Recent reviews

Our latest album reviews, featuring the records we've most enjoyed (or not) over the past few weeks.

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Browse our album reviews according to score: Highest (9.5/10 or more) or Lowest (2/10 or less)

Talk Show Host

Mid-Century Modern
Disconnect/Disconnect, Wiretap Records (2021)

Talk Show Host is a power-pop group from Toronto. And while it’s chock-full of those pleasant, soaring melodies expected of the style, the band establishes its tone early, showing there are some teeth behind the smile with opening track “You Asshole!” Songs like the lead track, “Crisis Actors” and “Warmest Condolences” defy the idea that pop songs are empty, instead taking names and kicking ass or whatever the cliché says. The band clearly has a pop-forward sound and there’s a big of a shiny gloss in the production to emphasize that. Yet, there is good variety within the 10 songs here. “Blood in the Sand” may be the best pop song I’ve heard in recent years. The whoa-ohs are immediately memorable and it’s one of those songs you can’t get out of your head. And while I say that in a good way, you also don’t want 10 songs that sound that way on a record either. Sometimes it’s smiling pop, but with snarling politically-tinged turns and, at others, a more dramatic approach that I’m beginning to associate with Toronto, as I pick up subtle similarities to bands like PUP and Pkew Pkew Pkew. Overall, it takes heyday Weezer with … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Gentlemen Rogues

Do the Resurrection
Snappy Little Numbers (2021)

Austin, Texas never disappoints when it comes to being a hotbed for great independent bands and Gentlemen Rogues is no … Read more

Hysterese

Hysterese
This Charming Man Records (2021)

The second record of German band Hysterese is a record I own and play quite frequently. To me it is … Read more

Alien Nosejob

HC2
Iron Lung (2021)

It seems that Jake Robertson spent a lot of the past year playing with himself. But haven’t we all? Bad … Read more

200 Words Or Less

The Black Black

Careful on Your Way Out
Ewel Records (2021)

If one were to define post-punk as the departure from the musical rawness and simplicity of punk rock and the … Read more

Proud Parents

At Home With
Independent (2021)

At Home With Proud Parents caught me a little off guard, right from the start. While the debut showcased a … Read more

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One from the archives

Suicide Note

Empty Rooms
Hawthorne Street (2008)

Some things just get better with age. Suicide Note is one of those things. As the band has progressed over the past ten years they are gradually refined their sound and improved their songwriting. With each new release came another step forward. And now with the release of their latest full-length, Empty Rooms, the band is nearly at the pinnacle of their musical career. Empty Rooms is the band's first full-length in four years and follows a two-year hiatus. "Truly Historic" is the opening track and it showcases the band's growth as songwriters and highlights the band's influences in a way that pays homage to them as opposed to ripping them off, like so many other bands do. The songs boasts driving guitars that sound like a mix between Sonic … Read more

More album reviews

Hangman’s Hymnal

Small News Travels Fast in a Bad Town
Snappy Little Numbers (2020)

Hangman’s Hymnal is a nice addition to the Snappy Little Numbers roster and every bit as archaic as the title suggests. With a Wild West vibe pervading the songs, they manage to evoke mental images of them holding court in a saloon to perform their seasoned murder folk to a bunch of buzzed delinquents as part of a debaucherous hootenanny … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Jiffy Marx

She’s My Witch / Warning Sign
Snappy Little Numbers (2020)

Jiffy Marx' She’s My Witch / Warning Sign 7″ does not only look like a 45er from the late seventies, but sonically delivers exactly that, i.e. two snappy lil’ pop punk numbers with the band firing on all cylinders. A snappy, fun 7” recorded in a bit more than a day, and sonically an homage and celebration the jangly pop … Read more

Travoltas

Back To The City
White Russian Records (2021)

Somehow it seems to me that Travoltas released Until We Hit The Shore only last year or perhaps the year before. But nooooo, it’s been four years already. That record is still on heavy rotation here, especially when the weather is sunny and the temperature is high (but not too hot). So I was so happy to hear a new … Read more

Bootlicker

Self-Titled
Neon Waste, Static Shock Records (2021)

