ALBUM ROUNDUP DECEMBER 2024

As new releases dwindle at year end, we have bundled together all the December releases in one monthly package. Saint Etienne                The Night         Their twelfth album delivers an ambient escape from the chaos of daily life, capturing the essence of the after-hours. The album takes listeners through layered tranquillity, offering calm to restless minds and […]
‘Sleigher’ must surely be the best title ever for a Christmas album. While it provokes mischievous ideas as to what a festive album by the thrash metal titans might sound like (try to imagine pummelling versions of ‘White Christmas’), Ben Folds’ take on the genre is more traditional but well thought through. It is a […]

ALBUM REVIEW – BEN FOLDS: SLEIGHER

ALBUM REVIEW: THE GO-BETWEENS – G STANDS FOR GO-BETWEENS: VOLUME 3 2000-2006

In a small alternative universe populated by erudite pop classicists, Robert Forster and Grant McLennan are revered alongside Lennon and McCartney as songwriters of the highest order. For unfathomable reasons, the songs they wrote as The Go-Betweens never entered the public consciousness in the way that their champions anticipated. Since McLennon’s tragic sudden death in […]
If there’s one thing you know going into a Full of Hell record, it’s that the bar has been set high for extremity. As one of the most formidable extreme metal outfits out there, the band has consistently been the standard bearers for putrid, gnarly extremity for the better part of 15 years. Scraping The […]

ALBUM REVIEW – FULL OF HELL + ANDREW NOLAN: SCRAPING THE DEVINE

ALBUM REVIEW – THE BODY: THE CRYING OUT OF THINGS

The Crying Out of Things is the newest offspring of experimental metal/noise rock outfit The Body’s mammoth catalogue. It’s their eighth studio LP, though that’s not counting sixteen collaborative albums, nine EPs, four splits and two standalone singles, bringing their total number of releases to 39 since 2004. Through these releases they have toured various […]
A live album is usually a special occasion, often marking a milestone. This is what Thulcandra initially set out to do, by releasing this live album, which has been recorded in Germany in 2011 and which features the original Thulcandra lineup, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the band. This ultimately did not end up […]

ALBUM REVIEW – THULCANDRA: LIVE DEMISE

ALBUM REVIEW – WHITE DENIM: 12

Five years after reports of Covid emerged from China, the pandemic is still having an impact upon a significant number of albums being released now. The twelfth long player from White Denim, appropriately enough called ‘12’, containing twelve tracks and being released in the twelfth month, has been shaped by different working conditions. As has […]
As we head towards December, there are fewer releases this week but here we collate those that warrant a listen. OCS     Live at Permanent Records                Brigid Dawson and John Peter Dwyer, the duo known together as OCS, got together at JPD’s house in Los Angeles and started transcribing a nice list of songs. “Some new, […]

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 29 NOVEMBER 2024

ALBUM REVIEW – THE UNTHANKS: IN WINTER

There is often a sense of cheap cash-in to Christmas albums, a quick fix. Throw together a few familiar cover versions and the odd original, garnish with tinsel and sleigh bells for a quota, quickie package, a good way of fulfilling contractual obligations. Thankfully, The Unthanks’ ‘In Winter’ is a far more satisfying proposition. As […]
There is a great sense of detail in The Innocence Mission’s latest album, ‘Midwinter Swimmers’. It is apparent in lyrics that have a poetic precision and colourfully capture place. The music is imbued with a fragility reminiscent of Vashti Bunyan and mingles lo-fi charm with subtle shifts to create a cinematic palette. It is a […]

ALBUM REVIEW – THE INNOCENCE MISSION: MIDWINTER SWIMMERS