ALBUM REVIEW – TRACY BRYANT: THE WELL

Two major events provide the backdrop to Tracy Bryant’s fourth solo album: his father’s death and the birth of his first child. While references to the former feature more prominently in the lyrics, it does not have the air of a sackcloth and ashes record. Musically, it took shape in the pandemic which brought Bryant’s […]
Tamikrest          Assikel                Sixth studio album from Saharan rock band. The album is by turns intimate, raw and deeply atmospheric. Recorded on analogue tape, with the band playing live and direct, ‘Assikel’ fully captures their instinctive interplay and hypnotic presence. Songs of resistance, community and longing. Kelley Stoltz     If You Don’t Know Me, Buy Now            A […]

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 15 MAY 2026

ALBUM REVIEW – RADHIKA: CINE-POP

Clocking in at 33.3 minutes, ‘Cine-Pop’ could be almost too conceptually perfect. Paying tribute to the speed at which a vinyl LP is played, it is ideal for listening to in one sitting. It does not overstay its welcome but has sufficient time to explore its musical enthusiasms. Fortunately, though, it is lacking in the […]
Those of a gnarly disposition could easily be put off listening to My Precious Bunny by the name. That would be a mistake. It misleadingly suggests something horrendously cutesy and is, in fact, the term of endearment given to Lily Wolter by her mother. ‘A Moment in my Eyes’ marks the solo debut from Wolter, […]

ALBUM REVIEW – MY PRECIOUS BUNNY: A MOMENT IN MY EYES

ALBUM REVIEW – GUTTERSNIPE: EXTINCTION BURST!

If you’re looking for something in your face, chaotic and experimental then ‘Extinction Burst!’ from Leeds duo Guttersnipe could be the album for you. If you like a tune or a melody however, you’ll be struggling with this 6 track clusterfuck. This is what happens when you ask AI to produce an album with the […]
Peter Gabriel had been out of the Genesis limelight for quite a while by 1982. He had released a few solo albums and had another one soon to be released (Peter Gabriel IV); seven of the eight tracks on that album would be showcased live at WOMAD festival (which Gabriel organised). This release marks the […]

ALBUM REVIEW – PETER GABRIEL: LIVE AT WOMAD 1982

ALBUM REVIEW – BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE: REMEMBER THE HUMANS

At the turn of the century, when pen and paper fell to the rise of technology, a new sound emerged, blurring the line between analogue intimacy and digital noise. Broken Social Scene have never operated like a conventional band. Formed in Toronto in 1999 by Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning, they exist more as an […]
Lemoncello      Perfect Place   Where the Irish alt-folk duo’s debut centred on intimate guitar-and-cello arrangements, this ten-song collection broadens into full-band recordings, synthesisers and electronic percussion alongside piano and concertina. Thematically, it explores how wider cultural instability filters into personal relationships – how external pressures surface in friendships and romantic bonds. Aldous Harding              Train on the […]

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 8 MAY 2026

ALBUM REVIEW – THE LOFT: BADGES

It would be hard to imagine a topsy-turvier career path than that forged by The Loft. In the mid-80s, they were the first Creation Records band to top the indie charts with the classic ‘Up the Hill and Down the Slope’, appear on TV, record a Radio One session and be invited onto a major […]
Toronto singer-songwriter Abigail Lapell is clearly partial to thematically linked song collections. Following on from the self-explanatory ‘Lullabies’ and ‘Anniversary’ comes ‘Shadow Child’, a bundle of songs about motherhood. Recorded during her pregnancy, it comes with the urgency of an unnegotiable timetable and is rich in metaphor with the title referencing ultrasound imaging of a […]

ALBUM REVIEW – ABIGAIL LAPELL: SHADOW CHILD