ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 22 AUGUST 2025

With Autumn fast approaching, the release schedule gains pace with plenty of top choices to pick from this week. James Yorkston              Songs for Nina and Johanna    The album is his sixteenth on Domino and his third to be recorded in Stockholm in conjunction with members of The Second Hand Orchestra. Nina Persson (The Cardigans), who […]
“The community we’ve built our life around – artists, musicians and the people who gravitate to these things as a way of communicating – are struggling to reconcile how they fit into an increasingly cruel world. This album, the themes and the lyrics are directed towards them because I think there are still reasons to […]

ALBUM REVIEW – MODERN NATURE: THE HEAT WARPS

ALBUM REVIEW – BOBBY CONN: BOBBY’S PLACE

As the Premier League football season gets underway, it is fitting that the new album from Bobby Conn is as extreme an example of a record of two halves as is imaginable. While each side exists as an independent conception and could be played in either order, I will channel my inner Gary Neville and […]
Watchhouse is a duo from North Carolina made up of Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz who both have immense talent and attitude. With that, their music confronts the dark side, trying to eradicate it from their own lives and minds. Though this is true, they do offer a musical avenue for the listener to navigate […]

ALBUM REVIEW – WATCHHOUSE: RITUALS

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 15 AUGUST 2025

Alison Goldfrapp          Flux       The album showcases some of her most undeniable pop hooks since Goldfrapp’s iconic album Supernature as well as her most poignantly vulnerable songwriting to date. Marissa Nadler              New Radiations             It features subtle instrumental arrangements from longtime collaborator Milky Burgess—woozy slide guitar, hypnagogic synthesizers, and gritty riffs. Genre‑bending yet quintessentially her own, this […]
“I look at peers of mine I’ve worked with, like James Yorkston or Robert Forster, and those guys are auteurs, with a clear identity. They know exactly what they want to do. But, myself, I felt a little bit lost.” Peter Morén recounts the musical crossroads he reached after Peter Bjorn and John placed themselves […]

ALBUM REVIEW – SUNYEARS: THE SONG FORLORN

ALBUM REVIEW – PROLAPSE: I WONDER WHEN THEY’RE GOING TO DESTROY YOUR FACE

The 1990s was a halcyon time for adventurous guitar led music. Beyond the obvious American candidates such as Slint, Polvo and Trumans Water, there was a host of UK bands who were pushing the format to its limits. It was easy to overlook Prolapse in this category as the first thing that leaps out when […]
It is easy to perceive the criticisms that could be levelled at ‘New Radiations’. Undeniably, it is glacially one-paced while the absence of percussion makes it unlikely to inspire its listeners to dance or send them out into the world feeling euphoric. However, there is a more powerful flipside to that critique. The similarities between […]

ALBUM REVIEW – MARISSA NADLER: NEW RADIATIONS

ALBUM REVIEW – NO JOY: BUGLAND

“I’m outside with lily eyes”. Labels. They’re everywhere. They are a part of you, me, the cafes that you walk by and the people that you see day in day out. Everything and everyone has a label. But why? When each facet of our life is so different, so intrinsic, so innate, is something lost […]
After two decades in the game, you’d think MGK wouldn’t have much left to say. The first time the world heard of him, he was another white rapper who grew up on the streets and wanted to make a name for himself. Due to his talent, he was quickly pitted against Eminem, resulting in the […]

ALBUM REVIEW – MGK: LOST AMERICANA