life on a doomed Earth were spent dancing in a nightclub, as the sound of buzzing synthesisers whirred into a thick crescendo that battled the looming darkness outside. This is the atmosphere that Chicago three-piece The War on Peace have created on …
Brooke Bentham – This Rapture EP
Review — November 13, 2017
Even though 21-year-old Brooke Bentham is firmly entrenched in the burgeoning South London music scene, her music sounds as though it has been dusted with sand from a Californian desert. With a sound that recalls Angel Olsen and First Aid Kit, her music soars and dips though the ravages …
Morrissey – England Is Mine
Review — December 11, 2017
Mark Gill's England Is Mine introduces Morrissey while he's on the cusp of adulthood, an enigma of cocksure arrogance presented in the body of a slightly hunched over, uncomfortable young man. A number of key characters in the Mancunian singer's formative years, including the often overlooked Anji Hardy (Katherine Pearce), …
Nick JD Hodgson – Tell Your Friends
Review — February 5, 2018
Erstwhile Kaiser Chief Nick Hodgson has spent the past five years penning songs for the likes of Mark Ronson and Shirley Bassey, basking in being out of the limelight and no longer having to endure a punishing touring schedule as part of one of the UK’s most successful indie …
Editors – Violence
Review — October 8, 2018
Editors first appeared as part of the British indie music scene in 2003, when there was a swell of guitar bands dominating the charts. They released their Mercury-nominated debut album The Back Room in 2005, which has endured over the years thanks to its anthemic songs and dark lyrics, and …
Mozes and the Firstborn – Dadcore
Review — January 21, 2019
Part parody and part homage to guitar music, Dutch four-piece Mozes and the Firstborn have set a new tone with their American-tinged third album Dadcore. The album's name comes from guitar music apparently becoming the preserve of dads, and no longer being popular with teenagers. How true that is …
Cellar Doors – Cellar Doors
Review — February 25, 2019
The distance between San Francisco and Manchester is 5,000 miles, but Californian psychedelic trio Cellar Doors are determined to bridge that distance on their self-titled debut album. The band is already making waves across the Atlantic, having caught the attention of ex-Smiths drummer Mike Joyce and enlisting Inspiral Carpets frontman …
Dear Boy – The Strawberry EP
Review — March 18, 2019
Los Angeles quartet Dear Boy are firm favourites in their hometown's indie scene, but their new EP suggests that they could go much further. Dear Boy is fronted by Ben Grey, formerly of indie darlings Scarlet Grey, with guitarist Austin Hayman, bassist Lucy Lawrence and drummer Keith Cooper completing …
ASHRR – Oscillator
Review — May 14, 2019
Encompassing all of the most salient aspects of 80s synth pop, with clear nods to Talking Heads and New Order, LA trio ASHRR's debut album is a nostalgic but not particularly convincing first step for the band. The synth rock collective is made up of experienced musicians, with singer …
