ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 29 SEPTEMBER 2023

Silent Radio’s guide to another busy week of releases. Jorja Smith         Falling or Flying On her second album, Jorja Smith delivers on her potential. ‘Falling or Flying’ acts in equal parts as a showcase for her soulful, sultry voice, her ability to condense any number of disparate styles and genres into music which broaches any […]
In the summer of 2019, my outwardly fit and healthy father died suddenly. Among many other aspects of this overwhelming event, it affected my relationship with music over the following months. Being busy caring for my mother, emotional resilience became a priority so when I turned to music it was mainly for upbeat and joyful […]

ALBUM REVIEW – MARY LATTIMORE: GOODBYE, HOTEL ARKADA

ALBUM REVIEW: THE BREEDERS – LAST SPLASH 30TH ANNIVERSARY ORIGINAL ANALOG EDITION

A band who played their first ever gig in a snooker hall behind Warrington Rugby Club before supporting Nirvana on tour two days later, a band who have been sampled by The Prodigy for their biggest hit ‘Firestarter’, a band who used a sewing machine on a tune and dropped cymbals out of a window […]
Silent Radio’s guide to another bumper week of releases. Teenage Fanclub              Nothing Lasts Forever A rich and melodic album that uses light as both a metaphor for hope and as an ultimate destination further down the road. Their sound has been rounded out by the addition of Euros Childs on keyboards and Stephen Black (Sweet […]

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 22 SEPTEMBER 2023

ALBUM REVIEW: DAN + SHAY: BIGGER HOUSES

I don’t want to oversell this duo, but Dan + Shay rarely get the credit they deserve for transforming the country music landscape in the way they have. Their music has always been saccharine and a little stale, but in terms of popularising the softer, neo-traditional country that you find towards the top of the […]
From his early days as a junior virtuoso pianist at the Buena Vista Social Club, Roberto Fonseca has been an accomplished and adventurous performer. Previous releases have seen him blend traditional styles with a variety of modern influences. 2012’s ‘7 Rayos’ offered a cocktail of Cuban sounds, classical music, West-African instruments, electronic music and spoken […]

ALBUM REVIEW – ROBERTO FONSECA: LA GRAN DIVERSIÓN

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 15 SEPTEMBER 2023

Plenty of new releases to feast upon in Silent Radio’s weekly guide. Explosions in the Sky      End        Perhaps the grandest Explosions in the Sky album to date – melding the quiet restraint and crushing weight of their early recordings with the aural exploration and ornate experimentation of their later works (while incorporating their increasingly deep […]
The Lamb As Effigy or Three Hundred And Fifty XOXOXOs For A Spark Union With My Darling Divine marks a new phase in the mutation of LA quartet Sprain. Since their first self-titled release in 2018, the band have shifted dramatically from gentle, subdued slowcore in the vein of genre titans Codeine or Bedhead to […]

ALBUM REVIEW: SPRAIN: THE LAMB AS EFFIGY OR THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY XOXOXOs FOR A SPARK UNION WITH MY DARLING DIVINE

ALBUM REVIEW – RANDOM HAND: RANDOM HAND

I love a super-over-produced, American punk record – this is simply what ska-punk should sound like, in my book (apologies to King Prawn and Judge Dredd). Ten tracks, just over half an hour, short but sweet and high-intensity start-to-finish. That ringing p-bass, the brick-wall compressed horns, the clicky, palm-muted percussive guitar chords clicking through the […]
Leaving her name stuck inside everyone’s mind, Olivia Rodrigo continues to storm her way through the music industry. A child-star from Disney suddenly turned to an international music sensation after the release of her 2021 album, ‘SOUR’, which took over each and every break-up playlist, and handed over the much-loved tracks ‘drivers license’ and ‘deja […]

ALBUM REVIEW – OLIVIA RODRIGO:GUTS