Rough and tough d-beat, oi-influenced punk with a boot on the cover. If you follow the scene you probably already have a sense of what Bootlicker sounds like based on that alone. Released on Neon Waste (USA/Canada) and Static Shock (UK), this is Discharge-influenced punk that pulls no punches. It’s angry, shouty, and aggressive as all get-out with memorable lyrics … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Stella Research Committee

A Proposed Method for Determining Sanding Fitness
Independent (2021)

Labels like Amphetamine Reptile and Skin Graft Records and the “now wave” and noise rock avalanche they launched has served as an immense source of inspiration for a myriad of bands. Listening to Stella Research Committee’s fifth LP, they do not only seem to be overly familiar with the output of the aforementioned label rosters, but have channelled those influences … Read more

200 Words Or Less

The Dumpies

Drunk Dial #8
Drunk Dial Records (2021)

A quick word on the Drunk Dial series. Basically, the label asks bands to get intoxicated, then record an original a-side and a cover b-side.On #8, we get The Dumpies, who deliver 4 songs at a total runtime of five minutes. It’s fast, catchy and harmonized rough-around-the-edges garage-punk goodness. Take some of your favorite garage bands and speed them up. … Read more

200 Words Or Less

ZEPHR

Don’t Worry About It
Snappy Little Numbers (2020)

It’s fantastic to still see label holding up the torch when it comes to being dedicated to the fine art of the analogue format, partly because of its sonic superiority, partly as a reminiscence to a time where it was de rigour.Snappy Little Numbers is a label that keeps pumping out quality releases, lovingly illustrated with attention to detail and … Read more

Inhumanity Vortex

Reverse Engineering
Independent (2020)

Inhumanity Vortex started life in Poland in 2008 as the project of Tomasz Dziekoński and has slowly evolved over time into a sort of cyber tech-death metal band that has grown beyond the initial seeds of inspiration from those early days. Having released a handful of pre-production demos and EPs prior to Reverse Engineering in the winter of 2020, Inhumanity … Read more

Various Artists

Ink Bomb - No Breakfast Goodbye - split
Horn & Hoof Records/Dental Records/Concrete Head Entertainment (2021)

Two Dutch punk groups decided to join forces. 2020 saw their dreams of playing live go up in smoke. What to do instead? Write new music! Both bands bring three tracks to the table. Ink Bomb is the most experienced band of the two with an EP and full length under their belt. In my review of that full-length album … Read more

Amenra

De Doorn
Relapse (2021)

Memories burn in the flames while onlookers stare on. Relief washes over those present as though cleansed in the fires and reborn. Screams of catharsis spill from the lips of the watchers, emptying their souls of all the hurt and pain that has brought them to this point. Letting go of the mistakes and agonies that tie us to this … Read more

Pierce With Arrow

Shatter
Dais Records (2021)

Troy Pierce has been creating off-kilter techno since the mid ‘00s, always opting for a non-conformist, adventurous output (just listen to his 2007 full-length, Gone Astray). Now, he is joined by another forward-thinking creative mind in Natalie Escobar, who has also stepped into the off-kilter experimental music realm with her project Poison Arrow. Their collaboration, Pierce With Arrow, finds them … Read more

Book Review

Billie Eilish

Photobook
hachette Book Group (2021)

Love her, hate her – the thing that cannot be dispute is that she has left an indelible mark on the firmament of contemporary popular music. To tide over the waiting period until the release of her new album, Billy Eilish has released a photo book showcasing how she was brought up from infancy and her evolution to the person … Read more

Jason Paul + the Know It Alls

Alien or Martian?
Broken Anchor Recordings (2021)

I’d seen the name Jason Paul + the Know It Alls around a few times but never really looked into them -- which is a shame, seeing that they share members with a personal favorite, Toys That Kill. It took ‘em four records, but I’m finally checking out the brand new Alien or Martian?, released this April.Suffice to say there … Read more

Needles//Pins

Needles//Pins
Dirt Cult (2021)

Needles//Pins have all the familiar elements of pop-structured punk. Yet, at the same time, it’s hard to distill their sound to a single scene or subgenre. It’s melodic; it’s gruff; it’s sing-along. But it’s not really angry, fist-in-the-air cynicism. There’s an uplifting vibe underneath the coarse offering that soars instead of cycles. Off the top of my head, there are … Read more

Reviews by score
Browse our album reviews according to score: Highest (9.5/10 or more) or Lowest (2/10 or less)