ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 10 MAY 2024

A week high in quantity and quality includes these new releases. Group Listening            Walks  Woodwind and piano duo including Stephen Black (Sweet Baboo and Cate Le Bon’s band) draw from the field recordings of Ernest Hood; the abstraction of Harold Budd; the saxophone of Sam Gendel; the “heightened naturalism” of a Martin Parr photograph; the […]
BBC Scotland recently repeated the 2014 documentary, ‘Where You’re Meant To Be’, in which Aidan Moffat set about reinterpreting traditional Scottish folk songs. Seeing him take ancient songs and put them in a contemporary framework offered an opportunity to reconsider his writing as part of Arab Strap and his guile in chronicling modern life. From […]

ALBUM REVIEW – ARAB STRAP: I’M TOTALLY FINE WITH IT DON’T GIVE A FUCK ANYMORE

LIVE REVIEW – THE K’S – VICTORIA WAREHOUSE 26/04/24

‘Manchester tonight’s been the best night of our fucking lives. We should do it again sometime,’ declares Boyle as the crowd applauds in approval. The voluminous venue that is Victoria Warehouse, with a capacity of 3,500, was swiftly stamped as ‘sold out’. Being the biggest venue they have performed to date, the band has been […]
Most power metal bands will stay within that genre, rely on huge, catchy choruses and musicianship that will make them stand out. Musically, a lot of power metal is very similar. Not Unleash The Archers. Canada’s best metal band have proven with Phantoma that power metal can branch out to other genres, such as prog, […]

ALBUM REVIEW – UNLEASH THE ARCHERS: PHANTOMA

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 3 MAY 2024

Plenty of top tunes this week to keep your toes tapping and your brains thumping. Jessica Pratt    Here     Some of her most adventurous music yet. Throughout these nine songs, timpani, glockenspiel, baritone saxophone, and flute are layered alongside robust vocal arrangements that create a triumphant mood, even when the lyrics hint at devastation. Pete Philly […]
Never before has an album title felt more fitting. Frank Turner’s ninth album, 2023’s FTHC, was a record about reconciliation – battling through the chaos to recover what’s been lost amid trying times. An intensely cathartic and frequently unflattering listen, Frank Turner’s blunt observations about the pandemic along with his ravishingly personal songwriting made the […]

ALBUM REVIEW – FRANK TURNER: UNDEFEATED

ALBUM REVIEW: MELVINS: TARANTULA HEART

Sludge metal legends Melvins’ new album Tarantula Heart sees them experiment once again with some of their most ambitious and melodic material yet. I mean any album with a 19-minute opening track is spelling that out pretty clearly for you, isn’t it? Tarantula Heart is Melvins doing what they want and sticking their head as […]
How is it possible that something that has been done for years before can sound so modern and so good? That is the question I repeatedly asked myself when listening to The Lemon Twigs newest album ‘A Dream Is All We Know’. It is a wonderfully encapsulating collection of songs that make me envision just […]

ALBUM REVIEW – THE LEMON TWIGS: A DREAM IS ALL WE KNOW

ALBUM REVIEW – KELLY JONES: INEVITABLE INCREDIBLE

Approaching his fifth decade, Kelly Jones has certainly taken a step back in recent years from the fast-living sound of the Stereophonics we are used to. Last year’s collaboration with Patty Lynn and Dwight Baker of The Wire and The Wave saw Jones delve into the world of Folk and County music. This latest album […]
Angel Face: Club Deluxe sees Stephen Sanchez bleed rock, roll and romance over five devilishly debonair new tracks. Sanchez’s character, ‘The Troubadour’, makes a thrashing return to prove that not even a bullet could stop love in its tracks. In fact, it only spreads it further, drawing it out in tender, crimson spools. Among the […]

ALBUM REVIEW – STEPHEN SANCHEZ: ANGEL FACE CLUB DELUXE