Category: Short Reviews

Bombast from the past: Lord Huron have been on the brink of megastardom for a while, but this third outing from singer-songwriter Ben Schneider and cohorts, chock full of anthemic, folk-inflected indie rock, has the potential to see them truly hit the big time. The best tracks have a soulful, faintly retro vibe. Wait By… Continue reading Lord Huron – Vide Noir →

Talking the Lines: Forever Words follows in the footsteps of similar albums dedicated to Hank Williams and Woody Guthrie by taking a handful of Johnny Cash’s unrecorded lyrics and challenging various artists to turn them into completed songs. Although there’s an inevitable slant towards Country and Bluegrass numbers, the most notable tracks take the material… Continue reading Johnny Cash – Forever Words →

Child's Play: There’s a lot of youthful exuberance to Madrid four-piece Hinds’ chaotic second album. Every song is packed with spindly riffs and shouty vocals that recalls the snotty early records of Weezer and the Strokes. Unlike those obvious influences, however, there’s a cheerful innocence to the songs. Although grungy anthem Tester touches on the… Continue reading Hinds – I Don’t Run →

Lacking one good reason: George Ezra’s Budapest, the single that broke the Hertfordshire singer-songwriter in 2014, has already achieved the status of a classic, but perhaps overly worried about becoming a one-hit wonder he seems keen to distance himself from that song’s downbeat charms. Instead, Staying at Tamara's is clearly intended as a party starter,… Continue reading George Ezra – Staying at Tamara’s →

Talking to Frank: Despite being on the fringes of the music scene for several years, Ady Suleiman’s debut album has been a long time coming. Much of the delay was apparently spent getting out of record deal with Simon Cowell's Syco label, and it’s clear within the first few foul-mouthed seconds of opening track I… Continue reading Ady Suleiman – Memories →

Dreams of Dark and Troubling Things: Dead Magic, the fourth album by Swedish experimentalist Anna von Hausswolff, comes in at 47 minutes but comprises only five tracks. It was, according to the press release, recorded mainly on the 20th Century organ at Copenhagen’s Marmorkirken, one of the largest churches in Scandinavia. However, this shouldn’t put you… Continue reading Anna von Hausswolff – Dead Magic →

Mangled up in Blues: Cult soul-singer Bettye LaVette continues on her idiosyncratic path with a collection of Bob Dylan covers that eschews most of his best-known works for deep cuts and obscurities. Although a couple of his classics are represented, LaVette makes them her own: It Ain’t Me Babe is transformed into a smooth soul… Continue reading Bettye LaVette – Things Have Changed →

No yolk: Lancaster-based husband-and-wife duo the Lovely Eggs are on cracking form for their fifth album, employing renowned Flaming Lips and Mogwai producer Dave Fridmann to add substance to their endearingly ramshackle sound. The lurid cover art by underground artist Casey Raymond offers a clue to the brash content within, all fat, punk guitar-riffs, trilling… Continue reading The Lovely Eggs – This is Eggland →

Amble through the ambient: Poppy Ackroyd is a ‘post classical’ musician and Resolve an album of avant-garde instrumentals, mostly favouring repeating piano phrases, or variations on such that feature unusual percussive techniques involving paper or wine glasses. As is to be expected from a work closer to art than pop, the tracks come with their own explanations: Trains for… Continue reading Poppy Ackroyd – Resolve →

Youth in Revolt: Just when it seems Punk really is dead along comes all-female trio Dream Wife with this intense and idiosyncratic debut which, if it doesn’t quite reinvent New Wave, certainly re-infuses it with youthful charisma. Having formed initially as part of a performance art project, the band have developed a formidable reputation as… Continue reading Dream Wife – Dream Wife →